Dana Blankenhorn just posted about Rice University's Connexxions project, an open source publishing platform.  I've been following it for a while but I missed the latest news – they are going to be publishing the text of community college textbooks online for free and offering print versions for $30.  That should help defray costs immensely for students, and along with the creative commons license that allows for reuse, help create quick, up-to-date and cheap textbooks.  

 This system will be a far cry from the last time I took a class at my local community college.  Since I was working full time, I decided to call the college bookstore and ask for the list of required textbooks and their ISBN numbers.  (They weren't online.)  I was told they didn't have time, so I trudged down to the bookstore over lunch, wrote down the ISBN numbers and the prices of the textbooks and then bought them online for half price (including shipping) from Amazon UK.  (I found the cheapest source using AddALL.)

Now not only will online textbooks be cheaper, but they'll be more accessible (instantly) and allow for searching and electronic bookmarks!  Wow!  Not to mention you won't have to lug those 20 pound doorstops around anymore. 

Stormy
Hanszen, Rice University, '96