Jul

16

$1 MILLION, AND I MEAN IT

Submitted by Jack Pate under Uncategorized |

Many of the world’s greatest discoveries come from inauspicious places and circumstances. The search for penicillin resulted from an old fold remedy of binding moldy bread over wounds, and aspirin’s ingredient from a native American herbal remedy of chewing willow bark for pain.

Many discoveries surround the unfolding of the human mind to observation. Some relate to organic function, some to thought, will, and personality. Several pieces of knowledge, and some serendipity, provided the idea here - printboards.

Because of the creative nature of my work, and daily observation of creative clients with whom I work, I regard a recording whiteboard (printboard; thermally printing, dry-erase board) as a million dollar idea to anyone who owns one. It provides several invaluable benefits. 

First, it saves everyone time. Have you ever considered the very real cost of ten people (or two) waiting for a total of 10 to 30 minutes during a meeting while the contents of a whiteboard are copies before each erasure? Or, who copies the board after a meeting?

Second, it promotes creativity, by minimizing interruptions of creative mental processes. Hit the print button and move on. The figure is there to see from now on. One need not feat running out of board space, either; just relax and think.

Third, it promotes creativity by supporting drawing. Rather than forcing speaking or writing. Creativity can be shackled by forcing translation of ideas into words at the very time of creation oro interactive, joint creativity.

Fourth, it can easily provide a dated, signed copy of everything done on it. Ideas are not lost, and evidence of invention is simple. The very real legal cost of proving what the printboard could have, will likely be a hundred times the cost of the printboard. That is just for that one issue, in one case.

Fifth, regular communication is often much faster and clearer using pictures than words. Painting a picture with words is possible. It often takes more work and time than a sketch to communicate the same information.

Yes, we still talk, but not as a low-bandwidth means to creativity. Talking is used to describe concepts already illustrated, to clarify and explain.

I discussed these ideas with a manager in a client software company. He knew exactly what they meant. Our discussion consolidated and reinforced his own observations. He ordered a large, electronic whiteboard that very day. His programmers and engineers were ecstatic. They told me so. He may be a visionary.


Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.