Hello,

I wanted to pass along the following news in case you or anyone you 
know
are educators or trainers:

O'Reilly and Safari Books Online announce SafariU, a new service that
offers computer technology educators a rich platform for creating both
online and print materials tailored precisely to your teaching needs.
Safari Books Online is a joint venture of O'Reilly and the Pearson
Technology Group.

With SafariU (http://safariu.oreilly.com), instructors can compile a
custom book from a wealth of information resources, and deliver it to
students at a lower cost than a traditional textbook. The custom book 
is
professionally printed and delivered in as little as two weeks. In
addition to print books, SafariU offers an online subscription to a
syllabus that links to the complete content of up to 10 of the books 
used
in the custom book, plus any supplementary information the instructor
chooses, including audio, video, additional reading material, 
exercises,
and links to outside resources. SafariU also provides a peer network 
where
instructors can share learning objects and other teaching resources.

"Over the past few years, as we've converted our books to digital 
formats,
we realized that the shift from paper to pixels opened up a host of new
possibilities for delivering information," said CJ Rayhill, SafariU 
General 
Manager. "Just as iTunes made it possible for music fans to find and 
build playlists of songs from many albums, SafariU lets trainers and
educators remix, add to, and assemble digital chunks of information 
into 
a unique package.  It's designed to take full advantage of three 
classic
disruptive technologies that are now converging: digital information,
print-on-demand, and web services."

"Students and faculty want more choice and value in their instructional
materials," said Gary June, Chief Marketing Officer of Pearson 
Education.
"SafariU continues blazing the path O'Reilly and Pearson started four
years ago and adds even more flexibility to the university 
environment."

SafariU has been available to beta testers since January 2005. Several
hundred instructors are currently using and testing the service. Beta
tester Kent Sandoe, Professor of Management Information Systems,
California State University, Chico, commented, "O'Reilly owns a 
tremendous
quantity of well-written, valuable information. The fact that they're
willing to disaggregate it, allowing a professor to go and re-aggregate
the content in a way that is meaningful to students, to a particular
audience, to a particular course--that's revolutionary."

There is no cost to educators for SafariU. A SafariU textbook costs 16
cents per page, including the cover and binding, so the price of an
average book of 200 pages is $32, plus the bookstore markup. A course
subscription to SafariU's online resources is less than $10 per month 
per
student. 

Visit SafariU to view a video demo and sign up for access:
http://safariu.oreilly.com

Please pass this along to anyone who may be interested. And let me know 
if
you have any questions.

Thanks for your help,
Marsee