As we’ve mentioned several times, we want you all to be building applications against the SCORM Cloud. It is built explicitly with the purpose of being a piece of functionality in other applications. As we first released the SCORM Cloud, we offered up the API, some client libraries, some documentation, and we even published a few sample applications, including several open source LMSs. This was all fine and good, but we discovered something pretty quickly. Several of the people who were signing up to try the SCORM Cloud wanted something to do right away. They didn’t want to install a Moodle mod, or read through thrilling documentation. They wanted to import a course and see how it worked. So, we heard that message and decided to offer up that ability directly from the SCORM Cloud interface. First, a word of welcome (for our new users) Next, a place to import a piece of content Now what? The easiest way to send content is just to email it to someone… And just like that, they can launch it… So, students, we really want to see you out there experimenting with what’s possible via the SCORM Cloud. From the moment you create your account in SCORM Cloud, you’ll be able to import and deliver content. Let this spur your imagination. As the next few months pass, we’ll start showing you some of the other things you can do via SCORM Cloud… But let this be a simple starting point for you.

Blackboard is big time. Blackboard Learn™ leads the higher education learning management world. Blackboard Learn serves more than 20 million learners. And starting in 2011 (or thereabouts), Blackboard is going to be rocking the SCORM Engine in Blackboard Learn. We are nothing short of thrilled to announce that Blackboard has signed a long term agreement with Rustici Software to deliver all SCORM and AICC based material in Blackboard Learn, their flagship product. Ultimately, we’ll let Blackboard tell their story of why they opted to go with the SCORM Engine, but this is what we know. Blackboard had a prior SCORM delivery setup based on an open source SCORM implementation, and they found it to be inadequate in supporting their customers. Blackboard considered building their own SCORM implementation, but realized they could do it better and more cost effectively by working with us. Blackboard considered other commercial SCORM technology… briefly. Blackboard’s adoption of our rock solid SCORM technology will make things better for Blackboard learners and those people who provide content to Blackboard. This is a huge step for us as well toward one of our long term goals: Rustici Software would like to provide the technology that makes every SCORM transaction go. Consider this an invitation to all of the big LMS providers. Each LMS provider that adopts the SCORM Engine reduces the pain associated with eLearning for the industry as a whole. Blackboard’s adoption of the SCORM Engine is a big step toward our goal. For more on Blackboard’s commitment to SCORM and open standards in general, check out today’s blog posts by Ray Henderson and John Fontaine.

Yup, we’ll admit it, there’s been more than a few times we’ve asked for your feedback to shape the future of scorm…and yet, not much progress has been made. There’s this post, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and even this one. If it seems like a lot of "here comes the next SCORM", you’re right, there’s been a lot of talk and precious little action. With the exception of the LETSI RTWS specification, not much has happened in the SCORM world for the past few years. But it’s not all for naught. Those earlier calls for feedback (especially the ones from LETSI) resulted in an enormous collection of data about what the industry needs to move forward. All of that feedback has been cataloged and is serving as a primary source of input into Project Tin Can. Is it for real this time? We think so. Either way, we’re charging full speed ahead and we hope you’ll come along for the ride.

It’s that time again…we just announced the availability of our latest SCORM Engine version, v2010.1. And, yes, I know you’re thinking: "BUT, it’s 2011 now dummy". Of course, you’re right, but only because this blog post was delayed a few days while we migrated our site to a new server…I promise, we really did put it out in 2010 . But, really, who cares about the name? There’s some really good stuff in this release. You can find the full release notes from either our SCORM Engine History page or on our support site (you do know you can subscribe to product notifications there, right?). I’m most excited about the two new standards we now support: LETSI RTWS and PENS. LETSI RTWS is a web services communication framework that alleviates some of the common technical barriers SCORM imposes on content deployments. RTWS is a huge step towards enabling remote content hosting, games, simulations, virtual worlds, offline content, secure communications and mobile delivery. PENS is a standard that allows for the automatic publishing and import of content. With a PENS enabled authoring tool, you can publish new or updated content to your LMS with a single click.

