[0044] As shown in FIG. 3 and described briefly above, UI controls 122 can be presented adjacent to or overlapping the canvas 114 in the UI 106. In the illustrated example, the UI controls 122 are configured as a toolbar that includes tools for selecting a pen and type of digital ink (e.g. color, pen thickness, pen type, etc.), for deleting digital ink (e.g. an eraser), for creating other types of objects 120 such as notes, for setting a timer for voting on objects 120 on the canvas 144, for up-voting or down-voting objects 120, and for organizing the objects 120 on the canvas 114. Other tools can be presented in the toolbar in other configurations. As will be discussed in greater detail below with regard to FIGS. 6B- 6D, the UI controls 122 can be template and/or user-specific. 

[0045] FIG. 4 is a user interface diagram showing aspects of the UI 106 provided by the whiteboard application 104 executing on the computing device 102 shown in FIGS. 1A-3. In this example, a template 116 has been placed on the canvas 114. The example template 116 shown in FIG. 4 includes two regions 118A and 118B. Templates 116 can include other arrangements and types of regions 118 in other configurations. Additionally, regions 118 can exist outside of templates 116 in some configurations. 

[0046] In the example shown in FIG. 4, a user has placed an object 120A on the canvas 114. As discussed above, the object 120A has an associated logical representation 202A providing semantic context for the object 120A . The logical representation 202A might specify, for example, the object type for the object 120A, the creator of the object 120A, etc. 

[0047] In the illustrated example, a user has selected the object 120A using a mouse cursor 306 and moved the object 120A from the canvas 114 to a region 118A (e.g. through a “dragging” motion”). In response thereto, the region 118A has modified the logical representation 202A associated with the object 120A . For example, the region 118A might modify the logical representation 202A to change or add metadata. A user has also dragged the object 120B from the region 118A to the region 118B in the example shown in FIG. 4. In a similar fashion, the region 118B might modify the logical representation 202A associated with the object 120C. 

[0048] As described briefly above, templates 116 and regions 118 can also generate visual representations 206 of objects 120 based upon their associated logical representations 202. In the example shown in FIG. 4, for instance, the template 116 might define a region 118A on the canvas 114 that is configured to present an object 120 in a first visual representation 206 (e.g. in a particular color, format, or arrangement) that is based upon the logical representation 202 associated with the object 120. In this example, the template 116 

