DimDim: A Rebel to Democratize Rich Media Collaboration!
There was this story that there were a group of individuals scattered all across the globe who constantly kept in touch with each other using different communication mediums and tools. They realized that keeping up with these communication tools are quite expensive and unreliable. What they thought of was that there was an opportunity with the predicament that they encountered and came up with a plan to create an integrated, easy-to-use communication and collaboration free service tool to address needs of people who were geographically dispersed but have a constant need for communications and collaborations.
This is where DimDim started out. From a collected ideas and vision from separate individuals who would like to improve the manner in which the online world communicates and collaborates. We chanced upon this Open Source tool as we are gathering informations on the various new technologies that are out in the market today specially in the areas wherein people could collaborate, talk and see each other online.
Dimdim is the world´s first free web meeting service based on the open source platform. It is a browser-based web 2.0 service that allows anybody to share their desktop, show slides, as well as talk, listen, chat, and broadcast via webcam. Dimdim´s hosted service is available for free and can be easily used for small gatherings, to seminars with hundreds of attendees. With absolutely no software to download for attendees, it gives everyone the opportunity to hold Web meetings and to customize and brand these meetings as they like.
We did our evaluation and review and it did work across different platforms. When we tested it, I was using Linux Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbons while the other end was using Windows Vista and it worked fine. Although we noticed certain difficulties on the voice chat function side wherein the voice from the other end was quite coming in pretty slow which makes the voice sound like that of a robot. The other thing is that my voice to that other end sounded like that of a chipmunk. 
But overall it served its purpose we were able to collaborate and talk online across different platforms and across different geographical locations and timeline.
They have a good Vision: To Democratize Rich Media Collaboration. This could mean that web meetings would not be the same as before. We are hoping that they would be able to successfully pull it off. They have the dream and the vision and DimDim is indeed an innovative tool with the complete ingredients to fill the gap in Rich Media Collaboration. Rich Media as in audio, video, text (chat messages), and desktop sharing, and virtual worlds. And these would be delivered in an integrated, easy to use browser-based interface.
They saw that web meeting as the first step in rich media collaboration and they envision to see the future being built on 3 principles:
1) “Just works” usability
2) Open and Integrated
3) Disruptive pricing for business quality service
We are going to monitor how DimDim through its management and staff would be able to propel their “Rebel” stint on this New Open Source Technology tool. We intend to test it again and hope for improvements on the software in these coming days to come.
For those who would like to try them out, just visit them at www.dimdim.com and see, hear and experience the difference of communicating and collaborating interactively the Open Source Way!
Thanks for your review and welcome to Dimdim!
We’re working hard to make web meetings better and easier than ever before. By providing a free and open source offering, we also hope to make web collaboration as commonplace as email.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Steve
steve @ dimdim.com
Your Welcome! Good softwares such as this one always catches our attention. Keep us posted on developments. Goodluck!