At present, we know of about 1700 catalogued open
clusters in the Milky Way. All-sky-surveys in the
infrared, like 2MASS, allowed us to detect even very
distant ones which are obscured by interstellar matter
in the optical regime.
Still, the overall status of this research area, from
the observational and theoretical point of view, is
very unsatisfying. Although, open clusters are often
used as some kind of "standard candles", their global
parameters (for example, the age, reddening and distance)
are very often only poorly defined.
From my experience with the Webda data base
(http://www.univie.ac.at/webda), which includes
about four millions measurements of about one thousand
open clusters, I briefly review the current status of
research and try to answer the question: "What needs
to be done?".