Dimdim Version 5: Speed, Security and Widgets
Dimdim announced the fifth major release of their easy, installation-free* and open-source web meeting application today. Dimdim version 5 brings a number of improvements to the platform, including significantly improved screencasting, availability of trusted SSL session security, webinar widgets, synchrolive co-browsing, performance improvements across the board, and new reporting options. Some of these new features are exclusive to the Pro tier. To this end, Dimdim has moved all Pro accounts to a new, more powerful server farm, and is now offering a monthly payment option as well, both "at a fraction of the cost" of the competitors, according to Dimdim Chief Marketing Officer Steve Chazin.
Dimdim has made a name for itself in the web meeting space by offering a quality product not only for free, but also open source. This has led to organic growth for the company both in market share as well as in VAR integrations, including such commercial products as TimeBridge (which we cover here) and SugarCRM, and OEM branding for internal deployment in a number of big companies.
Widget
Since Dimdim lives in a browser for both the presenter and meeting attendees, inviting someone to a web meeting has always been as easy as copying the meeting URL to your clipboard and sending it to someone via email or instant message, thus being able to give people a destination page with meeting information. To that end, version 5 pro now offers a very functional widget that can be easily embedded on a web site or deployed on any of a number of social networking platforms, including MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, and Microsoft Live. This widget contains all the information needed for an attendee to see, at a glance, when the meeting is happening (or if it is live already), register or join, and optionally to see a recording or view a transcript if the meeting is over.
Security and Performance
Both free and pro levels benefit from an overhaul of the Dimdim screencasting engine, the part of the client that sends and receives data with the server. According to Steve Chazin, Dimdim founder, the rewrite caused an almost 2x improvement in speed and responsiveness. In addition, Dimdim now supports full SSL connections for pro accounts. This means that web sniffers won't be able to eavesdrop on the session while it is happening.
Synchrolive Co-Browsing
Dimdim diverges quite a bit from its competitors when it comes to displaying web pages during web meetings. Instead of relaying a static image across the conference bridge, the software opens the presenter's URL directly within a controlled window. This means that live web pages, including rich media sites like YouTube, open locally and with no performance or sound penalties, while the presenter retains control of which part of the page is displayed.
Recording, Transcripts and More
Dimdim Pro allows a web meeting to be recorded directly from a button within the live session. Both the recording and the chat transcript are made available immediately after the web meeting is over, based on the organizer's wishes. Pro users can also request for their Dimdim sessions to be customized to show custom logos, messaging and entrance and exit pages if requested. Other features of a pro account include 2-way video support (with more to come), annotation of shared documents, private messages within the meeting and email support if needed.
Update: *Adobe Flash does need to be installed in the browser in order for Dimdim to work.
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In the video Steve clearly says you can use DimDim "with no plug-in requred", but when you sign-up it very clearly states that the Flash 9 plug-in is required.
Not a big deal, just a little bit of fluff. Can't use it on my iPhone, which I could of if the no plug-in required claim were true.
Thanks Phil for the great write up. We're working hard to make Dimdim the tool for real-time, rich media collaboration and we're delighted to have shipped version 5 and passed the 2 Million user milestone.
Martin, I added a callout on the left side of our website here: http://www.dimdim.com/products/what_is_dimdim.html to make sure I'm being 100% honest.
What I really mean to say is that unlike WebEx or GoToMeeting or Adobe Connect we don't install any additional software on attendees computers just to attend - as long as they have Flash. And you can host and even record your meetings with just Flash as a host. A tiny 2MB plug-in IS required if you choose to share your computer screen.
Thanks again!
This write-up got me pretty excited about DimDim, but that video is total bullshit.
I just tried to host a conference and share my screen, and I got hit with this message "Screencaster Plug-in 5.0 needs to be installed the first time you share your Computer Screen". I thought Steve said "no plug-in" and "no install".
In that case, http://www.yuuguu.com/ is still "The world's easiest web conference" product I've come across.
Martin,
Many applications – like Yuuguu – won’t start up without additional software installed. With Dimdim you can schedule and host very productive meetings – sharing documents, web pages, web cams, mics, chat, even record your sessions – without installing anything other than having Flash. We know of no other web conference application that comes this close to being entirely browser-based.
If you choose to share your screen (it is optional yet important to many) you do need to install our plug-in - no other way to grant the web browser access to your desktop video.
perfect
http://somosvallenato.com
Whatever, I'll just check this out myself..
Steve, thanks for pointing out that Flash is required. I'll update my post to keep everything on the level.
