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Case Studies

Through a series of case studies, NCTI is bringing to light important elements of collaboration. Every month, NCTI will post a new case study that examines innovation and partnerships. Click here to view all Case Studies.

A Tale of Two Collaborations

Cameos of Our Featured Collaborators

Gaylen KappermanDr. GAYLEN KAPPERMAN holds the position of professor and coordinator of the Programs in Vision Northern Illinois University’s College of Education. His professional work has focused on preparing personnel to work with visually disabled person to enable them to meet the challenges which they must overcome to lead productive, independent lives. Kapperman's major interests focus on the development of strategies and methods for increasing the effectiveness of mathematics instruction for visually disabled students. In addition, he is interested in the development of methods for providing effective instruction in the use of assistive technology for visually disabled persons of all ages. He uses an array of assistive technologies for carrying out his work because he is severely visually disabled. He reads Braille and uses a guide dog.

Steve Landau STEVEN LANDAU is President and Founder of Touch Graphics, Inc., a New York City-based small business that focuses on developing new computer technologies intended for use by individuals who are blind or visually impaired.  The company has carried out numerous federally-funded research and development projects through grants through the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education.  Products developed include a Talking Tactile Tablet, an inexpensive computer system for running interactive audio-tactile applications; touch-sensitive talking models for museum exhibits; and a way-finding system that allows science museum visitors to independently navigate the exhibit space using their own cell phones to trigger environmental audio beacons.   Mr. Landau received a BA in Art from Oberlin College, and a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University. He worked for 12 years as an architect before forming Touch Graphics in 1998.

Matt Kaplowitz MATTHEW KAPLOWITZ is an Emmy, Grammy and Peabody Award-winning producer and composer and a Founding Partner and Director of Technology and Content Innovation for Bridge Multimedia Corporation.   For the past 4 years, in association with the American Foundation for the Blind, he has been leading the research and development teams implementing universally accessible technology and supporting content for entertainment and educational media.  Projects currently in production include the Universal eLearner (TM); the BridgeBuilder(TM), a fully 508-compliant digital asset management application; the original cast album of "WEIGHTS: One Blind Man's Journey," by Lynn Manning; the first K-3 children's trade book simultaneously deploying text and Braille, and fully available as an eBook download; and a 22-minute video for K-12 classroom teachers showing best practices for blind and low vision students.

By Judy Karasik
Posted February 2, 2005

At the November 2004 NCTI conference, researcher Gaylen Kapperman met representatives from two separate New York-based businesses: Touch Graphics and Bridge Multimedia. He continued conversations with both. In one case, the talk led to an active partnership; in another, despite a productive exchange of ideas, no immediate commitment followed. Both processes, however, were useful and necessary exercises in collaboration.

Case Number One

Moving Conversation to Commitment: Gaylen Kapperman and Steven Landau/Touch Graphics  

What are the stages that move a promising collaboration from conversation to commitment? The newly-minted partnership between developer Steven Landau and researcher Gaylen Kapperman is based on three elements:

  1. Mutual benefit: each needed the other and each brought a necessary piece to a project they both wanted to see accomplished
  2. Well-defined roles and responsibilities from the outset enabled them to trust each other
  3. Intellectual and professional compatibility meant that both had a sense, from the outset, that they understood one another and that their temperaments and attitudes about the field and how to do business were similar

The Project

Steve Landau, Research Director of Touch Graphics, is developing a library of tools to be used on—and so to encourage purchase of—the Talking Tactile Tablet (TTT), an inexpensive, rugged and simple computer peripheral device designed for use as a “viewer” for audio/tactile materials.

“To build the library, I need a steady stream of content,” Landau says.

Enter Gaylen Kapperman, professor and coordinator of the Programs in Vision at Northern Illinois University’s College of Education, who specializes in math instruction and effective use of AT for the visually impaired. Touch Graphics’ Research Associate Richard Holborow met Kapperman at NCTI’s November 2004 conference—and Landau followed up with a phone call. Landau’s call gave Kapperman the opportunity to add a new project to his busy schedule: Kapperman’s expertise in curriculum development and computer-based software met Landau’s need for effective new product development.

The two agreed to collaborate on a Department of Education Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant proposal.

Mutual Benefit

“A good partnership requires that the collaboration be to each individual’s benefit,” says Gaylen Kapperman. “If both sides will benefit, and neither will be harmed, then it’s usually going to work. I need resources, money—and that’s always getting harder to find. The SBIR grant is a good option. Without Steve Landau, I don’t stand a chance to get the grant, because it’s a business-based award. And without me, he has no vehicle for the grant: I’ve got the background and he needs projects.”

“Some companies try to go it alone,” Steve Landau says, “but people in the universities have huge resources. They know the literature, and that’s what granting agencies are looking for. On our side, we have production capabilities, we market, we move the product into the hands of users.”

