WebWhiteboard - test subjects wanted!

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

Hello EduGeeks,

 

We're looking for testers for a brand new web application - WebWhiteboard.

 

WebWhiteboard does exactly what it says on the tin, it turns your web browser into an interactive whiteboard.

It runs in all modern browsers, and has been built with touch firmly in mind, meaning the experience on tablets and touch-screen PCs is excellent.

You don't have to leave your existing content behind, as you can import Microsoft PowerPoint, SMART Notebook and ex-Becta IWB CFF files into WebWhiteboard. Other formats are in the works - which ones make it out will largely be guided by you.

 

If you're a teacher, you can log in and create your lessons from anywhere with an Internet connection.

When it comes time to teach, wherever that may be and whatever classroom you may be using, you just log back in, select the file you need and off you go. No worrying about operating systems, file formats or USB drives required.

 

If you're a techie (and given that you're reading this, there's a pretty good chance of that!), you can deploy WebWhiteboard for all your users across your school.

Of course by deploy I mean 'create their accounts and send them a web link', because that's all there is to it! No software to install, no expensive per-seat licensing, just one yearly sub to give all your staff the chance to simplify their lesson creation process.

 

I could go on, but the important thing here is you - the potential tester!

 

 

• Does WebWhiteboard sound like something you or your school could use?
  
• Do you have ideas you'd like to see in an application like this?
  
• Do you just like trying to break things?
  

 

If so, you'll want to fill in the form here to register post-haste. Shortly afterwards an email will arrive with your login details and you'll be off and clicking!

 

We have a suggestion box for... well, suggestions! Regardless of whether you want to sign up to test or not, feel free to submit your ideas and vote on other peoples'.

 

We'd be particularly interested to hear about the following:

• Any particular file formats you'd like to be able to import into WebWhiteboard.
  
• Any crucial features from other whiteboard applications that WebWhiteboard lacks.
  
• Whether the ability to embed WebWhiteboard lessons in VLEs and other web-based learning systems would be of benefit to you.
  

 

Feel free to PM me to ask anything about the app, or you can email me directly if you choose.

 

Looking forward to testing with you,

 

Richard

[dhicks]

You don't have to leave your existing content behind, as you can import Microsoft PowerPoint, SMART Notebook and ex-Becta IWB CFF files into WebWhiteboard.

 

How very handy - we've just received a quote for licensing our new interactive projectors with SMART's software, a cheaper option would be appreciated.

 

[Of course by deploy I mean 'create their accounts and send them a web link', because that's all there is to it! No software to install, no expensive per-seat licensing, just one yearly sub to give all your staff the chance to simplify their lesson creation process.

 

I already have accounts for each member of staff in Active Directory - does your system integrate with AD, or support any kind of single sign-on or authentication mechanism?

 

Whether the ability to embed WebWhiteboard lessons in VLEs and other web-based learning systems would be of benefit to you.

 

Yes - we use Firefly as our VLE, we'd love to be able to embed IWB acticities straight into a VLE page.

[XiJ]

Hi Richard

 

I'm interested in this for the schools we look after. Do you have a direct e-mail addy you could PM me? The link above doesn't seem to be working on mobile at the moment.

 

Thanks

 

J

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

@dhicks - Our system doesn't currently integrate with AD, but such an integration (be it direct or via an intermediary service such as YouID) is high on our list of things to look at. Feel free to outline any specific things you'd want to see in it!

 

Embedding into a VLE should be relatively simple, and we'll look at that shortly.

@XiJ - PM sent

 

Those lovely people who have already registered for beta access should have your details in your respective inboxes now - if you've not received yours yet please do PM me.

[Norphy]

@dhicks - Our system doesn't currently integrate with AD, but such an integration (be it direct or via an intermediary service such as YouID) is high on our list of things to look at. Feel free to outline any specific things you'd want to see in it!

 

Making it talk Shibboleth would be useful. That we it could be integrated into all kinds of federation services including ADFS which a lot of places will be using for Office 365.

[dhicks]

Many thanks for the beta login, I'll try it out on Windows 8.1 with Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer and give it a go on iOS and Android.

 

@dhicks - Our system doesn't currently integrate with AD, but such an integration (be it direct or via an intermediary service such as YouID)

 

That makes sense, although I'll have to check and see how well that would work with our VLE - anyone know if YouID can be used with Firefly?

 

Feel free to outline any specific things you'd want to see in it!

 

SMART Notebook includes a library of interactive widgets you can place on to a Notebook file, can you do anything similar with your system?

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

@Norphy - Thanks, with SSO it looks like shibboleth is the way to go.

 

SMART Notebook includes a library of interactive widgets you can place on to a Notebook file, can you do anything similar with your system?

