DimDim: Free Web Conferencing with a Big Limitation

thanks for the notes - also on a mac, but running windows (virtually) though would prefer to stick inside safari if possible…so what specifically does not work on a mac aside from desktop sharing? do you also have trouble installing the small application that meeting hosts are required to install? and without desktop sharing, what exactly is the point of the ’space’ - i mean, if somebody wants to share a ppt or keynote file then what you’re saying is if they’re on a mac they’re SOL unless they’re simply a participant viewing the file on a windows meeting host machine?

Hi,

I couldnt get whats the big limitation … is this blog for MAC users … why mislead windows users …. please clarify ….

@Dave You don’t even see the application for meeting hosts to install. Nothing was there. If you are running OS X only or Linux, you can’t do anything but look at someone else’s desktop. i.e. If you need to do a demo, you aren’t doing it unless you are on Windows.

@Andrea This blog relates to Web 2.0. Since many developers are using Macs or Linux machines, that’s a pretty major issue. As I said in the review, if they had stated when I signed up for the account or ANYWHERE other than digging through all the documentation that this was the case, I’d have tabled the review, as I’ve done with several other apps that don’t have Mac versions. However, that is a deal-killer for MANY folks who are using Macs or Linux machines without a dual boot or virtualization installed. I was able to sign up for an account, schedule a meeting, and START the meeting before realizing something was wrong. Imagine you are using a Linux or Mac OS, went through all that, and went into your meeting only to realize you can’t run the demo. That’s pretty huge.

thanks cyndy! that’s lame, though i suspect that somebody in the open source community will (hopefully) try to rectify this soon…looks like i’d be using it through parallels, which isn’t a big deal, just a bit of a circuitous route…

@andrea - platform shouldn’t matter for the majority of “web 2.0″ things, but in many cases there are certain sites that just don’t run in safari, or don’t play well with macs…it’s important to point that out to any mac users. case in point: if cyndy hadn’t pointed out clearly those mac issues, i may well have spent hours myself trying to sort through the crap looking for the same footnote! thankfully she made it crystal clear…bummer too, since i was interested in setting it up on my server but now may need to really rethink that…

DimDim is not a bad application. It is almost ready for PrimeTime, but does an adequate job for free. I just wouldnt count my business on it.

My Company Great America Networks Conferencing offers simple cost-effective Video and WebConferencing usable anywhere there is an Internet connection on any type of computer (Yes, even a Mac or Linux).

You can see the software interface and sign up for a free 1 on 1 trial or a full featured demonstration free as well.

Compare to other popular products and view the software here: http://www.ganconference.com/web.html

Sign up for a free trial here on the right side of the page: http://web.ganconference.com/

Have a free guided tour of the software here: http://www.ganconference.com/demo.html or contact me directly for a personal guided tour of the service.

Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
http://www.ganconference.com
Phone: 312-432-5377
Skype: anth.russo

Like you, I would hate to be on the verge of a crucial business meeting and discover that my web conferencing service didn’t work for whatever reason.

I highly recommend a web conferencing tool offered by my company, Glance Networks. We’ve been in business since 2004, offering a desktop sharing service that lets you show anything on your PC or Mac screen. Your guests connect from any PC/Mac/Linux computer, using their favorite browser. No software downloads required.

Glance is built for business users who need a dependable screen sharing service that works every time, on time. It is a flat rate, meet-all-you-want subscription service that costs less than a tank of gas.

You can sign up for a free trial on this page: http://glance.net.

@robin - glance is great (btw, i’m right in lexington - like 5 minutes from you folks) - but it still runs close to 50 a month…that alienates every association member i know (we’ve explored this before in a couple of professional associations, nobody wants to front for a new tool when there are free alternatives)…

if you folks considered a plan closer to 10 a month, or included VOICE (you gotta at least support VOIP without sending people to freeconferencecall!), then perhaps you’d draw in all of the folks who only need it once or twice a month tops…

why not consider pay per meeting? maybe 5 bucks for a meeting? still, without integrated voice i personally can’t imagine using it - asking people to go to some other site to do the voice part is clunky…at least dimdim has figured some of that out, but they’re also a bit clumsy in that area…

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.

