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.

October 24th,2004
“E-learning is going to disappear as a [distinct] concept,” predicts Matthew Pittinsky, chairman of Blackboard Inc., whose course-management and other software served 15,000 students in 1998 and six years later reaches 12 million in 50 countries.

October 1st, 2004
A Networked Learning Environment in the Inter­net age applies new technology to a very old con-cept—that learning is much more than classes and grades. It is about the learning that takes place in a vibrant community of people and resources. The Internet has removed the limits of time and proxim­ity that once restricted this community. In a true Networked Learning Environment, any student, instructor or researcher can access any learning resource at anytime from anyplace.

“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.”