this is an addendum to my previous post here.

Universities are basically walled gardens (and could easily make lecture videos available online for anyone, anywhere to view), and there is a lot of precedence for achieving greater success, as a result of opening up.  For example, when the NYT unleashed its archive content, revenue from advertising soared, and significantly surpassed its user pay revenue.

And, the TED conference is making most of its video content available for free, while demand to attend the TED conference has soared, and the amount people are willing to pay to attend has soared, as well.

Thanks to Steve Brown for inspiring these thoughts.