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You have to learn to let go. The idea that books, magazines, databases or any form of information source can and should be kept for perpetuity is laughable. Items in a library need to be weeded and space is the major reason why. I know all of you want to keep your precious books, and I do to. But who’s going to pay for it, you?... — the other me
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June 29, 2009
Microsoft Unveils New Research Tools at Its Annual TechFair
A number of new technologies in computer graphics, online searching, and workplace collaboration — many of which may soon become available to colleges and universities — were on display Wednesday at the Microsoft Research TechFair 2009, in Washington D.C.
Many of the 13 projects on exhibit — all of which are under development in Microsoft’s six worldwide labs — involved workplace communication and research. Project designers say the tools could help make academic collaboration, either between students and professors or among universities, much easier.
“Our goal really is, how can we further research, how can we further education, how can we really change the way people think about the work that they do?,” said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research.
Highlights from the fair included:
The Social Desktop
It’s easy to share a link to a Web site because of its URL, but there’s no way to link directly to items stored on a computer’s desktop, said Cezary Marcjan, principal software design engineer for Microsoft Research.
Mr. Marcjan’s project, Social Desktop, adds URLs to files and folders on a computer desktop, allowing other users to access them — and add comments or make changes — using any type of browser.
“Especially if people are using different operating systems, it becomes very, very hard,” Mr. Marcjans said. “This way, we can just publish this content and ask people for annotations, and we can collect those items on the desktop.”
Viveri: A Platform for Search Incubation
Scott Imig, a senior software-design engineer, calls Vivieri, Microsoft’s ongoing search-engine project, a “platform for new search ideas.” Vivierie collects content from multiple sites and can present that data in typical search-engine style or in a topic-specific form. Results from a general search may be listed or categorized by Web site, Mr. Imig said, but topic-specific searches can be represented as word clouds or other interactive features.
Mr. Imig also says researchers are experimenting with ways to use tools like OpenSearch and RSS to sort search results intelligently.
For highlights of the research behind other projects including Social Views of E-Mail and the Research Desktop, watch our video coverage of the fair:
—Erica R. Hendry
Posted on Monday June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [4]June 24, 2009
Blackboard Pledges to Follow Open Standards More Closely
This week Blackboard’s new head of course-management software, Ray Henderson, sent a letter to customers pledging that the company will do more to follow industry software standards, and to participate more actively in their development.
Blackboard has long played a role in the education-technology standards developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. But in his letter, Mr. Henderson admits that the company “has not necessarily been a consistent standards leader.”
Among the pledges Blackboard makes in the letter is to offer full support for the so-called Common Cartridge, which lets publishers create plug-ins that they know will work with any course-management system that follows the standard. One of the stated goals of the standard is to “reduce vendor/platform lock-in,” so the plug-in components will work even if a college switches to another course-management system. “As our first new step towards leadership in standards, I’m excited to share that we are committing to fully support both the import and export of this format,” Mr. Henderson said in the letter.
Mr. Henderson has long been active in standards development, as was Angel Learning, where he was an executive before Blackboard bought the company this year.
“While we need to complement these words with the deeds of shipping software — I hope this message provides a sense of direction that you may expect from Blackboard as we review our approach and commitment to this important area of industry collaboration,” he concluded in the letter.
Michael L. Chasen, president and chief executive of Blackboard, elaborated on the policy change in an e-mail interview. “As we’ve looked harder at how we can best support our clients, especially given where we are in the e-learning industry today, we felt it was time to take a stepped-up approach to standards,” he said.
“Following the ANGEL acquisition, we have an opportunity to push harder on interoperability by driving hard to strengthen support for standards in e-learning, especially with the leadership of someone like Ray Henderson who has spent a career doing just that.” —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Wednesday June 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [7]June 16, 2009
5 Colleges Make List of Best Places to Work in IT in 2009
Five colleges and a research organization have been named to Computerworld’s list of the 100 Best Places to Work in IT in 2009.
