The Textbook Companion Project aims to port worked out examples (and optionally, select exercise problems) from standard textbooks using an open source software system, such as Scilab. In the following writeup, the word Scilab can be replaced by any other open source software as well. Any "standard" textbook can be used for this purpose. It will be referred to simply as textbook. For more information on Free and Open Source, please read this.

The following three types of people are required in this project:

   1. Teacher who has taught a subject for a minimum of one or two years with a textbook
          * proposes the project
          * leads the project
          * identifies the people who can do the coding, called programmers
          * verifies the code written by the programmers
   2. Programmer
          * possibly some bright students of the teacher - they can also propose the project
          * can also be people especially hired for the project
          * typically someone who has-undergone/is-undergoing a course using the textbook and has-done/will-do well
   3. Reviewer
          * A person who is familiar with the subject for five to ten years
          * Considered to be an expert on the topic
          * Could be a teacher, industry personnel or self employed
          * The reviewer can be proposed by the teacher

The open source software projects at IIT Bombay, funded by the National Mission on Education through ICT (http://spoken-tutorial.org/NMEICT-Intro) can provide financial assistance for the implementation of the project. The objectives and guidelines are give below:

   1. What is the objective of this exercise?
          * To make it easy for the users of the textbook to start using Scilab
          * To improve the documentation available for Scilab
   2. Guidelines
          * All the worked out examples from the textbook, that are amenable to Scilab, should be solved
          * A few unsolved problems also may be solved - this is optional
          * Same symbols used in the textbook should be used in the code as well
          * As a result, the symbols need not be explained in the code
          * Problem description should not be repeated in the code - one has to go through the textbook to find out the problem statement
   3. Copyright Issues:
          * The Scilab code created through this effort will be released as open source.
          * As one needs the textbook to understand the code, the rights of the textbook are not violated.
          * As the textbook examples and problems are solved by Scilab, an open source software system, the value of the textbook goes up by this effort.

At present, we pay the following honorarium for this activity - these are rough figures - the exact amount could vary, depending on the size and the complexity of the book

    * Rs. 10,000/= per book for the person who programs
    * Rs. 5,000/= per book to the college teacher who coordinates this activity
    * Rs. 1,000/= per book to the reviewer

The following conditions are in place now:

    * Latest edition of the book should be used
    * The work should be extended to one new edition of the book, when available - there may be an additional honorarium for this work
    * We should receive captions for every code and every figure (if any)
    * Copyright of the project should be transferred to our project

For more information, please write to textbook@scilab.in

For more details on Textbook Companion Internship Programme, please click on following link

http://www.scilab.in/Textbook_Companion_Internship