...Which tool do you guys recommend? I prefer something that works for all
platforms and doesn't require hours of registration or installation and
is firewall friendly.
Dunno. We'll have to try I guess, and not get stuck in toolsmania.
I tested Cocinella and Babylon last year and they both looked good, but didn't use them on actual projects.
My dream would be a system where a group can create X whiteboards (like one per Bugzilla issue for the FirstFriday), and see thumbnails of all of them on a single web page. Clicking on one of them would show it full-page (or start an applet) and allow you to interact with it.
On a functional level, each whiteboard must allow for sharing text (code excerpts for example) and maybe simple drawings (boxes and arrows are enough I think).
As you mention, the whole thing has to be firewall-friend (and lazy-ass friendly ;-).
Going to the right webpage should be enough.
www.quicktopic.com is a good example of an instant discussion tool, but uses the "linear discussion" instead of the whiteboard model.
I won't have much time to look for such tools in the next weeks, but if someone wants to do some research...go for it!
I'd also be interested in following/mentoring students willing to work on such tools for diploma or similar work. Please contact me offlist if anyone's interested.
-Bertrand
