This study examines the relationship between policy and practice in the world of open education. It draws largely on the findings of other research projects and their openly licensed outputs (e.g. Creative Commons, POERUP) to map open education policies. In this presentation we will take the audience on a 'world tour' of OER policy, highlighting important case studies and scaffolding a participative discussion where members of the OER community can refine their understanding of the key issues. In describing the policy context for OER we provide a short historical review of relevant policy, including the Budapest OA Initiative (2002); the establishment of a Global OER Community (2005); the Cape Town Declaration (2007) and the Paris Declaration (2012). We then go on to look at each continent in turn and talk about the different kinds of policy climates, highlighting local and national case studies which merit particular interest. We pay particular attention to the USA, where there are many interesting policies at institutional, local and state levels (and where original research has been undertaken in collaboration with OER pilot participants).