Nice review Cyndy. I too was under the assumption that DimDim work 100% on Mac. My company also offers web-conferencing solutions, and we are similar to DimDim in that 100% of the features are available for Windows users, while Mac users can only be “participants”. I will be re-writing our documentation and website to make this VERY clear after reading this blog. So thanks again!

I am also glad to see that others are fed up with the “phone conferencing” solution and see value in using VOIP.

We are also now integrated into Facebook that provides a FREE (limited) 5-seat conference room through a facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/voice-chat) and we offer packages as low as $10/month and even free to qualified non-profit organizations, We love to partner and integrate with other businesses. Web-conferencing is taking some major shifts and the days of “big players” like WebEx is on the way out. Feel free to contact me from our site http://talkingcommunities.com

Cyndy,

Steve from Dimdim here. Dimdim can be used on Mac and Linux computers to attend AND host meetings. The only feature that is not yet available on the Mac and Linux is screen sharing (and we’re hard at work on adding that soon.) I’m sorry you found older support information on our site - Dimdim IS supported on all modern Mac, Windows and Linux versions of Firefox, Safari and IE.

I used to work at Apple for 10 years, host my own blog at http://MarketingApple.com where I actively promote the Mac community, AND I use my MacBook Pro for every single Dimdim meeting I host (you can join my weekly Featured meeting that I host from my Mac here: http://webmeeting.dimdim.com:80/portal/JoinButton.action?confKey=featured ) Needless to say you can host and attend meetings on Macs. Watch my video here demonstrating my hosting ability from my MacBook to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch here: http://blip.tv/file/828141/

I personally rarely use screensharing, but love the ability to demonstrate PowerPoints and PDFs while broadcasting live video, chatting over VoIP with attendees and using the collaborative whiteboard. And you can’t beat that price - free - for up to 20 participants.

Cyndy, I simply don’t understand your issues with Dimdim and I’d appreciate a chat.

- Steve

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.

Cyndy,

I do understand the importance of screensharing and as I have stated, it’s coming. In my mind, good screensharing can render PPT and PowerPoint sharing obsolete - if you can see everyone’s desktop it just makes things easier. I was simply concerned that your readers, such as Steven, were getting the impression that you can’t host a meeting on Mac, which you can. Stay tuned, I promise to update you on our Mac screensharing progress and would like to invite you into our beta testing for that phase. Thanks again for the clarification.

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.

Hi all,

I need to enable a web conferencing facility to my existing LMS running under Solaris 10 developed using J2ee technologies.also using ldap for user store and also SSo enabled
is’t possible integrate DImDIm with my app ?
any ideas,startagies please
Thnks
Raj

1. Only an idiot would start using a new application for “mission critical” work.
2. The dimdim site plainly says IE 6.0 or higher is required to host a meeting as well as the other requirements.
3. I really wish people would stop using open source if all they want to do is complain. dimdim.com has paid services if you are unable to get it to work.
4. Alternatives do exist. Ranting about 1 product out of thousands is just plain useless.

I started using dimdim because many of the other “free” alternatives did not offer some features I needed. I would also recommend that anyone wanting a completely free collaboration solution look into using multiple applications to get what they want. Otherwise buck up and pay for something. I currently use 3 separate services to give live support, share applications, and communicate with members.

I don’t mean this to sound all negative, but I have read at least 5 sites today reviewing dimdim and all of them are complaining about the difficulty to get it to work, if you read the documentation and go by the required and recommended software/hardware you will have no problem getting any software package to work.

Jeicrash

@jelcrash The site doesn’t insist on IE 6.0 until you drill down into the PDF docs. Everything else suggested that it was fine, and if you note in the comments above, even the DimDim folks point out that you can use just about everything other than the screensharing with other operating systems.

Many, if not most, start-ups are often looking for low-cost solutions, at least when starting out. It isn’t that they won’t pay, it’s that when you are bootstrapping, you can’t. It’s generally why companies like DimDim will go with a freemium model; offer basic features to users, and as they grow, they move up to the paid versions.

As I said, if it had been made VERY clear in the initial site text, I would have moved right past it. Too many companies make it difficult to find exactly what the requirements are quickly, and by the time you figure it out, you’ve wasted a good deal of time. That was my complaint.