Dimdim audio is not working on Linux.
Scree Sharing is still not comparable with WebEx specially on slower networks.WebEx screen sharing is still far better the Dimdim.
Gotomeeting is expencive. But it is easy and reliable i.e. its totally worth of our money. We can't use DimDim for critical corporate meetings where there is game of dollers. Its business and we can't do any experiment with it.
Its not been a good experience with a DimDim software,so i had to rely on yugma,i hope in near future i can think of using dimdim.
I've been using dimdim at my company for webinars, team meetings and product demonstrations to great success. Its been working great for us, and the price is fantastic.
@ Steve C - I can't wait to start embedding the widgets on my site. Thanks!!
Dimdim – The name is not professional. So we can’t use.
Dimdim rocks...!!!
we need Dimdim to stop crimes !!!.. crime dept and we b conferecing companies can work together to stop crime
just now I created an account and unable to log-in.Dumdum works like it's name.
Google, Yahoo!, and Apple were once non-professional names too.
Dimdim does not seem to be the name of a Software Development company. It's sort of funny and looks like a toymaker. It should be changed. Since you develop Web Conference software, you might want to rename it to something like WebCSoft.
I am absolutely agreed with Martin - "Its business and we can't do any experiment with it."
In business we have to use such things that increases client's faith in our process and we can't take this risk just to save some bugs. Sometimes it also so much embarrassing when you introduce these king of products to the clients and they don't have faith in that. So to avoid such conditions we have to introduce standard practices in business. Not such funny things.
I am a WebEx user and also using dimdim for a quite long period.
What I found the product is not ready yet to compete with WebEx.
Dimdim needs extensive testing.The product is no longer in beta but you will find lots of bugs in it. Screen share feature is not even usable.Audio video has lags, there is no consistency in document share module (Document which I had shared 2 days back cannot share today).
It has bugs even in log in also.
But I like the concept. Needs lot more work and effort to compete with
web meeting leader WebEx.
Quick and easy online meetings are the go. This is what we aim for with Mikogo, a free web conferencing tool that you can use to share your desktop with multiple people via the Web.
Desktop sharing is vital for online meetings, as it allows you to share any screen content from your computer as you need it and on the fly.
Yes for the organizer of the meeting, an installation is required. But you could use the Mikogo portable version and just start meetings from your USB stick. No installation required for participants at any time.
Phil, I'd be interested in talking further with you about the ease of online meetings. Please feel free to contact me for further info.
Regards,
Andrew Donnelly
The Mikogo Team
http://twitter.com/Mikogo
We used to be DimDim users until very recently (Jan 09).
It is am impressive looking product and really fantastic value for money.
BUT - It is not a Happy story for us with DimDim. We are an organisation that organises Online Seminars with audiences of between 70 - 150 people.
We left DimDim because of its consistent unreliability - sound failures during meetings, lack of useful support - All these aspects reflected very badly on US as a business, especially since we were introducing a new concept of Continuing Education to the members of our industry.
We have signed up with a far more expensive program (Elluminate)- However, 25 meetings later - it has been reliable every single time - no matter how many participants.
I really hope Dim Dim improves with time and is able to support a large number of people without technical hiccups. We were one of DimDim's earliest batch of customers and we do think that the product they have has tremendous potential.
Regards,
CJ
I would like to follow on the comments of CJ [July 2/2009].
I've been testing DimDim for some time now, and keep hoping that this week I will NOT be disappointed. We went from Free to Pro back to Free to see if the service can be dependable from a business perspective.
You can NOT offer a FREE mediocre product and expect to up-sell by saying, "Oh, if you use ENTERPRISE, your problems will go away."
I really want DimDim to succeed but they have to polish the product. We too believe the company has tremendous potential.
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone can tell me whether the Screen sharing functionality on DimDim is still considered to be very slow?
Do we know if DimDim are going to be working on this in the near future to make it more usuable?
I am looking for a product that is very much like DimDim but it does need screen sharing functionality and VOIP and/or telconferencing functionality that is reasonable.
This is actually precisely how Adobe Connect works.
Adobe Flash is the only requirement in Connect for attending and hosting unless you wish to do screen sharing. Dimdim has wisely chosen to adopt this same approach, which gives users easy access and a rich experience.
While I use Proxy networks for my remote control software needs, this looks like a fantastic solution to the web-conference issue. Still, there does seem to be some concern over speed...Is there a free demo available, and, if so, is it fairly representative of the final product?