On Beginning

Now that I’m up and running at Blackboard I’m getting around to setting up shop on the communication front.  Me joining the company means we’re going to communicate more often and more openly.  So consider this post me hanging out my discussion and dialog shingle.  I’m excited about having a spot where I can muse out loud about my take on various things in eLearning, and have other folks weigh in with theirs.  In particular, I’ve got lots to say on the whole openness, standards, interoperability question.  And love a good exchange about where teaching and learning technology is (or should be) headed.
 
I’m also going to use this spot as another way (if only email reached everyone any more) to share communications I send to our client community so you’ll see them posted here.  To get started, I’ve posted a few I’ve already sent from my first month at Blackboard, including an introduction note I sent out today.  Here’s a quick excerpt to share a little more about me:
 
“My professional story begins with teachers.  I’ve had the good fortune of having some great ones.  Teachers willing to do more than deliver information, who worked to really reach and develop me as a learner.  They personalized learning for me at great effort and made sure to teach me how to learn rather than just learn the lesson of the day.  I’ve felt a debt of gratitude to these people and their art ever since.  And so you’ll see a thread in my resume about my attempts to return the favor, by trying to provide teachers with better tools to conduct their good works.

Early in my career I published introductory college textbooks in physics and astronomy.  No better laboratory than that in which to encounter head on the challenges of remediation and the crying need to somehow personalize instruction/information on a wide scale.  To my good fortune that’s the lab I was in as the web came along, poised by some accident to catch the promising spark that’s held my focus since—applying technology to the problems of instruction and learning delivery.” 

One more note… this medium isn’t quite as unfettered as I’d ideally like but everybody’s got their own flavor of some sort of limitation, and as a public company, so do we.  Let me be totally transparent about that limitation.  I’m dipping my toe in the previously uncharted waters for Blackboard of having comments turned on in this blog.  Not revolutionary I know and really required for an interesting exchange.  But a new step for Blackboard nonetheless and one we’re taking gradually.  To be crystal clear, all points of view are welcome and encouraged.  I want to hear from all corners.  And I’m guessing for the great majority (agree, disagree, criticism, some mix), review will ultimately prove unnecessary.  But to get this new step up and running and keep the discussion on point, for now, review we shall.

 

Off we go then.

Comments

[Barry Dahl]

Hello Ray. Welcome to the edublogosphere. I am encouraged by your willingness to make Blackboard a bit more open and transparent to clients, past-clients, and never-wannabe-clients. Quite frankly, the lack of honest conversation has been one of the biggest black marks against Blackboard over the years, and I take you at your word at wanting to change that.

Shall we test that transparency just a little bit right out of the gate? It seems that you are in an interesting position of having been employed by the competition before being hired by Blackboard.

Q. Prior to taking your position at Blackboard, did you honestly believe that Blackboard had "invented" anything in the LMS space as described in the 138 patent, or did you believe that there was prior art that covered those features that Blackboard claims to have invented? Perspiring minds want to know.

[Michael Feldstein]

Welcome to the blogosphere, Ray.

[J. Scholz]

As the new president of BlackBoard will you stop the practice of profit by lawsuit? As you know, BB acquired patents that are overly broad, has defied Educause's repeated requests to stop pursuing the lawsuit against Desire2Learn, and has basically been the Monster Cable of LMS suites. (Monster Cable is notorious for suiing anyone and everyone who uses the word 'Monster' in their business name.)

I have nothing against BB personally but the lawsuit that BB cowardly brought in front of the Texas court system (a little shopping there I see) hurts learners the most. D2L is a smaller Canadian company with a product that I would argue is better in many respects and poorer in many respects to BB. Rather than sue, why not compete for innovation's sake? Surely there's room for compromise.

[Brandon Waterman]

Ray,

I am glad to see you are taking steps towards openness and transparency as it will greatly benefit the e-learning community in the long run.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ramblings concerning the field and you can be sure I will respond with my thoughts. Open dialogue can only help to expedite the push to get education into more peoples hands in a way that is both easier to understand more substantial.

|be well|

[Terry Patterson]

Ray,

Thanks so much for posting and introducing yourself to all of us Blackboard clients. I'm the president of ARBUG http://www.arbug.org/ and we have several institutions that use WebCT, Blackboard, and Angel as LMS platforms. I'm sure they would like to hear about your thoughts. I look forward to following your comments in the upcoming months and years.

