The 7th Open Educational Resources Conference, OER16: Open Culture, was held at the University of Edinburgh in April 2016. The conference was chaired by Dr Melissa Highton, Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Services, and Lorna Campbell, OER Service Manager, at the University of Edinburgh.

The conference focused on the value proposition of embedding open culture in the context of institutional strategies for learning, teaching and research fcusing on:

• The strategic advantage of open and creating a culture of openness.
• Converging and competing cultures of open knowledge, open source, open content, open practice, open data and open access.
• Hacking, making and sharing.
• The reputational challenges of openwashing.
• Innovative approaches to opening up cultural heritage collections for education.

The conference themes were:

1. Strategic and reputational advantages of openness (including, but not restricted to, outreach, public engagement and return on investment).
2. Converging or diverging cultures of openness (including open data, open science, open GLAM, open knowledge, open source, open content, open access).
3. Hacking, making and sharing.
4. Innovative approaches to opening up cultural heritage collections for education.