Fortnightly Mailing

A US view on Richard O’Dwyer's contribution to Higher Education

Jim Farmer [biography, email jfx "AT" immagic "DOT" com] sent me this guest contribution today.

This morning we learned Richard O’Dwyer will not be extradited to the U.S. This was not surprising here in Washington DC. The copyright infringement cases brought by the U.S. are crumbling when reviewed by the courts. O’Dwyer’s barristers Ben Cooper and Edward Fitzgerald QCcrafted a brilliant agreement to save the public reputation of both the U.S. prosecutors and the British government. Even though some of us believe O’Dwyer would not have been found guilty of a crime, the pressures and risk were not worth making this a test case.

O’Dwyer was an excellent representative for UK students. He was always calm, thoughtful, focused, and informed—this is how we want the public to perceive students. This took courage, insight, and patience. His video on today’s Guardian — an increasingly popular news source here in the U.S. — was an excellent representation for students.

In the video O’Dwyer gave credit to his mother Julia for her support through a difficult experience. Those of us who followed the case closely admired her for her persistent effort and for bearing the burden of a parent.

In Washington DC Jimmy Wales’ “Save Richard O’Dwyer from Extradition” created a fear of repeating the Wikipedia blackout last January as Congress and the President consider changes to the copyright and privacy legislation .His efforts likely encouraged the U.S. to settle.

O’Dwyer did not do anything that is not done by thousands of students in the U.S. Companies like Google make such references to copyrighted work consistently. Current practice to include Internet address (URLs) for references in academic works often are to copyrighted documents The U.S. legal interpretation, not yet fully tested in the courts, appears to consider these references to a copyrighted work as a crime. I have asked faculty members if they have considered what O’Dwyer did—with advertising or not— illegal and, if asked by a student, would they have said. All have replied they would have answered “legal”.

The recent National Union of Students/Intellectual Property Office study said 57% of students had never learned about intellectual property issues before coming to the university. The report also quotes a 2006 article in the Library Review saying: “The current climate regarding IP in the UK HE sector has been described as 'both confused and confusing'.” This confusion makes faculty hesitant to give needed guidance to students that may later be found wrong. This confusion also impedes the effective transfer of information that is important both to research and to instruction.

The NUS study concludes:

Academics, and module tutors in particular, are seen as key sources of information about IP issues; 59% of respondents said they would approach their lecturer for help with IP issues. However, students are not convinced that academics are well-informed about IP issues; only 52% believed their lecturers were well-informed about IP issues. (Emphasis in the original).

The report fails to suggest how a faculty member could learn what guidance to give students; the implied recommendation cannot be implemented in the current uncertain environment.

Richard O’Dwyer was an unlikely hero. But no one could have done better.

Richard O’Dwyer, a student and his computer – an American perspective by Jim Farmer

Photo-credit awaited

So the question being asked around the world in the wake of Obama's online forum is the following: Who is this Richard O'Dwyer, and why is he so important?

International Business Times, 30 January 2012

A query about Richard O'Dwyer, a 23-year-old Sheffield Hallam undergraduate who faces jail if sent for trial and convicted in the US, was the most [2,073] asked of more than 133,000 questions submitted to a live online Google+ "hangout" with the [U.S.] president broadcast on Monday.      

The Guardian, 31 January 2012

Recent actions of the U.S. government have shattered our understanding of copyright. Universities now need to provide new detailed guidance to faculty and students. They will also need to action to protect Internet Domain Names of their affiliates.

On January 13^th a Magistrates' Court in the United Kingdom ruled that Richard O’Dwyer, a student at Sheffield Hallam University, could be extradited to the U.S. on U.S. charges of copyright infringement, even though he has never left England and never had infringing files on this computer.

One week later two helicopters, 76 New Zealand police and 4 U.S. FBI agents raided and searched Kim Dotcom’s home in Auckland arresting Dotcom and four colleagues ¹. The U.S. Department of Justice seized Megaupload.com and fifteen other domain names, all but one of his bank accounts, and his physical assets. Computers were seized for evidence. He is currently in custody. The New Zealand police were careful to say they did not file charges, but rather executed the raid on behalf of the U.S. government.

The strategy used by the U.S. government against O’Dwyer was explained by a U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement [ICE] official who said: “This was like drugs. You want to cut out the middle man.”

The future of VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) in tertiary education - Guest Contribution by Jim Farmer

At Blackboard World on 13th July 2011, four publishers announced new products and new services:

• Pearson integrates MyLab and Master learning services with the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This integration gives faculty immediate access to tools, assignments and learning analytics based on their Blackboard logon and returns grades to Blackboard.
• Cengage creates a deeper integration and full interoperability of Cengage Learning’s digital content through automatic sign-on and grade book integration. This added level of integration includes Web-services architecture (MindLinks). The partnership also includes integration of Cengage Learning’s MindTap program and MindTap applications.
• Macmillan provides integration of Macmillan’s digital learning offerings and Blackboard. It automates automated access via Blackboard and upload of grades and performance data into Blackboard’s gradebook.
• Wiley provides seamless access to Wiley’s learning content and tools. Wiley supports access via Blackboard credentials and automatically synchronize grades and other data with Blackboard.

Collectively these announcements suggest learning delivery services (LDS) as a more effective model for online learning than local delivery of static content , integration of the learning delivery and management systems and single sign on [SSO] for user convenience.

THE-QS World University Ranking - a US perspective that takes account of country size: Guest Contribution by Jim Farmer

When the 2009 Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings of the world’s universities were published 8 October, Editor of the THE-QS rankings, Phil Baty wrote: “America's superpower status is slipping as other countries' efforts to join the global elite begin to pay dividends.” And he could have written the U.K. universities continue to improve their rankings.

Bologna: are European entrepreneurs now leading the US on the development of Higher Education student record software? Guest Contribution by Jim Farmer.

On Wednesday 21 May the Institute of Higher Education Policy released a report “The Bologna Club: What U.S. Higher Education Can Learn from a Decade of European Reconstruction.” One week later, 28 May 2008, two young European entrepreneurs, Manuel Dietz and Stéphane Velay, of the German company unisolution GmbH, described the collaborative work of 13 European software and service providers to automate administrative services supporting the emerging Bologna Process.

The report's author Clifford Adelman wrote:

What has transpired since 1999 cannot be but lightly acknowledged in the United States. While still a work in progress, parts of the Bologna Process have already been imitated in Latin America, North Africa, and Australia. The core features of the Bologna Process have sufficient momentum to become the dominant global higher education model [emphasis added] within the next two decades. We had better listen up.

Microsoft certified Moodle – Guest Contribution by Jim Farmer

A "Microsoft certified" version of Moodle can be downloaded now from SpikeSource, a venture capital backed US company that aims to make Open Source software "business ready". Available since February 27, 2008,  neither Microsoft or SpikeSource announced the certified version. A representative for SpikeSource said this was a routine extension of the company’s certifications for Microsoft.

The new "post-patent" environment for e-learning: a perspective. Guest contribution by Jim Farmer.

The simultaneous announcement of the Blackboard patent [3 MB PDF] and the issuing of the complaint [200 kB PDF] against Desire2Learn on July 26, 2006, is one of those events that immediately changes our perception of ourselves and what we do. The emotions - disbelief, anger, frustration, resignation, and denial - show how unexpected, shocking, and important this event was to higher education. As bloggers educate us on patents, Blackboard business strategy, and the history of e-learning, three sharply different issues are emerging:  policies to encourage innovation; the commercialization of teaching and learning;  and collaboration among higher education and its suppliers.