Need a free interactive virtual whiteboard

February 8, 2007 2:41 PM

Online interactive whiteboards. Are there any alternatives to GE's imagination3.com (can't move things around, you have to erase the whole thing and start over), groupboard (I'm looking for a free one, not a demo that expires) or sharing a desktop and using powerpoint? What about FF extensions? Open source?
posted by yoga to computers & internet (6 comments total)

If you're an MS shop, I believe MS Netmeeting has something like this, where you have basically a shared paint document. (IIRC) Maybe searching on things like collaborative drawing or shared drawing or something like that might net you some results.
posted by !Jim at 2:53 PM on February 8, 2007

Netmeeting is being deprecated. The Messenger tool has an existing 1:1 whiteboard as well. Do you need a many-to-many whiteboard, a one-to-many, or a one-to-one? The first option is the hardest to satisfy for free, although I expect applications exist for that.
posted by hincandenza at 3:54 PM on February 8, 2007

I don't know what the etiquette is on this, but I'm a designer/developer on a tool that might be exactly what you're looking for. You can find the link in my profile - it's listed as my website. It's free, does many-to-many, focuses on text, but does freehand drawing, arrows, and images as well. All in browser, no plugins to download.

That said, there's a lot it doesn't do. If you're looking for a powerpoint + markup app, this isn't it. It's also definitely not a drawing program. It intentionally doesn't have tons of drawing features like full color selection, line widths, shapes, background colors, etc.

If you have specific questions about our app, I'd be happy to answer over email, but I'm (obviously) kind of biased and don't want to wear out my welcome by too much public self promotion.
posted by heresiarch at 5:05 PM on February 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

Thanks all, it's a one to one most of the time, sometimes a many to one. emailing momentarily...
posted by yoga at 5:24 PM on February 8, 2007

Skype has one called "Sketch Pad" that's pretty basic and so might not meet all your requisites, but it is free, good for one on one (plus adds good communication), and light.
posted by shokod at 3:09 AM on February 9, 2007

I just had a meeting with a company called LinkSys which created a product called WorldWideWhiteboard, for use in on-line classrooms. It's not exactly 'advanced' but there it is. Also, Adobe Connect (formerly Breeze) has an interactive whiteboard.
posted by spicynuts at 8:29 AM on February 9, 2007