 

Not at present, but I shall add it to the list of things to look into.

 

As for Firefly, I can't see any information on whether it supports shibboleth (which it'd need to as a prerequisite for use with YouID, I believe), but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to confirm either way.

[dhicks]

As for Firefly, I can't see any information on whether it supports shibboleth (which it'd need to as a prerequisite for use with YouID, I believe), but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to confirm either way.

 

I'll check with them. For adding plugins and similar functionality to Firefly, they support an OAuth style SSO mechanism - not actually OAuth compatible though, for some reason.

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

Just to keep you all in the loop - work has begun on SSO using SAML2; using Shibboleth isn't practical due to our app's technology stack.

 

We're initially looking at integrating with RM Unify and Impero YouID if possible. The ability to link directly to individual ADFS setups is also being looked into.

Edited September 11, 2014 by WebWhiteboard_Richard

[dhicks]

Just to keep you all in the loop - work has begun on SSO using SAML2; using Shibboleth isn't practical due to our app's technology stack.

 

Any chance you could quickly outline the practical aspects of how I would go about integrating our Active Directory server with your system? Would there be anything to install server-side this end, or would I simply need to put some settings somewhere to allow your system to query our domain controllers, I assume via the SAML2 protocol - is that how SAML2 works?

 

Will you have documented APIs or similar for use by people who want to integrate your system with things like VLEs and so forth? We wouldn't neccesarily expect your system to integrate with every VLE straight away, but if we can do the integration work ourselves that would be an advantage.

 

Any idea on pricing? We currently have a quote in for SMART's new software, it's going to cost around £300 per non-SMART-PC (we have a bunch of new PCs set up with interactive projectors instead of SMART boards), plus around £1,000 per year for ongoing licensing costs. If you can give me a rough idea of how much your system might cost I can discuss with the bursar as to whether we want to go with SMART or hold off until your system is ready to go.

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

For raw Active Directory integration, there would be two options: the simple, slightly-inelegant way or a more complex, more elegant one.

Simple

Somewhere on your network you set up a scheduled task to run a script (the template would provided by us) that takes an export from Active Directory, turns it into a CSV file and uploads it to a URL. How often it runs would be entirely up to you, and you could of course create accounts manually or run the script manually should you need to. The obvious downside here is that passwords wouldn't be synchronised, so it wouldn't be a single-sign-on.

Complex

Option 1 - You expose an LDAP endpoint against which WWB runs authentication checks (these can include group membership checks). Exposing your DCs to the public internet is almost always a bad idea, so you'd want to consider using AD LDS, but that'd be entirely up to you.

(In answer to your other question, LDAP is the protocol used to query directories, SAML2 is a little more complex.)

 

Option 2 - You set up an ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services) server - that's where SAML2 comes in. WWB queries ADFS and authenticates from there. I'm not going to deny that ADFS/SAML2 can be complicated, and I personally wouldn't recommend setting it up just for WebWhiteboard. If you've got ADFS already for something like Office365, that's obviously different.

 

The upside with these two methods is that your user accounts are only stored in one place, and users won't have to remember multiple passwords.

 

---

Documented APIs are indeed on the roadmap, as is investigating VLE integration possibilities.

 

---

As for cost we were going to have a pricing model based around FTE count, but realised that would introduce needless complexity. We're now going for a model based around pupil count, as is fairly standard in education.

 

The exact pricing bands are still being worked out, but I can say it'll almost certainly be cheaper than the prices you mentioned. I imagine it'd be around £500-600 per year for a school the size of yours.

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

I can't see an option to edit my previous post, but I thought it worth saying that a preliminary pricing table has now been published.

 

(Mods: feel free to merge this into post #11, apologies if I'm being a pudding brain and not seeing the edit button!)

[dhicks]

Exposing your DCs to the public internet is almost always a bad idea, so you'd want to consider using AD LDS, but that'd be entirely up to you.

 

That's a very clear explanation, many thanks. AD LDS or ADFS would seem to make sense - we'd be happy to set up whatever mechanism is neccesary, as long as it's reliable, secure and, preferably, something that other systems could use. The above would let users authenticate with their AD usernames and passwords, is there also an option that would allow someone logged in to a domain machine be logged straight in to your system as soon as they open a browser, as happens with our VLE?

 

We're now going for a model based around pupil count, as is fairly standard in education.

 

Right-oh - checking your other post there, we'd pay around £500 a year, which obviously compares well with SMART's pricing. However, it does occure to me that we're potentially replacing one locked-in product (SMART's software) for another (your system) - and at least at the moment we do have the option of simply sticking with SMARTBoard 11, we don't have to go for a yearly subscription (although I imagine that eventually the software will simply get too old for new hardware, I should think that'll be a good 5 years or so at least). Does your system provide some kind of facility to move content out to another web-based system if we required, or in some kind of standardised file format that we can run locally?