The University of Pennsylvania placed fourth, recognized for good benefits and the diversity of employees. The University of Miami was ranked 10th; it was also recognized for diversity and benefits, as well as retention and career development.
The Online Computer Library Center, and Cornell, Temple, and George Washington Universities also made the list, which looked at surveys from 27,812 employees from the top 100 companies nominated for the honor. The evaluation focused on salaries, promotions, retention, training, benefits, and the makeup of staff members. — Marc Beja
Posted on Tuesday June 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [10]June 11, 2009
New Blackboard Executive Starts Blog, Promising New Culture of Openness
The new head of Blackboard Inc.‘s course-management-software division, Ray Henderson, started a blog this week, and he’s already facing tough questions from critics.
Mr. Henderson was given the job last month after Blackboard bought Angel Learning, where Mr. Henderson had led product development. Many Angel clients expressed anger at the deal but praise for the appointment of Mr. Henderson to a high position in Blackboard’s ranks.
Eager to prove that he plans to bring change to Blackboard, Mr. Henderson declared that his blog is a sign of more transparent times. “Me joining the company means we’re going to communicate more often and more openly,” he wrote in his opening post on Tuesday. “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,” he added. “In particular, I’ve got lots to say on the whole openness, standards, interoperability question.”
He allows comments on the blog, though he says he is moderating them before they go live. “I’m dipping my toe in the previously uncharted waters for Blackboard of having comments turned on in this blog,” he explained in a note on the 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.”
Still, Mr. Henderson has allowed plenty of critical voices on the site so far. “Tell your new Blackboard colleagues to drop the lawsuit with D2L,” wrote one commenter, referring to the company’s patent-infringement lawsuit against Desire2Learn, another company making course-management software. “Start putting education (not litigation) first.” Another commenter said that Blackboard promised more open communication with customers last time it bought a rival, when it bought WebCT in 2007, but did not deliver. The blog commenter asked: “Why should we believe what you are saying this time?”
Mr. Henderson wrote a reply today to some of the questions. He punted on the patent issue: “Step one for me is to educate myself on this matter. Until I do so it’s not something I’ll talk about here.” And he closed with a cliffhanger: “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.” We’ll stay tuned. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Thursday June 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [8]May 28, 2009
Twitter Shuts Down Account Impersonating President of U. of Texas at Austin
Last week Twitter removed an account claiming to be written by the president of the University of Texas at Austin, William C. Powers Jr., which had actually been written by editors of Texas Travesty, a student-run humor magazine at the university.
“I think it’s game over,” said Ross Luippold, the magazine’s editor in chief and a senior at the university, in an interview Thursday. “It was pretty popular — it actually had more followers than the student government’s” Twitter feed, he said. He said he received an e-mail message from Twitter notifying him that the account would be removed unless he could quickly send proof that he was Mr. Powers (which he’s not).
University administrators had contacted Twitter weeks ago asking it to remove the account, which it did just hours after The Chronicle first wrote about the parody. Mr. Luippold said it was “a little annoying” that university did not contact him, but chose to go to Twitter instead with its grievance.
“It seems like this opens us up to making fun of them even more mercilessly over the next year,” said Mr. Luippold, arguing that the magazine plans to have the last laugh. “There’s nothing that can stop us from doing cover-to-cover Powers parody.”
Another spoof university-president account — of John J. DeGioia, Georgetown University’s president — has not been suspended, even though officials there asked Twitter to shut it down. Andy Pino, Georgetown’s director of media relations, said last week that he believed that the account violated Twitter’s terms of service by not making it clear that it is a parody. Since then, however, the student running the parody account, Jack Stuef, has changed the account page, and has removed a link to the university president’s Web site. Mr. Stuef could not be reached Thursday for comment. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Thursday May 28, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [6]May 27, 2009
Department of Justice Opens Investigation of Blackboard's Purchase of Angel Learning
Last week the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the impact of Blackboard’s purchase of rival Angel Learning on competition in the course-management market.
