Dimdim is an open source alternative to proprietary web conferencing packages like WebEx and GoToMeeting. We first wrote about them back in September 2006 when they were offering an alpha version of their on-premise solution.
Today the company is releasing a hosted version of that solution that requires no setup to use - not even a browser plugin like other offerings. CEO DD Ganguly says by getting rid of plugins, Dimdim will be more accessible to those who are either technically unsavvy or wary of installing 3rd-party software online.
The hosted web conferencing experience has the same functionality as the on-premise one, except that companies can’t customize it to look like their websites. Dimdim can be used to run slideshow presentations, hold collaborative freehand drawing sessions, chat (in groups or privately), and share desktops.
The free version of the product allows for up to 20 simultaneous users and is supported by advertisements. To get rid of the ads and access benefits like technical support, guaranteed uptime, and custom branding, organizations will have to pay anywhere from $100 to $500 depending on the seats they need.
Dimdim says that its on-premise solution has been downloaded over 200,000 times in 165 countries. About 26,000 people have beta tested this hosted solution.
The open source strategy followed by Dimdim makes most sense when customers want to manage the software on-premise, and it’s not so important when everything’s hosted in the cloud. But it’s good to see competition nipping at the heals of giant WebEx.
This this is a good open source option on the market (Dimdim) but it is not so much the software that makes for a good web conferencing tool but the network. Companies like WebEx that have their own, strong content delivery network make for better, faster and more stable meetings.
Casey Edwinson
I don’t know if DimDim can take down the 800-pound gorilla GoToMeeting (or WebEx too), but I guess you gotta start somewhere…
http://www.collegemogul.com
yes! love to see an upstart dig in against over-priced legacy providers. IMO - this is a space skype could have owned (maybe still can) but alas they are locked in the refuse to innovate garden of eBay and haven’t done anything cool since being acquired.
@Casey
One could run dimdim on Amazon EC2 and S3 to take advantage of Amazon’s CDN capabilities…
The site looks cute though… planning to give it a try this weekend
Looks they are not really open source. They have the limit of max 5 participants and one single meeting at one time.
[quote]
Open Source SF edition of dimdim is a personal edition of the meeting server and is meant to cater to single meeting. We have currently placed the restrction to upto 5 participants. For larger meetings, the resources required increase significantly and require dedicated servers.
Please use the hosted dimdim edition - for hosting larger meetings. We also provide an enterprise server build for on-premise installations.
[/quote]
Thanks for the post, Mark. We are indeed an open source company and will post a new open source version soon to remove some of these restrictions. For those who don’t want or can’t host the Dimdim server themselves, our Free version lets you have meetings of up to 20 people at a time using our hosting providers.
Just signed up for an account and tried it out with a friend of mine. The interface is easy to use is a nice option if you plan on holding a web conference with just a couple of participants, instead of having to go through the hoops you have to jumpthrough with WebEx, GotoMeeting, and Raindance. Looking forward to seeing more enhanced iterations down the pike.
The over-priced legacy providers do need competition, but as others have pointed out (#5), there are some questions concerning the true “open source” nature of this organization. No one can blame them for trying to make $$ for their hard work, but the crippleware they have released under GPL is not workable.
@Steve, good to hear you will be removing the restrictions, but it is not clear which ones: 2Hr time limit? 1 web conference/ server? 5 particapants / server?
Anyone interested in a more transparent open source community for web conferences can check out:
1) Openmeetings on Google code
http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/
2) Epresence on Sourceforge
http://sourceforge.net/projects/epresence/
plugin still required…
It’s worth trying http://yuuguu.com too, even if the name is a bit wierd!
As an owner of a smaller company this is a great product…the free edition that is. The fact that you can easily grow to the paid enterprise edition is an added bonus.
How soon until the competition follows up with something similar?
Seems like open source is becoming the trend in the web conferencing/group chat realm. Just serve a basic free version and then offer the traditional upgrades like ad removal, branding control, unlimited amount of users, etc. Looks like a nice piece of software.
http://www.blabbr.org
It looks like they stole their main menu from Apple.
Anyone interested in other open source web conference software options:
1) Openmeetings on Google code
2) Epresence on Sourceforge
P.S. sorry if this double-posts, but I cant wait for the obviously none spam links to make it thru askimet.
From the design I guess that someone plans to be aquired by Google and added to the Apps rooster
We’ve been playing with it here in the office and it takes some getting used to but overall it gets the job done.
The product hotcomm has been around longer than this web conferencing product - http://www.hotcomm.com - hotcomm is more multifeatured.
Razvan, that’s just what I was thinking. However, you could do a lot worse than adopt a Google-esque look and feel. I tried Dimdim out this morning and thought it looked promising. I note that hosting still requires a plug-in, but that isn’t a deal-breaker for me.
Testing it out now, thanks for the heads up. Software looks great.
But…as Zach pointed it out, it definitely does require a plugin. Too bad, I was impressed that it didn’t.
In regards to my previous comment, it appears only the meeting’s host needs a plugin. Thats not bad.
