Case studies in how OA helps

As far as I know, no one is maintaining a list of scientific advances facilitated in some significant way by open access to research literature.  That doesn't mean there aren't any, only that they have to be recognized, collected, and organized. 

Donat Agosti wants to help collect and organize them and made a start yesterday on  his blog.   He gives one example from politics and one that is more a technique than an example (text mining).  That illustrates the problem:  we all know there are examples and can point to the kind of thing we have in mind, but we won't get very far in coming up with specific cases until we tap into a wide network of working researchers.  That's where blogs can help.

This is a good time to resurface my own call for anecdotes or case studies illustrating the benefits of OA or the harms caused by the lack of it.  If you have any leads, please send them to Donat or SOAF.