Interactive whiteboard group announces new global community

SMART Technologies, producers of the popular interactive whiteboards, have announced a new global community which provides technical resources, accreditation programs and marketing guidance to member companies and individuals developing software for its range of interactive learning hardware.

In addition to the interactive SMART Board the company has also released the SMART Table, an interactive learning centre, and an interactive response device, SMART Response. The devices support user-generated software and applications and the company are now providing dedicated support to developers.

Apple’s experience with its AppStore has shown that technology itself is not enough and that an active, innovative external development community is key to sustaining the popularity of a device. To that end the SMART Ecosystem Network provides dedicated support to the development community in a variety of ways.

The Company Accreditation Program gives formal accreditation to member companies, while the Developer Accreditation Program offers the same to individual developers with proven technical proficiency with SMART products. Finally, the Software and Content Accreditation Program accredits specific content and software that are compatible with the SMART product range.

The SMART Ecosystem also provides access to a web portal containing Software Development Kits (SDKs), related documentation, video tutorials and support forums. Members will receive an accreditation logo for use on their website, packaging and marketing materials, with accredited materials listed in an online catalogue on SMART’s website.

Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s chief operating officer, said: “The SMART Ecosystem Network will give global publishers, software developers, hardware providers, multimedia designers and solutions integrators the necessary tools to develop innovative products that are proven to be compatible with our products.”

Nathan Brown

(Pictured:  Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s chief operating officer)