Editor’s Note: Here on February 23, we’re getting closer to hiring folks.  If you think you’re the perfect fit, you’re still welcome to apply.  Frankly, we’ll always read a message from a prospective employee, whether we’re "hiring" or not.  I just wanted to be candid with everyone that we’re probably nearing the end of this version of the hiring journey. 2010 was good to us.  We’ve built a great team of technical people, and they’ve built a great set of products.  In fact, we’ve built so many cool products, we feel like we’re not doing a great job of telling the world about them.  It’s time to fix that, so we’re ready to hire. Mind you, when we go looking for new people, we aren’t just looking for someone who’s done this before.  In fact, that might be a bad thing.  What we always want is simple… brilliance.  We want someone who can do this job at an exceptional level. We believe that great people will all fit the following mold: Highly energetic and creative.  Don’t just skip past this and assume you are.  We actually care. Well written and well spoken.  You’ll be representing the company publicly.  We care a lot about how you do that.  You need to be able to express complicated things simply.  Language and other forms of communication need to come easily to you, so that you can add a layer of flair and humor on top of them. Obsessed with finishing.  Tasks must be completed, and projects must be completed.  Not almost.  Just like our developers have to ship great products that are complete, you’ll have to ship great work all the time.  Finished work. More than willing to learn… The opportunity to take on new tasks and learn our approach to them while injecting your own flavor. Web and tech aware.  We can’t be spending all of our time explaining Twitter to you, or what a web server is.  We need you to know some things, and to care enough that you’ll go figure out the things you don’t know. Smart.  No, really, if you don’t feel like you can keep up in any conversation, you’re probably not the right person.  We want you to have a lot of mental horsepower and believe in yourself and your ideas. This time around, we’re looking for two slightly different people, and their highly technical, very precise descriptions look like this: Evangelist. Communicator-in-chief.  "Marketer". Preacher.  We need this person to tell the world-writ-large about what we’re doing and why it’s useful to them.  It is, frankly, a challenge of communication.  The right person will be able to speak clearly about complicated things. Seller.  Hunter.  Educator.  Pursuer.  We don’t sell like other organizations, and we don’t want to.  But we want to make sure that everyone who would benefit from the use of our products knows about them personally. If you are a seriously energetic and persistent person who finishes things, please get in touch and tell us why you want this job.  Please take the time to understand what we do and how we do it.  Understand how selling and marketing on our behalf might be different from selling cars or marketing a law firm.  And be prepared to demonstrate your level of competence and interest to us. You can reach us at jobs+blog@scorm.com right now.  If you just forward a resume to me, I’ll forward it to my trash can.  Make me notice you Tim PS I’ve included longer form descriptions of the work you’ll be doing here below, in case you’re interested in knowing just a bit more. Evangelist and Communicator-In-Chief Can you explain Twitter to your grandparents? If so, we want to talk to you. We’re looking for somebody to explain our uber-nerdy products to the merely somewhat geeky. Rustici Software develops products that help companies adhere to a niche software standard called SCORM. You’ve probably never heard of us, but our little industry holds us in the highest regard. As we continue to expand our product offerings, we need somebody who can explain them to the world faster than our world-class development team can turn them out. This position is something like a marketer, social media coordinator, product evangelist, or perhaps tweeter-in-chief. We’re not hung up on a particular education or level of experience, but some thing we are looking for include: Energy and creativity Communication skills (written and spoken) - Can you clearly explain technical concepts in an accessible way and with some personality? Are you engaging, intelligent and insightful? Tone - The tone and personality of our communication is just as important as the content. Spend a few minutes on our website and you’ll see what we mean. Intelligence, talent, adaptability, intuition, persistence - basically the raw ability to excel at whatever you do. "Web awareness" - Are you a bit of a geek at heart? Do you keep up with the latest advances in technology and how they affect how people access information? Can you navigate social networks and make virtual friends? Marketing strategy and technique - We don’t require marketing experience out of the gate, but you’re going to have to learn quickly. You’ll probably want to become familiar with things like SEO, funnels, inbound marketing, Google Analytics and Google AdWords. Seller.  Educator.  Pursuer. In our niche, people call us wanting to buy our products.  We don’t go out knocking on doors.  We don’t cold call people.  They, literally, call us.  This is a great place to be, and we’re succeeding, but we believe that we could do more.  We could sell more, but we need some help in order to do it right. We think that there are companies, and even industries, that could make great use of our software, but they don’t know how or what to ask for.  We’re looking for someone who can seek out those companies, and thosepeople, and teach them about what we do in such a way that they want to work with us. You will be asked to find the right set of people to reach out to, and to craft the right kind of message, and to determine if the people you talk to are the right kind of people for Rustici Software to work with.  You’ll be asked to act intelligently on behalf of the company as a whole, not simply on behalf of a quota. We don’t care about eduction or experience per se.  The perfect fit will be: Creative and energetic Willing to learn and do things differently Smart Technically competent… selling our stuff requires an understanding of the technical details of what we do.  You don’t have to know SCORM on day 1, but you have to be willing to fight to learn it. Persistent.  You won’t make a sale your first day.  You’ll probably try the wrong things.  Your first idea may well get shot down.  But you have to keep firing away.  And learning.

