I like the idea that 'Open is an invitation...'. It's an invitation to acknowledge the very human practice of sharing. We learn together, learn from each other, we stand on the shoulder of giants, and can be our best when we understand the mutual bonds that connect us to the whole (of humanity).

At the same time, it's an invitation to do things differently from what has become the norm/standard (over the 20th century): educators working in isolation from each other, to expose knowledge (rather than encourage discovery), to educate as a teacher-centric activity.

The Open Education movement is a place to meet and engage with educators that are trying to break the mold in many different ways. Making textbooks easier to access is but one of them. While it obviously offsets the printers, it has the much deeper effect of enabling access to knowledge for those that are able to find them. In a time where 1984 is less ludicrous than it was thought to be before, this is pertinent, meaningful and has an impact. As we go on and streamline the process of enabling students to become the generators of those contents, we might even create a new framework for education. 

One of the ways to describe my experience with open is that it started with the realization that i got so much (ideas, contents, visuals, ...) from the Internet that it would not be fair for me to keep my creations "closed", "unshared". Surely -and this is possibly half self-assurance, half self-delusion, some people out there might find some value in what i would make available and remix it for themselves? Slideshare is one great example of that spirit of sharing first, seeing what happens next. Social networks would come next: "drinking from the firehose" is an apt description here. So many people to learn from! Isn't it fair to try and share one's attempt at sensemaking (whether others react to it or not).