[jw]

Suggestion: In your large college accounts, post a live technician on site one week before classes start and one week after. If this was maintained for three to four semesters, it would surely jump start communication and create a personal alliance so that faculty would feel like they have a college advocate back at the Blackboard development table.

[RayMosteller]

Looking down the road 2 or 3 years, how do think Blackboard 9 + Angel will compare to Sakai 3 or Moodle? A lot of people are going to be asking themselves this question in the near future and they're expecting more than promises. @rmostell on Twitter

[Bob Clyatt]

Ray,
Congratulations on this next step in your career. We'd never talked about this but I share a similar impetus for creating learning software solutions back in my Wimba days: a deep appreciation for what great teachers do -- the dynamic connecting people when real learning happens -- and a determination to create tools that would help that to happen online. Keep that focus and you and your team will be doing an important service for us all.

[Dave Lester]

Hi Ray,

Welcome to blogging. I appreciate that you've left commenting active, and hope that it can lead to some interesting dialogue. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on "openness, standards, [and] interoperability."

If I could ask a quick question -- is there a reason that you've started a Typepad blog instead of WordPress? There's increasing support of WordPress within the education community, and it'd be a nice gesture if you made the switch to the popular open source blogging platform. I'd be happy to help you convert your Typepad blog over to WordPress if you're interested -- please let me know.

Sincerely,
Dave Lester

[kylemackie]

1. Tell your new Blackboard colleagues to drop the lawsuit with D2L. Start putting education (not litigation) first.

2. Tell @michealchasen to respond to one of my messages.

[Lou Harrison]

If you've read the email that was sent out when Blackboard acquired (ahem, merged with) WebCT, there were remarkable parallels in that letter and the one Michael Chasen sent out about the Angel acquisition (ahem, merger).
In our last episode, Blackboard told us that they were going to embrace the support model that WebCT had cultivated and that Chris Vento was going to lead the combined development into the future. They also promised cross-LMS APIs and true migration paths from both lines to their new NG LMS. In fact, they planned on lots of incremental changes so the transition would not only be seamless, but largely unobserved. They also planned on increased communication with us stakeholders.
I'm not sure how successful any of those plans are viewed inside the company, but I've seen pretty much all the former WebCT mindshare leave the company, including Chris Vento, many to "explore other opportunities," I've seen the support model improve briefly, and now it seems to get better in direct correlation with the numebr of emails I send to my sales team.
My question for you is "Why should we believe what you are saying this time?"

[Brent Rasmussen]

Hmn. 2 days and not one comment showing. How is that whole openness thing working out for you Ray? :)

[edumash]

First off, kudos on the outstanding decision to choose blogging as the transparent vehicle for communicating your message. Joining the blogosphere of educators in professional discourse IS the first step in transparency.

Once topic I would like for you to blog about is how Angel/Blackboard plans to support 3rd part vendors that build integrations for Angel. Institutions that are currently using Angel could potentially start seeing these vendors end integration development due to the likelihood of Angel going away completely as it is consumed back into the Bb branch of development.

[Rick Murch-Shafer]

We're still hoping the Department of Justice steps in to save the day Ray so we won't have to drop ANGEL when our contract is up next year. So sad to see the demise of a great company. Even sadder to see you welcome it.

[Ray H]

Thanks for all the comments. Between emails, blog posts and your input, day 1 of the more open communication era has been full of questions, asks, opinions, admonishments and well wishes. All of them helpful in their own way. And as diverse as they’ve been, the common thread through almost all the notes and comments I’ve gotten has been appreciation for the effort to communicate more openly and encouragement to keep it going.

Still getting our sea legs so will hope to get faster on the whole comments thing than this next-morning turn, but here they all are as of the time I’m writing this.

I want to think on some of the comments/questions here and put them on the list of questions to address with posts and through other channels in the coming weeks and months.

Responding to @rmostell, certainly the long term view you ask about is something I have a lot of thoughts on and will clarify here and in other forums.

On the patent questions... clearly a topic that’s generated strong interest/reaction in the community. Step one for me is to educate myself on this matter. Until I do so it’s not something I’ll talk about here.

Regarding innovation, we agree that innovation matters greatly and that we can’t build a compelling business without consistently delivering innovative products and services. And to the question about what’s new this time around as Bb and ANGEL come together, there are some really important differences that I’ll be addressing directly in the next week or two.

