Q: (Paul Miller to Dan) Are you suggesting that the budget/resource issues are an opportunity to do the right things – that we’ve always know we should do?

A: Yes – its about a change in tactics, not a change in strategy

Q: (David Prosser to Mike) Is DRM really dead in the water? Especially in the Academic sector

A: From a ‘world’ perspective – DRM is very unpopular and ineffective. History shows that ‘the web’ leads the way – we should be looking at what has happened with iTunes etc.

Q: (Joy Palmer to Mike) Do you see any tensions between ‘open and free’ to achieve webscale and the ‘shared services’ agenda

A: Yes – already can see tensions with institutional IT and external provision. Free isn’t just about financially free – means ‘accessible’

Q: (Paul Miller to Mike) You said ‘open and free’ leads to eyeballs – but are eyeballs what we want? E.g. Times online strategy – they accept a drop in users because they believe they are focussing on key users

A: Yes – this isn’t about flogging stuff. But there is a driver to make public assets publicly available – need to find ways of opening up to wider audience

Q: (Catherine Grout I think to Mike) How do you think the publishing industry is responding to the challenges you have outlines

A: It’s important that the Times is putting content behind paywall – because it might just work – even though we all expect it to fail. But while commercial sector is starting to grapple with these issues – look at Guardian vs Times. In the academic publishing sector – not so much – really not tackling these issues – not experimenting and taking risks which they should do.

Q: (Peter Burnhill to Mike) Academic publishers have an amazing business model – content is free (to them) and customers pay a year in advance – they’ve got more to lose than commercial publishers. … other stuff (sorry, missed this)

A: Cultural sector starting to realise possibilities offered, need to do more

Q: (Liz Lyon to all) How aware of senior managers (in HE) of the issues raised today

A: Mike: a bit of awareness – but need to start building arguments

A: Rachel: lots of discussion at JISC conference this year – so suggests awareness growing. Need to look at the example of the Open University – not enough being done yet to learn lessons from this

A: Catherine Grout – real challenge is keeping these issues on the political agenda. While there is still pressure to open up Government data, will this continue out to other areas.

Q: (Paul Ayris) Where are universities (in UK and Europe) in terms of being aware and able to do this stuff? Who leads the changes at an institutional level? A great challenge is to identify the vision, and then the leaders. Sense is that in the UK we have a vision, but how we share it, and who leads – challenging if exciting.

A: From Dan: always a couple of people at the top who ‘get it’ – but often seen as cranks. Consultants often brought in to advise – but usually from management consultancy perspective. However, when consultants team up with sector expertise – can have a huge effect (good news for me I think!)

Q: (Jo Pugh? from National Archives) Bit surprised people so gloomy – Government leading the way – noone wants to be behind the Department of Transport in being open!

Q: (?) Instituions aren’t geared up to think about their USPs and competitive advantage – need more effort in these areas. The SCA started on this, but more needs to happen.

A: Mike: When worked at Waterstones was easy to measure ‘success’ – but when he moved to the Science Museum suddenly harder – what to measure when your aim is awareness/communication

Q: (?) Can’t regard HE as single sector – think about Russell Group, Guild HE, Million plus group – benefits are not the same to each of these segments