I just attended the “Bb World” (Blackboard’s users conference) in San Diego. A few random observations:
- The Blackboard “merger” with WebCT was approved by the Justice Department a week or two ago and Blackboard announced that it’s now officially complete. However, Michael Chasen used (for the first time in my memory) the word “acquisition,” confirming suspicions that this was never a true “merger of equals.” I find it interesting that he didn’t use that word until it was a done deal. In his keynote, Chasen emphasized the size of the new company—Blackboard now has 3700 higher ed institutions as clients. The short-term strategy is to develop new functionality and “add-ons” so they’ll work on both platforms. Along the way, they’ll start developing a common code base, eventually launching a new “next-generation” CMS. And it’s pretty clear the new product will be called Blackboard, not WebCT.
- Blackboard’s roots have always been very deep in course management, as in stand-alone, independent courses. The system has allowed instructors to easily create online “sites” for their courses, but these sites have been virtually invisible to each other. It has been impossible and remains difficult to co-mingle data or content across courses. But Blackboard’s announcement of the release of Caliper signals a possible end to this locked-down model. Instead of course management, Blackboard and Caliper offer higher ed the first ever enterprise application for curriculum management. Caliper is still vaporware, but it’s an intriguing development to watch. Will Blackboard’s competitors follow suit? Will other vendors launch Caliper-like tools?
- Microsoft’s presence at this conference was much more high profile than it has been in the past. Blackboard and Microsoft appear to be much cozier and strategically linked to each other than they have been in the past. This is a double-edged sword. If it means that Office applications are going to be more naturally integrated with Blackboard, that’s good for end-users. If it means that backend systems have to meet particular “standards,” e.g. using Microsoft server and database software, to take advantage of these features, that’s not so good (because it ties the hands of sys admins and institutions).
- I saw a very interesting prototype of the much-hyped “Origami” device. It’s essentially a small Tablet PC device (7” screen, 40 GB hard drive, 8-hour battery life). It runs a special version of the Windows Tablet Edition OS. Instead of using a magnetic stylus, the screen is “fingerable.” The target price point is less than $500. In some ways, it’s a big fat iPod. Since it runs Windows, it will play music and video files, but it will also have built-in wireless so it can handle e-mail and web browsing. The prototype I saw had a 1 Ghz processors, so it can handle pretty sophisticated gaming too—add a Bluetooth controller or keyboard and you’ve opened up a new world of possibilities. You had to know Microsoft wouldn’t sit back and let Apple dominate this space forever. As a side note, Microsoft will not actually manufacture the device, but is instead working with vendors who will produce it. Their strategy is obviously to make money off the OS and other software. Maybe an X-Box lesson learned?
- Chris Thomas, Intel’s chief strategist, talked about how new, unusual technologies become “normal.” The PC was a novelty, now it’s normal. The Internet was a novelty, now it’s normal. Broadband was a novelty, now it’s normal. Wireless was a novelty and it’s rapidly becoming normal. What’s the next “normal”? He suggests that the next big thing will be mobilized content & applications:
- Hardware and software that are optimized for “always” availability and network transparency (smart applications & hardware that know how to switch from one network to the next)
- Webapp mobilizers (like Agilix)
- Dual core processors (here’s the shameless Intel plug) that let users perform local tasks without being interrupted by background network tasks.
Overall perspective on the conference? Blackboard seems to continue to head in the right direction, but they're moving slowly and methodically. The challenge for colleges and universities is to decide if they want to stay with Blackboard for the long-haul because they're confident in Blackboard's direction or, alternatively, to go with another platform (e.g. Sakai or Angel) that might be cheaper (at least in the short run) or more flexible (again, in the short run). Obviously, switching to a new CMS comes with very high transaction costs. An institution that switches ought to be very confident that switching will buy both short-term gains AND keep the instituiton on the right trajectory. Meanwhile, third-party vendors are rapidly filling Blackboard's most nagging functionality gaps (e.g. grade booking, robust assessment).
From what I saw at Bb World, there's enough innovation and promise of progress to keep most of Blackboard's customers where they are . . .