Blackboard filed a report Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosing that the investigation is underway. “On Friday, May 22, 2009, the Company received a voluntary request for information from the U.S. Department of Justice relating to the Acquisition and its related impact on competition under applicable antitrust law,” said the filing, signed by Matthew Small, Blackboard’s chief legal officer.
Mr. Small issued a statement today arguing that the purchase of Angel Learning “was compliant with all applicable antitrust requirements.” He said the company is providing information to the department “on a voluntary basis.” In an earlier interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Small said the company did not anticipate that the Justice Department would contest the sale.
Gina Talamona, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, told The Chronicle “we are looking into it,” but she would not elaborate.
Just after the deal was announced, at least one college official complained to the Justice Department, arguing that the combined companies could pose a threat to competition. The official, Sicco Rood, instructional-technology administrator for Washington State University at Spokane, said today that three Justice Department officials interviewed him last Thursday about his concerns.
“They asked typical stuff, like ‘How big is your college?’ and ‘How many students do you have?’ and ‘How many products did we review?’ and why,” Mr. Rood said of the interview. “They wanted to know whether Moodle was a viable option,” he said, referring to the open-source course-management system. “I said it wasn’t yet because there was a lot of programming and customization required.”
Justice Department officials are calling competing course-management companies as well. Diane M. Lank, Desire2Learn’s general counsel, said she was interviewed, and she described the questions as general ones about the market. Glen Moriarty, chief executive officer of Scholar360, another company that makes course-management software, said he also has an interview scheduled.
Camelia C. Mazard, a partner at the Washington law firm Doyle, Barlow, & Mazard PLLC who specializes in anti-trust law, said Blackboard’s latest acquisition could raise enough concern to cause the Justice Department to undo the deal, though such moves are rare. “In my opinion this gives them a virtual monopoly in a narrow market,” Ms. Mazard said in an interview Wednesday.
Ms. Mazard said she felt the department should have blocked Blackboard’s purchase of WebCT in 2007, though the deal was allowed to proceed. “That was under the Bush Administration,” she said. “We have a new administration here that is looking at deals, we hope differently.” —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Wednesday May 27, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [13]May 19, 2009
An Indiana Institution Wins Big in Blackboard's Purchase of Angel Learning
Though some college officials complained last week about Blackboard’s purchase of Angel Learning, the university that first developed the Angel software heralded the sale as an unprecedented windfall.
Angel’s software was born as a research project at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. The university held about a 25-percent stake in Angel Learning when Blackboard acquired the company this month for $95-million. University officials confirmed that the university received about $23-million from the sale, an ample return on its initial investment of about $135,000 and the use of some professors’ time.
“This is the largest commercial transaction of this type that we’ve had,” said Bill Stephan, vice president for engagement at the university.
On e-mail lists and blogs last week, some college officials who are concerned that the deal reduces competition in the market for educational software complained about the university’s role. “I feel that IUPUI sold us all out,” said Travis Souza, a technology coordinator at one Angel client, Truckee Meadows Community College, in an interview. “It feels like they sold out the future of online education for what may amount to less than one year’s operating budget.”
Mr. Stephan said the university’s goal is to bring in new revenue through the intellectual property its researchers develop. “The rationale for the university being involved in this business is so we can really reinvest resources in the research mission and generate resources,” he said.
In fact, the university first decided that it wanted to sell its stake in Angel Learning last year, but it held off while the economy showed signs of faltering, Mr. Stephan said. Blackboard officials approached the company later with an unsolicited offer. “It was actually substantially higher than we would have anticipated,” said Mr. Stephan.
“This was not at all a case of needing cash in a hurry; this was a prudent act,” said Mr. Stephan. “We would not have been acting in the institution’s best interest if we had taken a pass on this.”
The professor who led the software’s development, Ali Jafari, also held a stake in the company at the time of the sale, and now describes himself as “a multimillionaire.”
“I received a huge check that I don’t know what to do with,” said the professor, who would not disclose the exact amount he received.
Mr. Jafari is on leave from the university, where he is a professor of computer and information technology. Since creating Angel, he has built another course-management program, which the university has also spun off into a company. That product is called Epsilen, whose largest shareholder is The New York Times Company. Mr. Jafari is working full-time for Epsilen this year as its “chief architect officer.”
