Twiddla

Check out http://www.twiddla.com/

It's a super simple online whiteboard application with a twist, click to register if you want to, otherwise just hit guest - name your workspace and share this url with a friend.

It's as easy as that.

Now here are some of the cool parts -

Want to draw some lines, no probs, want to drag and drop a 'shape' somewhere onto the screen, it's easy as (including resizing etc).

Want to work on some text together, no probs - open either a sticky note or a regular text box and you can edit together real time.

Lets say you need to review an image or diagram, no probs in the bottom right is an upload function so you can drop an image from your my documents folder onto the workspace and get comments from your colleagues real time.

For me the best function is co-browsing, you know when you want to show someone a series of web pages and you need to read out the urls as you move from page to page and it's frustrating as heck - yep we've all been there.

With Twiddla get them to log into your 'workspace' then you can use the web page browse button in the top left to browse to a web site, once it has resolved all of the 'tools' (lines, shapes etc) are fully functional.

Want to show your team which elements in a web page you would like to copy from - go right ahead, want to browse to a site and highlight some key pieces of text, easy as.

Sounds pretty cool so far right - ok now for the best bit.

Top Right - No not the text chat- thats too old school. Go and hit the audio button and grab a headset/mic.

Yep you got it - built into an iframe is a voice java applet that Tim Panton built (check out http://www.phonefromhere.com for more of his voice enabled widgets).

So you are co-browsing and stuff with people instead of placing a call to them or trying to hook up an audio conference service - just click the audio chat application and you are all able to talk to each other while browsing the site.

BTW this java applet is only 168kb. Think of it as a session less skype application without the executable, it's pretty amazing.

This is a perfect example of voice enabling websites, where voice isn't the key 'technology' like it is with jajah or ribbit, but a minor supporting function. Intelligently voice enabling websites is the next step in website evolution.

I wont tell you what Tim said the first time I suggested that all user generated content sites should have a Mexuar java applet attached to them......lets just say I'm glad to see that he has come around......"checks in the mail right Tim"?

Either way I'm glad to see more people are using cool tools like Asterisk to voice enable web content, whether you are working on a document in Twiddla, or showing a friend the latest 'cool site', being able to use voice is a basic tennant of communication.

The fact that this is now easily implementable is just the next step in a voice enhanced world.


Cheers,
Dean