As you may know, patents can be invalidated if one can demonstrate that the claimed invention was in public use or described in a published document prior to the date of the patent filing. This evidence is called “prior art.” A few of us decided that we should begin documenting prior art–not just on the […]
Blackboard-Inc.
Blackboard Sues Desire2Learn for Patent Infringement
You can see the filing here. That didn’t take long.
Survey Gives Proprietary AND Open Source VLE Developers Cause to Worry
IM+M (Jim Farmer’s company) has published some survey data on VLE adoption by higher ed institutions in the UK from 2001 to 2005. Interestingly, the data looks bad for almost everyone. There’s some limited good news for Moodle and Boddington, but as institutions are voting with their feet, the general sentiment seems to be “A […]
Blackboard wins clearance to buy WebCT
Looks like the Blackboard/WebCT merger has been approved: FEB. 6 10:36 A.M. ET Blackboard Inc., an education software developer, said Monday it received clearance from the Department of Justice to buy WebCT Inc., a rival provider of Internet learning software, and expects to close the deal in March or April. Up until now, I believe […]
More Thoughts About Blackboard: "The fault, dear Brutus…"
Jim Farmer’s financial analysis of Blackboard certainly has gotten a lot of attention–and for good reason. To start with, that ~$250K cost per sale is a truly eye-popping number. But upon further reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not the most important part of the story that Jim tells. Here is the most […]
Blackboard by the Numbers
Update: Welcome, Chronicle readers. Since it wasn’t made clear in the Chronicle’s reference, I’d like to point out that the paper I’m quoting was written by Jim Farmer, who is the Coordinator of Georgetown University’s new Interoperability Center, formerly the Sakai SEPP Community Liaison and project administrator for the uPortal project. Jim has pretty impressive […]
Blackboard's WebCT Deal Spurs Antitrust Questioning
According to the Washington Post, the Justice Department is looking into the possibility that the Blackboard/WebCT merger might violate antitrust laws. Given that the combined company would own 80-90% of the LMS market, it’s no real surprise. This will be interesting to watch. (Found via Online Learning Update.)