How does Mr. Jafari feel about the sale of his creation to a company that has signaled it will phase out the product in the long run? (Blackboard has said it might eventually meld Angel’s best features with the company’s own product line.)
“It depends on who’s sitting in the boardroom, and what kind of decisions that they make,” he said. He praised Blackboard for appointing a top Angel executive, Ray Henderson, to serve as head of product development for both Blackboard and Angel course-management software.
“I wasn’t involved in the decision making and I shouldn’t have been,” he said, adding that he received a call notifying him of the sale after the deal was already done. By that time, more than three-fourths of the shareholders had already agreed.
In a sense, the course-management market is now a competition among several of Mr. Jafari’s inventions. He also helped design a course-management system for IUPUI called Oncourse, which has become part of the foundation for Sakai, a free, open-source alternative. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Tuesday May 19, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [18]May 14, 2009
Blackboard and Angel Learning Officials Try to Reassure Skeptical Clients
This morning executives from Blackboard and Angel Learning faced a room full of skeptical college administrators at Angel’s annual user meeting in Chicago.
In a surprise move last week, Blackboard announced it planned to buy Angel, and many college officials who use the Angel software expressed frustration with the move. Many of them say they chose Angel in part because they were trying to move away from Blackboard’s products.
Anger has turned to a sense of resignation, say some Angel customers. Many say they tried to enter today’s session with an open mind to hear what Blackboard planned for their future.
The Chronicle was not allowed to attend the session, but those in the room described it on Twitter, and one attendee streamed live video of the event to a Web site.
Blackboard leaders argued that both Blackboard and Angel customers will win in the long run. The company plans to incorporate the best aspects of Angel—including its acclaimed customer service—into its popular platform. And Angel’s leaders contend that Blackboard’s deep pockets make it better able to build the complex systems that colleges now need to keep up with growing demand for distance learning and online support for traditional courses.
Some experienced an unpleasant sense of déjà vu. Many of their colleges ran software from WebCT back in 2006, when Blackboard bought that company, and they say that development and technical support for the product declined drastically under Blackboard’s stewardship.
Michael L. Chasen, Blackboard’s president and chief executive, told the crowd that the company learned from that acquisition and promised that this time would be different. To try to prove the point, he announced that Blackboard will keep Angel Learning’s acclaimed customer-service team in tact. “One of the mistakes we made in the WebCT merger was we tried to merge the support for the two organizations too soon,” he told The Chronicle in an interview before the session.
And since Angel customers express warm feelings for Angel officials, Blackboard stressed that it has named Ray Henderson, who had been the number-two employee for Angel Learning, to lead product development at both Blackboard and Angel.
Angel customers mainly want to know how long they will get to keep the software before Blackboard melds it with Blackboard’s existing course-management system. For one thing, switching platforms is a difficult and expensive process for colleges, and many had only recently signed three-year contracts with Angel.
Mr. Chasen pledged to honor all Angel contract commitments, and to release two more versions of the software, including a version that would serve as a bridge to an eventual Blackboard product that incorporates Angel features.
Nancy Edwards, director of e-learning at Manatee Community College, said in an interview just after the session that she was pleased with the announcements. “Probably the best thing they could have done to reassure us is making Ray Henderson the president of their learning division,” she said. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Thursday May 14, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [12]May 11, 2009
Blackboard Finalizes Purchase of Angel Learning
On Friday, Blackboard closed its acquisition of rival Angel Learning, amid complaints by Angel customers.
Several college technology administrators said they were surprised and upset when Blackboard announced last Wednesday that it planned to purchase Angel Learning. The company had marketed itself as an alternative to Blackboard, a company whose aggressive tactics have upset some college officials.
Immediately after learning of the pending deal, Janet Mayer, an IT project manager for the State University of New York at Fredonia, started a Facebook group called “Free ANGEL LMS from the Bb Monopoly,” which now has more than 60 members. “Blackboard might think that they bought us, but I’m not so sure,” said Ms. Mayer, in an interview with The Chronicle. “Angel recruited a lot of us and sold us the software based on not being Blackboard.”
