What is Twiddla?
Twiddla is an online collaboration tool that's easy to use, doesn't require any downloads or complicated firewall stuff,
and is free for just about anybody.
It's like having a whiteboard skin on top of any web page or uploaded image (or nothing at all -you can use it as a blank canvas).
You can mark up this whiteboard layer and interact with the web page at the same time - all in real time, with people from all
over the world.
What is Twiddla designed to do?
We didn't originally build Twiddla for others - we built it for ourselves - a small but distributed group of programmers
and designers who regularly collaborate on projects. Due to the distributed nature of our work, we needed a good tool to
collaborate on design ideas in real time. But you know what? There really wasn't anything out there that met our needs.
It was killing us. If you've ever had to take a screenshot, mark it up in MS Paint, email it to your designers,
then wait a day for them to write back, you'll know our pain. Lucky for us, we're software guys.
When something hurts, we can whip up a little application to make it hurt less.
That's what Twiddla is - our solution: an easy and free way to collectively look at,
mark up and discuss websites and images in real-time from anywhere you've got a web browser and internet connection.
How is it different from other collaboration tools? (e.g., WebEx)
- First of all it's free.
- Second it's available to anyone, anytime.
- Third, there are no plug ins - all you need is your web browser.
- Fourth, you can interact with the web (or any uploaded picture, document or widget) AND mark it up at the same time.
- Fifth, it incorporates chat and voice.
- And did we mention it's free?
What are some examples of what I can use it for?
Using Twiddla is as close as you can get to being in the same room and looking at a webpage together.
Let's say you and your brother (who lives across the country from you) are picking out a birthday gift for your mom.
You've found a website that has a bunch of things she might like. Rather than you sending your brother a link and
both of you looking at the page separately saying "you see that one half way down on the left hand side...?",
you open the page in Twiddla, send your brother the link to the Twiddla session,
and you're both looking at the exact same thing. You circle the thing you're thinking of, and he sees what you've circled.
He clicks around and you go where he navigates to. You discuss it over chat OR in Twiddla's integrated voice feature.
All for free. All without advanced scheduling. All without downloads. All without anything more technical than going to a webpage.
How does it work?
If you want to mark up a webpage with others, simply go to www.twiddla.com, Start a new whiteboard
(with one click), invite your friends through the built in email, and navigate to the webpage in that Twiddla session.
Your friends join you by clicking the link in their email. Write on it, draw on it, navigate around within it,
upload pictures... play with it however you like. It's that easy.
What does it cost?
You can use Twiddla free of charge for quick meetings and collaboration sessions.
We offer a few paid subscription options in case you want to get a bit
more fancy or if you want to build your own application on top of the Twiddla platform.
How many people can be on a Twiddla session at the same time?
As many as you like. There are no software limitations on how many people can join a session.
That said, the limitations are the same as with any meeting: if everyone starts to write on the whiteboard at once,
or if everyone starts talking at once, it's problematic - but this is a challenge from a human interaction perspective,
not a technical perspective.
Can I save my work?
Sure. You can take a snapshot of your Twiddla session any time you
like. That snapshot can be exported as an image, turned into a widget
for embedding into a web page, or loaded back up in Twiddla for
further tweaking..
Can I re-enter the same Twiddla session more than once over time?
Yes - as many times as you like. There are no restrictions on time.
What does 'browser agnostic' mean?
It means Twiddla works with any browser - it doesn't care which one you have.
This means it's even more available to anyone, anywhere.
What is Twiddla not designed to do?
Twiddla is not:
- A screen sharing service (i.e., you can't see each other's desktops using Twiddla)
- A video chat service
- Going to work with Flash websites
- A tool to edit documents/spreadsheets (but you can upload them and mark them up)
- A place where you should be building huge documents/charts/etc. that you intend to keep forever.
- Intended to interact with secure websites - e.g., you can't buy things online over Twiddla
or go to someone's Facebook page on Twiddla.
