Ask HN: Smart Boards for Whiteboarding?

3 points·paledot··4 comments

I rely heavily on whiteboarding for planning architectures and just organizing my thoughts, and trying to transpose that to remote work and virtual whiteboards has not been easy. Has anyone tried using a classroom-style smart board in place of a traditional whiteboard? Something I should try or stay away from?

View on HN

This app lets you keep your traditional whiteboard while working remotely. Still in beta but decent.

https://sharetheboard.com

They are ok and not that complicated. We use them at the college and they work ok for the non-technical teachers.

I do wonder though, if it will actually be the best solution. I have been thinking on this issue for a bit since I really wonder if we are doing it correctly.

What if you got a normal whiteboard and point a camera at it, get a document camera, hdmi cam for video conferencing, and an ATEM mini[1]. It might be cheaper than a lot of smart board options and a whole lot more versatile. I get the feeling that setting up a home office is going to be different in the telecommute era.

1) https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/atemmini

In fact, I currently have a webcam dedicated to my whiteboard, and I switch inputs in Zoom when necessary. It works decently, but of course no one else can drive. Not sure that's specifically the problem I'm trying to solve - attempts at virtual whiteboarding just have me wondering if there are ways to improve on my analog process.

Recently joined a company where everyone has a touchscreen, not everyone has a pen. But even still, this factor alone has made technical collaboration easy, haven't tried the one in zoom, but the whiteboard built into teams has been very useful.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com