Ed Tech Talk #58 - Community Forum on DOPA and the Blackboard Patent

admin — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 14:56:07 -0500

Community Forum on DOPA and the Blackboard Patent
Part 1
Download mp3 (17.7MB, 38:42)

Part#1 of our Community forum includes an overview of these two critical issues, presentation of a message sent by BlackBoard CEO, Michael Chasen, reaction from Desire2Learn Director of Marketing, John McLeod, and commentary from Michael Feldstein and Stephen Downes. More audio, including our break out discussions and a chat with Moodle founder, Martin Dougiamas, will be uploading soon.

Chat Transcript

Quicklinks

BlackBoard

Commentary

DOPA

Commentary

Comments from BlackBoard CEO, Michael Chasen

Dear Mr. Cormier:

Thank you for extending an invite to Blackboard to participate in this evening's EdTech program. While we appreciate your effort to include Blackboard, at this time we are unable to participate. Please find a few comments we hope you will provide for your audience during the program from Blackboard's president and CEO Michael Chasen:

"I believe there has been a great deal of confusion about the scope of the patent and our intentions behind the legal action.

Following is a brief history around our patent. After the release of our first products - back in 1998, a core group of people at Blackboard looked at the CMS technology available at the time and identified improvements that would enable the CMS to function as a true enterprise application for educational institutions. We focused our resources on developing solutions with the student-centric functionality to allow the Blackboard CMS to serve the increasingly complex needs of the industry. Though we were still in our early stages as a small player in the software industry, we recognized the importance of protecting our innovations in our products. As a result, seven years ago, we filed for patent protection on these developments in various countries around the world.

Please know that the patent covers only specific features and functionality contained in the Blackboard system that were developed by the Blackboard team. We certainly did not invent e-learning or course management systems, and I am personally embarrassed that this is what some people have stated that Blackboard is claiming.

Over the last decade and longer, fantastic advancements have been made throughout the e-learning industry by a diverse and passionate community of individuals and institutions and Blackboard is privileged to have been a contributor. We hope that such innovations will continue.

We are asking Desire2Learn for a reasonable royalty for their use of our intellectual property, which is in line and consistent with industry practices -- similar to the way in which Blackboard pays royalties to numerous companies for use of ideas they have developed and patented."

community forum

Ed Tech Talk #58 - Community Forum on DOPA and the Blackboard Patent