Blackboard flexes it's muscles

There has been a lot of buzz around the net about Blackboard's recent lawsuit against Desire2Learn. Blackboard has played down the implications of the suit:

"This is not about limiting competition or innovation. This is not an acquisition," said Mr. Small, Blackboard's general counsel. "We are seeking a reasonable royalty." (from The Chronicle)

But many others are taking a much more pesimistic point of view:

After purchasing and killing Prometheus in 2002 and WebCT last year (and many other companies, though not strictly speaking CMS/LMS companies), Blackboard seems to have a long-term strategy of not developing good or original technology but buying competitors and, now it is clear, trying to keep others out of the field by getting an absurdly broad patent for common uses of technology if that technology is employed in the context of education. Not only do we need to worry about the future of open source initiatives such as Moodle and Sakai, but we also need to worry about using a blog or wiki with a class of students. In fact, simple networking protocols, authentication practices, and the like, if undertaken by a school could well be jeapordized by this patent. (Peter Schilling on Academic Commons)

Thanks, Kathy, for alerting us to this one!