Blackboard Inc. was formed on the joining of two companies. CourseInfo LLC, founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and Blackboard LLC, founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Meade

A brief history of Blackboard.

Blackboard LLC was founded in 1997 by two education advisors, Matthew Pittinsky and Michael Chasen, as a consulting firm to provide technical standards for online learning applications. Blackboard LLC was contracted to the IMS Global Learning Consortium, a worldwide non-profit organization within the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative of Educause. Blackboard’s vision was to provide a user-friendly means by which college professors could put course information, including syllabi, reference sites, and study guides, on the Web. In 1998, Blackboard merged with CourseInfo LLC, a course management software provider and startup company at Cornell University by Stephen Gilfus and Dan Cane, and the merged company soon released their first software product for online learning. Blackboard’s continued growth and the expanding public profile was driven by acquisitions.

Blackboard portfolio of products are termed the Networked Transaction Environment (NTE) and the Networked Learning Environment (NLE). [2,3] The NTE product is the Blackboard Commerce Suite which contains the Blackboard Transaction System, the Blackboard Community System and Bb One.

CourseInfo LLC CourseInfo, one of the two companies forming Blackboard Inc. was founded in 1997 by Dan Cane and Stephen Gilfus while at Cornell University. They joined together to officially form the partnership known as CourseInfo and developed the company into a small course management software provider. The product at the time was called the [...]

Authors: Ellen R. Cohn, University of Pittsburgh. Gary P. Stoehr, University of Pittsburgh Abstract Course management web-based software packages such as CourseInfo, (www.blackboard.net) promise benefits for institutions, instructors, and their students in the form of cost savings, (e.g., reduced departmental copying of handouts) and administrative efficiency, (e.g., the electronic “posting” of student grades). Course management [...]

Blackboard Inc. today announced that more than 75 colleges and universities 2/4/1999 , Washington, D.C. – Blackboard Inc. today announced that more than 75 colleges and universities have selected Blackboard CourseInfo, developed at Cornell University, course management system to add an online component to their curriculum. Leading institutions such as Arizona State University, University of [...]

May 14th,1998
“Few people know IMS better than Blackboard” stated Michael Pettit, Blackboard’s Chief Systems Architect. “We think IMS will quickly become a viable architecture on which to build on-line education related systems, and a strong competitive advantage for Blackboard’s product line.”

“Blackboard’s upcoming merger with CourseInfo gives us a fantastic opportunity to provide higher education with a web-based course management system that leverages our work with the Educom Instructional Management Systems project” said Blackboard Chairman and CEO Matthew Pittinsky. “As the primary technical contractor to IMS, Blackboard has long been a supporter of open standards for Internet-based education. All Blackboard products will be based on IMS in the short term and fully IMS compliant as the standard evolves.”

April 29th, 1998
Recent CourseInfo clients also include the Ithaca Unified School District and University of Pittsburgh, according to Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus who will also be joining Blackboard’s Board of Directors and Management Team pending the successful completion of a Blackboard/CourseInfo merger.

January 1998
CourseInfo, one of the two companies forming Blackboard Inc. was founded in 1997 by Dan Cane and Stephen Gilfus while at Cornell University.

October 21st, 1997
For professors who have decided to do so, that new industry offers a dizzying array of tools for developing Web courses. Of the dozen or so leading software packages, some require the use of expensive servers and the support of an information-services department, while others are designed to let professors create on-line course materials with little or no support.

October 16th, 1997
CourseInfo employs 11 Cornell undergraduates and one alumnus, making up the company’s three basic departments: finance, product development and sales and marketing. While nine of the employees major in the College of Engineering, three, including Cane, are agricultural, resource and managerial economics majors (ARME) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.