Innovators and entrepreneurs are using technologies to make freely available the things for which universities charge significant money. MOOCs (massive open online courses), free online courses, lecture podcasts, low-cost off-the-shelf general education courses, online tutorials, digital collections of open learning resources, open badges--all are disrupting higher education's hold on knowledge, instruction and credentialing. NEBHE convened more than 400 New England educators and opinion leaders in Boston in mid-October to discuss these new opportunities for students and challenges for traditional higher education institutions. The speakers included EDUCAUSE President Diana Oblinger who cited among signs of the newly connected world of open learning: digitized learning, student empowerment, peer-to-peer learning, and an acknowledgment of student swirl, including "reverse transfer" from four-year colleges to community colleges and other kinds of institutions. Oblinger noted that anyone can participate in the new open learning.