This paper is about the sustainability of OERs. Most people, when they think of sustainability, think of how resources are paid for, but this paper takes a wider view, for it should be clear that this is only one part of a larger picture. So we will know what they are, who creates them, how we pay for this, how we distribute them and how we work with them. Only if we understand the answers to these questions can we address how OERs are to be sustained.

Though there is great temptation to depict the sustainability of OERs in terms of funding models, technical models or even content models - and no shortage of recommendations regarding how each of these should proceed - it seems evident that any number of such models can be successful. But at the same time, it also seems clear that the sustainability of OERs - in a fashion that renders then at once both affordable and usable - requires that we think of OERs as only part of a larger picture, one that includes volunteers and incentives, community and partnerships, co-production and sharing, distributed management and control.