BlogHer - Let's talk about whiteboards - Comments

Old Skool Tech

Maria Niles — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 14:09:32 -0600

I love this post and thank you for the links. It is so timely for me as I just bought a couple of small white boards to try out in my organizational aspiration mix and they rock. I'm going to get more and bigger ones. I just wish I could nail up some melamine sheets like you suggest.

Older technologies are still technology and they persist because they still work. Just because some new way of doing things comes along doesn't necessarily mean that the old ways stop working or that the new ways necessarily are more efficient. Different strokes, right?

white boards & catagories!!

debra roby — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:34:44 -0600

Denise,

Why do I think if I had walls of whiteboard, all my notes and to do lists wouldn't get lost? Or would get lost in all the other notes? But I might finally start/keep a permanent checklist for shopping. (though I should have that in my Palm)

I love the way you catagories the kids. Probably because it's similar to the way I catagorized my brothers:

big, big; (taller, older)
big, little; (taller, younger)
little, little (shorter, younger). though that hasn't really fit for several decades.

Debra

Whiteboards

Denise — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 10:38:28 -0600

The youngest of our six loves her whiteboard almost as much as she loves rats and gameboys, which is quite a lot.

The oldest of the youngest says he loves his whiteboard but I think he only still loves it because he USE to love it.

The middle of the youngest does not love whiteboards because there's not enough room on them to write a novel.

I tried to convince the youngest of the oldest to cover her entire room or at least just one wall in whiteboard and another in chalkboard paint. She wouldn't do it. Instead she painted a mural on one wall that she just kept adding to for a few years. She just painted over it and again I tried to convince her white board was the way to go. She said no. I'm thinking we should cover the wood floors with whiteboard instead.... has anyone ever tried that?????

~Denise

***oldest/youngest guide to reading what I write. 6 children broken into two categories - the three oldest, the three youngest. Each child has a place within that category: oldest, middle, youngest. Jenn = oldest/oldest, Chris=middle/oldest, Michelle = youngest/oldest, Prince J= oldest/youngest, RJ= middle/youngest, E= youngest/youngest

I'm a fan

mir — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:36:55 -0600

Of both whiteboards and of Laura.

You know what else is cool (but messy) chalkboard paint. I have been meaning to do one wall of my office for ages. Then when you are mapping out ideas you can stand around like the guy from pi looking incredibly maniacally smart.

Also when you have a house-guest who pisses you off you can make them write lines.

ps: i loved your comment on the mapping thread.

Miriam
The Flink
"like harnessing a unicorn to harvest potatoes"

Whiteboards in the Classroom

Kalyn Denny — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 07:44:35 -0600

Whiteboards are something that schools were forced to adapt after every classroom had computers which would be bothered by the chalk dust. Certainly they are most visually appealing and easier to write on that chalkboards. But as far as things wiping right off, that will not last if you have people who use their fingers to wipe off the writing (as the fourth graders are so apt to do). When the board is touched it leaves a tiny deposit of oil which eventually will make it necessary to use cleaning solvent that you spray on. Hopefully in an all-adult environment this can be avoided. Have fun.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Whiteboards rule!

Koan — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:25:35 -0600

I, too, am a firm believer in whiteboards. When I owned my own home, I had a huge one on the wall in my home office (picked up dirt cheap, i.e. free, when I "repurposed" it out of a rubbish skip). When I used to be a technical trainer, if I was using a projector to display my monitor for the class, I loved projecting it onto a whiteboard, so that I could mark up the display with marker pens, *and* annotate in the margins around the projection area. And, at my last job (at a software development company) all of the walls were whiteboards - and did they *ever* get used.

So, I class whiteboards as an essential piece of technology - the right tool for the right purpose.

(I've also used glass windows and mirrors, when pukka whiteboards weren't immediately to hand - I'm not fussy!)

Blog: Multidimensional.Me

Let's talk about whiteboards

Laura Scott — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:52:40 -0600

Okay, so I know that, as a Contributing Editor for Technology & Web, I'm probably expected to write about things like Open Source Software, computers and, I don't know, rocket science ... but for my first post in this area is going to be on whiteboards.

Yes. Whiteboards. Dry-erase. The pre-blog blogs.

We just covered our office with 96 square feet of Melamine whiteboards and now have walls we literally write on every day. I've never experienced dry-erase like on these boards. You write, it's there. You erase, it's gone.

Really gone. No ghosted leftover text needing a lifehack -- leastways not in my experience. No need to get out some special solvent (costing $7.95 plus tax). On these boards, it is dry, and it does erase.

My business partner, Katherine, who's one of those people who reads chemistry books for pleasure, tells me that Melamine works because most of the ink on the board really isn't there.

Look at this extreme-close-up image. The white parts, I'm told, are what constitute the surface area where ink can adhere. The ink is easy to wipe off because it's not really saturated on the surface, but merely deposited on the tips of the molecules of the surface itself.

Anyway, all I know is that these whiteboards we have nailed up on the walls all over the office are better than any of that overpriced soft plastic junk they sell in office supply stores.

And, excuse me ... it's cheap! $13 for a 32-square-foot sheet.

Forget Office Depot. Go to Home Depot, and get yourself some Melamine boards. (And get your friend with the pickup truck to help, because they come in 8' x 4' lengths.)

Tangents:

Kevin Kelly's Cool Tool blog post, Marker Board Walls
Whiteboards Central blog. Yes, there is a blog all about whiteboards. And you thought your blog was obscure! (Their expert opinion seems to be to skip Melamine and spend a magnitude more on porcelain. Of course.)
Rapid Intellect's Case Study: The Color Purple on the Whiteboard
Lori Richardson's Be a Change Agent in 2006, who urges using whiteboards to write goals
Albuquerque Business Journal's profile of Sigcom Inc.'s Terri Kim, who has a whiteboard in her office

and, finally....

Topless Programming's WhiteBoard -- part of a geek site, believe it or not, which describes itself thusly:

This site was born from a conversation of frustration. Plans for solo ventures were expressed.

In a flippant remark, I said, "and it will be all women".

Then a pause. "And it will be called Topless Programming".

Another pause. "And subtitled, the Hooters of Programming".

So the spark. What results in still in development. I did get to thinking about what "Topless" could be about. Boys can go topless too. And need to.

With some thought and research, I realized the site could also include a broader theme of women in technology. Additionally, as a general protest of the male geek dominated programming culture. There is a serious need to get more voices into the arena.

So news, discussion and rants within this area. That's what this site is. Bras optional.

Laura Scott
design, snap, blog