<p>On the topic of open courseware:</p>
<p>Professors have a lot to do without writing textbooks, and sadly most universities do not give a lot of weight to textbook authorship when making advancement and tenure decisions. (I suppose there are exceptions.)</p>
<p>The financial rewards of writing a text that sells well are high enough that some professors practically abandon their research and teaching and become textbook machines. They see it as a fair trade – especially after they have earned tenure and made a name for themselves.</p>
<p>Since there is no financial incentive to write free courseware, time constraints usually keep professors from investing a lot of time in such a project.</p>
<p>BUT. 20 years ago, who would have imagined that a thing like Wikipedia was even possible? So much effort for ZERO reward! I think we will eventually see excellent online textbooks at zero cost to students.</p>