Blogging, Blackboard, and the History of the World

Blackboard has really done it now. They’re more evil than ever….

I would imagine everyone is now aware the Blackboard has patented the learning management system. As you may or may not know, I work for a school district that is a Blackboard client (full disclosure). I like Blackboard as a product and it has been a good tool for our use. I do have my issues with the company, like poor customer support, a revolving door on their reps and support people, and a too-extravagant conference that customers ultimately pay for (does everyone really have to have dinner aboard the flight deck of the USS Midway?). I’ll even admit to being pretty upset after we received a significant cost increase for the product and then at their national conference in Phoenix in 2004, watching them load up motor coaches outside the client party downtown (which was also over the top) and truck off their 28-33 year old staff to a private closed party while over a 100 people stared in disbelief…not good business. And with the patent, they seem to prefer a business model that seemingly operates in the most aggressive fashion possible, and in the process alienates many.

But can you blame Blackboard for their patent strategy? Seriously, they’re a publicly traded corporation who answers to shareholders. Like most for-profit business, their goal is to, well, make a profit, in fact, maximize profit. That’s what businesses do, and they believe that this current path will do just that. I would imagine that those who have posted against the actions of Blackboard would prefer Blackboard to possess a more altruistic approach to education. This certainly would be desirable, perhaps even expected, given that Blackboard makes its living off of education. But perhaps that perspective is just plain unrealistic.

You can HATE Blackboard, stomp your feet and hold your breath. You can think that Blackboard is part of a conspiracy. You can even design silly little graphics for posting on Flickr. You can blame Blackboard for the Kennedy assassination if you want. But Blackboard’s in this to make a buck.

If it was me, I’d design some peace graphics for Israel and Lebanon, or make some graphics about how the oil companies (and all their patents!) are making obscene profits by ripping us all off by charging $3.50 a gallon for their product. I might think of all the servicemen and women the U.S. has lost in Iraq, and design some graphics for them. Or I might design some graphics about the terrorists who want to blow more planes up. You know, maybe some graphics about something really important….

I think Mark Oehlert gets it right in his post title about the situation, appropriately entitled “LMS Patented!! Is anyone home at the Patent Office?” (my emphasis)

Shouldn’t we be blaming the patent office for allowing the patent? Isn't Blackboard, Inc. just taking advantage of what is available to them as a corporation?

OK, take a trip back in time with me to look at a little history. Let’s consider how outraged bloggers would have been in ____ .... (had blogging existed, of course…) . Fill in the blank with the date below:

1849, to find out that a future president who invented a mechanism for floating a ship through shallow water received a patent for that design. That man was Abraham Lincoln.

1879, when they found out that the symbol representing our freedoms as a country, the symbol that graces our eastern coast, and the symbol that was the first thing seen by millions of immigrants, had its design patented. That symbol is of course the Statue of Liberty. Shock. Horror. Outrage! (and maybe even some graphics!).

and in 1906, when two visionary young men applied for a patent for controlling some really crazy “flying machine” and were awarded it. Those two men, of course, were Orville and Wilbur Wright. (patent information)

A simple search of the U.S. Patent Office database returns 11,747 patents that include the word “education.” Where are all the blog posts screaming hatred and damnation at these patent holders? Or is it just a Blackboard thing?

Now I probably shouldn’t compare Lincoln, the Wright Brothers, and the Statue of Liberty to Blackboard but this is my blog so I’ll do it. Perhaps you’ll even have some fun at my expense in your posts. Do I like the fact that Blackboard is trying to corner the market by bullying its competition? Not really. Am I willing to use their product in spite of that? Yes-the product has been a good thing for the parents, teachers and kids in my district, and that’s the most important thing. I am willing to accept that patents have been around for a long time, and inventors, businesses and corporations will continue to take advantage of them, often at the expense of others. I’m willing to accept that Blackboard as an organization is not perfect-and in fact, probably far from it. I’m also willing to accept that everything is not always open-source and that some people, believe it or not, wish to make a profit for what they produce.

That's just the way it is...

tags: blackboard patent