I came across Dimdim the other day. Dimdim is a SaaS based web meeting offering that allows all the services the more expensive enterprise level web conferencing offerings. Dimdim includes;
- desktop sharing
- slide sharing
- unified communications
- integration with CRM systems
Open and Free
Unlike many installed offerings which tend to both be closed and expensive, Dimdim have offered their software both via SaaS and as an installable open source version. Their SaaS offering is provided at no charge and has API’s providing for feature extensibility. The free version is limited to 20 users which makes it sufficient for most small business presentations. Users need to install a web-meeting add on – I tried it with both explorer and Firefox without a hitch
Paid versions
For users needing the ability to host more individuals, Dimdim pro is available as a subscription service at a very reasonable $99/year. Dimdim pro scales up to 100 participants in a meeting room.
Coolness for everyone…
Dimdim’s offering makes lots of friends. For big companies it can save a heap of cash over their current Webex or GoToMeeting spend. For smaller businesses it allows professional looking web conferencing cheaply (or freely) and for the open saucies out there it gives away its open source base, hoping that the open source use will grow the user base virally.
Dimdim picked up $6mill of funding last week so expect bigger and better things from them in the months ahead.
I have been using DimDim for the last two months now. With me, living in India, and my main associate in Belgium, collaboration tools are very important.
Many times, DimDim has proven to be a really good tool. I was really happy when I read the news about the funding.
In my original post, Steve Chazin (Chief Marketing Officer at DimDim) left this comment :
“We’re working hard to make Dimdim even easier and more powerful. Hotmail made email free. Skype made phone calls free. With Dimdim, now the world can meet freely.”
It is ambitious and I am a big fan.
Great tool, saw their pitch on Demo.com a while back.
The integration features with a product like this will really help extend its reach. We have been looking at mashing it in to Litmos as web meetings go great with online training.
Hi Ben,
I would like to suggest our SaaS online meeting tool: Mikogo http://www.mikogo.com
Mikogo is a free screen sharing tool perfect for online meetings, remote tech support, Web presentations, distance learning, webinars, and more. Mikogo is completely free for all to use. No limitations or trial periods.
Such a free alternative is perfect for small businesses (who need a meeting solution for customer support, product demos, Web conferences etc, that won’t break the budget) or private users (who just want to collaborate over the Web or help out friends/family with tech problems).
All features are free and include:
screen sharing with up to 10 participants
application selection and sharing
switch presenter
remote keyboard and mouse control
file transfer
256 bit AES encryption
Skype Extra: providing free calls with free screen sharing combined
and more…
Take a moment to visit our website and consider Mikogo. Please feel free to contact me and let me know what you think of Mikogo. It would be great to hear back from you.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
Andrew
The Mikogo Team
andrew(at)mikogo.com
Great article. DimDim is an open source quality web conferencing tool, but unfortunately it’s closed now. WebEx and Gotomeeting are two quality web conferencing services; however, they are expensive as compared to others. If you want something cheap, the try using GoMeetNow, which costs only $12.95 / month, next to free. Another alternative is deploying on premise web conferencing appliance such as RHUB appliances.