We’re pretty excited about what we’ve done with SCORM Cloud. We have big visions for what it can do and where it might take the industry. We’re happy to see some others starting to realize its potential as well. From Nick Martin, President of TechChange on Twitter: @ncmart Mark our words. This is a gamechanger for elearning: http://www.scorm.com/scorm-solved/scorm-cloud/ From Craig Weiss on "E-Learning 24/7" (@diegoinstudio): Product of the Year: SCORM Cloud - What’s not to love?…I said it when it came out and I will repeat it again. Game Changer! From e.learning age’s E-learning Awards (@elearningage): Shortlist: Most innovative new product or tool in e-learning It’s exciting to see other people starting to "get it". What happens when you can take learning to where people "live"? Ever year Tim and I get away from the office for a bit and think about what we’d like to accomplish in the coming year. Last year we set a goal for the number of paid subscribers to SCORM Cloud that would show to us that it is becoming a successful product. In 2010, we easily exceeded that goal and established a lot of positive momentum. What should we focus on in 2011 to let SCORM Cloud keep changing the game? Do you want to see more off the shelf app integrations? Perhaps Facebook, SalesForce.com, Drupal or Sharepoint? Should we add more tools that allow for the easy creation for SCORM content? For instance, a tool to convert videos to a trackable format, or a simple assessment builder? Should we make it even easier for others to develop apps? Implement different pricing models?Something else? What are we missing? What is important to you?

Like so many organizations in and around Washington DC, ADL has a messaging problem. Like so many organizations in and around Washington DC, ADL serves many masters. Like so many organizations in and around Washington DC, ADL’s messages are best understood through the filter of a trained professional. Call me SCORM’s James Carville, if you please. The Noise If you read every comment from ADL’s people and the responses to them, you get noise. "We’re doing more to support SCORM"… "SCORM isn’t being evolved"… "We’re updating the SCORM books"… "SCORM is going to ISO"… "Introducing the Future Learning Experience Project"… "Participate in Project Tin Can"… "AICC CMI 5 is defining a new data model"… "Check out LETSI RTWS". Without context, that looks like a big fat mess. It looks a bit directionless. But don’t despair, ye fans of SCORM. It’s actually laced with a lot of good news. The Signal ADL is doing the right things to support SCORM in its current form going forward, in the best ways it can as governed by its many masters. ADL is pushing SCORM forward in leaps small and large (short term and long), but its many masters make continued use of the name SCORM difficult. ADL hopes to work with willing collaborators to create the best learning standards. Context and Background: The Noise Source "If you serve too many masters, you’ll soon suffer." - Homer As a government organization, ADL’s masters are many and their interests all impact ADL’s ability to maneuver. Master 1: The Boss, er, the Pentagon From Day 1, ADL has existed to better prepare the warfighter. Give credit to the folks at the Pentagon, they take a broad view of preparing the warfighter, and the eLearning community has benefited from that in the shape of SCORM as it is today. Rightly so, the Pentagon leadership doesn’t want to support a static standard, so they’ve asked for what comes next. ADL has laid out the "Future Learning Experience Project", and it will build upon the platform laid by SCORM to further the support of the warfighter as we move toward 2025. I have no doubt that "FLEX" will also support learners around the world effectively. Our work with Project Tin Can gives us an early look at this work. FLEX builds upon the core concepts that led to the creation of SCORM 10 years ago, while adjusting for the inevitable changes in technology. This is good news of the highest order for those who care about SCORM. SCORM, "the name", may or may not move forward, but the concepts and the platform inevitably will. And it will do so with ADL’s financial and technical support. Master 2: The Financiers Government agencies can’t just spend their budgets however they deem appropriate; they have to spend money on exactly what it was allocated for. People refer to this financial allocation as the "color of money". ADL is funded using dollars allocated for "research" purposes. Maintaining an existing specification is classified as "sustainment". You can’t spend "research" dollars on "sustainment". If you wonder why the SCORM brand may or may not survive, please consider the phrases research and sustainment. (Trust us, we benefit as much as anyone from the continued use of the word "SCORM". It may or may not make it, but that doesn’t mean that the