1) tying into existing college computer systems isn’t possible in an externally-hosted app, and everyone from admins down to profs and students will not feel great about registering in some other system when Blackboard didn’t make them do so. Initial signup is probably the single biggest barrier to entry in systems like these.

2) University IT people are perhaps the most resistant to change of anyone in IT.

But I would really, really love to find a way to take Blackboard down a notch. Nobody deserves bad software, but education deserves it least of all.

But I do agree that initial signup needs to be trivial.

2) This is an end-run around university IT people. They aren’t involved at any step until there is a groundswell demanding that they interfacce their systems to yours. That won’t happen for a while, though.

You host the software, have good privacy policies, and they don’t maintain diddly squat.

Socrates: Plato, we have another subscriber! Remember, I owe a cock to Asclepius.

Also, you might want to consider the k-12 market as well. Many k-12 schools also use blackboard currently (Lane ESD provides it for all schools in Lane county, for example).

Once minors are involved, however, eveything gets hellishly dangerous from a legal perspective. K-12 is a lot more risky, because all the parents have the right to see what the kid sees. How do you verify that someone really is a child’s parent? And not a creepy internet person?

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33396