Page - 77 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

5 WhoBenefits fromthePublicGood… 81 5.4.1 ProductionOffshoring The freedomto reuseOERcancreate twodistinct situations in thedevelopment of textbooks.To exemplify those situations, let us imagine, a bookongeography that contains somemaps reproduced from other works (whose rights-holders demand authorization and royalties), and othermaps thatwere produced specially for that book. In thefirst situation,whichcorresponds to reproducedmaps, theuseofOER wouldsavecostson royalties,whilealsoavoiding theneed forauthorization. In the secondsituation, theuseofOERwouldsave thecostsofproducingoriginalmaps. It is in this second situation that relevant risks related to offshoring production arise.Althoughthecostsavingsthatitallowscouldhavepositiveeffects, italsotends to encourage actors in peripheral countries to reduce their production of original material, replacing it by translating ormerely reusingOERproduced by actors in centralcountries,whichwillmorefrequentlyhave theresources toproduceoriginal material. This trend can be particularly sharp in the commercial sector, since the actorsmaking such use ofOERwill have a competitive advantage due to the cost savings. This can also imply the reduction of quality, in certain respects, of the materialsproduced.Afterall, evenif the translatedoradaptedOERisofaveryhigh pedagogicalquality,itwillrarelybeabletoreachthesamelevelofcontextawareness (andmeaningfulness toitspublic) thanthatofanoriginalmaterialproducedbylocal experts,knowledgeableaboutthenuancesofthesocioculturalenvironmentforwhich it is intended. Althoughthis trendisstill relativelyhypothetical, therearecurrentexamples that suggest it is important not to dismiss it. In Brazil, one of these examples can be seen in the parallel between the partnership negotiations between theMinistry of Educationand the founderofKhanAcademyfor the translationofavast amountof content inEnglish,15 on theonehand,and thereducedamountandqualityofdigital materialspurchased through thePNLDprogram16 on theotherhand. It is possible that this trend of concentration in content production—and in its related technicalcapabilities—mayoffermedium-termadvantages toactors in large urbancenters,andeventolargelocalcompaniesthatfollowthisstrategy;forinstance, granting themdominance in thosemarketswhere existingOERare not a solution, or where there is a demand for complete educational systems (and not only for standalone educational material). It is nevertheless reasonable to consider if the availabilityofgoodquality,freetoreuseeducationalresourceswouldnotcompensate this asymmetry forunder-resourcedorperipheral actors.Withoutdelvingdeeper in thisdebate,what seemsbeyonddoubt is that there isno reason for thepublic sector tosubsidizeOERproductionbyactorsfromlargecenters(orlargelocalcompanies), 15This is only one of many translation projects supported by the Lemann Foundation. See http://www.fundacaolemann.org.br/khan-academy/ and http://www.fundacaolemann.org.br/para- aprender/. 16PNLD (National Program for Textbooks andDidacticMaterials) is a federal program (one of the largest in theworld) thatbuys textbooks frompublishersanddistributes themfreeofcharge to schools.