Open Source Policy and open_source

Since early November 2006, EDUCAUSE has been engaged in ongoing discussions with Blackboard regarding their assertion of patent rights and the concerns raised in a letter to the Blackboard leadership [PDF 38.9 KB] EDUCAUSE President Brian Hawkins sent in October on behalf of the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors. Other groups, including The Sakai Foundation, have also been engaged in discussions on this matter.

Today, February 1, 2007, Blackboard announced a non-assertion pledge that directly emanates from these discussions. The boards of directors of EDUCAUSE and The Sakai Foundation have agreed to and have issued a joint statement [PDF 41.2 KB] about this pledge.

In this 29 minute recording, we'll hear from José-Marie Griffiths, Dean and Professor of the UNC School of Information and Library Sciences.  She's also the principal investigator of The Future of Librarians in the Workforce study and we'll hear about her activities on that front.   We'll also learn about her session at CNI's Fall Task Force meeting about a recent report from the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee.

See also:

• The Louis Round Wilson Academy
  - a very interesting group represented there
• ibiblio