I spent my Junior Year Abroad at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Thinking back to the friends I made, the crazy Aberdonian accent I picked up and the Northern Lights that brightened the long dark nights…my year in Aberdeen was the highlight of my undergraduate years.  As a result, I can’t help but smile when I talk to Jerry Dowds on the phone and hear his fabulous Glaswegian accent. 

Jan Poston Day:  What do you do at Blackboard?
JD: I’m a Solutions Engineer for our European, Middle East and African clients.

Has anyone else noticed the magical properties of the word ‘iPod’?  Just say iPod in a conversation and suddenly the angry child is appeased, the spouse smiles and the co-worker is calmed.  If you don’t believe me, try it!

Strangely the word ‘podcast’ contains a different kind of magic.  The terms podcast and podcasting evoke a variety of responses.  At one end of the spectrum some see this as a way to use technology to help students with different learning styles or disabilities learn like the folks at the University of Aberystwyth.  At the other end, there are those who think podcasts will destroy the very bedrock of the student-teacher interaction experience and the Socratic Method.  Others take a more pragmatic view that at best podcasts help busy students who may commute long distances by letting them time-shift the lecture or at worst it gives students another reason to skip class.

Technology doesn’t always make things better, rather it makes things more efficient.  Thus a boring lecture will not be transformed through podcast technology to a great lecture. 

Lance Button is a long time member of the Blackboard Commerce Suite Team.  We don’t cross paths too often mainly because I travel about 30% of the time and he is based in Florida but when we do he is a font of all sorts of information.  I thought you might like to get to know Lance.  This is the photo he wears on his Blackboard ID badge.

Jan Poston Day:  What do you do at Blackboard?
Lance Button:  I am the Sales Manager for existing Transaction Systems customers in the East.  I support the Regional Account Executives (RAEs) and assist with complex expansion projects.  I work with customers that are having difficulties with some aspect of their implementation.  I work on anything that the RAEs may need to better serve the customer such as specific reports, communication campaigns and conference support.

A year ago my boss said to me, "Jan, congratulations!  You are our new representative to the IMS and other standards organizations."  A week later I flew halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia for my first IMS Quarterly Meeting in February 2005. 

As the newbie in the IMS Content Packagine specification Working Group I didn’t know what to expect.  My first day was spent sitting attentively while trying to absorb as much information as possible (think drinking from a fire hose).  On day two I joined the discussion of the fate of the "IsVisible" flag in the specification.  By the end of that afternoon I was named the new Working Group co-chair and my adventures had just begun.