[Offtopic] Re: Interactive Whiteboard software lock-in

[victor rajewski]

Have gone some way to answering my own question:
http://www.rmap.com.au/web/This-is-RM/Media-Centre/?item=23

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 9:56 AM, victor rajewski <askvictor at gmail.com> wrote:
> It has only just occurred to me (a little late) that just about every
>  type of interactive whiteboard has its own software system. And
>  subsequently different file formats. (My main experience is limited to
>  one vendor, so please correct me if there are vendors where this is
>  not the case). The vendor our school uses (promethean) encourage
>  sharing of resources through their website, and I assume others would
>  as well, as the more resources are shared, the more the boards will
>  get used, and the more demand there will be for them. But if someone
>  using a smartboard has made a great resource and shared it, I can't
>  use it on my activboard due to the proprietary file format - at least
>  the promethean activstudio software doesn't let you run it on
>  non-promethean boards. This makes for a great business strategy, but
>  ends up disadvantaging the teachers who want to share more widely, and
>  so is bad for the students.
>
>  So, my questions are:
>  1) Are there any IWB vendors that do _not_ lock you into their
>  software/file format - i.e. the file format is open, and/or the
>  software is compatible with any IWB?
>  2) Is there any open-source IWB software, and if not, what are the key
>  features that would be useful in such? Are there any similar programs
>  that could be appropriated/modified for the task?
>
>  vik
>