All the Intellidemia news
Discover more notable points in Intellidemia's history.
2010
March 23rd, 2010: SUNY Fulton-Montgomery Implements Concourse
Fulton-Montgomery Community College has joined with Intellidemia to replace their paper-based syllabus management process and streamline curriculum management. Their existing process, first put in place following a recommendation from one of their accreditators, proved to be too burdensome and inefficient for instructors and administrators. With Concourse, they are creating a centralized syllabus repository with a deep data structure that can be accessed and managed from anywhere and at anytime. Welcome FMCC. We look forward to working with you. Full Story >>
March 7th, 2010: Intellidemia Turns 3, Opens New Office
On this, the third anniversary of our founding, we are pleased to announce the opening of our new office in downtown Troy. As of March 1st, 2010, we began operating from 291 River Street, Troy, NY 12180. Our new location is a two-room office that can support up to six employees. We share a floor with four other startups, and not unlike the incubator office, down the hall we have access to shared facilities, including a conference room, copy machine, kitchen, and mail services. Finally, in celebration of our new office and the start of our fourth year of business, we will be hosting an “official” opening and open house on the evening of Wednesday, March 24th. If you are in the area and would like to stop by to wish us success, let us know. Thanks again to everyone who has supported us throughout our first three years here at Intellidemia. We look forward to all the exciting developments to come.
February 16th, 2010: Rensselaer Enlists Intellidemia to Develop Syllabus Catalog
In our first official client announcement, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, through their Office of Entrepreneurship, is utilzing Concourse to create a catalog of entrepreneurial course offerings. They are using this catalog to enhance their understanding of entrepreneurship throughout the campus and identify gaps, duplication, and trends within the curricula. Concourse also provides the office with a platform for promoting course offerings directly to students so they have a full understanding of the opportunities available to them and the expectations of the instructor. Welcome Rensselaer. We look forward to working with you. Full Story >>
January 22nd, 2010: Extending the Syllabus Model
Our users asked for it and we delivered. Today we released two major platform extensions that are making Concourse significantly more powerful and solidifying our vision that the online syllabus become the centerpiece of every course. The first, files, provides ways the directly embed course content (e.g. slideshows) where it is contextually relevant within the syllabus. In a similar manner, the second feature, notifications, means an instructor can automatically inform students about changes to a syllabus without ever leaving the editor. Both help streamline and enrich the academic experience. We are proud to make these key Concourse additions and invite you to share feedback as you start putting them into use. Full story >>
January 8th, 2010: A New Year, A New Interface
What better way to start off the New Year than launching our third generation interface. This new interface combines many of the suggestions we have received over the past year (like a smart jump-to-today link and automated notifications) as well as some of our own new concepts. You'll find this new interface to be cleaner, better organized, and provide a more consistent experience. It can even be themed for your institution. In other words, it's just plain slick! Let us know what you think by exploring the Concourse demo. Who knows? Maybe you'll be the one to suggest our next great feature.
2009
December 9th, 2009: The New Recruits
Not a day after the fall interns finished up their projects, we were joined by those who will support us this spring. Paulina Fink, a sophomore from Rensselaer, will become Intellidemia's "testimonial collector," so expect to see some of her work on this site in the next few months. Tyon Weekes, a Rensselaer senior, will dedicate his time to making Concourse mobile. And Gerad Hoyt, a junior at Siena College returns for a second internship in marketing. Welcome (back) everyone!
November 18th, 2009: Growing Knowledge in a Green Way
Despite the growing number of sustainability initiatives at college campuses today, one area, ironically, that is often overlooked is the classroom. Recognizing this important and timely need, we have launched a green site dedicated to the exploration of instructional technologies in the context of eco-friendly teaching practices. We feature three prominent and increasingly embedded platforms, the Learning Management System, the eBook, and of course, the Online Syllabus, and their impact on sustainability in education. We are excited to build upon this century-defining conversation and hope to see such technologies and practices become commonplace throughout education. Full story >>
September 20th, 2009: Concourse Demo. New and Improved.
Today we launched a new Concourse demonstration system. This new demo not only contains a number of interface enhancements and code upgrades that can be found in every edition of Concourse, but the demo now starts you off with a number of example courses that showcase the features of our platform. Plus, you can explore Concourse faster without the need to register. With a few simple clicks, you will be well on your way to seeing all that Concourse has to offer. To demo Concourse, just visit http://demo.campusconcourse.com.
