DimDim: Free Web Conferencing with a Big Limitation
April 14, 2008 |
Odds are if you are involved in the tech industry, you've attended a meeting remotely. And odds are, you've done so using the ubiquitous WebEx, owned by Cisco. However, for companies who are bootstrapping, or individuals (like freelancers), WebEx's prices can make it just out of reach. DimDim, which first launched as an alpha back in 2006, may step into that space, but that depends on your point of view.
DimDim has four products: DimDim Free, DimDim Pro, DimDim Enterprise, and DimDim Open Source. The free version gives you access to all the site's features for up to 20 meeting participants. The pro version allows you to brand the meeting room and scale up to 100 users, and the Open Source version, licensed under the GPL, allows you to download and install the software yourself, integrating it with other products.
The free version really does come full-featured, allowing you to schedule meetings, share your desktop, upload files, and share the whiteboard. In addition, there is no application that needs to be installed by your meeting participants (which often holds up a meeting when you have first-time users), and you can have audio and video with a web cam and microphone (no more phone call/online meeting combinations).
Getting started was a breeze, and I was up an running in less than five minutes, except for one very crucial flaw: DimDim is only supported on Windows machines running Internet Explorer. What promised to be an amazing free, easy-to-use online meeting platform resulted in a fail for me. I'm a Mac user, and I don't run Windows at all.
This probably wouldn't have been as much of an issue for me if I'd known at the outset that I wouldn't be able to use DimDim, and I'm glad I was only testing it, and not using it for a mission-critical meeting when I found out. I only discovered the system requirements after digging through all the PDF documentation on the site, where it was printed in small text at the bottom of one of the documents. In Firefox, I was able to get the audio and video working with no issues, as well as access the whiteboard, use the typed chat, as well as upload a PDF file to share. My husband was able to see the same things in Safari, but wasn't able to log in to the meeting at all with Firefox.
A quick check at the comparison chart of DimDim editions claims that DimDim works for Mac, Windows, and Linux, but if you actually click on the "features" link, you'll see that desktop sharing, probably the most crucial feature for anyone in this industry is "coming" for Mac and Linux.
DimDim really does hold a lot of promise, especially for individuals and businesses without room in the budget for pricier options like WebEx or GoToMeeting. But a lot of their audience is already using, or considering switching over to, Mac and/or Linux, and hiding the fact that those users will be missing functionality isn't the way to win repeat users.
Dave, thanks for your suggestions – we here at Glance Networks anticipate adding voice to our service in the near future, so that's in the works.
We have also heard from a number of people that they would like a plan designed for the occasional user, so you're in good company on that suggestion.
Also, since you're in the area, we would enjoy having you stop by… Come have a sandwich and share any other thoughts you might have about Glance.
Steve, I'm sorry you don't understand why screensharing is a huge component of any mobile meeting platform.
A PowerPoint or PDF is something you can share with an email and a phone conference. Screensharing is a huge component of doing online app demos. Any developer worth their salt wanting to demo their app wants to be able to answer a question by showing how it works. When I was testing it, I used my husband as my guinea pig, since he uses web-based meeting software more than I do; I'm usually an attendee these days, while he is the one demoing products.
While PowerPoints can be a part of any software demo, being able to show people what you are talking about is crucial in this industry. For Web 2.0 companies who are demoing their app to countless bloggers and possible investors, screen sharing is a crucial component. Whether you personally use it or not, it's a crucial feature to a good portion of the audience I'm writing for, and having it missing for both Mac and Linux is a deal-breaker, free or not.
I agree that screen sharing is imperative in today's marketing for WebConferences, and more so for anyone in the software development/web design industry. PowerPoint is still the number one use required for almost all people I demonstrate our WebConferencing product to, but most of them need to show things that lose their effectiveness if not done through proper screen sharing.
Luckily we currently have full support for Screen Sharing on PC/Mac/Linux platforms with our service. It might not be free, but for under a tank of gas per month, it holds reliable, which is vital when doing business.
Anthony
Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
http://www.ganconference.com
Phone: 312-432-5377
Skype: anth.russo
I thought it might be interesting to hear what one of our Mac customers has to say about what it's like to use Glance Networks' service.
“The Mac version of Glance works exactly the same as the Windows
version – we haven’t had one issue. It’s easy to use and most
importantly for us, it’s a one-click start. When it comes to
simplicity, the entire Glance experience is very Macish. We just
don’t need all of the bells and whistles from other companies that
typically add an extra 10 minutes to setting up a demo. With
Glance, it's instantaneous and I don’t know of any other Mac
products that work this way.”
- Brian Niles, founder and CEO of TargetX, which provides
marketing communications services to 450 colleges and
universities nationwide
You can see a demo of how one company has used Glance to build their business at http://youtube.com/watch?v=fWBg_gIGTtY
Check us out at http://glance.net. Sometimes it's important to go with the tried and true.