Here is my attempt at “Elluminate Cubed”. I have used Elluminate many times over the past couple of years and it grows on me each time I use it.

http://www.elluminate.com/

FACE 1: MARKET FOCUS

Elluminate provides web, video, and audio solutions for online learning and according to Elluminate.com they serve “more than 600 million annual web-collaboration minutes to over 7 million teachers and students located in 170 different countries”.

FACE 2: TYPES OF OFFERINGS

Elluminate has several offerings that are explained in detail through the links below including:

Elluminate Learning Suite™. – a full package of products

Elluminate Live!® features voice over the Internet, interactive functionality, upports multiple platforms and low-bandwidth connectivity.

Elluminate Next>™ bundle combines Elluminate Plan!™ and Elluminate Publish!™

Elluminate vSpaces™ single-room configurations of Elluminate Live!

Elluminate Bridges a tool that provides integration with learning and content management systems.

Elluminate VCS™ is an affordable  multipoint video collaboration product for desktop users.

LearnCentral™ is a social learning network for education, sponsored by Elluminate.

FACE 3: THE BUYER

School Districts or governing educational groups, individual educators and business.

If you are a BC educator you can have free access provided by Learnnowbc. A single meeting can be booked  or you can reserve a long-term meeting room for up to one year. Click here for more information: http://www.learnnowbc.ca/lnbcresources/elluminate/

FACE 4: GLOBAL MARKETS

As the internet expands and computer access improved within education there is potential for classrooms to meet and connect globally. This meeting platform allows for easy interactivity that incorporates, audio, video, text and more.

FACE 5: DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET

There are several reviews and articles about Elluminate:

http://www.elluminate.com/press/articles.jsp

The company is located in Calgary, Alberta and Pleasanton, California and claims to Ellumiate claims, to be the choice of “ Apple Computer, California State University, Florida Virtual School, Georgetown University, K12 Inc., London Knowledge Lab, Los Angeles Unified School District, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Novell, Queen’s University, Royal Veterinary College, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and many more.”

According to their website they are the one of “Deloitte’s 50 Fastest Growing Technology Companies and is positioned in the Visionaries Quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing, 2009”.

FACE 6: LEARNING TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION WITH OTHER FORMS OF LEARNING

The Elluminate services are very useful and have great potential in the market. A set back (or competition) is the every growing development of free Web 2.0, & 3.0 tools. Many of these tools provide similar functions including online chat, whiteboard, and texting capabilities. As second struggle that the company will encounter is convincing educators to change their practice to incorporate virtual meeting spaces over face to face. Ellumiate has many market challenges and must keep current with the many emerging new technologies in order to survive.

Here is a short video found on Youtube introducing Elluminate:

Royal Roads Pitch

Much has been said about the RRU pitch by Burgess. Here are my thoughts and impressions. I apologize for any repeats. I used the basic bullets a few of you used:

• CEO Credibility – Does this person exude capability and convey confidence that they will achieve success against all obstacles?
  • The speaker provides a brief history, and a detailed presentation with many visuals however I do not feel a sense of credibility or confidence within the speaker. With a pitch I want to be sold. Within the first minute of a ten minute pitch I should be hooked. This presentation wanted me to skip forward. More credibility and a “hook” other than nice pictures would boost effectiveness in my opinion.

• Management Team – Have they assembled a stellar team along with the other human and material resources required for success
  • It was mentioned that there were qualified individuals and a team. Time was spent on this yet in the end , I still wasn’t “hooked”.

• Business Model – Is this feasible? – have they done their homework? – are their arguments and information accurate and compelling?
  • Burgess and her team have demonstrated that they have done their research and are well informed about the area. They have spent a great deal of time examining MIT.

• Competitive Products – What is a realistic market size, market share and selling price that these products or services can capture in a very competitive world?
  • With the online market and the ever-changing dynamics of technology it is difficult to confirm a market size and share.

• Market Readiness – How long and difficult is their critical path to success?
  • It will take time, and focus on building reputation and relationships in order to build and create market readiness/success. I would say up to 4-5 years. Unfortunately plenty can change in this time too politically, technologically, and also with staffing. The ability to adapt will be necessary.

• Technical Innovation – Do they have an edge, and can they keep it?
  • RRU has an existing positive reputation that can be used to support new initiatives . Together with retaining the project leaders and enthusiasm they may be able to maintain this as an edge.

• Exit Strategy – Do they really know what success looks like – is their destination clear.
  • I would argue that rather than looking for the “final” picture of “success” is not as important as the smaller indicators of success. Establishing staged indicators allows for ongoing reflection, improvement, and also a means to promote any success areas along the way.

• Overall Investment Status – Am I going to risk my investment capital on this proposition?
  • From just viewing this video a couple times I am going against the post of a few of you in the course and say no I would not risk a cent. It is well researched has potential and I agree with much of it, but I am not sold in a way that I would invest. In my opinion they need to work on the presentation of their pitch much more.

Wow. We’re moving forward fast so far here in 522! There have been many links, & post and it has been almost a race to follow. I do feel like I jumped into “bootcamp”.I’ll add to the wealth of info. This is a wiki that has helped me with putting some concepts into perspective. This is site dedicated to global business it was created by an MBA student who has collected notes, observations, and ideas about venture capitals.

GloboTrends wiki for Global Business

My name is Jay Dixon I am currently the Vice Principal of Port Hardy Secondary School.

Technology has been a personal and professional interest area to me for many years. I am always looking to learn something new with technology and try to incorporate aspects to support education within my school.

This fall I am also wearing the hat of the DL coordinator, designer, IT guy, and a few other large hats in order to start up a pilot DL school within our district. It is quite a bit of work,but a great learning experience (especially for a newbie on Moodle and barely hour a day to work on it).

I live in Port McNeill on Northern Vancouver Island which is about a 30 minute commute to Port Hardy. An exciting piece of info about me is that this together with 590 are my last courses in the MET program! About 2 weeks after we submit the final assignments in this course my wife is due with our first child too! I’ll move from late nights of posting to MET  online to late nights of researching online about how to stop my son from crying 🙂
Looking forward to working with all of you!

~Jay