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

... is there also an option that would allow someone logged in to a domain machine be logged straight in to your system as soon as they open a browser, as happens with our VLE?

 

At the moment, I'm not sure. I shall check into it, hopefully do some actual testing of such a set-up later today and report back.

 

 

Does your system provide some kind of facility to move content out to another web-based system if we required, or in some kind of standardised file format that we can run locally?

 

Absolutely. All files can be exported as IWB CFF, which can then be imported into any decent whiteboard software - the IWB format conversion isn't perfect (I don't think any IWB software gets it completely right), but will be improving all the time during beta.

[Norphy]

At the moment, I'm not sure. I shall check into it, hopefully do some actual testing later today and report back.

 

If you're set up with ADFS, that should allow it. We are using it to authenticate with on our VLE (Blackboard). Students click a link and they're straight in.

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

...is there also an option that would allow someone logged in to a domain machine be logged straight in to your system as soon as they open a browser, as happens with our VLE?

 

If you're set up with ADFS, that should allow it. We are using it to authenticate with on our VLE (Blackboard). Students click a link and they're straight in.

 

Indeed - using direct integration with a school's ADFS setup, automatic sign-on will be possible.

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

Update: Single Sign-On using ADFS is very close to being ready for testing - it should be deployed to the live beta site on or before Monday.

(WebWhiteboard will be able to talk to any SAML2 Identity Provider, but I imagine the predominant product in schools will be ADFS).

 

 

@dhicks, @Norphy - fancy being guinea pigs? Anyone else is more than welcome too, PM me and we'll get you set up. You'll earn my everlasting gratitude and perhaps something a little more tangible/edible as well.

[dhicks]

@dhicks, @Norphy - fancy being guinea pigs?

 

Right-oh, although I can't promise I'll be able to spend much time on getting it set up this week. I'll need to figure out how to set up ADFS on our servers first, of course.

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

Right-oh, although I can't promise I'll be able to spend much time on getting it set up this week. I'll need to figure out how to set up ADFS on our servers first, of course.

 

Excellent! No rush at all, I was away from the office today so didn't get a chance to push the updates out to the live beta anyway - that'll happen tomorrow/Weds.

 

As for getting ADFS set up, we have a draft guide to actually integrating it with WWb, and would recommend the MS Office 365 team's guide (pt 1, pt 2) to setting the thing up in the first place. Parts 1 & 2 deal with ADFS, you can skip part 3 as that's integrating it with Office 365. It refers to Server 2012 R2, but the core process is similar across Windows versions.

 

I know our guide is missing a section on what users need to do to log in (each establishment will have a unique login URL), which will be added in shortly.

Edited September 23, 2014 by WebWhiteboard_Richard

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

Just a reminder that if you have been testing WebWhiteboard (and we've been getting a pretty good crop of testers - so thank you!), that we'd really appreciate any feedback you may have - either send it via the in-app 'Feedback' links, email us, or of course just PM me.

 

If you've not get signed up to be a guinea pig and feel like doing your bit for (computer) science, then click me!

[Edu-IT]

Any plans to integrate with RM Unify? http://www.rmunify.com

 

Edit: Just saw the answer then.

 

How exactly does this work then? I mean, if they don't have pens? :S

Edited September 29, 2014 by Edu-IT

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

Any plans to integrate with RM Unify? http://www.rmunify.com

 

Yes indeed! I'm just waiting on the RM Unify team to approve my application for a developer account and can then get started with the integration. The app supports SAML2 authentication; from reading the Unify documentation the integration process shouldn't be too hard.

 

How exactly does this work then? I mean, if they don't have pens? :S

 

If the board hardware you're using requires a pen for input, you'll still need to use it. WebWhiteboard just handles the software side of the IWB system.

 

It's designed to work with any touch-enabled device however, so once you've got the mouse moving on the board - be it by pen or by finger, you're set.

Edited September 29, 2014 by WebWhiteboard_Richard

[Edu-IT]

Ah, I see. I misunderstood.

[machin05]

Are there any plans to integrate this with Google Apps for Education?

[WebWhiteboard_Richard]

Are there any plans to integrate this with Google Apps for Education?

 

Hi @machin05,

 

Firstly, apologies for the delay in replying.

 

Integrate in what way? If you mean in terms of importing from it, then it should already work as WebWhiteboard works with Google Drive (which I believe GAE uses) for file imports. Exporting presentations from WWB to cloud services such as Google Apps in a transferable format is pretty high on the 'planned features' list.

 

If I've misunderstood completely, please do put me right!