Same company, different name. Over the next 30 days, the B Wyze eLearning team will begin the transition to MindMuze. It is the same legal entity, same people, with enhanced products and services operating under a new distinct learning innovations brand.

“Muze” was chosen as a play on “Muse” - (ok…the dot com was taken). “Muse” often refers to an inspiration. There you have it. We hope our new brand continues the B Wyze Holdings Inc. mission of,

Inspiring Success Through Trust and Partnership.

As part of B Wyze Holdings Inc., the integrated learning products and services of MindMuze should inspire the mind.

Why the change?

B Wyze has evolved from a small startup in 2000 to multiple operating units. After being awarded some large global eLearning projects between 2006 and 2008, it was decided that the eLearning team had been incubated long enough and would establish a new brand.

As a result, B Wyze eLearning Inc. was born. Victims of our own success, it soon became clear that the “B Wyze” brand was being diluted. The Corporate Education buyer was very different from the IT Services buyer. Simultaneously, we began launching a new team under the banner of MindMuze. Over the past 12 months, MindMuze has established a reputation for excellence in innovative eLearning products. It just made sense to combine B Wyze eLearning and their services, with the MindMuze product portfolio, in order to create one remarkable brand focused on learning solutions. Phew….that was a mouth full.

B Wyze Holdings now has three wholly owned subsidiaries - among them, B Wyze Solutions and MindMuze. The B Wyze Solutions brand will remain focused on IT Service Management excellence and continue to innovate in that space. While they will offer some eLearning products and select eLearning services, they do so only as it relates to serving the IT Services buyer.

Look for MindMuze to explode onto the scene (too dramatic?) with more innovative learning solutions (Mobile Learning, Virtual 3D worlds, Learning 2.0 etc.).

The transition will be smooth. I hope that you enjoy the new MindMuze site. We are looking for your feedback and your blog comments!

Thanks for listening,

Rick Beaudry, Co-Founder

Congress is shocked that companies like Google (and Yahoo! and Microsoft and AOL… the list goes on) are using cookies to track where us web surfers go in order to serve up better ads.

I think Microsoft gave the best response - silence.

Are you kidding me?

I have spent a lot of time this week discussing the evolving corporate learning challenges presented by Web 2.0 and the growing influence of social networking. There is wisdom in the “crowd”. Many of us, however, fear the “crowd”. If memory serves me, the corporate “we” also feared fax machines, email, and the internet, all within the last 20 years. The “crowd” is now ever-present in this Web 2.0 universe. Thought leaders are not running for the exits or erecting fences, rather they are embracing the opportunity to harness the wisdom of the “crowd”. Mzinga has now successfully published the first truly crowd-authored book. - a book authored by thousands, and assembled in a cohesive final copy.

Dell, Intel, and Ace Hardware, to name a few, have taken to the community to share, to teach, to author, to design and to improve. Web 2.0 is now Learning 2.0. Intel has published two year results indicating over 5,000 authors of new learning content.

However, the prevailing corporate attitude still remains pessimistic and guarded. “What will the say?”; “Who will see it?”; “How will we control what they say?”; “What if they say something wrong?”. On the surface, valid concerns. The reality is that social networking, workplace informal communities, airing dirty laundry… it is all happening anyway. The innovators are finding a way to learn, adapt and leverage.

Running in parallel to the new Web 2.0 communities we are faced with the reality of Generational Differences in the workplace. Increasingly, the Gen Y’s are making up a significant proportion of the workplace. They are driving this change in how students now learn.

I suggest a learning strategy that involves the historically popular blended components - classroom, job aids, eLearning modules, job shadowing, etc…. and of course - let’s always be thinking about business metrics. This next generation of learning leadership will consider the wisdom of the “crowd” and their mobile device capabilities to ensure optimum results. Be careful about too much resistance in the short term. It is happening all around you.

RB

1,800 courses online in 11 months. All in a days work.

In February 2007, MIT went on the record and said that 1,800 courses at the university would be online by 2008. This was a truly remarkable statement considering the amount of knowledge and clout inherent in MIT’s curriculum.

While the push began in 2001, as an Open CourseWare Programme, the premise was that this information was best served free (with obvious provisions against commercial re-use).

Now, in April 2008, more than 1,800 courses are online and available for download - the entire MIT course database. Everything from student work to lecture notes.

Welcome to a time when learning should, and will be, democratized.

MindMuze is coming. Very soon.

In the meantime, thanks for visiting!

Update: Did we mention the “very soon” part? Please excuse this blogger’s excitement.