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\begin{document}

\title{The Strange State Politics Of Arabic OER}



\author[1]{John Wilbanks}%
\affil[1]{DEL-FI}%


\vspace{-1em}



  
  \date{May 27, 2024}


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Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the Open
Book Project, a major initiative to make Open Educational
Resourcesavailable in Arabic. There was a big launch program at the
State Department, and some remarkable words from Mrs. Clinton:

\begin{quote}
You can look around the world and see young adults in remote villages
and towns huddling around a computer watching videotaped physics lessons
by MIT professors. Top universities like Rice University are creating
free online textbooks and saving students money in their studies.
Science education websites like Khan Academy go viral. There are other
examples, and these are all fruits of technological progress, but also
of a commitment to make more learning materials open -- free, open
licensing for anyone to use, adapt, and share.\\
(from the text of Mrs. Clinton's remarks - emphasis at the end added by
me)
\end{quote}

I was one of many people excited to see these kind of words. I'm always
glad to see this kind of phrasing about copyright in the halls of
government, because it indicates at least some understanding of the
potential of open copyright licenses to create innovation.

But then I started thinking more about it, and the uncritical acceptance
of the project without a conversation about the politics of it started
to bother me. I still think it's a worthy, and wonderful project.

But let's unpack what we're doing here, as a government.

It seems to me that we are applying state power to create digital
knowledge resources that (probably, maybe, definitely) subvert the
attempts of both state and non-state (social, religious) actors to
control the kind of educational materials available in the Arabic
speaking world. That we are practicing, as statecraft, what Nils Gilman
has called deviant globalization, using an open source approach.

And that's worth contemplating. I do not think that this is an embrace
of open copyright because of philosophical shift in favor of openness. I
think it's a pragmatic piece of realpolitik - getting textbooks into a
language and format where they can evade the controls imposed by actors
whose interests are felt to be contrary to the US.

The theory that more knowledge in more hands is better for the world is
one I happen to subscribe to, and agree with, but let's not pretend this
isn't an exercise of state power. It is far more like the Voice of
America~ \textbf{(especially at its founding, when it was not required
to provide ``unbiased'' news)} than it is like Free Software.

Note: I edited this post at the end with the bold text in the final
sentence at the suggestion of Dave Clifford after it was first posted.

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