[K12OSN] Web based Student Information Systems?

["Terrell Prudé Jr."]

Tom Hoffman wrote:
> On 1/15/07, "Terrell Prudé Jr." <microman at cmosnetworks.com> wrote:
>> It does sound good, but given Microsoft's recent tendencies, there is a
>> concern.  Does it have patent restrictions, like their Office XML or the
>> FAT file system?  Shame we have to think about this, but unfortunately
>> we now do....
>
> It isn't really a Microsoft thing at all.  It is more of a technique
> or style than a product.
>
> --Tom
>

So are Microsoft's Office XML file formats.  They, too, are more of a
technique or style.  But Microsoft still claims patents on it.  Same
with FAT; it's a technique of organizing files on a storage device.  Are
we sure that this AJAX won't come back to bite us in a legal sense?  I
ask this because Jim McQuillan just said that it was indeed written by
Microsoft, first as "XMLHTTP".  I quote Mr. McQuillan:

"Actually, AJAX should be considered a Microsoft thing.  At the core of
AJAX is a function called 'XMLHttpRequest', which started life as
'XMLHTTP', which was written by....  Microsoft.  (Even Microsoft can
have a few good ideas)"

Hence, the concern.  Should (non-Novell) F/OSS developers really be
using this before it's been verified safe, in the legal (i. e. patent)
sense?

--TP