iSean

most folks in the ed tech field know about the recent patent dispute between Blackboard (BB) and Desire2Learn. Desire2Learn is refusing to comply with BB’s request to pay royalties and this has generated much discussion. in fact, Desire2Learn has become something of a folk hero (in corporate terms) for taking BB on.

well, EDUCAUSE (leading organization supporting technology in higher ed) recently came out and told BB that BB should relinquish their rights with regard to a patent they recently received. here’s a snippet from the actual letter that EDUCAUSE wrote:

EDUCAUSE is a non-profit association dedicated to serving its 2000 college and university members, as well as its 200 corporate members. We do not endorse products or take the side of one company over another. Our corporate guidelines, established in 1998, are very clear that EDUCAUSE is primarily accountable to its institutional members. In the event of a conflict between corporate and institutional member objectives, we must support our institutional members. Let me clearly state that we are not siding with Desire2Learn at the expense of Blackboard. Our discussions and actions are based solely on the collective interests of our institutional members.

There are two core tenets behind the community concern. One deals with co-creation and ownership; the other deals with innovation. Course management systems were developed by the higher education community, which includes academics, organizations, and corporations. Ideas were freely exchanged, prototypes developed, and refinements continue to be made. The new EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award, given to course management systems this year, celebrates that course management systems “were conceived and developed among faculty in pockets of innovation throughout the world. They originated simultaneously at a number of institutions,” as stated in the award announcement. One of the reasons course management systems were singled out for this award is because of the “fluid movement of ideas and initiatives between academia and the commercial sector as individual limited-use efforts evolved into enterprise-wide systems.” Our community has participated in the creation of course management systems. A claim that implies this community creation can be patented by one organization is anathema to our culture.

We realize that what one believes is not necessarily legally binding. As a result, EDUCAUSE engaged the services of a highly reputable, independent law firm to review the patent. The preliminary conclusion is that the patent was very broadly defined and was inappropriately approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That is certainly the view of the higher education community, many of whom are contributing evidence of prior art.

you can view the whole letter below this article.

i hope BB sees the light and does the right thing. i don’t use BB in my own teaching, but this whole episode has  caused me to promote open source solutions (e.g., Moodle, Drupal, phpBB, WordPress) beyond BB to my own students (future teachers). BB would most certainly get a lot of positive press if they were to heed the advice and recommendation from EDUCAUSE. Time will tell . . .

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