Steve from Dimdim here. The meeting host needs a tiny (1.8MB) plug-in only if they intend to do live screencasting. If you are just doing video, audio, PPT, PDF, chat, etc. sharing you DO NOT need any plug-in, even for meeting host. If you look at the Features tab in the Host a meeting dialog box you can see you can turn off features. Turn off screencast and you won’t need to download anything. Hope that helps, and thanks for trying Dimdim.
I tried it and it crashed my windows xp machine hard core. Not sure if it was FireFox’s memory consumption issue or right after I accepted the video accept option from Flash. I have high hopes for this product. Probably the fastest registration I’ve used in a long while. I was inside within 15-20 seconds. I am fixing to try it again after a fresh reboot to see if I can reproduce the issue.
I have to say that I’m impressed. I installed the old alpha version of this a couple of years ago when it basically had no features (and really didn’t work all that well) and I’m pleasantly surprised by the new version. The free version works great, I’ve been using it off and on all morning with a few people that I felt would really benefit and all of the responses to this point have been great.
A few people have mentioned GoToMeeting and WebEx. While WebEx now allows people to use non-Windows machines, GoToMeeting still requires Windows. And that is important to me as I barely use Windows machines anymore.
Based on the results that I’ve seen so far, I definitely see upgrading and branding a site for use in presenting sales information.
http://www.miniNOC.com
AWESOME Software!
i love it !
Your recent post about Dimdim shows there is a lot of competition among sites providing online conferencing platforms. Dimdim looks attractive, but I think users will baulk at paying fees, when there are free sites like WiZiQ. WiZiQ offers features such as a virtual classroom and a text message reminder service. WiZiQ’s virtual classroom is custom built for online educators and has received rave reviews from teachers across the world.
I have already wrote about it here
http://feedshub.blogspot.com
This feels an awful lot like Adobe Connect… Only screen sharing from a Mac didn’t work for me. Nor did my built in iSight.
If you’re looking for a web conferencing solution that doesn’t require a plugin, you can try PalBee. Just log in and you can start a meeting immediately.
http://www.palbee.com
If you need anything more than their free hosted version, I suggest you steer clear of dimdim. After spending the last 6 months hacking on their code for our internal version, my opinion is pretty low.
Their ‘open source’ offering is a joke. It’s very clear that the released code isn’t what they use internally as it doesn’t build without some modifications. It’s unclear what their license on the code is. Their source code doesn’t match their binaries.
Speaking of source code, Dimdim’s code is a terrible, undocumented mess. Their ‘document management system’ is possibly the most convoluted piece of code I’ve ever seen. It involves a two separate web servers, php, python, cherrypy, openoffice, X, etc. etc.
Since they’re not really open, I don’t see how they’re any different to webex, or any other online meeting provider. If you really want an open source solution, I suggest checking out openmeetings.
Tried it, Thought pretty good and easy. One major concern.
The confirmation e-mail list the login password in plain text!!!
Therefore they probably store it that way also.
Major security Warning!!!!
Plugin (v3.7) was required to host a meeting
I tried it today on my Macbook at it was a disaster. It checked my specs and showed everything was fine. First when I tried t share desktop, it was “unavailable” multiple times. Then I tried to upload two powerpoints (nothing fancy in them) and neither of them would convert. It certainly isn’t “easy to use’ for non-technical person. Had much better luck with Vyew and GotoMeeting.
Nice idea, very bad implementation–not ready for prime time.
What a fantastic registration process. I didn’t have an actual meeting to test this on, but I did give it a whirl with two friends of mine and we were all very impressed wit the speed and the functionality included in the free version.
Tom ,
Thanks for pointing out this, we will fix this ASAP.
Rohit
Dimdim.
Am I taking crazy pills??? The first big item on their http://www.dimdim.com/products/what_is_dimdim.html was “No Downloads.” A plugin, which last time I checked is still considered a download, was required for desktop sharing. Can you please correct your blog not to read “… not even a browser plugin like other offerings” but reflect things more accurately. Currently your blog gives the impression that no plugins at are required at all, which is not the case.
We evaluated DimDim this past fall when selecting a web conferencing product to sell as a hosted application. The software wasn’t ready at the time, and ended up OEMing from another provider. Our ShareMeeting http://www.phase2int.com/share.....rview.aspx has no downloads, and is a Flash based online meeting solution for $23.99 a month.
I think that WebEx and GoToMeeting feel the pressure from the SaaS competitors and will be forced to move to this model.
i’ve been using yugma (https://www.yugma.com) for my webconferencing for over a year now. very happy with their service. will try dimdim too, but i suggest yugma to EVERYONE!
oh, forgot - yugma is launching their enterprise capabilities next week too, according to a phone call they gave me yesterday. looking forward to managing my own accounts!
Started using open source version of dimdim, gotta say no problems on windows side or linux side, code is simple enough to change (if your having problems you probably shouldn’t be using the self-hosted server) the free online version works very well for small meetings.
I especially like the application sharing feature, giving everyone the ability to see and work with the same document is a nice change from one person altering it, uploading to server, another person editing and so on.
As for no comments in the code, well its free, so your complaining why?
People seam to take open source for granted now days just because its FREE they want everything. If you don’t have the know how to get it working and secured then i’d suggest sticking with one of their paid services.