Digital whiteboards of one form or another have been popping up for well over a decade now. And like all technologies, they have evolved a great deal in that time. So now, there a whole continuum of things which fit the umbrella concept in some way or another. In order to keep focus here I want to start with a contextual definition of just what I mean by a digital whiteboard.
For purposes of this article, I’m defining digital whiteboards as devices which are coupled to a computing device and a often a large format display of some sort. They may use physical dry-erase markers with specialized sleeves or fully electronic styluses for the purposes of user input. In either case, they are intended to capture what is drawn or written in real time, create digital ink, and ideally manipulate the user interface of the driving computer. They consist of both hardware, as described above, and software, which can offer a whole range of capabilities.
There are a number of older technologies which provide for printing of the content of a dry erase surface, but those are below the scope of this text simply because their capabilities, while useful, are limited to that printed output and so don’t offer the features I want to discuss.
So, what are the features of digital whiteboards as defined above?
Collaboration
Ink is physical, it exists in one place at one time. People who aren’t in that place at that time can’t see it. Digital ink is virtual, and can be transmitted over the tubes to many locations at the same time. Digital whiteboards can be used to extend a meeting well beyond the walls of a single room, and this is of course a very useful feature as more and more organization move towards distributed, telepresent based work.
Efficiency - of both time and space
Every physical whiteboard in the world has had the words ‘do not erase’ written on its surface at one time or another. Board space is expensive, and shouldn’t have to be tied up if others might need it. (though there is nothing wrong with using a board as a long term working storage if you can spare the space, of course)
Almost everyone in an office or classroom environment has had the job of scribe at some point. People time is even more expensive and shouldn’t have to be used to copy down the output of a meeting if that can be avoided. Whether thats to free up space for the next group, or to capture and distribute the ideas generated, digital ink saves lots of time and effort. The fact remains that something still has to be done with that captured content, so we aren’t eliminating the need for further processing to turn those scribbles into useful information, but simply eliminating the time and potential for error in transcription is valuable.
Interactivity
Moving past the idea of just digital ink being captured, transmitted, and stored in real time, the better digital whiteboards are really interactive, large format, pen based computer interfaces. Pen interfaces are very powerful where suitable software exists to drive them. I’ve written elsewhere on the current state of pen computing, and manipulating a computer’s full interface with a stylus while using it as a digital whiteboard board is one of those very effective pen based capabilities which is applicable across industries.
Interactivity can even improve collaboration, because the shared virtual space can be manipulated in multiple locations by multiple users at the same time (either simultaneously or with handoffs to keep things under control). I personally prefer the term interactive whiteboard, and feel this is the best part of this concept, but digital whiteboard is a broader term which doesn’t really require this feature while still providing the first two.
These three core features: Collaboration, Efficiency, and Interactivity, are all capable of drastically changing the way work is done and ideas are shared among work groups. So again, they are great. Unfortunately, also they tend be rather expensive and bulky/lacking in portability, both of these facts have limited their proliferation.
Available Products
The best out there right now, in my experience, are Smart Technologies Smartboards. They work very well, but their capabilities are reflected in their cost. Smarttech actually sells a number of different products, using different technical approaches. These range from modified (feature limited) and rebranded Wacom Graphires (Smart Airliner) and Cintiqs (Smart Sympodium) to front and rear projector systems and plasma screen overlays. Smart Tech also has the excellent software for in-room and remote collaboration.
PolyVision is more or less on par with Smart Tech in both cost and capability, though I will admit I only have limited experience with this brand. They, too, have a range of products including hardware and software.
One (big) step down in cost you will find products from eBeam and Mimio. These consist of a portable component which is attached to a surface as needed, and which can therefore be transported fairly easily. Both of these company’s products use infrared or sonic styluses or sleeves holding real dry erase markers to do their thing. And since they are portable, they can work on a wide range of surfaces, although they can be a bit touchy in their tracking accuracy. For example, the sonic devices work best when the pen is perpendicular to the plane of the surface. I don’t write that way normally, and while they don’t degrade to unusable, echos and all that can cause some drop in accuracy.
Both eBeam and Mimio offer capture only and fully interactive products, and I will say that I did really like eBeam’s interactive control panel. But after using both of these extensively I wanted to go back to the Smartboard, so to speak. Though again, this class of product is far less expensive than the Smart and PolyVision offerings, so that’s a plus for sure.
Roll your own
As mentioned, Smart Tech sells modified Wacoms. And pen enabled computers, such as TabletPCs use the same technologies. There is no real reason you can’t use any pen enabled device, attach it to a projector, and draw from a seat or podium. I do this quite often with a Thinkpad tablet and various drawing programs or even the pen enabled Mindjet Mindmanager. Whatever you use, you will need to find software that works well for your specific needs. I believe you can purchase Smart’s software on it’s own if that’s a path you want to take.
Also know that you won’t be standing at a board/screen but instead using the tablet itself to make your marks. This may be a good thing if you want very large format output or if you are working from your (home) office and are really in it for the remote collaboration capabilities.
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