MPSS is a method for determining expression levels of mRNA by counting the number of individual mRNA molecules produced by each gene.  It is "open ended" in the sense that the identity of the RNAs to be measured are not pre-determined as they are with gene expression microarrays.
A sample of mRNA are first converted to complementary DNA (cDNA) using reverse transcriptase, which makes subsequent manipulations easier.  These cDNA are fused to a small oligonucleotide "tag" which allows the cDNA to be PCR amplified and then coupled to microbeads. After several rounds of sequence determination, using hybridization of fluorescent labeled probes, a sequence signature of ~16–20 bp is determined from each bead.  Fluorescent imaging captures the signal from all of the beads, while affixed to a 2-dimensional surface, so DNA sequences are determined from all the beads in parallel. There is some amplification of the starting material so, in the end, approximately 1,000,000 sequence reads are obtained per experiment.