Web 2.0 applications / free conferencing
Okay, the term “Web 2.0″ is utterly useless, but you gotta admit, there’s some cool stuff out there.
Instead of listing all the cool apps that will make your life wonderful, I’ll just list one: Go2Web20.net will help you find the app(lication) you are looking for. It’s basically a Web 2.0 enabled index of a slew of Web 2.0 tools.
For example, searching that site for “webconferencing” got me to Yugma - which is a free, cross-platform alternative to expensive business tools like Microsoft’s Live Meeting, or WebEx. My guess is that it’s not as fully featured as the corporate tools, but it seems to have everything I’d need for personal use, like helping my sister-in-law troubleshoot some issues on her computer. And for a small business it still may do the trick. It even seems to place a value on security, which is excellent.
In trying to find some more information on Yugma, I also ran across a competitor - the equally free Vyew. There are some technological differences between the two (e.g., Vyew is Flash-based, while Yugma employs some Java and requires an installation), but their goal is the same - information sharing and collaboration. They both even offer free teleconferencing bridging (though not toll-free numbers).
There have been a few times that I’ve been tempted to use my work conferencing account to make some personal tasks a little easier (though I’ve managed to hold off). Now I think I might just have found a viable option!
Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, webconferencing, Yugma, Vyew, Flash, information sharing, collaboration, teleconferencing, WebEx, LiveMeeting, Go2Web20
Tags: free, internet, web conferencingRelated posts
Tags: free, internet, web conferencing
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February 8th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Jeff,
Funny thing. I’ve been going through the sames thoughts and reactions tto the term web 2.0… and recently (December) started using Yugma also. I have to say, it does everything I need. I think of it as a utility app. I can use it with anything. I’m very impressed with how it works between Macs and Windows. I’ve had to do that a few times. These types of apps are pretty amazing. To think they are now free… and in the case of Yugma, you can invite 10 people! Hard to believe.
-Derb
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February 8th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Hi Derb,
Yeah, I was pretty blown away when I ran across it. So much so that I’m not positive I really trust it! Have you had any problems with security since using it? Are there ads or anything?
Obviously I haven’t looked into it too deeply yet, but if it’s truly legit - holy cow, this is what I love about the internet.
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February 8th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I checked it out a little bit a while back. Security seems fine. https site, all of the good SSL 128 bit AES standard stuff. They don’t list their team members, but they sound like (from about-team page, as I recall) seasoned people from large reputable tech companies (Lawson, DEC, AT&T, etc.). I recently noticed they starting surveying you after a session - every so often. And I just noticed recently that they created a new “service status” type page to communiate how things are going (at their support page). This strikes me as people who are focused on quality and service availability - as they should be. Only other thought is that the little banner at bottom might eventually turn into ads. But you know, you get that with all of the free IM apps today. So I get I say “so far so good”
-Derb
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February 8th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Certainly sounds good to me. Thanks for the follow-up. You just saved me a bunch of time!
I don’t really have a huge problem with ads, as long as they aren’t intrusive visually or grab too much of my bandwidth or processor power. (I’ve come across a few ads that all but crash my browser…)
Sounds like, at least for now, I don’t even have to worry about that, though with this service. Nice.
Thanks again.
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February 8th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
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