Blackboard wins case

Just read on Slashdot and on "The NOSE: Information Technology in Higher Education" blog that Blackboard won their case against Desire2Learn. From "The Nose":

The jury found Desire2Learn guilty of patent infringement. Although Blackboard sought $17 million in damages, the jury awarded $3.1 million ($2.5 million for "lost profits" and $630,000 for "royalties").

This is one of those Patent Troll moves, but unfortunately this gives Blackboard some good precendence to continue litigation against other LMS players.

A Canadian article at TheRecord paints Blackboard as being uncooperative and unlikely to compromise or settle, although the judge will probably press the parties to come to a royalty agreement. From the article:

Desire2Learn has several options on the table, including appealing the verdict; continuing to push the U.S. patent office to reconsider Blackboard's patent; and developing a software workaround that does not use the technology in dispute.

Good luck Desire2Learn!

Google before the Internet

We ran across these via the Google Operating System blog. It's fun to imagine what Google would have been like before the Internet.






Phone based "Question Desk" from 1924:









Google circa 1960:











Some people remember calling their local library help desk to get answers to questions - funny to think that we all have this information at our fingertips now.