Similar to the letter CEO Michael Chasen sent to EdTech Talk, a "message" to the client "community" was released on the Blackboard Blog today. Apparently, the crush of criticism by edubloggers is "creating confusion for many people" (and maybe an Excedrin sized headache for Blackboard?) In the "message" of clarity, Chasen notes that:
"Some of the outside commentary about the patent misrepresents the scope of the patent and appears to be creating confusion for many people. The Blackboard CMS patent covers only specific features and functionality contained in the Blackboard system that were developed by the Blackboard team. We certainly did not invent e-learning or course management systems, and I am personally embarrassed that this is what some people thought Blackboard was claiming."
Unfortunately, Chasen did little to clarify how Blackboard narrows the scope of the "specific features and functionality" in what he refers to in the memo as the "Blackboard CMS patent". Maybe the "confusion" comes in the patent's Abstract which could be a textbook definition of a course management system:
"A system and methods for implementing education online by providing institutions with the means for allowing the creation of courses to be taken by students online, the courses including assignments, announcements, course materials, chat and whiteboard facilities, and the like, all of which are available to the students over a network such as the Internet."
… or maybe from the 39 figures that diagram a course management system beginning with Fig. 1 – the diagram of an "education support system" and extending 15 figures past Fig. 25 – a screen shot of the "community web page". How could anyone dare "create confusion for people" by saying that Blackboard was trying to patent course management systems when it is so clear in "The Blackboard CMS patent" that they are only trying to patent course management systems – huh?
technorati tags:Blackboard, patent, lms, cms
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