Company

By Borja Uslé, Client Manager, Blackboard

Last month I attended BbWorld Europe ’08 in Manchester.  The users conference was the first BbWorld event that I’ve been able to attend since joining Blackboard in November 2007.  And I was delighted to be a part of it.

I work as a client manager for Blackboard users located in Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  Many clients in these regions traveled long distances to join BbWorld Europe; representatives from the University of Botswana came, and there were three different institutions from Turkey.  Our resellers also came from places like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The venue for the conference, The Palace Hotel, worked very well.  Large Blackboard banners hung in the reception area greeted everyone and made one feel welcomed.  And, despite the reputation of British weather, the weather during the conference was fantastic.

Conference participants were really excited to attend and connect with peers, and speak face-to-face with us Blackboard team members.  That was really very nice.  I had several conversations with users in and around the exhibit hall booths.

Here are three presentations given by attendees that I felt were particularly successful:

Kansas State University Professor Michael Wesch, well-known within the YouTube community for the series of innovative videos he created in collaboration with his media and anthropology students, as part of their digital enthography of YouTube project (read their blog), posted an intriguing new video last month titled "Twitter and World Simulation":

I really look forward to Prof. Wesch’s upcoming DevCon 2008 keynote address — next month in Las Vegas.  I know that reads like a plug for the conference.  And, well, yeah, it is, sure.  But I really am excited to hear Prof. Wesch speak in person — I’m traveling to the conference a day early, to ensure I won’t be trapped in an airport three states away while waiting for a connecting flight that for some reason never arrives.

Until DevCon, over on the BlackboardTV Channel on YouTube, there’s a playlist that may interest you, The Future Is Now.  We’ve collected a series of interesting videos — recommended by Blackboard users and found by BlackboardTV crew members — that visualize the use of technology in teaching and learning, including more videos by Prof. Wesch and his students.

Watch this YouTube video clip of an e-Learning conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (and recorded two years ago, almost to this day), and compare how similar it is to the footage captured by a BbWorld conference attendee last year during BbWorld ’07 in Boston, USA, which I discussed in a post yesterday:

If you’ll be attending BbWorld ’08 in Las Vegas, July 15-17, and plan to bring your video camera, please let me know at BlackboardTV@blackboard.com.  And watch for BlackboardTV crew members filming there.  During a session break we can discuss how wonderfully small, close and more connected the world is becoming because of technology — both e-Learning and video.

During BbWorld ’07 in Boston, a conference attendee from the Netherlands captured this footage of action across the exhibit hall floor — from the "Ask Dr. C" kiosk to partner booths to the opening reception:

The image is blurry.  The camera movement is dizzying at times.  And the sound nearly inaudible.  But I love this footage!

To be able to capture a few minutes of an experience like this, spontaneously on a mobile phone or a tiny camera, is exactly why I love technology.  And I was in the exhibit hall when this footage was shot, probably also walking around, but I saw a completely different set of events and conversations.  To be able to see this experience so easily from someone else’s perspective?  Fascinating.

If you recorded video footage or took photographs during BbWorld Europe ’08 in Manchester, please let me know at BlackboardTV@blackboard.com.  I’d like very much to see the spontaneous and serendipitous moments you captured, and share them with the Blackboard community via the BlackboardTV Channel on YouTube, so your peers can view them.  And maybe themselves.

Viva the camera phone!

BbWorld Europe ’08 occurred recently in Manchester, England.  Alas, I wasn’t able to attend the conference, co-hosted by the University of Manchester, but learned registration was filled, 30 clients presented during the break-out sessions, and over 350 users attended, traveling from more than 26 countries, including Italy, Turkey, Botswana and South Africa.  Cool.

Our next users conference, BbWorld ’08, will occur in Las Vegas, July 15-17.  Attendees are expected to travel from not just North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but also Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.  Very cool.

Blackboard International President Juan Lucca extends his invitation to attend:

Also, there’ll be a keynote speaker in Las Vegas whom I’m very keen to hear: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer.  Geek cool.