caption website birth_place image article_title name occupation
ali jafari in 2004 -lsb- http://thecn.com/aj10] isfahan , iran ajafari2004.jpg ali jafari
 ali jafari , ph.d. . professor cyberlab , founder and ceo of course networking -lrb- thecn.com of -rrb- computer and information technology , director of
ali jafari

ali jafari -lrb- , is a serial entrepreneur who is well known for his research and entrepreneurship in the area of information technology -lrb- it -rrb- , more specifically , on development of a series of learning management system -lrb- s -rrb- -lrb- lms -rrb- .
dr. jafari is currently working as a professor of computer and information technology at the purdue school of engineering and technology and director of the cyberlab at indiana university-purdue university indianapolis -lrb- iupui -rrb- .
he continues to bring innovation and new perspectives to the smart learning environment industry to make teaching and learning easier and more powerful .
ali jafari earned his bs in business administration from the university of isfahan , iran , before he moved to the united states to pursue a ms in media technology at the university of wisconsin .
he completed doctorate studies in telecommunications/mass communication from indiana university in bloomington , indiana .
since then , jafari has envisioned , created and commercialized four major software systems , which are competing among a dozen internationally known lms products such as blackboard , moodle , desire2learn , etc. .
jafari 's projects included indiana university 's -lrb- 1999 -rrb- oncourse -lrb- now sakai -rrb- , angel learning management system -lrb- 2000 -rrb- , epsilen environment , and coursenetworking , llc or thecn.com -lrb- 2011 -rrb- .
in less than a decade angel became an industry competitor and was acquired -lrb- may 2009 -rrb- by blackboard for $ 100 million .
by forming a partnership and securing venture capital from the new york times company , epsilen became one of the fastest growing it companies headquartered in indianapolis in 2008 -lrb- www.epsilen.com -rrb- .
his most recent company , coursenetworking , llc -lrb- the cn -rrb- -lrb- www.coursenetworking.com -rrb- , began in 2011 with seed funding from indiana university and dr. jafari .
the cn -lrb- thecn.com -rrb- will combine learning management and social networking to form a new solution to teaching and learning .
this will be done through academic networking that is free and open to the world .
in this environment , learning becomes more social , engaging , interesting , global , open , and free -lrb- use of cn is free to end users and schools throughout the world -rrb- .
