CSC 308
Feature Comparison Matrix
of Related Tools
|
Features: |
Pidgin |
Blackboard |
Scriblink |
Teamviewer |
MSO Power Point |
GoToMeeting |
GIMP |
|
Lecture Preparation: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
make slides |
no |
no |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
|
remove slidebreaks |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
|
insert picture |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
no |
yes |
|
Lecture Viewing |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
slide thumbnails |
no |
no |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
|
Remote Desktop |
no |
|
no |
yes |
|
yes |
no |
|
Share/Transfer Files |
yes |
|
yes |
yes |
|
yes |
no |
|
expand content (dive into a topic) |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
|
scrolling on a slide |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
|
draw over slides |
no |
no |
yes(1) |
no |
no |
yes |
yes |
|
Class Management |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
take roll/user list |
yes |
no |
no |
yes(5) |
no |
no |
no |
|
chat features |
yes |
yes(2) |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes(3) |
no |
|
change focus to a different user |
yes |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
yes(4) |
no |
|
Graphics/Layer Mgmt. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
straight line tool |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
|
yes |
|
square/rectangle |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
|
yes |
|
circle |
no |
no |
yes |
no |
no |
|
yes |
|
highlight text |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
|
yes |
|
write text |
no |
yes |
yes |
no |
no |
|
yes |
|
make layer |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
|
yes |
|
Other |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Security |
SSL chat server |
|
|
|
NA |
AES-128 |
NA |
|
Multi-platform support |
MS, OSX, *nix |
Web |
|
|
Windows, |
Windows, |
MS, OSX, *nix |
Notes:
1) Scriblink allows the user to draw over uploaded images. The application supports most common image file formats.
2) Blackboard has very minimal chat features. absolutely no real-time chat avaible unfortuntely only forum/email based.
3) Integrates with user's existing chat program. Also provides integral conference call and VOIP service.
4) Can change meeting's host, or transfer control of presenter's keyboard and mouse.
5) Has a user management system indicating users registered for the presentation and who is present.
The left column is the taxonomic
feature list (more on taxonomy shortly). The top row lists each tool
being compared. The entry for each tool feature is a "yes",
"no", or "?". These entries indicate whether or
not a particular tool has a particular feature. The "?"
entry is used if it cannot be clearly determined from available
information if the feature is present or not. Any entry may have a
footnote reference for additional explanatory information. For
example, suppose the feature is "color support" and the
entry for a tool is "yes", but the tool provides color in a
more limited fashion that other tools. In this case, the entry for
the more limited tool can have a footnote that explains its
limitations.
The study of taxonomy is pursued significantly in biological sciences, where the goal is to categorize the plant and animal life into a logical hierarchy. For example, biologists start with the largest category of kingdom, which has the two members of plants and animals. From there, the biological taxonomy goes to phyla, classes, orders, etc., down to the smallest category of sub-species.
In a software tool comparison, taxonomy can be used to organize the functionality of the tools. For example, we can consider the function categories found typically in the top-level menubar to be primary candidates for the top-level categories of functionality. Each item in a menu is a subcategory, and items in submenus or dialogs will be sub-subcategories. It is likely that most tools will have at most four or five levels of command hierarchy, just by the nature of the user interfaces that modern GUI-based tools use.
Since software tools are not as well organized as the animal kingdom, we will have to look elsewhere than top-level menubars for feature categories. Indeed, some tools have no menubar at all. Overall, the focus of our categorization should be on functions that are accessible anywhere in the tool's user interface, whether through menus, buttons, or typing. We specifically do not care about features that are not directly accessible to the user.