A while ago e-mailed the computer science department at my alma mater about the possibility of an Open Source senior project. I volunteered to be the sponsor, and handle all the parts that the corporate sponsor usually handles for the project. Well, they wrote me back. I submitted the idea of doing the Inkscape networked whiteboard that we've discussed for a long time. Here is what I submitted:

Many times a picture can describe ideas that are impossible over simpletext based communication (chat). With many work teams having physically diverse locations sometimes sharing and working on pictures can be verydifficult. This project is to create a real-time online whiteboarding application using instant messaging protocols. The problems with previous projects of this type is that they use very simplified drawing tools that restrict the user or they use a specially designed protocol that requires special set up (or both). This project aims to remove both of those restrictions by using standards, and an existing vector drawing application.

This project involves extending a current vector drawing program (Inkscape) using the standard XMPP messaging protocol (Jabber). Inkscape is based on the W3C's XML based vector graphics format SVG. Internally, Inkscape maintains the structure of this document, and has events occur when this model is changed by the user. When this occurs, a message can be sent to another instance of Inkscape monitoring an XMPP stream onanother host, perhaps in another country.

This project would involve learning the Inkscape architecture, SVG and XMPP standard and then extending them to achieve the required functionality. Depending on the team size, group chat should also be supported.

I'm curious how all this might work out. I don't think that anyone had concrete plans to work on this - and I think we can get around the patent issues involved with implementing this. I'd be happy to hear any comments. If it gets chosen, I hope people will be willing to look at requirements documents and all that.


posted May 6, 2004 | permanent link