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Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

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Re: Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

#41

We've been researching solutions in this space for quite a while. We have 6x 80" smartboards and have tried everything from Lync to Realtimeboard. While some solutions work better than others, no one has solved a fundamental problem... When you try to collaborate in real time with a remote person - all the human communication cues are lost. Collaboration is a dynamic and fluid process. We subconsciously read each oth…

Two anecdotes; not sure if they help at all, but they're related and I like sharing :)

1. I work in a loud, open plan office where I wind up taking many phone discussions with 5+ participants. Since our teleconferencing software doesn't have a global push to talk, we all have to manually toggle our mic mutes, which has become an ad-hoc indicator of a desire to speak (along with the background noise that is a cue that 'someone' is thinking).

2. There's this let's play series (whose name eludes me at the moment) that doesn't have a face cam. The actors, then, are forced to constantly narrate their actions: they hmm and haw more often than normal, fill empty airspace with idle, easily uninterruptible chatter, etc. In other words, it seems like their discourse adjusts to the limitations of the medium.

Anyhow, I hope you can solve that problem before AR/VR takes over the entire space! :D

Re: Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

#42
post #5

A 40-50" (diagonal) "whiteboard" is still very small. I have a 4'x10' whiteboard right behind me, and a 6'x4' to my immediate right, and I'm always running out of room.

But on a digital board you have unlimited pages/space.

Re: Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

#43

We've been researching solutions in this space for quite a while. We have 6x 80" smartboards and have tried everything from Lync to Realtimeboard. While some solutions work better than others, no one has solved a fundamental problem... When you try to collaborate in real time with a remote person - all the human communication cues are lost. Collaboration is a dynamic and fluid process. We subconsciously read each oth…

I make a VR app for this use case: http://hyper-room.io Website doesn't show it now but there's whiteboards as well: http://i.imgur.com/TzXrRPc.jpg Currently the only nonverbal cues I can really get across are hand/head movements(with cube avatars) but as far as achieving presence goes I find that to go a long way. Even without facial expressions or complicated hand gestures having that "physical" presence seems to m…

That's really neat! The facial cues can be done today in real-time to a surprisingly high-quality degree (I do virtual filmmaking as a hobby), and with cheap mocap hardware, you could get the full upper body and what not. I'd expect when combined with the HTC Vive that you'd get a pretty decent VR experience.

Re: Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

#45

limnu.com is a beautiful web-based solution. Highly recommend.

This is so much better. I don't understand why they have to sell the hw whiteboard when everybody could see everything on their tablets and laptops, plus the screen every meeting room already has. Especially since they target remote collaboration.

Is there any app like limnu but without the paid service behind and save to any cloud or local storage?

Re: Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

#46
We run a startup and have been working on the remote-teamwork problem for a while now.

Having dabbled with hardware and partnering with hardware vendors, mainly because we believe hardware is definitely a piece of the puzzle but, to frame the problem around the device first, is the pitfall that SMART/MS SurfaceHub have all fallen into.

As others have pointed out, sinking thousands of dollars into a solution that will soon be replaced due to advancements in display technology, hardly seems worth it, especially for small to medium businesses. We designed our software so that anyone can pick it up and try it for free with their team, without worrying about needing new or fancy hardware.

Ultimately Collaboration includes all of your devices, including your big touch screens, pc's, smaller devices and whatever else that may turn up in the future (VR?). Google's offering for drawing has always been lacklustre and its a shame there is nothing we can try and use from this announcement today.

For those wondering, my startup is called Collusion (collusionapp.com).

Re: Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

#47
post #45

limnu.com is a beautiful web-based solution. Highly recommend.

This is so much better. I don't understand why they have to sell the hw whiteboard when everybody could see everything on their tablets and laptops, plus the screen every meeting room already has. Especially since they target remote collaboration. Is there any app like limnu but without the paid service behind and save to any cloud or local storage?

Agreed. Collusion https://collusionapp.com has free use (not trial), you can also download your work as a PDF/Image if you like without restriction.

Re: Jamboard – The whiteboard reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

#48
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so you are saying there's a market for a 4k 55" collaborative device that recognizes pen, multi-touch, has a camera and hopefully software that does not suck and integrates with Hangouts / Skype for Business at a lower pricepoint? Seriously though...I have yet to see the Surface Hub used anywhere apart from MS offices.

I think his point is that there is a market for business collaboration tools since remote teams are becoming more common, but for all its technical merit, a large featureful interactive whiteboard doesn't really solve the problem -- and it's a very expensive way to not solve a problem.

This is what I was saying, and:

> it's a very expensive way to not solve a problem.

is a great way to put this. Google often seems to be technology in search of a problem or users.

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