Open Education--does it have real world applications?

So adimitenly I wasn't able to attend the confrence--blame it on my gallbladder--but from the reading I've been doing I wonder if any of this information is really relevant o me anyway. It's not that I don't think the information is valuable to good or anything like that. I just wonder if me, someone not planning to go into formal education, can really apply any of the principles anywhere else. I am planning to go into mass media, which means I obviously support an open network of ideas. I want there to be as many ideas out there as possible. That is how truth is established in many ways. But beyond that, I'm struggling to see the point of all of this. Go teachers--for sure! But any one else? I'm not buying it.