TheBoard: Collaborative Whiteboard powered by matrix protocol and infrastucture | Hacker News Reader

TheBoard: Collaborative Whiteboard powered by matrix protocol and infrastucture

github.com

128 pointsingve21 comments

I love the explosion in whiteboard collaborative tools, but I am so frustrated how none of them support pressure sensitive styluses. Pressure sensitivity is extremely important for a natural writing experience and creation of good diagrams while giving lessons with such tools. Regrettably, even browser support for the required (standard) pointer event APIs is really buggy, so one needs to use native apps for now.

95% of whiteboard apps I've used have unreasonable latency.

I'm not talking about network latency, but in the browser, on my end. If the drawing is 300ms behind the cursor, handwriting is wonky.

Microsoft got this right in their early Surface stuff, but somehow messed it up in Teams. Google does this wrong. Zoom does this wrong. There are a few things which does this well, but it's rare.

Teams is electron, so you're still in the browser and an abstraction from the hardware.

LYNX Whiteboard does pressure and with the 7.4 release later this year it will add an ink bleed effect. The question is if your hardware supports pressure data.

Disclosure, I work on the project.

https://www.lynxcloud.app

I have no idea what this is from that webpage

Wow, there is just no information at all about it. A few clicks leads to the user manual, which also assumes you know what it is: https://download.saharasupport.com/Documents/LynxHowToGuide..... There's a little more information on the app stores, mostly hidden in the loud video: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clevertouc..., https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/lynx-whiteboard/9np33m4m3r.... It seems to be mainly focused on lesson planning and classroom use.

I have some questions that the site doesn't seem to answer:

Does this do live audio and video, or do you use something like Zoom alongside it?

Can students write with a finger on a phone?

Can students log in to the same session multiple times, e.g. phone to write, computer to view on a bigger screen?

It seems to be free at the moment, so what's the business model?

Do teachers have classroom management features like muting and kicking out?

Is it possible to type as well as write? Is it possible to type maths?

Got to plug Concepts app. Pressure sensitivity included. Multiplatform. And opposed to MS Whiteboard, you can save your work in your own disc and sync it with whatever tool you want. It has been a game changer for me. No collaboration though.

I am looking for solution for collaborating online with my math research colleagues using a virtual whiteboard. Unfortunately, most browser based whiteboards run out of memory or have other issues - I am talking about 3-4 hour long sessions consisting of dozens of pages of math. Right now, we take turns sharing our screens on zoom and writing on our own whiteboard software (OpenBoard, some Mac whiteboard etc.). This is less than ideal because only one person can write at a time, which is not how we work in person on paper or actual whiteboards.

The best I have found is http://www.styluslabs.com/ But our one session with it ended with repeated disconnections and one person couldn't even connect. Not to mention it is completely insecure (http connections), and the whiteboard part of the software is not that impressive.

Any suggestions?

Microsoft Whiteboard has been good for extremely large network planning diagrams for me. Probably not nearly as many individual strokes though so not sure how it performs in that regard. It is available a MS Store App on Windows and it's accessible in the browser via O365.

Im looking into building a research collaboration platform, would like it to be like a google drive with markdown/latex.

Does that sound something appealing to work in a web document, instead of white boarding?

Overleaf provides collaborative LaTeX [0]

[0] https://www.overleaf.com/

last time I used it, it didn't play well with simultaneous editing

There are plenty of text based collaboration platforms, like Overleaf or Google/Microsoft docs etc, and they work well.

They do not replicate how scientists actually work in person. Text is often the last step, after much free form work on whiteboards and paper. That is what is missing from the market right now.

Perhaps drawpile: https://drawpile.net/ is worth a look. I have seen people create rather large artworks with it, you even have support for pressure sensitivity. It does not run on tablets though as there is only a desktop version.

Excalidraw?

https://excalidraw.com

Works pretty nicely for me. Also, a great idea to play pictionary in this by drawing on this and chatting in the same room in a normal Matrix client. (and prob many other more productive uses)

Is it a shameless plug if the tool you're working on addresses the very issues being discussed? At the risk of plugging...

To all commenters on this thread: please check out https://sharetheboard.com

Our app identifies and digitizes handwritten content from any analog surface (not just whiteboards) in real time, while ignoring obstructions. You can share via videoconference (screen sharing) or stream your content straight to recipients' browsers. Soon we will have fully-integrated videoconferencing.

Desktop app now, Web version launching this/next week. Digital annotations will follow within another 1-2 weeks (allowing viewers to add to the board with their fingers or cursors).

We are of the opinion that no digital look-alike can fully replicate a true writing experience. There is something... frictionless about using your shoulder/elbow/hand as nature intended when pouring content onto a surface at the speed of thought. The challenge, as we see it, is not to replicate that experience but to let tech do the heavy lifting: digitize the content and make it easy to share with other people/apps. Oh, and we believe your laptop/phone should suffice - no dedicated, wall-mounted hardware needed.

We're very close to leaving beta. I'd love some feedback or questions from the power users on this thread. Thanks in advance.

I'd be very interested in trying the browser version. I use Firefox on Linux, as do a number of our engineers. As long as you're not doing something chrome specific, I'll kick the tires.

Firefox on Linux - no problem.

Soft launch of browser version next week at the latest. Write me at "marcin" [at] "sharetheboard.com" and I'll setup a shortcut for you to test it.

Yes!!! So great. I want to incorporate this into a paid project on top of matrix. Reach out if you think you’d like to work on a sellable product that would build open source

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