It looks like I spoke too soon.
The ever-brilliant US Patent and Trademark Office has apparently granted Blackboard a patent for…well…pretty much anything remotely related to learning management systems. (e-Literate: Blackboard Patents the LMS)
With dozens of learning management systems, both commercial and open source, out there, I wonder how far Blackboard will go. Can they stop an open source movement like Moodle which has legs that stretch far beyond Moodle.org.
My pessimistic, people-suck side (as a history teacher, I’ve seen a number of instances throughout the ages where people haven’t always done the “right” thing) thinks that Net Neutrality, DOPA, and now this will really change this place called the Internet. I hope I don’t look back at 2006 as a time with great potential that was crushed by corporate interests and government regulations supporting corporate interests.
Who is listening to the people these days?
technorati tags:dopa, moodle, blackboard, web2.0, patent
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danmcdowell.net 
Someone posted some anti blackboard logos here
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I certainly hope that Moodle sues and wins its suit. Is it even allowed to do this. I’d hate to think that the government would grant a monopoly to an information provider or even an information organizer. Isn’t there an amendment to the United States Constitution that was designed to prevent this from happening?
Andrew Pass
http://www.Pass-Ed.com/blogger.html
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