Page:A Review of the Open Educational Resources Movement.pdf/63



According to their model in creating the OPLI, the key question is not whether this is a "social" problem or a "technical" one. The question is whether we choose, for any given problem, a social or a technical solution—or some combination. It is the distribution of solutions that is the object of study. An everyday example comes from the problem of e-mail security. How do I distribute my trust? I can delegate it to my machine and use pretty good encryption for all my e-mail messages. Or I can work socially and organizationally to make certain that sysops, the government, and others who might have access to my e-mail internalize a value of my right to privacy. Or I can change my own beliefs about the need for privacy—arguably a necessity with the new infrastructure. A thorough discussion of the Star and Ruhleder model is beyond the scope of this report. The key points here are:


 * 1) perhaps without thinking about it in these terms, Hewlett has in fact been nurturing the creation of infrastructure in the OER initiative; and
 * 2) there is a substantial body of literature, experience, and academic expertise that could assist is creating a principled approach to the OPLI initiative.