standard or work has been lost. It’s continuing.) Master 3: The Lawyers There are a lot of us, reasonable, plainspoken people, who really wish that ADL were able to pass SCORM off to an open group like LETSI. There are many people within ADL who wish this. SCORM would likely flourish if set free. Put simply, the lawyers won’t let it happen. Well, the lawyers and the good folks at IMS. IMS, didn’t like the fact that ADL was handing over SCORM (with embedded IMS IP) to yet another standards organization so they brought lawyers into the equation. There are two sides to every story, but the relevant outcome is once lawyers got involved it turned into a very messy divorce. Unfortunately, this means that SCORM stewardship remains locked up within ADL. And further, it means that any evolution of SCORM is further complicated, particularly as it relates to anything originally contributed by IMS. Again, we reasonable, plainspoken people (including learning tech people from both IMS and elsewhere) would be best served by reconciliation and collaboration. For now, though, it seems that we’ll have to do without. As long as the relationship between IMS and ADL remains dysfunctional, the two significant parts of SCORM contributed by IMS (packaging and sequencing) are effectively frozen. ADL can’t evolve them without more legal sword-fighting. What Next? Well, check back here tomorrow for a line-by-line interpretation of ADL-SCORM-Evolution Speak. Highlights to include: LETSI-RTWS AICC-CMI-Evolution ISO-FLEXification These words are my own. These opinions are my own. There is no official ADL opinion, fact or history included herein. Part 2: SCORM Ain’t Dead: Where We Will Head

Yesterday I talked about what is causing all the confusion coming out of ADL. Today I’ll talk about what it all means. The Brand To serve their many masters, the ADL leadership has decided to move away from the SCORM brand. From a business, marketing and adoption perspective, I don’t think it’s a good decision. SCORM is what people know and pay attention to in this industry. Moving away from it requires re-building a brand from scratch…never an easy thing to do. But, the government does what the government does…business, marketing and adoption aren’t really a bureaucracy’s strong suits….bosses, financiers and lawyers are their bigger concerns. There’s actually really good news coming out of ADL though if you read the messages closely and understand the nuance. Here’s some translation of the messages: "We’re doing more to support SCORM" Supporting a standard is a lot of work. ADL maintains a SCORM help desk. They help vendors and organizations understand and adopt SCORM (especially within the government). They maintain a conformance test suite and associated certification programs. They publish best practice guides, example implementations and other documentation. This isn’t a tremendous amount of work, but it isn’t trivial either. Over the past few years, ADL has been in a transitional phase and frankly a bit of a mess. During that time, these sustaining support activities started to fall through the cracks. When ADL says they are going to do more to support SCORM, they are recommitting to continue to do what they have always done. They are also shifting policy to continue support for SCORM 1.2 (they had previously tried to sunset 1.2 support to encourage 2004 adoption). When you consider ADL’s color of money concerns, this commitment is actually a rather significant development. "SCORM isn’t being evolved" Often re-tweeted as "SCORM is dead" or "SCORM is done", this the most nefarious of the misinterpreted messages. SCORM as it is meets the needs of its initial intended use. By and large SCORM-conformant content works in SCORM-conformant LMSs. It isn’t perfect…nothing is…but with the exception of sequencing, it’s pretty darn good. There are a few places where it could be polished, but the changes that would have significant impact require significant additions. Bearing in mind that the legal concerns over IMS’ intellectual property require that sequencing and content packaging not change, it makes sense to stop putting out new editions of SCORM 2004 and start to focus on SCORM-Next. "We’re updating the SCORM books" The SCORM 2004 4th Edition spec manuals need some cleaning up. There are a few inconsistencies, ambiguous statements and diagrams which don’t meet Section 508 requirements. ADL is cleaning up these mistakes and re-publishing the books. Think of this as fixing typos. There are no changes of substance, they just need to please the English teachers and standards geeks. "SCORM is going to ISO" SCORM is an international standard, and believe it or not, it’s not just the US that has annoying bureaucratic rules. In many countries, a standard must be approved by ISO before it can be adopted (imagine that, they want international agreement, not just the