And thanks Dave for the offer, we’ll take a look.

Looking forward to moving past the introduction stage and diving in on some good topic exchange.

Ray

[RayMosteller]

Ray,
I don't expect you to answer legal questions or settle patent disputes in a blog but I would ask you to talk some common sense in house to the Blackboard leadership. Educators have been the sole reason for the amazing success of the company. Why not show these educators "some love" and take a more friendly approach to business, not the cutthroat, winner-take-all approach we've seen over the past few years.

I would challenge Blackboard to put their patent case before a jury of academic "peers" and ask them whether they think the "single login" invention was in fact innovative or novel at the time the patent was issued. I think I know the answer to this question and I think Blackboard does too but wouldn't dare run the risk of a truly public trial by educators.

I have sarcastically and abrasively made my points here: http://tr.im/obn1 using terms about the "infamous" single-login and the "S&D mission". These are bitter words from the academic community. Blackboard should show some heart and listen carefully to those who have put them on the map. @rmostell on Twitter

[Scott Leslie]

Welcome Ray, and good luck!

[Darren L. York]

My grandfather (a highly successful man) had a saying: "A man is only as good as his word, and once credibility is lost, you never really get it back." I've lived my life that way. I can't say the same for Blackboard. As we move towards the next generation of LMS/CMS education, Bloackboard will have to realize, similar to car manufacturers: (1) Customer service is just as important as a quality product. (2) Buying out competitors or trying to put them into bankruptcy through litigation is futile. (Yes, I chose the word futile intentionally.) There will always be another competitor who arises. That's called capitalism, and it exists for a reason. (3) Doing the wrong things, regardless of the rationale, is still wrong. There's never a right time to do the wrong thing. (4) Most highly successful companies have an ethical corporate culture. Most companies with an inherently unethical culture will succeed for only a short time -- and then fail. (5) Most importantly, Blackboard has forgotten, I think, that there are people, not just software and hardware, involved in educational technology. People. At the end of the day, ask yourself, "Did you help the students of the next generation of our nation?"

Perhaps I'm wasting my time and everybody else's. All of this was said prior during the takeover of WebCT, which went from strong customer service to abysmal customer service very quickly. As a CMS administrator who works with students and faculty, I honestly feel as if I'm being pushed forcefully into a cage with no way out. Blackboard has spent five years showing me how ruthless they really are. Why would I believe anything they say now?

[Eli Collins-Brown]

Ray, I am glad to see you taking this step into the 21st century mode of communication. After you get your feet wet with this blog, start Twittering. Looking forward to this conversation.

Eli @elicbrown on Twitter

[Malcolm Brown]

Ray, I applaud the launching of this blog. I think communication with customers has been a challenge, so any and all channels that can be put in place is a positive step.

Bb has been a good product for us thus far. We're at 80% adoption, perhaps even more.

What I don't have is any sense at all of the company's pedagogical vision. I was disappointed by the version 9 demos. It appears to me to be retooling the faculty-centric teaching paradigm with Ajax. Obviously I could be missing something, but right now I have no sense of whether Bb is even thinking about moving in the direction of student and learner centered tools, functions, and resources. Nor do I see the company reaching out to communicate this.

So I think this blog is a good initial step. We all have a lot at stake in our implementations and given the unrelenting pace of technology change, knowing where the Bb ship is headed is vital.

Malcolm Brown
Dartmouth College

[Joshua Kim]

Want to commend you for both starting a blog and allowing comments. You inspired me to put together a quick SWOT analysis of the BB business.

http://ccblog.typepad.com/weblog/2009/06/swot-analysis-of-blackboards-business.html

Looking forward to continuing the conversation.

Josh

[Jon Mott]

I appreciate your efforts to open up the conversation between Bb and the academic community. The dialog at the Client Strategy Council meeting last week was a good step in the right direction too. I'd recommend you write a blog post about what you learned there.

The more open, candid, and honest these conversations are, the better for all parties. C. Northcote Parkinson once said, "The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel, and misrepresentation." I think we've seen more than enough of that on both sides of this conversation. I look forward to productive dialog with you and others and Bb in the coming months.

The real challenge, as you've noted, will be the follow-through. Thanks again for your efforts here.