Writing programs and more specifically, Writing in the Disciplines (WID) initiatives have begun to embrace the use of and the ideology inherent to, open source software. The Conference on College Composition and Communication has passed a resolution stating that whenever feasible educators and their institutions consider open source applications.…

In March the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary decision that could have significant ramifications for universities that use course-management software, as well as for the companies that make it. The "nonfinal" decision rejects all 44 claims Blackboard Inc. made for its controversial patent of an online-learning system.…

Innovation ecosystem strategy is often adopted by platform technology owners to seek complementary innovation from resources located outside the firm to exploit indirect network effect. In this dissertation I aim to address the issues that are related to the formation and business value of platform innovation ecosystems in the enterprise software…

A significant movement in education concerns the use of open educational resources. By "open" it is generally meant that the resource is available at no cost to others for adaptation and reuse in different contexts. However, "open" is not a simple dichotomy; rather, there is a continuum of openness. We discuss four separate aspects of reuse and…

The long-awaited showdown between Blackboard Inc. and Desire2Learn Inc. began this month in a federal courtroom here as lawyers described the humble beginnings of two of the fiercest competitors in the classroom-software industry. The presidents of both companies, flanked by teams of lawyers, listened intently as their lawyers described how young…

Although there have been a number of studies on large scale implementation of proprietary enterprise information systems (EIS), open-source software (OSS) for EIS has received limited attention in spite of its potential as a disruptive innovation. Cost saving is the main driver for adopting OSS among the other possible benefits including security…

A parallel between plagiarism and corporate crime raises eyebrows--and ire-- on campuses, but for John Barrie, the comparison is a perfectly natural one. In the 10 years since he founded iParadigms, which sells the antiplagiarism software Turnitin, he has argued--forcefully, and at times combatively--that academic plagiarism is growing, and that…

2008 marked the 10-year Anniversary of the Open Source movement, which has had a substantial impact on not only software production and adoption, but also on the sharing and distribution of information. Technical communication as a discipline has taken some advantage of the movement or its derivative software, but this article argues not as much…

Colleges have deployed various tactics over the years to deter illegal file sharing, usually of commercial music and movies, by their students. This month, the U.S. Department of Education will begin crafting regulations that specify strategies, a prospect that is making some campus officials wonder if plans they have already invested in will pass…

The purpose of this article is to extend the published knowledge and practices of distance learning in music to include constructivism. Dan Keast describes his techniques for the implementation of constructivism to an online two-course series of Music History. The courses' structure, activities, assessments, and other key functionality components…

In this article, the author asserts that technology is not the answer to digital piracy at colleges and universities. Citing the three most common explanations given for copyright infringement--that students cannot always get what they want, cannot always use what they can get, or think the price of what they can get is unfair--he asserts that the…

When asked about individual perceptions of "technology," 68% of Americans primarily equate the term to the computer. Although this perception under represents the true breadth of the field, the statistic does speak to the ubiquitous role the computer plays across many technology disciplines. Software has become the building block of all major…

This booklet has been prepared to familiarize the inventor, creator, or developer of a new computer software product or software invention with the basic legal issues involved in developing, protecting, and distributing the software in the United States. Basic types of software protection and related legal matters are discussed in detail,…

This article discusses the impact of patents for computer algorithms in course management systems. Referring to historical documents and court cases, the positive and negative aspects of software patents are presented. The key argument is the accessibility to algorithms comprising a course management software program such as Blackboard. The…

Faculty have a great deal of control over their lectures, lecture notes, and slides. This article discusses a coming wave of recording devices and other classroom technologies--this time wielded by the students--which will test this control and force serious conversations about how to best help students learn, what it means to own an idea, and…