PROMINENT E-LEARNING EXPERTS LAUNCH STARTUP TO COMMERCIALIZE BREAKTHROUGH PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORKING SOFTWARE
First Product, KnowledgeWorkshop, Enables Creation, Management and Sharing of Personal Knowledge Bases

State College, PA – June 28, 2004 – Graham Glynn, PhD, a neuroscientist and director the Center for Learning & Academic Technologies at Penn State University, has joined with other e-learning experts to found Learning Management Solutions, a developer of personal knowledge management and personal knowledge networking software. The company’s first product, KnowledgeWorkshop, allows computer users to create, manage, share and publish knowledge bases covering all aspects of their personal and professional lives. “KnowledgeWorkshop is the glue that integrates all computer-based information sources, such as Web pages, news groups and personal computer files, into one simple personal knowledge management system,” said Dr. Glynn. “KnowledgeWorkshop tackles knowledge management from the user’s perspective, enabling users to categorize, structure and share information in a personally relevant way with online Web page highlighting, embedded notes and bi-directional linking. Traditional learning and knowledge management systems fall short because they’re rigid, monolithic and impersonal, and focus on accessing institutionalized knowledge as opposed to creating and sharing personal knowledge. ”The software enables knowledge sharing and collaboration across geographic distances. Zoltan Rado, for example, director of Penn State’s vehicle systems and safety program and an early beta tester of KnowledgeWorkshop, plans to use the software as a research collaboration tool with counterparts in Japan. The researchers are developing improved anti-skid airline braking systems for slippery surfaces such as icy runways, drawing upon their individual expertise in physics, chemistry and mechanical engineering.
“KnowledgeWorkshop has the potential to change the way researchers such as myself collaborate and innovate,” said Rado, who is one of the world’s leading experts on the friction characteristics of both airline and automobile pavement. “KnowledgeWorkshop streamlines the research and knowledge building process. The software removes a dimension of time associated with collaborative knowledge building. In the past, we’d have to annotate documents with handwritten notes, then fax the documents and get on the phone to explain. With KnowledgeWorkshop we can share knowledge under a consistent logic structure that helps us innovate airline anti-skid solutions faster than would otherwise be possible.”

How KnowledgeWorkshop Works
KnowledgeWorkshop leverages constructivist learning theory, which posits that the human brain builds knowledge most effectively by creating associations and connections between individual pieces of information.
KnowledgeWorkshop helps computer users create personally relevant associations and connections between information drawn from virtually any computer-based source, including Web pages, email, and personal computer files such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, databases and personal information managers. KnowledgeWorkshop users can easily share their knowledgebases, called “knodules,” with other via e-mail.

Peer-to-Peer Support to Enable Real-Time Knowledgebase Collaboration
Learning Management Systems will add peer-to-peer support for KnowledgeWorkshop later this year. As virtual workgroups update their knowledgebases, the knowledgebases of their collaborators will automatically update. Penn State’s Zoltan Rado believes the peer-to-peer capabilities will transform KnowledgeWorkshop into a personal knowledge networking platform. He sees application in a wide range of collaborate research projects, including his anti-skid braking research. “With peer-to-peer support, as my collaborators in Japan and elsewhere update their knowledgebases with notes, video files and images, my personal knowledgebase will automatically updated as well,” added Rado.

Learning Management Solutions Founded by Team of E-Learning Experts
Learning Management Solutions is an entrepreneurial spin-off of a pioneering e-learning project that began in 1999 when Creighton University, one of the Midwest’s leading education institutions, sought to create the world’s first accredited online school of pharmacy. A team of academics and technology experts, lead by Dr. Glynn, a world-renowned e-learning expert, developed prototype knowledge management technology dubbed LEADE, which was successfully deployed by Creighton two years later. The system immediately proved itself a superior learning tool when online pharmacy students earned better test scores than their on-campus counterparts.
In 2002, upon completion of the project, Dr. Glynn acquired exclusive rights from Creighton to commercialize the technology, and formed Learning Management Solutions with co-founder Carlos Galavis, an expert technologist who worked with Glynn on the LEADE team at Creighton University and who now serves as vice president of development. After two years of additional research and software development, Learning Management Solutions this month began shipping KnowledgeWorkshop.
Learning Management Solutions’ management team is rounded out by Stephen Brooks, vice president for product management and European Operations, a former director of research and development for ATT; and Kenneth Glynn, vice president of business operations, a former management consultant with Deloitte & Touche.

KnowledgeWorkshop Available in Two Versions
Two versions of KnowledgeWorkshop are available, KnowledgeWorkshop Personal and KnowledgeWorkshop Professional. KnowledgeWorkshop Personal is idea for individuals who are new to knowledge management and want to begin building a personal knowledge base. KnowledgeWorkshop Professional includes all the features of the Personal version plus additional advanced features for people for whom knowledge management is a central aspect of their professional life. Following is a feature summary:

Personal Version Feature:
Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Internet Explorer browser.
Organize thousands of files and web pages into topic information trees.
Multi-tabbed browser windows.
Search of page title and description.
Apply permanent multi-color highlighting to web pages.
Create associations between information elements.
Pop-up blocker.
Authentication management.
Import/Export knodules as XML packages with web content and local files.
Synchronization and offline web access.
Import favorites from IE.

Newsgroups
The Professional version adds the following features:
Create an independent notes based knowledge database. Easily copy information from information elements into notes.
Add annotations to highlights.
Display lists of highlighted web content and sort/filter by highlight style and other properties.
Tasks & reminders.
Indexing and search of web page and file content.
Create a Keyword Index and use it quickly find information.
Use categories to refine search results.
Attachment files to notes etc.
Track time spent on pages and use it to sort information elements.
Rating content understanding (flag expertise).
Import/export knodules with attachments.
Crawl a web site and build a topic tree based on its structure.
Simultaneously add multiple files to a topic tree.
Include notes, keyword index information and attachments in your XML exports.

Pricing and Availability
KnowledgeWorkshop begins shipping today, with pricing starting at $29.95 for KnowledgeWorkshop Personal and $189.00 for KnowledgeWorkshop Professional. Both versions are available for free trial download at http://www.lmsweb.com. Volume and educational discounts are available.

About Learning Management Solutions, LLC.
Founded in 2002, Learning Management Solutions develops the KnowledgeWorkshop family of personal knowledge management and knowledge networking software. The software allows students and professionals to create, manage and share personal knowledge bases composed of an infinite variety of computer-based information sources. The company is privately held and to date has been funded by seed capital from angel investors and founders. The company is located at 18 Miller Place Road, Miller Place, NY 11764, USA and can be reached on the Web at http://www.lmsweb.com or via e-mail by clicking here.