Another Socratic Dialogue in the form of an IM cut-and-paste:

Peter
New internet startup idea – build AND HOST (all caps == the new part) an e-learning tool that sucks less than Blackboard
Jesse
sounds good
Peter
Everyone I know hates Blackboard
Peter
And there’s a very natural revenue model if you are hosting it yourself
Peter
You are, however, kind of trying to squeeze blood from a stone by marketing it to schools and colleges
Peter
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/40288e0a86faf
Jesse
hrm
Peter
It seems like a market that has specific needs that aren’t getting met, and all the existing tools totally suck. We need some sort of wiki-like (or e2-like) functionality, with some blogstuff for class new and identity guarantees and some store-like features.
Peter
Lots of pieces that exists in disparate locations.
Peter
Most important of all, it needs to be easy to use and highly configurable
Peter
Everyone who has ever given a bad review of blackboard gets told that they are ‘using it wrong’ or ‘should learn how to use it’ – signs that it sucks at the admin end as well as the user end
Jesse
highly configurable but yet works right in the first place
Peter
Right
Peter
Good defaults are 99% of the battle
Peter
Also, easy to set up intially.
Peter
Teachers are starting to use http://schtuff.com (Josh’s thing) to host their materials, but it’s a octagonal peg in a round hole – better than a square peg (listservs) and better than a banana (blackboard), but not enough that people actually WANT to use it.
Jesse
i having trouble visualizing how the situation can be improved other than more access to fundamental parts (wiki, blog, etc)
Peter
Ease of administration, and actual user feedback.
Peter
If you can actually watch students signing up and clicking through the website, then you can find out where they stop clicking, and try and eliminate those parts. If people read to the end of a thread and then stop, then eliminate either threading, or reading only one thread on a page
Jesse
that would be helpful
Peter
If people look at the discussions but don’t take part, put the ‘leave a a comment’ form on the bottom of the discussion page
Peter
Right now, blackboard is this horrible application that is trying to be class news site, a newsgroup, a discussion board, a review site, and a listserv all at once.
Peter
It does none of these things well. A successful competitor only needs to do two of those things well to get off the ground
Peter
Which two is up to the competitor
Peter
Basically, if you put professionals in charge of usability,and give them constant feedback, then you’ll quickly get something that people like to use and doesn’t suck – see every successful web app for example
Jesse
right
Peter
So just slam something up that teachers can use, make sure you don’t claim ownership of the content that people create, and then make it better over time
Jesse
sounds easy
Peter
Then, blackboard goes away (THANK GOD) and you get to not have a boss
Peter
It’s easy to talk about – it’s just a hell of a lot of work.
Peter
Lots of coding, late nights, and system administration, and log analysis
Peter
But heck – I can guarantee that you’ll get at least a few people trying it out in their classes, and academia is a very small world. If your thing is better than blackboard, and they don’t have to talk to any of their local bureaucracy to use it, then people will flock to it
Jesse
is there a profit model?
Peter
Eliminate the teachers’ need to deal with their local nerds by hosting it yourself, and eliminate their need to deal with their local bureaucracy by letting them run the first semester for free.
Peter
If they like it after that, then they’ll be willing to deal with the money assholes. But nobody is going to deal with the money assholes to test out a product
Peter
I propose charging a per-course fee. As long as that fee is being paid, then the website is alive – people can add comments and change content. Once they stop paying, the course website goes dead.
Peter
It’s still visible, but cannot be edited in any way
Peter
Or maybe a per-month fee
Peter
Anyhow, subscription and web businesses go together really well
Peter
So give away samples and never charge for a limited version of the functionality, but do charge for bonus features. Kind of like flickr and basecamp do.
Jesse
sure
Peter
If you can get people to use the site, then a minority will be willing to pay for upgraded features.
Peter
Just make sure that the base site is good enough to attract a lot of people, and then the law of large numbers will take over the rest.
Peter
Note that these don’t have to be a lot of people all interested in the same thing. All the buzzword compliant people are talking about the economics of the long tail, and this is fully compliant with their ideas. You will be making software for groups of 30ish people to use.
Jesse
right
Peter
Another key feature that Blackboard lacks is that it assumes teachers want to teach, and want to do e-learning a lot. Teachers often enjoy teaching, but want to do it quickly and painlessly so they can get back to their research. Make the interface as simple as possible.
Jesse
right
Peter
Well, there you go. You too can be bought by Yahoo and become learn.yahoo.com
Peter
sort of a educational analogue to stores.yahoo.com
Jesse
it makes good sense
Peter
If you build it, I’ll use it