A collaborative whiteboard program

[Pengwuino]

A collaborative "whiteboard" program

I tend to find myself helping out my friend on his homework once in a while and i find that it would be sooooooooooo much better if i could actually show him hte work I'm doing and exactly what I'm talking about. Does anyone know of a virtual "whiteboard" program that I can run that he can connect to over the net? I've tried MSN messenger's whiteboard program but it never works! I and i and it never works!

Also, what's a good tablet? Are they useful for handwriting on the computer? I have a sneaking suspicion that it does not transmit fast enough so that you're writing is real-time (as opposed to like a 1/2 second delay).

 

[torsuer]

Go to www.imaginationcubed.com for a web-based whiteboard that does not require installation of any software. It's neat and works!

I use a Wacom Intuos pen tablet to write on the whiteboard.

 

[robphy]

I tend to find myself helping out my friend on his homework once in a while and i find that it would be sooooooooooo much better if i could actually show him hte work I'm doing and exactly what I'm talking about. Does anyone know of a virtual "whiteboard" program that I can run that he can connect to over the net? I've tried MSN messenger's whiteboard program but it never works! I and i and it never works!

Also, what's a good tablet? Are they useful for handwriting on the computer? I have a sneaking suspicion that it does not transmit fast enough so that you're writing is real-time (as opposed to like a 1/2 second delay).

Have you tried NetMeeting ( conf.exe )? However, you might have trouble if you are both behind a firewall. (Can a tunnel be setup somehow?)

One thing you could try if a firewall is an issue: use VNC or something similar to view the client computer's NetMeeting whiteboard. You'll have to set up a protocol with your friend to write since you'll both be able to fight over the mouse cursor. (Some flavors of VNC allow one to share certain windows and to view with tolerably-degraded resolution, color-depth, and compression ... to cut down on bandwidth needs.)

You can try a java based whiteboard
http://www.google.com/search?q=java+whiteboard

The flash-based whiteboard posted by torsuer looks good.

Some others:
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Communications/Conferencing/

If you have access to a "Blackboard".com system,
the whiteboard feature may be available.

Handwriting with a mouse is crude. A Wacom tablet is better. A tabletPC is even better since your ink appears below your pen's tip on the tabletPC's screen (as opposed to on the monitor).

I can send (TabletPC) ink in an MSN Messenger chat window.
I haven't tried any real-time ink-based collaboration.
I use a Gateway/Motion M1200 slate... as a virtual blackboard that I project (with a computer projector) for my students. Yes, it's useful and very natural to handwrite with a tabletPC. I can edit the ink and a saved document may be searched (since the system tries to do real-time recognition).