April 15th, 2008
Can DimDim change the conference game?
Russell would have loved DimDim.
Combining VOIP and open source into a free Web meeting tool was right up his street.
Of course, no doubt he did know all about it. DimDim has been undergoing a soft launch since September and its official release this month is essentially a formality.
The product sells itself. In fact the company has set up special meetings with its top executives which do just that. (Most are Indian veterans of Computer Associates.)
If your set-up is up-to-date, with an integrated camera and microphone in your Windows XP (or later) laptop, and a broadband connection, DimDim is a quick five-minute download.
Meetings are free up to 20 participants, and even the Pro version is just $99. Cheap as chips.
The question is how much of the market is DimDim ready, because I’m ashamed to say I’m not.
While the necessary peripherals are standard on Macs, they’re not standard on PCs, at least desktop models. My own attempts to DimDim with CMO Steve Chazin were laughable.
All my fault, I assure him. I’m sure Russell would have handled it with great aplomb.
The timing for DimDim sounds just right. With gas prices high and rising, with PC prices low and falling, with bandwidth increasingly abundant, a low-cost open source competitor to firms like WebEx should be hitting the sweet spot.
If they take advantage of the community to build the add-ins experienced users have been clamoring for, they won’t look DimDim at all.
Not as dim as me, at any rate.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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