Blackboard Says New Tool Will Synchronize With Competitor

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

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Blackboard Inc. has teamed up with programmers at Syracuse University to let its course-management software connect with Sakai, a free open-source alternative. But some fans of open-source software have expressed skepticism about whether the company, which is known for its aggressive tactics, will deliver on its promise for greater openness.

Although Blackboard sells colleges licenses so that every course on a campus can use its software, some campuses that have licenses are dabbling with Sakai or other open-source software for at least a few courses or other services. The goal of the new software link is to let users seamlessly shift between courses and services that use Blackboard and Sakai, without having to go to another Web site or re-enter a user name and password.

"There's a lot of experimentation going on in the community right now with different tools and different ideas—everybody wants to take the best of all possible worlds," said John Fontaine, senior director of what Blackboard calls "technology evangelism." "But no one wants to remember 37 different bookmarks to get to their courses."

Syracuse was one of several colleges and universities that approached Blackboard and asked that the company allow its software to work with Sakai. And company officials said they decided they could easily adapt a connecter they built to link Blackboard Learning System to WebCT's course management system. Blackboard bought WebCT Inc. in 2006. "If it's good for our clients it's ultimately good for us," said Mr. Fontaine

The software link, to be called the Blackboard-Sakai Connector, is expected to be released at the end of this year. It will work with a new version of Blackboard Learning System that will make its debut at about the same time, though exact release dates for both projects have not been announced.

"It will be available open-source," said Jan Poston Day, senior director of client management at Blackboard.

Frustration Over Patent Enforcement

Many college leaders have expressed frustration with Blackboard in recent years, since the company began enforcing a patent it holds on some aspects of course-management systems. The officials feel the patent is overly broad. The patent office is reviewing whether the patent was issued properly or whether other colleges or companies were already using the technology before Blackboard filed for its patent. The company sued its leading commercial rival for patent infringement based on the patent and won in federal court.

Blackboard has previously taken steps toward openness in its software code. About seven years ago, it released Building Blocks, which lets colleges design their own add-ons to the Blackboard Learning System. Many colleges use Building Blocks to add features to the system, but some college programmers say it isn't as open as it claims to be.

"Those claims have rung hollow for years," said Bradley C. Wheeler, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at the Indiana University system and a co-founder of the Sakai project. "It would be interesting to see proof."

Mr. Fontaine, of Blackboard, said the company was prepared for that response. "We understand that some people will be skeptical," he said. "Over time it will be shown that we are taking an approach that will be open and positive for the community, and hopefully they will be won over by our actions."

'2 Systems That We Really Like'

When asked why they were working with Syracuse rather than building the tool themselves, Blackboard officials said that college programmers were simply more familiar with Sakai—which, after all, is a competitor—than they are.

"We're not Sakai experts," said Mr. Fontaine. "We don't run Sakai, and we don't use it on a day-to-day basis, so it's important for us to work with someone who is in the Sakai community."

Michael Morrison, manager of academic applications at Syracuse, said the university uses Sakai to manage its student electronic portfolios, which students use to collect papers and projects they've produced for various courses. But Syracuse uses Blackboard's software for its course-management system, which posts syllabi and other course materials, runs online discussions, and performs other services for thousands of courses.

Blackboard sells portfolio software, but Mr. Morrison said university officials preferred the features of Sakai's portfolio software. "We're like a lot of universities where we pick the best tools from the products that we have at hand," he said. "The connector really is not anything other than a nice way for us to connect two systems that we really like."

Blackboard officials said they also planned to create a similar link to Moodle, another open-source course-management system used by many colleges, though details of that effort have not yet been worked out.