While most folks paying attention to the Blackboard patent scandal have sympathy for Desire2Learn, I’m not sure how many people realize just how altruistic the company is being by fighting the patent. From a purely financial perspective, it is clearly in D2L’s interest to settle and pay a royalty, even though doing so would harm the rest of the community. I’d like to lay out exactly why I think Desire2Learn is doing an enormous public service and what we can all do to help ensure that their good behavior pays off in the marketplace.
Author: Michael Feldstein
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Still Looking for Prior Art Info on Prometheus
If you have any info on the early days of Prometheus, including when it was built and what its features set was on or before June 1998, please post it to the Wikipedia page. This could be quite important.
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Tim O'Reilly Picks Up the Blackboard Story
Word keeps spreading in successively broader circles.
Meanwhile, if you are following this issue and have not yet subscribed to Al Essa’s blog, do yourself a favor and do so right away. His series of posts dissecting the patent continue to edify.
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The Blackboard Patent Crisis at Two and a Half Weeks
While marveling the events of the last several weeks, Jim Farmer suggested that it might be worthwhile to pause and reflect back on the sequence of events. I thought that was a good idea, so here it is. I don’t claim that it is any sense a definitive history. To the contrary, it’s just my personal experience of the situation. But it taught me something, so I thought it might be worth sharing. (more…)
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Posting Pace About to Slow Down
Since this patent fight is bound to be a marathon rather than a sprint, I feel compelled to slow down my posting pace to a more sustainable rate. Heck, I might even occasionally post about something else once in a while. Please don’t misconstrue this change as a slackening of commitment. Quite the opposite; I want to make sure that I can help us maintain momentum for the long run.
Over the weekend I’m going to take some time to reflect back (in a post) on the last couple of weeks and also respond to at least a few of the many excellent reader comments that I just haven’t had time to get back to yet.
We all need to prepare to hunker down a bit. We’re in a trench war now.
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Is Prometheus a Big Problem for Blackboard?
I’ve been thinking lately about the fact that almost none of the prior art listed in the Wikipedia entry was in Blackboard’s patent filing. It’s remarkable, really, since they are legally obligated to list any potential prior art of which they are aware at the time of filing. Failing to do so would constitute fraud. This is just one of several ways in which the application appears to be very sloppy.
I was thinking about this again when I received an email from a colleague pointing out that Prometheus is not yet listed in our prior art documentation effort. And it looks like Prometheus could present a really big legal problem for Blackboard. (more…)
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Conversation with My Own Imaginary Spinmeister
Me: Blackboard has an imaginary spinmeister! Oh NO!
Spinmeister: Oh, that guy. I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He was Joe Lieberman’s imaginary spinmeister. He’s not exactly the sharpest imaginary pencil in the imaginary box, if you know what I mean.
Me: But…their imaginary spinmeister said that this will all just blow over if they wait it out.
Spinmeister: And that strategy worked soooo well for Lieberman. Listen, this thing is just getting started. It’s only two weeks old. And already there are grumblings among the Blackboard building blocks community that they shouldn’t be contributing code and ideas to a company that is just going to turn around and patent them. Word is getting out. You have to give your efforts time to have their effect.
Me: So we shouldn’t care that Blackboard’s CEO isn’t answering questions about the specific nature of the patent?
Spinmeister: Oh, you should care. You should continue to turn that against him. Keep educating people about what the patent actually says. Keep circulating the plain English translations. The more people know, the more concerned that they will be about the non-answers they get from Blackboard, and the more Chasen looks like a sleazy politician.
Me: Well…OK…but…he has a mantra and everything!
Spinmeister: Chill. You have a mantra too. Repeat after me: “Chilling innovation…chilling innovation…chilling innovation”…”anti-competitive…anti-competitive…anti-competitive”. The people that Blackboard is trying to spin mostly have PhD’s. They’re not stupid. And they understand how innovation happens through a collegial environment of collaborative research. If you can connect the dots for them so that they don’t have to do a lot of their own digging to understand the basic issues, they will do the right thing.
Me: What about his point that “no institutions or organizations with any clout has taken a stand” on the issue yet? Shouldn’t we be concerned about that?
Spinmeister: That may be the only accurate statement that my imaginary colleague made. Yes, institutions will need to step up. But he’s wrong to think that it won’t happen. The New York Times didn’t rush in to endorse Ned Lamont the first day. The fact of the matter is that institutions move in a different time stream than bloggers. The fact that no big players have jumped in two weeks into the conflict doesn’t mean that they are going to sit on the sidelines. Trust me, help is on the way. You just need to hang in there and keep getting your message out.
Me: Well, I admit this is all very comforting. But are you sure you’re right?
Spinmeister: Have I ever steered you wrong?
Me: Um…actually, we’ve never spoken before. Plus, you’re a figment of my imagination.
Spinmeister: You have a point there. But really, you’re OK. The community is on the right track and will prevail. Just take a deep breath, have a beer, and keep steady.
Me: You’re right. We’ll hang in there. Thanks.
Spinmeister: Hey, that’s why you pay me the big imaginary bucks.