A Call to Blackboard Openness

Blackboard needs to be more open.  You might think: “But Jeff!  Look at everything they’ve done in the last 18-24 months.”  I don’t want to diminish Blackboard’s recent efforts towards being open and transparent.  But I want more!

Later today, Ray Henderson will present his annual report card for Blackboard Learn.  I expect there will be good grades for Blackboard’s efforts towards openness.  In recent years, Blackboard has adopted client crowdsourcing to prioritize bugs and product enhancements.  They’ve converted Dr. Chuck into a Blackboard believer by shipping releases with support for IMS Common Cartridge, LIS, and LTI – enough for Chuck to get a Blackboard tattoo.  Product development programs are numerous and open (at least for clients who have joined BIE and signed an NDA).  These are considerable steps towards a product strategy that embraces client engagement, standards, and openness.  Clients have a voice and can influence product development.  It’s the direction of a company that is realizing they don’t need to rely on vendor lock-in.  I see it as Blackboard welcoming client input and competition in the marketplace – people choose to run Learn.  You can debate the lack of alternatives and Blackboard’s acquisition strategy – but institutions are choosing Blackboard.

As someone who has been critical and outspoken about Blackboard in the past, I need to give credit where credit is due.  Kudos!  You’ve come a long way in recent years.  But dear Blackboard, don’t rest on your laurels.  You’re heading in the right direction, but there’s more you can do.  More that you need to do.  As someone who works with the product and community on a regular basis, I want to lay out some suggestions….  maybe Ray will look at these as goals for next year’s report card.

1. Extend the availability of the Building Blocks framework.  Currently, only clients or partners can develop Building Blocks.  This is contrary to all the marketing buzz about Blackboard’s “Open APIs” and how Building Blocks can be an open source layer on top of a closed source product.  If there’s a significant barrier to entry, I’m sorry, that seems more closed than it does open.  Yesterday, Szymon Machajewski tweeted a suggestion that Blackboard make Building Blocks freely available to developers releasing their work under open source licenses.  A suggestion of this value should not be discarded – I strongly support it.  Such a move would embrace the innovation that can come from an open community.  One needs to look no further than Moodle to see that openness can be immensely successful.  While Blackboard owns the marketplace, I think the Moodle and Sakai communities own many edtech hearts.  But don’t fear Blackboard, you too, can be embraced in this way.  All you need to do is be more open.  So put the legal team to work and draw up some license agreements.  Let’s get the Building Blocks framework into the hands of anyone who cares to use it.
2. Provide the source code for Learn.  Pause.  Now that the laughter and/or derision has subsided, let me explain.  A commercial product can provide source code.  Blackboard need look no further than the provider of their software development tools – Atlassian.  When you buy an Atlassian product (at a reasonable price, I might add) you receive access to the source code.  The intent is to allow clients to develop bug fixes, customizations, or new features.  I vaguely recall that Penn State has an agreement with Angel/Blackboard that provides them with access to source code.  They fix bugs and ship them back to Blackboard for general release.  But….  I appreciate that this is asking a lot.  So let me reign in the scope of my request – provide the source code for the Building Blocks framework.  At DevCon11 I heard a number of developers talking about the various issues with Learn 9.1’s web services – perhaps we could help fix them?  With OSCELOT projects that expose additional web services, I think it’s clear that clients are capable of building / contributing to the framework.  Consider this an experiment in openness – the scope is limited, but the potential is huge.

While there are countless other things Blackboard could be doing to be more open, I think the above suggestions are reasonable and more than feasible.  I’m sure some folks in the company will disagree, but I’ll wager (we are in Vegas after all) that there’s support within Blackboard for these suggestions.  Hopefully these will be accomplishments to celebrate in Ray’s report card next year.