September 4th, 2009: Team Intellidemia grows, Part II
Back in May we were joined by three talented student interns, who worked diligently to create this new site. Today, we are pleased to announce the joining of three more student interns, all of which come to us through the communication internship program at Rensselaer. Two of these students, Craig MacHaffie and Ted Ottey, will focus on the creation of interface standards for the next version of Concourse. The third student, William Johnson, is developing an initiative related to "Course Greening," which we will introduce later this year. On top of this, the students from the summer enjoyed their experience so much, they just won't leave! We remain excited to work with such motivated and dedicated teammates.
August 24th, 2009: Concourse. Coming to a school near you.
In one of the most exciting days in our history, we are proud to announce the launch of Concourse, the first online syllabus solution for organizing, sharing, and analyzing course information. We invite you to take a first look at Concourse by watching our guided tour or trying out the demo. And if you really want to jump right in, hop on over to http://campusconcourse.com where you can sign up for an account and use Concourse Basic for FREE! Full story >>
August 12th, 2009: Intellidemia launches new website
After many months of work in coordination with the launch of Concourse, we are proud to present this new website to you. This new site represents a major step forward in expanding and organizing information related to Concourse and our company. We invite you to take a look around and, as always, feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions or questions about our site.
June 26th, 2009: Beta program wraps up
With the spring semester behind us, today we are wrapping up our Concourse beta program. It was a success by any measure. In total, we had over 350 beta users from 3 capital region schools that helped to test our system and move us along the right path. As one instructor put it, "Concourse works the way my mind works." Thank you to everyone who participated in the beta and we look forward to bringing you the very best of Concourse this fall.
June 1st, 2009: Online marketing with Google AdWords
We kicked off our online marketing strategy today. Using Google AdWords, we are able to reach thousands of potential Concourse customers at fractions of a dollar. Turns out that the keyword "syllabus" is not exactly the most searched term on the web. Try searching for us, but don't click the ad when you see it. You've already found us.
May 13th, 2009: Team Intellidemia grows
This week we are joined by three talented student interns. Robin Senseney and Richard Zarick come to us from Rensselaer where they are both a part of the Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication program. Our third intern, Gerad Hoyt, is a student of marketing at Siena College. Together, Robin, Rich, and Gerad will bring Concourse into compliance with disability standards, launch a Google AdWords campaign, develop help videos, implement Concourse interface enhancements, and prepare our third generation website. We are very lucky to be joined by such impressive and motivated team members. Welcome to Intellidemia.
March 7th: Happy 2nd Birthday Intellidemia
Intellidemia turned two today, and what an amazing year it has been. Now into our third generation system, we have hundreds of registered beta users and are actively working on preparing Concourse for its first commercial use. We held our first customer demonstrations, participated in numerous industry and regional events, and feel that we have become syllabus experts as the only provider of syllabus solutions in the marketplace. To celebrate, we also rolled out a new Concourse feature, the public view, which allows users outside of Concourse to preview syllabus content. On to year 3!
January 8th: The Concourse Beta
Today marks the launch of our Concourse beta program. We have invited a series of schools from the capital district to participate in using Concourse for their upcoming semester. If you are not a member of one of these schools and would still like to participate, please let us know. We look forward to hearing all your thoughts.
2008
December 10th: Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
The two months since Concourse was unveiled have been very exciting. We have started to receive acclaim for our platform and the user experience it embodies. This is most evident from a usability study performed by a human computer interaction Master's candidate. During the course of her evaluation, dozens of instructors were "put to the test" to see how they responded to the Concourse syllabus editor. The insight provided was astounding. While we received a number of great suggestions from the instructors, we are more confident than ever about our design and approach. To put it another way, these instructors felt comfortable using Concourse just 30 minutes after they first used it, a testament to our user experience as compared to other systems in education.
November 4th: aka Concourse
After many months and (and we mean many months) of searching for a name for our Syllabus Management System, we have officially selected one, Concourse. A Concourse is defined as a place where pathways meet and people gather. Moreover, they are often found in hotels, airports, stations, arenas, and most importantly, universities, making Concourse a perfect fit for our platform. Concourse also gives rise to our ultimate vision that our platform will one day become something greater than just the management of the traditional, paper syllabus.
