Barriers to Openness by Sofia Mougiakou via mooc.ola-project.eu is licenced under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License.

The two most important aspects of openness, as per Hylén (2000), have to do with free availability over the Internet and as few restrictions as possible on the use of the resource. There should be no technical barriers (undisclosed source code), no price barriers (subscriptions, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and as few legal permission barriers as possible (copyright and licensing restrictions) for the end-user. The end-user should be able not only to use or read the resource but also to adapt it, build upon it and thereby reuse it, given that the original creator is attributed for her work.

Downes (2007) argues that “resources which require some sort of payment by the user – whether that payment be subscription fees, contribution in kind, or even something simple, such as user registration, should not be called ‘open’. Even when the cost is low – or ‘affordable’ – the payment represents some sort of opportunity cost on the part of the user, an exchange rather than sharing.”