Return To Web Conferencing: DimDim

I am trying to decrease my travel, and in so doing, I have reanimated my personal interest in using web conferencing solutions. So, I ran around the web in the last week, sniifing out solutions that work with my Mac.

The monsters in this space are Webex (too expensive), LiveMeeting (too expensive), and GoToMeeting (way too expensive). I wanted something with video and shared desktop capabilities.

I had been given a trial account to Zugma by my new friend Vas Bhandarkar, and I really like the look of the service, particularly the integration with Skype in the ZugmaSE version. However, I ran into a bug where the app couldn’t communicate correctly with Skye, which led to this email from the tech support team:

[via email]

Hi, Stowe.

We’re not certain what is causing this, but there were cases where the following have helped:

1. Uninstall and re-install Skype and YugmaSE.

2. Open the Java Preferences. You can search for them with the search glass icon in the upper right corner of the Finder window.

Once open, verify that Java version J2SE5.0 is selected in the top half of the window and made top priority in the bottom half. Java 6 needs to be lowest priority.

If this is already the case, change both to Java 1.4, exit the Java Preferences and Save. Then open them again and change it back to J2SE5.0.

Hmmm. I might try that at some point, like the next time I need to upgrade Skype, but at this moment it seems like too much work, especially when I don’t use Skype as much these days as I used to. I only turn it on, it seems, when I have a scheduled Skype call. But for Mac users Zugma might be a godsend, since most Skype web conferencing add-ons seem to be Windows/Vista only.

I learned about Yuuguu at the recent Office 2.0 conference and downloaded it. It works as advertised, but only has audio conferencing, not video, in the form of a phone conferencing integration, not VOIP. It is free otherwise however.

DimDim

I found what I was looking for the other day, however. DimDim is a free, web-based service with desktop sharing, chat and video(*presenter only), and has no download for attendees. It also includes the ability to record sessions. If you get to 100 attendees you need to start paying, but I am not going to hit that limit, ever.

There is an open source edition, as well, although I am not personally very interested in that angle, but it does allow a way to end run the 100 person limit on users.

Here’s a screenshot, with the text chat closed:

DimDim - Welcome to Web Meeting, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

The way I see this working, in my case would be the following. Generally, I am the solo calling into some group, so I would ask the group on the other side to login and host the meeting (they could use my ID if they want). They would set up a web cam either facing the group, or facing the whiteboard.

In my case, if I were leading the session, I have my built-in iSight that points at me, and an external iSight that I can point at a whiteboard, or at a piece of paper I am scribbling on. I also have the Movino software on my n82 cell phone, so I can switch to that as a video source. That means I could be sitting with a group of people, and we could pass around the phone as each one wanted to speak.

Right at the moment, DimDim only supports video for the presenter, so if I want two way or multiway video I would have to run iChat, Skype or some other video chat solution in parallel. In most cases, I really want the video just to see a remote whiteboard, though, more than having all the parties looking at each other.

The app also provides so-called ‘moods’ for attendees to vote, or indicate they are out of the room for a moment or the like.

The moderator can turn attendees’ audio on or off, and can hand off control of the session to someone else, although that new moderator does not then get control of the video channel (which is the obvious thing to do).

So, I am going to give DimDim a chance for a few weeks, and we’ll see how it goes.