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Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

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Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#111
post #44

Here's the best set up I've used so far: 1) Get the cheapest iPad that supports the Apple Pencil. The 2018 non-Pro was this for me last I looked. 2) Get the Google Jamboard app (not the Jamboard hardware, it is not at all worth it). 3) Share the "jam" with yourself on a different device (a nearby laptop) 4) Screenshare the laptop. Things I think any virtual whiteboard scheme needs to have: 1) You need to be able to s…

If using Google Meet (we do internally):

1) ditto

2) join meeting from ipad (in addition to camera/mic device)

3) present screen from ipad

Then you can use any pencil app you like. I use one called "Coloring" that my kid uses. It's really simple and doesn't get in the way.

I presume the same would work for any other videoconf tool, eg zoom.

The benefit over your method is that you still have the additional headshot view, since you're joined to the meeting twice. Can the jam app not join a google meet "natively"?

It's not collaborative, in that any other participant can edit the drawing, so it doesn't answer the originally posed question. But I've found that for the most part, even in person, just one person really "drives" the whiteboard. With the tiny screen size afforded over video, you aren't really going to benefit much from having multiple people be able to edit anyway. For that kind of collaboration you really need 2-3 6' wide whiteboards in a large room.

I feel the benefit of having a second, independently presenting device for the whiteboard, while still being able to participate with your talking head view, outweighs (by far) the downside of only one editor.

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#112
post #94
post #64

I use MSFT whiteboard with my surface pro 7 and share it over teams. (teams also has a whiteboard tool, but for some reason it is very clunky) If it doesn't have to be collaborative, then I use Onenote, because the scribbles can be saved as meeting notes. It helps that I work at MSFT and everyone uses Windows + has whiteboard installed.

OneNote can be collaborative. It also runs reasonably well on an iPad with Apple Pencil. I used this combo for a remote meeting recently while we were all on teams for audio. Some people were using OneNote on Windows and drawing with a mouse. There was occasional sync/lag issues, but I will certainly try it again. The Teams Whiteboard is pretty bad, and clunky to get to in the middle of a meeting. Most Teams users do…

> OneNote can be collaborative

I have moved to it last week. Let's see how it goes. I love how convenient it is that my natural brainstorming serves as detailed meeting notes.

> easy way to point at things on the whiteboard

I use whiteboard on my surface, and then project my screen instead of starting whiteboard from team. That way I can point at stuff, but it is harder to be collaborative.

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#113
post #54
post #44

Here's the best set up I've used so far: 1) Get the cheapest iPad that supports the Apple Pencil. The 2018 non-Pro was this for me last I looked. 2) Get the Google Jamboard app (not the Jamboard hardware, it is not at all worth it). 3) Share the "jam" with yourself on a different device (a nearby laptop) 4) Screenshare the laptop. Things I think any virtual whiteboard scheme needs to have: 1) You need to be able to s…

If you have a Mac, you can connect the iPad to it and share the contents of the screen directly (via QuickTime). The latency is lower and you can share drawings outside Jamboard. https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/26/tip-record-your-i...

you no longer have to connect via wire. you can remote the ipad screen via quicktime, over LAN.

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#114
post #2

I love https://excalidraw.com Christopher Chedeau did a recent talk on nice challenges they had building it in the open https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fix2-SynPGE I want to build a plugin for Figma to embed Excalidraw inside Figma as I use Figma for all my design work already.

Excalidraw looks great. Sadly the Firefox support for Tablets is very poor. However, after switching to Chrome, everything worked as expected.

It never ocurred to me that Excalidraw worked with tablets.

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#115
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a Mac, you can connect the iPad to it and share the contents of the screen directly (via QuickTime). The latency is lower and you can share drawings outside Jamboard. https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/03/26/tip-record-your-i...

you no longer have to connect via wire. you can remote the ipad screen via quicktime, over LAN.

Really? I use QuickTime for screen recording all the time, I've never been able to do it over LAN. Just tried it now and the iPad only shows up as a video source when plugged in.

Are you sure you're not thinking of SideCar?

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#116
Shared whiteboards and a good audio connection are FAR more important than most videoconferencing solutions. Microsoft's Surface line kicks Apple's iPads around the block here, at least partly because the Surface "pen" has a built-in "eraser", but Apple's "pencil" doesn't. Windows Whiteboard is a pretty decent starter solution here, and runs on both Windows and iOS. Run in conjunction with Zoom or Teams, it's a pretty darn usable setup.

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#117
Osmo "base + reflector" for iPad, a document camera "whiteboard" for video conference.

>> I don’t want to look like promotional, but recently a professor used an Osmo reflector (https://twitter.com/romps/status/1237617042338897921?s=12) to project class notes and it caught on with teachers.

>> A team worked through the weekend and released a free app to make this super easy (https://twitter.com/PlayOsmo/status/1241152565083090947).

>> While the base + reflector is not free, if you already have an Osmo game at home, you can reuse that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22660301

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#118
post #44

Here's the best set up I've used so far: 1) Get the cheapest iPad that supports the Apple Pencil. The 2018 non-Pro was this for me last I looked. 2) Get the Google Jamboard app (not the Jamboard hardware, it is not at all worth it). 3) Share the "jam" with yourself on a different device (a nearby laptop) 4) Screenshare the laptop. Things I think any virtual whiteboard scheme needs to have: 1) You need to be able to s…

If using Google Meet (we do internally): 1) ditto 2) join meeting from ipad (in addition to camera/mic device) 3) present screen from ipad Then you can use any pencil app you like. I use one called "Coloring" that my kid uses. It's really simple and doesn't get in the way. I presume the same would work for any other videoconf tool, eg zoom. The benefit over your method is that you still have the additional headshot v…

the jam app used to be able to join google meets natively but when i checked most recently it appears they removed that feature :(

strong agree on having an independent device for whiteboarding so you can see heads is more important than the collaborative part, if you had to pick one. so much context is provided in seeing if heads are nodding or looking confused

Re: Ask HN: What collaborative whiteboard are you using?

#119

Osmo "base + reflector" for iPad, a document camera "whiteboard" for video conference. >> I don’t want to look like promotional, but recently a professor used an Osmo reflector ( https://twitter.com/romps/status/1237617042338897921?s=12 ) to project class notes and it caught on with teachers. >> A team worked through the weekend and released a free app to make this super easy ( https://twitter.com/PlayOsmo/status/124…

oh this is actually really good and it's just a $10 mirror! you can see the people you're presenting to, and while they can't see your face, they can see what you're writing. what a neat idea
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