Blackboard Blogs

Sshhhhh!

Working in Blackboard’s DC office is pretty noisy – mainly because most everyone shares an office with one, two, three, and in some cases four people.  Conference rooms book up quickly so lots of meetings happen in shared offices, the hallways, and even the Au Bon Pain down the block.  As a result it is sometimes difficult to find a large block of quiet, uninterrupted time to completely focus – especially for projects that require writing, creative thinking, and analysis. 

This week the Product Development team began a 6 week experiment to try and push back the noise and minimize interruptions so everyone can be more productive. 

There and Back Again

So, about three months ago I got off the plane from Beijing to start my new assignment at Blackboard, working with Barb Ross on integrating our combined company’s operations. I’ve been with Blackboard since 1999, but while I was in China Blackboard had gone public and announced its merger with WebCT, so I was pretty interested to see how things had changed.

Thank Goodness for Technology

I was recently at the Canadian Blackboard Users Conference: a client user group run meeting that took place simultaneously in Alberta (University of Alberta) and in Toronto (Seneca College).  It was quite an interesting couple of days, starting with one member of the Blackboard team getting pooped on by a bird en route to the conference (the Blackboarder was en route…I don’t think the bird was), and ending with another Blackboarder leaving her purse behind (fortunately she had her passport with her).