dimdim

A cloudy future for open-source applications

The best open-source projects have little problem with adoption. Their problem, increasingly, centers on monetization of their popularity. From Drupal to MySQL to Audacity, sometimes the best things in life truly are free...which can be a problem. The solution, however, may be cloud computing.

I've articulated this before, but theory met reality this past week with announcements from DimDim, an open-source Web conferencing provider, and Acquia, the focal point for Drupal support and value-adding services. Both have interesting new cloud strategies that promise to deliver customer value while funding the vendors' payroll.

DimDim, as TechCrunch reports, recently launched … Read more

Webware 100 winner: Dimdim

Site: Dimdim.com Category: Communication

Dimdim is a free, open-source conferencing and screen-sharing app. It's a simple tool for sharing presentations, collaborating on projects, or having meetings between people in multiple locations.

You can use most of Dimdim's features without having to pay, or install anything on your computer. However, with a small plug-in you can share your entire computer screen with other meeting participants.

Because it's open-sourced, Dimdim's been integrated into several third-party services like Zimbra and SugarCRM, and has benefited from community bug-bashing.

DimDim nabs Index Ventures...and $6 million

As is often the case with "news," the most interesting story is in the subtext. As an example, DimDim, the open-source web conferencing company, just raised $6 million in a Series B round of financing. That's great news for DimDim, but it's not the most important news. (Though I'm sure DimDim employees will beg to differ. :-)

No, the most important news is who funded this round. Index Ventures.

For those who don't follow the open-source world very closely, Index has funded some of the world's best open-source companies, many funded by Danny Rimer, open-source rock star. … Read more

The Dimdim opportunity

It's good to see TechCrunch picking up on Dimdim's launch of its hosted Web-conferencing solution. But I think it misses the main driver of Dimdim's opportunity:

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.

No, it actually makes the most sense for manufacturers that are looking to embed Web conferencing into other solutions. The same is true for Ringside Networks. Arguably, … Read more

Dimdim: A good, free, open source Webex competitor (invites!)

Since I first wrote about it in September, I've been eagerly awaiting the free, open-source Dimdim, a direct competitor to the arrogant old commercial applications Webex and GoToMeeting, as well as upstarts such as Vyew and Webhuddle. I finally got a demo of this important new application, which goes into public beta this week. We have exclusive invitations to the closed beta right now if you want to jump in ahead of everyone...read to the end of the story for access.

When Josh and I first fired up the product last week, we both walked away confused. It … Read more

More ways to stick it to Webex: DimDim and Yuuguu

I don't like Webex's web conferencing product. Nor GoToMeeting's. I get invited to online demos using these tools all the time and I find both products resource hogs that are slow to get going, and that make it hard for me to take notes on my PC while watching a presentation. But what really bugs me is that I know the people who invite me to these demos are paying big money for these apps. They shouldn't have to. Screen sharing and conferencing is becoming a commodity feature. See all these stories for examples.

There are … Read more