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WorldWideWhiteboard is a Web-based online collaboration and conferencing tool designed for use in distance education. The WorldWideWhiteboard domain, trademark, and technology are owned and developed by Link-Systems International, Inc. (LSI), a privately held distance-learning software corporation in Tampa, Florida. The WorldWideWhiteboard went live in 1996〔 under the name "NetTutor," although the LSI NetTutor online tutoring service is technically just one implementation of the WorldWideWhiteboard product. Version 3.8 of the WorldWideWhiteboard is in use not only in the current NetTutor online tutoring service, but also in on-campus online tutoring programs, online courses, and collaborative learning environments in the U.S. and around the world. As a Java applet, it can be run on Windows, Mac, and Linux and runs without downloading software. LSI maintains the application and leases both hosted and unhosted access to it. LSI operations — tutoring, product development, online content services, management, and technical support — are housed in the company's Tampa offices.〔 ==History== The WorldWideWhiteboard is the first software product developed by Link-Systems International (LSI). LSI was launched in 1995 primarily as a company that converted text-based content like scholarly journals into an SGML format. Incorporated in the State of Florida on February 27, 1996, LSI expanded its mission to the Web-based implementation of a variety of traditionally face-to-face academic activities. The company developed what it called the "Net Tutor" product that included a whiteboard-like interface and, later, a tutoring service that used the whiteboard to conduct online tutoring. For about five years, the software side of this product leased as NetTutor to schools, individual educators, and programs, for example to conduct online tutoring using tutors provided by the institution, as well as for online instruction and office hours. Eventually, LSI re-christened the interface the WorldWideWhiteboard. The company still owns the NetTutor trademark, which refers to the online tutoring it supplies via the WorldWideWhiteboard and using professional tutors it employs.〔 This history seems to justify the company's claim that it was the first to offer commercially a tool for Web access to a shared, real-time environment with such education-oriented features as subject-specific tool bars. The WorldWideWhiteboard was also adopted as an option available with certain text-books by publishers such as McGraw-Hill,〔 John Wiley and Sons, Pearson, Cengage Learning,〔 and Bedford, Freeman and Worth. The use of the WorldWideWhiteboard by campuses and educational programs to support online environments, give classes, hold faculty office hours and meetings expanded over the next decade. In 2010, LSI began development of an HTML5 version of the WorldWideWhiteboard. This version has now replaced the earlier, Java-based version and allows for the use of the interface on mobile devices. This is one of several cases where software developers have opted for browser-based development, counting on the future development of HTML5 API's to support audio and video interaction, rather than self-standing phone apps. As of 2013, installations of WorldWideWhiteboard had been converted from Java-based to HTML5-based versions. As the WorldWideWhiteboard gained more popularity, LSI came to be included in the Inc. 5000 in 2014.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WorldWideWhiteboard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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