Update: I just ran another Google search today (two days after the original post) and Blackboard’s ad no longer shows up. It looks like they may have pulled it. If so, good for them.
A friend of mine sent me this ad, which appeared in his GMail account. Blackboard could have its ad show up with the key search terms “open source” and “LMS” (which I wouldn’t object to in and of itself) without having to have the words “Open Source LMS” headline its ad with a hyperlink (thus giving the strong false impression that Blackboard’s offering is open source). To prove this point, check out the ads that appear when I search on those terms in Google:
Note that all of these ads are for proprietary LMSs, but only Blackboard chooses to actually use the phrase “Open Source LMS” in the ad text itself.
Blackboard needs to take this ad down. On the eve of their self-destructive court case with D2L, the last thing they need is another self-inflicted PR wound from an ad that misleads people who are searching for an open source product.
What’s even more frustrating? There are folks in influential roles who will use this, and other marketing maneuvers like those Chris Coppola highlights such as “video testimonials on their site,” for their case in adopting “open source.”
This ad one obviously crosses the line, however the concept of open source and its appeal (maybe hype) has been highjacked by many companies, and even more troubling “projects,” that use the development strategy with out the governance model.
“Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy fisher for a kite in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to sing it with – and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling wealth. He had, besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a jew’s-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spoon cannon, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, a kitten with only one eye, a brass door-knob, a dog-collar-but no dog – the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated window-sash.
He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while – plenty of company – and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.”
– The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
Hi
At the first let me to introduce ourselves shortly.
We have a institute in Iran that educate some online courses and we have a e-learning center.
So in our planning we are going to expand our center in some department like as management, IT(computer) and Art so we need one Learning Management System (LMS) on the web that it is on the SCORM standard and very user friendly for students .
So I found your website in the web but I need the complete information about the detail of it and need the trial version to test it and I would like to know about the maintenance of your software.
So I am waiting for your reply as soon as possible and if you have any questions please feel free to contact with me.
Thanks
Best Regards
Arash Rajayi