access: October 2006 Archives
The leaders of higher education's main technology association have written a powerfully worded letter urging Blackboard to relinquish the rights it gained under a
controversial patent of online learning technologies in the public domain and to drop a patent infringement lawsuit it filed in August against a Canadian competitor, Desire2Learn.
"We believe this action would be in the best business interests of Blackboard and in the best interests of higher education," Brian L. Hawkins, the president of Educause, and the group's Board of Directors said in a letter to Blackboard this month. "We do not make this request lightly or underestimate the courage it will take to implement. However, we believe it is the right action for your corporation and our community."
MoveOn.org Civic Action:
Save the Internet
Ordinary people have scored a stunning victory against phone and cable companies. After months of feeling heat from the public, the Senate adjourned in September without passing Ted Stevens' bad telecom bill, which would have killed Net Neutrality forever.
But companies like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast aren't giving up their fight to control the Internet. They will try to kill Net Neutrality in the "lame duck" Congress - the period right after the Nov. 7 elections when Congress is most unaccountable.
We must act now to keep the pressure on Congress through election season, one way is to register thousands of new "Internet Freedom Voters."
Internet Freedom Voters are people who care about Internet freedom and want their voices heard in the political process.
eSchool News online - Open-access bill divides schools, publishers
Universities and publishers of scholarly journals are at odds over a recently proposed Senate bill that would require institutions conducting research funded with federal tax dollars to publish their findings free of charge online, no more than six months after their publication elsewhere.
If passed, the open-access legislation could put an additional strain on campus IT infrastructures, as colleges and universities would be forced to post many of their research results on the web. But universities and education groups overwhelmingly support the bill, believing it will further the advancement of knowledge worldwide.
Publishers of scholarly journals, on the other hand, fear the bill will undermine their business.
