Dimdim – Free web and video conferencing software

Posted on September 28, 2008 at 5:19 am

The web is littered with free conference call, free web conferencing, and free video conferencing software that 90% of the time is not actually free! Trying to find one that actually works and that is actually free can be tough! I had written about a product called Foonz, a free service to make group conference calls.

Dimdim is an open-source web service that you can use for setting up web meetings super fast. The cool thing about Dimdim is that it requires no software to download or install in order to work, which is pretty amazing considering that you can use it to share your desktop, do audio and video conferencing, present Powerpoint presentations, chat, and lots more!

So you’re asking what’s the catch? How can this be free? Well, there is one catch, the free version has ALL features, but only supports up to 20 people. To me, that is still fabulous because I have yet to sit in on a web seminar with more than 5 people! So unless you are in some giant company and have web meetings with 2000 people, this will be the best web conferencing solution you’ll be able to find.

Here are some of a great features of Dimdim which make it so impressive:

Super easy to setup a meeting and requires no download or software install to work
Built-in VOIP so users can call each other from any computer to another computer for free. No need to use Skype or Yahoo to talk.
Share and present Powerpoint presentations or PDF documents
Share your Mac or PC desktop with everyone
Share whiteboards – make annotations, etc.
Record an entire meeting and play it back later
Share webcams and mics
Multiple presenters (host can let others take over)
Public and private chat (1 on 1)

Outlook integration for scheduling meetings, etc
LMS and CMS integration

That’s a lot of features for a web conferencing product! Most would charge hundreds of dollars a month for this kind of service. Personally, I don’t understand how it can be free and they make money, but I guess I’ll enjoy it until it’s no longer free.

Image Source: Informational

The interface is very clean and since it’s been around since 2006, they have really polished the GUI and the features. If you’re using WebEx or GoToMeeting for all of your web group calls, you should definitely think about trying Dimdim as it has all of the features of the commercial products, plus it’s free up to 20 people. Enjoy!

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Comments

3 Responses to “Dimdim – Free web and video conferencing software”

Kevin Micalizzi, Dimdim Community Manager said on : November 14th, 2008 at 6:22 am

Thanks for the great write-up. To clarify, the presenter needs to install a small plugin if they want to share their desktop, but attendees do not need to install anything and are not required to register.

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Dimdim Community Manager
e: kevin (at) dimdim (dot) com

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