October 21st: Technology Preview
We released our technology preview today to select users in the capital district. We've come a long way since our first and second generation systems, and now include a myriad of course and group settings, account management, and what we believe is the most powerful and easiest syllabus editing experience in the world. This early demonstration system is the first time that users will be able to get into our platform and evaluate what we have to offer and leads our beta launch, slated for January 2009.
August 25th: Back to School
After the most productive summer in Intellidemia's history, we are well on our way to launching our third generation system, and it is coming out even better than expected. Early interface evaluations with users have clearly demonstrated that we are on the right track with this one. On the marketing front, we are now going out and actively demonstrating our system to potential client, launched a new website, have been invited to present at conferences, and will even attend the annual IT in education conference in October. On a final note, we are also happy to announce that Ed Levie, our technology director, will be following up his Master's in Computer Science with an MBA from Rensselaer while he continues at Intellidemia. Congratulations Ed.
May 8th: Generation II
The next generation Syllabus Management System was delivered today. In many ways it has exceeded our expectations, though there still remains something to be desired when it comes to a commercially viable solution. In addition, this system took a different approach to editing than the prototype. It is our belief that the third generation system will employ a blend of both, the work of which begins today. Ultimately, it amazes us still how closely the developers delivered on the specifications having never set foot within 5,000 miles of our office. It was a learning experience for all.
March 7th: Happy Birthday Intellidemia
Intellidemia turned one today, and what an exciting and challenging past year it has been. We have developed and deployed a prototype, worked through changes to our team, moved into an office, connected with potential customers, raised money, and are seeing the fruits of our labor take shape in the next generation Syllabus Management System. More important than anything else, there is a new and healthy level of stability in the firm. Happy first birthday Intellidemia, and many more...
2007
December 5th: The World Is Flat
Following three additional months of development enhancing the Syllabus Management System prototype, we are now embarking on the creation of our next generation system. This system will be develop in coordination with our overseas software partner. Through this partnership, we will solidify our functional specifications and work towards a commercially viable solution by April 2008. Though a bold step for Intellidemia, we remain committed to our vision and look forward to this challenging opportunity.
October 1st: Open for Business
Building upon the momentum of the summer and the success of our Syllabus Management System prototype, we have secured a two room office in the Rensselaer Incubator as a member of their Incubation Program. These 350 square feet will house our small team, 7 desks, 5 computers, 3 printers, 2 refrigerators, 1 microwave, and 108 square feet of whiteboard space. We also inherited cubicle dividers that once belonged to MapInfo, a 1980's Rensselaer start-up that was acquired for over $400 million the same month as our own founding. Let's hope these dividers bring us such similar success.
September 10th: Prototype Goes Live
Following a grueling summer of design and coding, today marks the release our Syllabus Management System prototype. This prototype, developed rapidly using the Ruby on Rails framework, brings to life many of the concepts we have envisioned over the past year. Users can create syllabi, enter syllabus content in a structured fashion, set access permissions related to that content, and search for the content throughout the system. This prototype has also solidified a number of interface elements that we expect will carry on throughout the development of the product. It is a proud day at Intellidemia and we already look forward to extending this system into our first commercially viable product.
May 15th: Kicking Into High Gear
As a company that is entirely student run, you can imagine how difficult it can be to balance school and business commitments. Fortunately, for the next few months, this will not the case. As we enter the summer months, we can give Intellidemia the energy and dedication it needs. It is our goal to develop a fully functional syllabus management system prototype by the time school begins again this fall. It's time to step it up a notch.
April 27th: Business Competition Semifinalist
Months before our founding we began working on the our first complete business plan. Having finished this plan no more than a few weeks ago, we quickly submitted it to the Tech Valley Business Competition, a business plan competition to identify and promote the best and brightest students and plans in the region. We are now proud to announce that Intellidemia was selected as a semifinalist. While we will unfortunately not advance any further in this particular competition, such external validation gives us great confidence that Intellidemia and our syllabus management system has significant promise.
March 7th: Day 1
What began as a concept in a course project three years ago turned into an official business today. We are ready to deliver a game-changing and easy-to-use platform for education, a space where innovation is desperately needed. We are excited to embark on what promises to be an incredible journey and rewarding experience for our team, customers, and supporters.