dictate of the US DoD!). SCORM 2004 3rd Edition is already published by ISO as a technical report. ADL will be submitting 4th Edition to ISO to facilitate further international adoption….thus the need to please the English teachers and standards geeks. "Introducing the Future Learning Experience Project (FLEX)" And, here we have "SCORM-Next", only bigger. The FLEX project is ADL’s technology path to achieving the 2025 vision. It is big and has grand aspirations, but it starts with a few small steps. Those first steps build upon SCORM to establish the next generation of learning experience tracking. In other words, let’s build upon the traditional CMI tracking that SCORM enables and track the modern learning experiences that happen in games, simulations, virtual worlds, mobile devices, social networks, etc. "Participate in Project Tin Can" Here’s where we come in. Through its BAA program, ADL has funded us to conduct a research program to define the initial experience tracking API. Project Tin Can is an open effort that seeks input from anybody and everybody. Since December we’ve been trying to talk to as many people as we can about what the future of learning looks like. The output of Project Tin Can will be a recommendation for the technology that will be the foundation of FLEX. It is the first piece of the puzzle: the Experience API. "AICC CMI 5 is defining a new data model" Somewhere along the way, we left out the good part of the ADL-SCORM history. AICC is another standards organization that contributed IP to SCORM, namely the CMI data model and concepts for the run-time communication. Unlike the ADL-IMS relationship, the ADL-AICC relationship is alive and well. CMI 5 is another early piece of the FLEX puzzle. AICC is revamping its original CMI data model to enable more generalized and modern tracking. CMI 5 will be an extensible model that adds support for all the new training modalities being considered in Project Tin Can. Its extensibility should also make it a good candidate for tying in new things like performance support data, industry specific extensions, etc. "Check out LETSI RTWS" ADL knows that the industry is clamoring for solutions to problems they face today. Many of the shortcomings of SCORM are addressed by the LETSI RTWS SCORM extension. RTWS is a web services communication framework that can be layered on top of SCORM. ADL is currently developing prototypes with RTWS and intends to recommend it as an immediately available solution while FLEX matures. Some Final Thoughts Again, these words are my own. These opinions are my own. There is no official ADL opinion, fact or history included herein. In fairness to ADL, many of these same ideas are clearly articulated on the FLEX project site, here and here. I think the origin of much of this confusion lies in the fact that for the last couple years ADL has been in a state of flux without a clear public direction. My understanding is that their course is now charted and from here on out the path will be clear.

If you read this blog, you probably noticed we’ve been interviewing folks to help us with some of the non-technical aspects of our business. We talked to a lot of really smart people and two weeks ago four of them showed up at the office to start work. Meet the Fab Four: Tammy Rutherford - Customer Steward [Super Power: Iron Man Triathlons] If you use our products, you’ll soon be getting to know Tammy. We have about 300 customers now and we don’t always stay in touch with you like we should. Tammy is here to change that. Jeffrey Horne - Web Marketing Scientist [Super Power: Mad Drum Skillz] scorm.com has become a pretty popular destination. About 30,000 people visit every month and 500 of them sign up to use SCORM Cloud. We’re flattered by the following and we want to live up to our reputation. Our website doesn’t always do a good job of getting people to where they need to be and its content has fallen behind where SCORM and Rustici Software are today. Jeff is here to fix that. eLearning Cartographers: Chris Tompkins [Super Power: Surviving Extreme Sports] Jena Lawing [Super Power: Redefining the High Five] In a few days, we’re going to announce an exciting new project called the eLearning Atlas. Chris and Jena are driving it forward. If your company sells an e-learning product, be it an LMS, LCMS, authoring tool or off-the-shelf content library, expect to hear from them over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Back-to-back. For the second year in a row, the Nashville Business Journal thinks we are one of the best places in town to work. I’m not normally driven by ego, awards or praise, but this is an award I hope to never lose. There aren’t enough companies in this world that trust their employees, that treat them like adults and that let them live their lives outside the office. This is one area where I am proud to be different.