Ha! Speaking of Excalidraw…
As I was getting ready to create a “freeform diagram” for a competency framework in UX design, I initially thought about using Figma, which I use with my main client. First thing is, I don’t have my own Figma plan, at this point. Second thing is, I’d rather play with something more open than that.
So, I decided to try things in Excalidraw. As a generic suggestion for technological appropriation, starting with a small practical project often works well.
In this case, it allowed me to explore the web app’s affordances in a realistic way. (A bit like authentic assessment!)
Doing so, I’m noticing that it’s the right balance between ease-of-use and a decent feature set. Honestly, this is relatively rare in most pieces of software… and it’s even rarer in the F/LOSS world.
I’ve registered for the free trial of Excalidraw+ and might end up paying monthly for the service (7USD/month). I might also check what I can do with a local instance of Excalidraw. Sounds like it can prove quite beneficial.
Then… I was on a (peer-)mentoring session through a videoconferencing platform used by a group of User Experience experts and, funnily enough, it has a plugin to integrate Excalidraw during calls! Honestly, it works waaaaay better than MS Whiteboard in MS Teams. (Haven’t tried whiteboarding in Zoom, in a while. I’d be surprised if it’s that seamless.) It doesn’t sound like Google Meet can include Google Jamboard (or other whiteboarding solutions).
(Wonder if Big Blue Button and Moodle could also integrate Excalidraw…)
And then… noticed a video about Excalidraw which demonstrates integration with Obsidian! Now, that opens up some interesting possibilities.
Again, the Obsidian Personal Knowledge Management System isn’t itself F/LOSS. As part of what makes it open is a modular system allowing community plugins (which are themselves F/LOSS). It’s also more open than other solutions because it uses Markdown files (which are plain text files in a welldocumented format, allowing for a lot of interoperability, including with slide presentations).
Speaking of file formats, it’s useful to know that Excalidraw exports as SVG. Not only does it help with interoperability, SVG is actually a very interesting standard. While we think of it for static (2D) images, it also affords some interactivity, as in a slideshow for the Web Annotation standard. Because image elements are distinct in the code itself, it’s also possible to annotate them individually, opening up some really nice possibilities.
All this to say… Like Alan, I’m making more discoveries around Excalidraw.
Glad we can… draw that particular sword from the stone.