The researcher needs resources to do important work. The vendor needs product. The vendor—a business—can apply for an SBIR grant—but not without the researcher, who provides intellectual substance, enabling the SBIR proposal to be competitive.

Well-Defined Roles and Responsibilities from the Outset

Gaylen Kapperman was frank and clear from the start about what support he would need for the project. “I don’t believe in volunteering. I have to protect myself, since I’m overwhelmed with requests to put my name in on different grants. Often I have to say no. I don’t like to do, but I work very hard. My work really is my life and I have to be sure I get paid for what I do.”

For his part, Landau negotiated intellectual property (IP) rights for the project. Touch Graphics has learned from a bad experience: it shares IP with a university on one of their most important products. That agreement has resulted in morale-eroding mistrust, time-consuming and expensive legal services, and disruptive audits. “In any collaboration, it is important to establish who owns the IP. Academics, generally, are getting paid a salary to research and publish. The grants we get together support the work. In our experience, shared IP has been nothing but a hurdle to success.”

Overall, these partners are clear about who does what—and who controls which part of the product.

In this case, defining roles and responsibilities may be possible because they can easily agree on and straightforwardly define what they want in the product. Decisions about design are likely to be fairly clear. “Either it works or it doesn’t work in programming,” says Kapperman.

The researcher gets up-front financial support, which he needs to create the product. The vendor gets the IP, which he needs to sell the product and run the business. The researcher delivers a product, and the vendor gets it to market.The researcher is clear about what the product is going to do. The vendor is clear about how the product will be sold.

Intellectual and Professional Compatibility

“When we talk, we see each other’s points,” says Steven Landau. “We both know the landscape. Touch Graphics has lots of partners and at this point I can tell when it’s going to work. Gaylen’s a pleasant guy and very smart. Of course I knew who he was before this ever came up. He’s got a tremendous reputation.”

For Kapperman, once he has made sure that a partner has solid credentials, there’s also an intuitive component. “I can tell from the way he talks- the tone of his voice. He’s honest and forthright. I always start out somewhat skeptical and usually I like to meet someone face to face, but even over the phone I was certain that Steve was no scoundrel.”

Landau and Kapperman’s similar interests, in a field that is neither tremendously large nor profitable, go a long way to establishing trust. Each respects and is grateful for the skills of the other partner.

Each wants to do his part—and does not want to do the other's part. The result promises to be a partnership with high levels of trust and few turf issues.

The partners share a vision of the field and its needs. They have vetted one another’s credentials and, partially on that basis, trust one another. They also have an intuitive trust of one another, based on conversational style, a shared network, and the fact that, already, they have been able to negotiate the terms of the partnership.

Tenacity and Serendipity

“I never, ever, let anyone down,” says Gaylen Kapperman. “My reputation is that I always come through on a project and my reputation is what enables me to work on the projects I want to work on. My reputation is what enables me to get the support I need. Once I’m committed to a project, I’m a bulldog. I never let go.”

Steven Landau has many partners. They are as far afield as Boston, Arizona, England—and soon in Asia- with less-developed but highly-populated countries like India and Thailand and smaller nations with large, affluent, and tech-savvy populations like Japan. “I got into this field by accident. I was a computer guy working on CAD issues and I got a call from a woman working on a product for limited vision users who was looking for a consultant. Now I’m running a company. Along the way you pick up relationships with a lot of people. Your success depends on it.”

Case Number Two

Building Essential Networks: Gaylen Kapperman and Matthew Kaplowitz/Bridge Multimedia

The Project

At the November 2004 NCTI conference, Matthew Kaplowitz of Bridge Multimedia presented the Universal eLearner as part of his demonstration session. The Universal eLearner is an online educational media platform with an accompanying curriculum-based methodology. The eLearner addresses the specialized needs of all segments of the student/learner population, while representing a sound business model for educational publishers.

Bridge showed Gaylen Kapperman the prototype—and the result was a lengthy and thought-provoking discussion.

The conversation didn’t stop with Kapperman’s probing questions. When Kaplowitz and his colleagues returned to New York, Bridge incorporated several additional features into the overall product design concept. They made the accompanying teacher’s and parent’s guide fully accessible. They contacted a senior ELL editor from a major publisher to assess the platform in response to other issues that Kapperman had identified.

Kaplowitz and Bridge then asked Kapperman if he would serve on the Advisory Board for a NIDRR grant. Kapperman declined—he was already part of a team submitting a NIDRR proposal in that round.

The collaboration, while bearing many of the marks of success demonstrated in the initial stages of the Kapperman/Landau partnership, fell aground because it did not meet the first criterion: mutual benefit.

As Gaylen Kapperman put it: "The reason I'm not with Matt is because it is not to our mutual benefit. It's to his benefit, but not to mine. Matt is a terrific guy, very trustworthy - his heart’s in the right place- but I’ve got a grant in the same competition.”

