Open Access - Who Calls the Shots Now?

"[T]he decade of Open Access debate has shown that progress in OA (and OER and open data) is impeded more by individual and institutional inertia than corporate opposition. When the highest offices of government are confidently pushing forward a programme of open participation, will academics have the luxury of treading water? How will our governments sudden enthusiasm for open data affect Open Access? Perhaps not at all....Even so, governments will indirectly cause a shakeup in the administration of public research funding, and the infrastructure needed for universities to adequately respond to the requirements of open funders will cause them to become more open themselves. The public climate that informs the private OA debates and decisions in University boardrooms will change; pro-OA researchers and librarians will no longer be arguing from such a defensive position, not appearing as idealistic hippies. Even in the absence of direct government mandates, pro-OA decisions will be easier to support and less contentious to implement. The values of the research communities will change as public values and expectations change - when even governments become more accountable through open data, research communities that insist that their data and their research is their private property, for the sole benefit of the furtherance of their own careers, will soon appear old-fashioned and untenable. So watch this space. It may be that Cameron and Obama will indirectly achieve what Harnad and Suber have been toiling for. I wonder what I'll have to say in another three years' time?"