e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: Desire2Learn

  • Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: “Grey” Monday March 10, 2008

    Yesterday, Desire2Learn submitted its response to Blackboard’s request for injunction (which was apparently submitted under seal) and accompanying letters from various school and university officials arguing that preventing D2L from selling their product in the United States would be against the public interest. Barry Dahl has done a terrific job of summing up the case that D2L makes in the filing. I definitely recommend reading his post. You’ll also want to read Jim Farmer’s post, below, which summarizes the current state of play with regard to the ruling on these filings that the judge will issue next Monday, based on what we know from the public court record. After reading both Barry and Jim, then I recommend that you read the two court documents themselves. They’re well written and pretty accessible–even more so after you’ve had tutorials from these two guys.

    – Michael

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  • A Couple of Good Patent Posts

    I’ve been slow to catch these because I’m really heads-down with work this week. (That will continue next week as well, since I’ll be at Oracle’s big higher education conference for most of the week.) Al Essa has his latest analysis of how broad he believes Blackboard’s patent is. It’s a timely review for those who haven’t thought about the details in a while. Meanwhile, Barry Dahl gives us advance warning that D2L will be posting their motion responding to Blackboard’s motion for an injunction (which Blackboard apparently submitted under seal) later today. This could be very important; I think teachers, students, and administrators in the United States will want to see Blackboard’s arguments for why schools who think D2L is the best platform for education should not have the option of choosing it in the future. Barry also has some other very interesting details; it’s worth reading the post in its entirety. As a side note, I’m really pleased to see Barry doing some investigative journalism on this subject. It’s critical for the educational community that we have as many people as possible uncovering the facts and their implications. The more crowd-sourcing we can do on this, the better.

  • Some Court Documents

    Well, it’s later than we expected, but we did finally get a copy of the jury questionnaire as well as Blackboard’s motion for prejudgment interest. (Both of these were provided by instructional media + magic and acquired from public sources.) And there are a few interesting details.

    Update: At the request of Blackboard’s legal counsel, we have removed the link to the motion for pre-judgment interest.

    Later Update: A link to the redacted version of the motion has been added back. In answer to some of the questions that I’ve been getting, the reason that Blackboard requested that the document be taken down in the first place is that there was a clerical error in which Exhibit D (referenced in the post below) should have been submitted under seal since it contained D2L’s client list. (Both companies have a right to keep their client lists confidential, and the customers of both companies have the right not to publicize which platform they use.) Blackboard’s legal counsel corrected the error through official channels and asked that we take down the part of the document that shouldn’t have been released in the first place. No threats were made. After thinking about it a bit and seeking a second opinion, I came to the conclusion that it was a reasonable request and took appropriate action. With Jim’s help, I got a copy of the filing minus Exhibit D and reposted it as soon as I had the chance.
    As to the question of why the instructional media + magic web site is down, it is undergoing maintenance for unrelated reasons.

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  • Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: Lunch with Fred Hofstetter

    In another post in his series of eye-witness accounts of the trial, Jim Farmer provides us with an interview of a fact witness who also happens to be one of the early pioneers in online learning.

    – Michael

    fred.gifFred Hofstetter was a fact witness in the recent Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn trial. In a break, we had two-hour lunch at the local Red Lobster. Immediately I asked Fred about his development and implementation of learning systems.

    Professor Fred Hofstetter is known for his development of the GUIDO and Serf learning systems. As Professor of Education, Fred coordinates the master’s and doctoral programs in educational technology at the University of Delaware. His courses include: Internet Literacy, Multimedia Literacy, Internet Technologies, Educational Technology Foundations, Advanced Multimedia Web Design, Web-based Learning Environments, and Data Driven Web Design. Fred received his PhD in Music Theory from Ohio State University.

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  • An Eye-Witness Account of the Trial

    With all the coverage of the Blackboard v. Desire2Learn case, most of us (including me) have very little insight into the actual trial process. And with emotions running high about the case, it’s easy for people to jump to extreme conclusions about the process and everyone involved in it. That’s why I’ve asked Jim Farmer to write a first-hand account of the portion of the trial that he attended. In addition to being a knowledgeable observer of the legal system as a former expert witness in the U.S. Tax Court on behalf of the California State University in Los Angelese and in District Court in Denver on financial aid software, Jim is also a gentleman’s gentleman. I knew that he would give an account that is fair-minded and charitable to all parties involved. And that’s what he did.

    In the interest of full disclosure, Jim asks me to remind you all that Georgetown University, where he coordinates the Scholarly Systems Group, is a long-term satisfied Blackboard Learning Systems user. The views expressed in this blog post are solely his own.

    – Michael

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  • A Meeting of the Parties Today

    We’re a bit behind in getting Jim’s post up. (Or, to be more accurate, I’m a bit behind in getting Jim’s post up.) My new goal is to have up tonight. Also, we haven’t yet seen the jury’s documentation of their verdict, so that will wait a bit longer as well.

    In the meantime, there is a meeting today between Blackboard and D2L to see if they can reach an agreement on the remedy given the court ruling. (If not, then each side will present their argument for to the judge and the judge will decide on things like whether there will be an injunction, whether there will be a royalty and how much it would be, etc.) If the two sides come to an agreement we’ll know within a couple of days; otherwise the court will rule on March 10th.

    I don’t want to read to much into this, but it’s interesting that Blackboard has chosen Peter Segall (along with Matthew Small) to represent them in the talks. Peter is very well regarded as diplomat by a lot of folks (including me) and is not generally perceived to be an edupatent warrior.

  • The Market Reaction to Blackboard's Court Victory

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    Down half a percent on the day.

    Translation: “Eh.”