US Backs Push For open Access Textbooks In Arabic

The United States has backed a project that aims to translate American textbooks into Arabic and make them available without copyrights restrictions to educators and students in the Middle East.

The Open Book Project, launched by outgoing Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation, Rice University and Creative Commons, comes as the US is trying to build relationships with new regimes that followed the Arab Spring uprisings.

Clinton, who launched the project in one of her final moves as Secretary of State before being replaced by Senator John Kerry today, called the Open Book Project "part of our efforts to build friendships and partnerships."

"We live at a time when technology is expanding access to information and learning materials like never before. 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," she said...