I love this post, you’re so good at articulating things that are bubbling about in people’s heads!

some comments

1. openness is a way of working / state of mind not a legal distinction
backed up by Greg deKoenigsberg’s claim at the open nottingham seminar which I would paraphrase as “licenses are just vehicles to allow people to trust each other”. implications: our digital infrastructure needs to accommodate license expression as part of people’s filtering (and for point 5), but not as a straitjacket that silos content according to license.

3. value of open is potentially greater than the value of closed
The JISC Houghton Report http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/rpteconomicoapublishing.pdf looked at the total economics of OA, and supported that. But as you say in your very last bullet: the (re)development of new business models, organisations, and practices challenges existing business models, organisations, and practices. Do we think we’re at a mature enough stage to do a modelling of open content along the lines of the Houghton Report? What do people think?

10. open content has the potential to improve access to education (and consequently benefit society)
and perhaps in JISC’s work we need to be louder about the ways open content works internationally, and across education sectors and between education and training? Or is that three very different issues?

1. openness does have costs – budget for them
I am definitely in agreement on that, in an institutional context. Universities tend to count technical and librarian help as free, but it’s not, so if academic activities draw more heavily on the use of human and technical infrastructure, that should be counted in as part of the cost overall activity. Cost/benefit analysis is not about ruling out activities that cost money, but about keeping an eye on the balance.

2. you don’t have to be open all the time with everything – mixed economies may be practical
Amen to that. I have a blog post brewing about that too

No doubt, some people that agreed with your post will find things to disagree with in my comment – so, as they say, lets have the debate!

Great post, thanks

Amber