Sicco Rood, instructional-technology administrator for Washington State University at Spokane, posted a note to the group — and to an e-mail list for Angel customers — calling on his colleagues to contact the U.S. Department of Justice to ask them to block the deal. “Here is a direct line to the Department of Justice, department that deals with these cases,” he wrote, posting a phone number.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment.
Matthew Small, Blackboard’s chief business officer, said Blackboard’s acquisition of Angel Learning was too small a transaction to trigger an automatic review by the department. When Blackboard purchased a larger rival, WebCT, in 2005, the deal was large enough to spark a routine review by Justice Department officials before the sale officially closed, he said. “I don’t think that there’s any anti-trust concern with this combination,” said Mr. Small. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Monday May 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [10]May 6, 2009
Blackboard Plans to Buy Another Rival, Angel Learning
Blackboard Inc. announced this afternoon that it plans to buy Angel Learning, a rival course-management software company, for $80-million in cash and $15-million in stock, adding to the company’s many acquisitions over the last several years.
Both companies have approved the deal, and Blackboard expects the arrangement to become final by the end of May.
Michael L. Chasen, president and chief executive of Blackboard, said in an interview with The Chronicle, that in the short run the combined company plans to continue to sell Angel Learning’s software as a separate product, so the 400 colleges and elementary and secondary schools that use it can continue to do so for now. Down the road, the best features of Angel will be folded into Blackboard software, Mr. Chasen said. “There are a number of great features and functionalities from Angel that we would like to incorporate into our long-term product strategy,” he said. He added that Angel is popular with community colleges, a market segment that Blackboard is excited to do more business with.
In 2005, Blackboard bought an even bigger competitor, WebCT, for $180-million. And in 2002 Blackboard bought another competing course-management system, called Prometheus, from George Washington University. Last year Blackboard diversified its product line by acquiring the NTI Group, which sells emergency-notification software.
In an interview just a few months ago, Mr. Chasen told The Chronicle that he felt the company had only just recovered from the difficult process of bringing together features from the WebCT and Blackboard products into a common framework. Some customers had complained that the merger was a sometimes rocky road, bringing spotty customer support and confusion over the different product lines.
Mr. Chasen said this week that Blackboard learned many lessons from its purchase of WebCT, and that it expects this latest acquisition to be much smoother as a result.
Ray Henderson, chief products officer for Angel Learning, said in an interview that his company’s biggest concern in its early talks with Blackboard officials was whether Blackboard was committed to offering high levels of customer support for Angel’s software. “We have been offered reassurances there,” Mr. Henderson said.
The deal will mean a windfall for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where the Angel software was first developed. In July 2000, the university spun off a company called CyberLearning Labs to sell the software to other institutions. Later the company changed its name to Angel Learning, but the university remains the largest shareholder. —Jeffrey R. Young
Update: Reaction on several education blogs and on Twitter has been critical of the deal, with some Angel customers complaining that they chose the company because it was an alternative to Blackboard. One Twitter user joked that the new combined company should be called “Dark Angel.”
Trace A. Urdan, an education-industry analyst with Signal Hill, an investment firm, said that Angel had recently been winning clients away from Blackboard. “The buzz had been that Angel had been really doing well — taking customers away and firing on all cylinders,” he said. “I think that Angel was perceived to have built something of a better mousetrap.”
Mr. Urdan said that he often compares Blackboard to Microsoft. “They may not have the best software, but they are very adept business people,” he said. “This is a very smart business move — though it may not result in the absolute best product development path.”
Angel customers will be given a chance to voice their concerns and questions next week during the company’s previously-planned annual user meeting, where Blackboard officials will take the stage with Angel executives. “We know we’re going to have hard questions there,” said Mr. Henderson, of Angel. “All of our clients will be given the chance for open mic.”
Posted on Wednesday May 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [96]