C-Level View :: May 9, 2007

• 05/09/07

Executive View

The American University and the Ownership of Ideas

An interview with Eben Moglen, Software Freedom Law Center

By Mary Grush

The Software Freedom Law Center's (SFLC) Eben Moglen is one of the high-powered attorneys representing the challenge of Blackboard Inc.'s patent of certain learning technologies. Campus Technology asked Moglen about some of the broader issues surrounding patents on such education technologies.

Could you broaden out for a minute from the Blackboard patent and tell us about the larger implications for higher education and for people who want to work in an open educational environment?

The problem presented for the university professor or graduate student who wants to work in an open environment is that the university has been closing itself for a generation now. The great tertiary and quaternary education system of the United States that grew up after the Second World War was a work of socialism. It was a product of two elements of American socialism: the GI Bill and its attempt to create egalitarian access to knowledge for a generation of people who had fought for the country, and the cold war big science initiatives that poured enormous amounts of public money into prestige research universities....

Worth Noting

Penn State Flunks Napster, Signs Video-Minded Ruckus

Penn State announced it would not renew its contract with the Napster music service and instead would offer students access to Ruckus, a multimedia service it said offered students greater media flexibility. Under the new contract, Ruckus will provide students downloadable access to 2.75 million songs, full-length feature films, short-form video, sports clips, and music videos, as well as access to a social network site focused on the network. Penn State's agreement providing students free access to the Napster music service will end May 31, 2007....

Nominations for 2007 Campus Technology Innovators Due May 15

Campus Technology is seeking nominations through May 15 for its 2007 Innovators Awards for exemplary use of technology by colleges and universities and their vendor partners....

Stanford CS Taking Steps to Reverse Female Brain Drain

Stanford is taking steps to retain "the extremely low number of female computer scientists on campus," the Stanford Daily reported. Thirteen percent of Stanford CS undergrads are female, the paper noted, down from 24 percent in the 1999/2000 school year....

Internet Health Channel Signs University Hospital Expertise

realhealth.TV, an Internet TV channel dedicated to consumer health education, is signing up university hospitals as sources of health care expertise. The network announced last week that doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital would join teams from Duke University Medical Center, Vanderbilt Medical Center, UCLA Healthcare, Johns Hopkins Medicine and University of Chicago Medical Center, to offer commentary on health topics for the channel....