[Athen] Fwd: Blackboard Makes Major Open Source and Angel Announcements

[Prof Norm Coombs]

Subject: Blackboard Makes Major Open Source and Angel Announcements

Late in the day on Monday came several press releases from Blacboard.  They 
bought some companies that provide hosting and related services for 
institutions using open source software.  They announced that they will 
continue to support Angel.  They also create an “Open Source Services Group.”

>

>Below is a compilation of the news from Blackboard, some blog and news 

>articles, and some select choice observations from the twitterverse.  I 

>tried to give you a sense of many of the articles by paraphrasing or 

>quoting their take on the issue.

>

>Honestly, it’s hard to tell what to make of this.  I’m sure we’ll learn 

>more in the coming days.  Meanwhile, WCET wanted you to have a rich 

>compilation of resources to help figure out how this news might help or 

>hurt you.

>

>If you would like to start a discussion on this issue, send an email to 

><mailto:wcetdiscuss at wcet.wiche.edu>wcetdiscuss at wcet.wiche.edu.

>

>Best of luck in reading the tea leaves!!

>Russ

>

>

>

>Blackboard Press Releases from March 26

>· 

><http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases.aspx?releaseid=1676733>Blackboard 

>Announces Continued Support for Angel – this is a change from the previous 

>“expiration” date of October 2014 for Angel and from Blackboard’s tendency 

>to eventually discontinue other products has acquired.

>· 

><http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases.aspx?releaseid=1676738>Blackboard 

>Acquires Moodlerooms, Netspot – The Twittersphere was abuzz with opinions 

>about the acquisition of these two companies, which provide open source 

>solutions for institutions.  Both will continue to operate independently 

>to support their clients.

>o   Senior leaders from Blackboard, Moodlerooms and NetSpot signed 

><http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases/Strategy-Update/statement-of-principles.aspx>a 

>Statement of Principles affirming that their work would continue a number 

>of key initiatives currently supported by Moodlerooms and NetSpot, 

>including contributions of software code to the open source community, 

>financial support for the Moodle Trust, and continued support for 

>community gatherings like Moodlemoots.

>· 

><http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases.aspx?releaseid=1676740>Blackboard 

>Launches Open Source Services Group – “a new effort to support clients 

>using open source education technologies. With the announcement, the 

>company will continue to focus on its flagship 

><http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Overview.aspx>Blackboard 

>Learn<http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Overview.aspx>™ platform 

>as well as ANGEL and Edline, while also helping institutions successfully 

>manage open source learning management systems (LMS) including Moodle and 

>Sakai.”

>· 

><http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases.aspx?releaseid=1676736>Blackboard 

>Appoints Sakai Foundation Board Member Charles Severance to Lead Company’s 

>Sakai Initiatives – “a longtime leader and one of the founders of the 

>Sakai community, to a senior role to lead the company’s initiative on the 

>Sakai open source learning management system.”

>o 

><http://www.dr-chuck.com/csev-blog/2012/03/connecting-blackboard-sakai-and-open-source/>Chuck 

>Severance’s blog posting giving a fairly extensive explanation of why he 

>accepted this position and his excitement for the future.

>

>So what does Blackboard have to say about this once you get beyond the 

>press release-speak?

>·         Ray Henderson is CTO and President, Academic Platforms for 

>Blackboard describes their plans in his blog post: 

><http://www.rayhblog.com/blog/2012/03/evolution-unbound-blackboard-embraces-open-source.html>Evolution 

>Unbound: Blackboard Embraces Open Source – “

should we expand our 

>offerings to include multiple LMS products, particularly the open source 

>products that are now more widely adopted? Our answer is yes. The long 

>game for Blackboard is to bring the full complement of our solutions 

>across the student lifecycle to more institutions”

>·         Michael Chasen, CEO, and Ray Henderson write 

><http://www.blackboard.com/About-Bb/News-Center/Press-Releases/Strategy-Update/Open-Letter.aspx>An 

>Open Letter to the Education Community – “The high level change is this: 

>Blackboard is becoming a multiple learning platform company that supports 

>both commercially developed software as well as open source 

>solutions.”  Why? Two reasons:

>o   “First, this shift is the result of the broader perspective that has 

>come over the past few years as we have updated our vision and mission. 

