From the UK Times Higher Education Supplement in an opinion piece of by Charles Vest

The internet and worldwide web will make possible global research
collaboration, sharing of knowledge and collective creation of
educational materials.

Local universities will not be displaced or replaced. Rather,
teaching and the creation of knowledge at each university will be
elevated by the Linux-like efforts of a multitude of individuals and
groups all over the world. This tectonic shift can be thought of as the
emergence of the meta-university.

Of course, scholars and teachers have always advanced their work
collectively through conferences, seminars and correspondence. But the
scale of participation, speed of propagation and sophistication of
access and presentation that we will see in the coming years are
unprecedented.

One catalyst for this new dimension of global cooperation is MIT's
OpenCourseWare initiative, which is making the basic teaching materials
for virtually all our subjects available on the Internet at no charge
to all teachers and learners.

The residential university will continue to be the best venue for
bright young men and women to live and learn among dedicated scholars
and teachers. Institutional quality will be raised through competition
and adaptation of elements of the U.S. model.

But the meta-university-the electronically enabled global
collaboration of teachers and researchers-will rapidly advance and
improve higher education everywhere.