Anetta Janowska
Warsaw School of Economics

Anna Kania
Warsaw School of Economics

Open educational resources as an example of altruism in economy or gift economy

The phenomenon of gift-giving was primarily studied by anthropology and it was associated with the primitive societies. However, it is indisputable that the gift culture is also practiced nowadays. The Internet is a particular field where its development was observed. Due to its open character, popularity and low cost of the tools which help the users to create, publish and send the content, the Internet became the scope of exchange of information goods, such as the products of culture: music, films, books, software, computer games as well as scientific and educational resources. The present paper discusses the issue of altruism in the Internet exemplified by open educational resources.