>Rather than focusing just on the LMS market, we're looking at the entire 

>student lifecycle within the education institutions we serve.:

>o   “Second, online learning continues to grow all around the world, 

>applied to increasingly diverse learning challenges every year. As usage 

>deepens, needs not only expand, they also become more specialized. The 

>result for education institutions is the need for increased choice among 

>systems with different strengths and deployment models to best suit their 

>particular situation.”

>

>News and Reactions

>· 

><http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/26/4367794/blackboard-acquires-moodlerooms.html>Blackboard 

>Acquires Moodlerooms, NetSpot (Sacramento Bee article)

>· 

><http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/blackboard-moodlerooms-and-netspot-first-reactions>Blackboard, 

>MoodleRooms, NetSpot: First Reactions (Inside Higher Ed – What do you 

>think post from Josh Kim.

>· 

><http://www.tonybates.ca/2012/03/26/blackboard-adds-on-open-source-service/>Tony 

>Bates’ blog on the new open source service – love the graphic

>· 

><http://gettingsmart.com/blog/2012/03/blackboard-buys-moodlerooms-embraces-open/>Blackboard 

>Buys MoodeRooms & Embraces Open (Getting Smart) – “This announcement will 

>make my OER friends nervous, but I think it has the potential to bring new 

>investment and energy to open platforms.”

>· 

><http://www.hackeducation.com/2012/03/26/blackboard-moodlerooms-open-washing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HackEducation+%28Hack+Education%29&utm_content=Google+Reader>You 

>Can Acquire Open Source Companies, But You Can’t Buy Open Source Community 

>(Hack Education) -- Charles Severance (aka "Dr. Chuck") is one of the 

>founding members of the Sakai community

Severance is also the author of 

>the book Sakai: Free as in Freedom. I don't mean to go all Richard 

>Stallman here, but that's not the F-word that comes to mind with the 

>Blackboard news today

F as in failure, fiasco, flop, for starters.”

>· 

><http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2012/03/blackboard_inc_buys_moodlerooms_and_netspot_with_eye_toward_open_source.html>Blackboard 

>Inc. Buys Moodlerooms and NetSpot, with Eye Toward Open Source 

>(Marketplace K-12) – This is strange news­ Blackboard’s academic platforms 

>CEO Ray Henderson admitted as much in a 

><http://www.rayhblog.com/blog/2012/03/evolution-unbound-blackboard-embraces-open-source.html>lengthy 

>blog post­ “his is strange news­ Blackboard’s academic platforms CEO Ray 

>Henderson admitted as much in a 

><http://www.rayhblog.com/blog/2012/03/evolution-unbound-blackboard-embraces-open-source.html>lengthy 

>blog post­because Moodle is both open source and free for users, while 

>Blackboard is a paid, proprietary product.”

>

>Tweets (I’m not crediting any of these to protect the guilty, but thought 

>they gave a good range of reactions



>·         “Whaaa???”

>·         “the LMS space is just a new platform for an old pedagogy. We 

>can move past them as educators.”

>·         “purely anecdotal, but I don't know of one univ/college that has 

>switched to Bb lately. Lots *away* from”

>·         “Read the #blackboard Statement of Principles

but still feeling 

>nauseous”

>·          “Inclined to agree with the "house divided" thinking, but

"I 

>want to believe" that Bb can pull an IBM.”

>·         “for me, the question isn't "can Bb be trusted"...but "does this 

>make economic sense"

>·         “In other news, The Empire buys The Jedi Academy; will help 

>support training in The Force.”

>

>

>Russell Poulin

>Deputy Director, Research and Analysis

>WCET - WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies

>rpoulin at wiche.edu

><http://wcet.wiche.edu/>wcet.wiche.edu

>303-541-0305

>WCET Twitter:  <http://twitter.com/#!/wcet_info/>wcet_info

>My Twitter:  <http://twitter.com/russpoulin>RussPoulin

>

>

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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It's never too late to become what you might have been. George Eliot
Once you choose hope, anything's possible.  Christopher Reeve
Norman Coombs norm.coombs at gmail.com

Making Online Teaching Accessible: Inclusive Course Design for Students 
with Disabilities by Norman Coombs published by Jossey-Bass Oct 10,2010
http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470499044.html

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