Kapperman went on to say, “I have the highest regard for him. I want to be clear about that.”

The future remains open. This exchange of ideas, which has enabled them to learn something about the other, not only through what they said but through what they did, makes it more probable that they will find a joint project someday. That’s important to both Kapperman and Kaplowitz, who need to cultivate new projects and new partners to stay on top of developments in the field and the marketplace, and follow the constantly moving target of applying current research to current needs.

Even when you don’t “get to yes” with an up-and-running collaboration, if partners can have a conversation of substance and approach the other potential partner with seriousness, energy, and professionalism, both sides can make strategically important additions to their networks.

Creating Partners for Tomorrow (If Not Today)

In a “pre-project” stage, colleagues who may not become partners can nonetheless learn from one another, assess one another, and develop trust—creating partners for another project, if not this one.

Kaplowitz and Kapperman, who did not move into an active partnership, nonetheless found their back-and-forth to be time well spent. Since November, they have:

Kaplowitz has ample demonstration of Kapperman’s wealth of insight and knowledge. Kapperman has seen that Kaplowitz appreciates his expertise, understands the depth of it, and knows how to produce and market into the audience.

Kaplowitz has found out that Kapperman gives quick and intelligent feedback. Kapperman sees that Kaplowitz moves equally fast to identify and tap other resources in response to the needs for improvement he has identified in the product.

The Importance of Building Your Network

Steve Landau, commenting on his own partnerships, said that “to sustain a business, I need to be developing projects at all stages, all the time.” Matthew Kaplowitz puts it this way: “There’s never enough and there’s always too much. Right now we’ve got three front-burner projects and three back-burner projects, and other projects continually come bubbling up to the surface.”

To have projects in all of those stages, it is important to create a fertile climate, professionally speaking, by continuously cultivating relationships.

Not all collaborations are feasible: Watch out for the following red flags

Avoid Partners Whose Judgment Seems Flawed

Steve Landau does not enter into partnerships with people who make products that cost too much, are impractical, or have serious design flaws.

He has had his share of offers from people with innovative, but terrible ideas. “To put it bluntly,” he says, “for some reason, this is a field that seems to attract well-meaning dilettantes: people who think they know what blind people need, who think the market is much bigger than it is, and who have some fairly crackpot ideas. For example, I once had someone approach me with an idea for cigarette lighters for the blind. There’s absolutely no need for that product.”

Pay Attention to the Early Stages

“The thing that sinks collaborations is a lack of clearly defined expectations of the results you’re aiming for,” says Matthew Kaplowitz. “I get a letter of agreement out, early on, to see if everyone’s looking at the project in the same way.” Kaplowitz soon finds out whether he and his partners are, literally, on the same page when thinking about roles, products, and deadlines. “If all of a sudden things fall apart, if they don’t agree with you about those basics, you have to be able to walk away.”

Avoid People Who Don’t Deliver On Time

Gaylen Kapperman won’t work with people who are not capable of finishing their part of a project in a timely fashion. The projects he wants to explore require collaboration as they move from one section of the team to another. When one member of the group misses a deadline, the people handling the next stage pay for it. Quality declines. Kapperman’s passion for his work, the satisfaction and pride he has in producing products that are effective, efficient, and free from flaws, means that he only works with people he can depend on.

Don’t Assess Potential Collaborators in Terms of Their Potential to Become Your Best Friend

“One of the advantages that age gives you,” says Matt Kaplowitz, “is that when you look for business partners, you’re not subconsciously trying to assess their potential to enlarge your social circle. It’s not that I don’t like the people I work with. I do. It’s just that friendship is not the primary need they meet.” Gaylen Kapperman agrees,“I tend to like the people I work with, and sometimes I work with friends, but I also have friends I do not work with because their work habits interfere with our friendship.”

Try Not to Work with People Who Are Your Competitors

Landau does not help out businesses when he believes they have tried to undercut his products. Since grants often drive development, and grants are competitively awarded, Landau and Kapperman try to avoid teaming up with their competitors. Kapperman does not lend his name to support proposals in competitions where he is also applying.

Be Wary of Imposed Collaboration

Kapperman is unenthusiastic about mandated collaboration. He chooses what he does and who he does it with. “Deans and Department Chairs often try to set us up. They bring departments together, or they bring in outsiders. It doesn’t work. It’s like a forced marriage.” Perhaps it’s because their careers—and their investigations—depend on a combination of hunches and carefully-managed choices, but according to Kapperman, researchers need to be able to make independent decisions about what they undertake.

Take It Seriously and Remember the Bottom Line

Matt Kaplowitz comments: “Collaboration is the first step in product development—which is really expensive. For what I do, there is always money involved, there has to be. In a serious collaboration, people either ante up cash, intellectual property, or expertise that is worth cash. We need that level of commitment. For us, considering the amount of money involved, partners cannot be casual. They need to make this a priority, not something they get to when they can.”