Here is a press release by Thomson Learning about their decision to become a Sakai commercial affiliate. It has all the usual statements about working with the community, supporting open standards, and so on. But what caught my attention, down in the sixth paragraph of a six-paragraph press release, was the following statement by Thomson Learning’s Chief Technology Officer Ray Lowry:
In addition, Thomson Learning is glad to see one of its key business partners, Blackboard, Inc., making a move in the right direction to engage the open source community.
This has to be a reference to Blackboard’s recent patent pledge. But what does it mean? Is it a quiet endorsement? A sly dig? A little of both? If I’m not mistaken, Thomson and Blackboard do indeed have a very close business relationship. I doubt they would make this statement without careful consideration first. I find the company’s decision to comment on the edupatent issue in an unrelated press release to be very interesting.
[…] Blackboard公司在e-learning上的远景与我的个人观点正好背道而驰，我认为这并不让我吃惊。这没有什么损失的，对于成功的公司来说，依然有更多更好的机会。Thomson Learning公司，同时在传统意义上也是Blackboard公司的紧密伙伴，宣布它正在采用Sakai（这并不意味着切断它与其他LMS提供商的关系）（译注：Sakai是一套开源的软件工具，可供教师和学生创建一个协作网站；LMS即学习管理系统）。他们在新闻稿中写道：”另外，Thomson Learning公司将会高兴的看到它的其中一个关键商业伙伴，Blackboard公司，朝着与开源团体合作的正确方向迈步。”是的，一小步。Thomson公司的希望是力促Blackboard公司走得更远。 Michael feldstein, e-Literate [链接] [评论] […]