TechTips - DimDim FREE Online Video Conference Meeting Room

There are so many products out there for online collaboration and virtual meeting spaces, but I haven't found any good quality FREE online meeting rooms that were worth using. Until I found DimDim, a totally free online meeting place, that has many of the same features as some of the big name more expensive online meeting places. DimDim lacks some features but could be a great FREE alternative for a small business or small group of users wishing to meet virtually with no costs.

DimDim can be used via any browser which is nice because that makes it operating system independent, as long as you have a web browser you can use it with Windows, Linux or a Mac PC. Only one person has to have a free account to host the meeting, it's simple to sign up and create your account. All it takes to create a free account is an email address and a creative URL. Follow these steps to setup your online meeting room; it should only take you 2 minutes:

Click HERE

Type in your email address

Type in a password of your choosing

Choose a room name (Try to be unique, common ones are probably in use)

Click Sign up Button (will prompt you that the room was successfully created)

You are all done and can now go to your meeting room (assuming it was a unique name, if not try until you find one) and get started. One thing that DimDim doesn't tell you is your username is your email address without the @whatever.com, so keep that in mind. I like that you don't have to verify your account or anything to use the service you can login without ever leaving the site or checking your email.

DimDim will send you a welcome email with your login information in it and the URL to your meeting room (https://my.dimdim.com/(nameyouchoose), you can now access your meeting room anytime via this URL.

To enter your room, go to your meeting room URL and at the top right click Sign in, enter your username and password and click Sign in. You will probably get a prompt for some advertisement, annoying but hey they are giving you a free meeting space. The welcome page will have two large buttons to choose from, schedule and start, they are just what they sound like, you can start a meeting right this instance with the START Button or you can schedule a meeting for a later time using the SCHEDULE.

We will want to test the START meeting function:

Click START

Click Allow for flash player (this allows the use of your Mic and web cam if you have them)

Click the Invite button option you would like to use (you can text the meeting room name, email it or copy and paste it to someone)

Click Presentation in the left hand corner (This is what we want everyone in the room to see, there are other options like whiteboard and computer screen but for this demo we will show a Power Point presentation)

Click Browse (find the file you want to open and click OPEN)

Click Share (once file is selected, it will load the presentation in the window)

Now you should be sharing your presentation with anyone in the room. People who use your invite to come to the room will enter as attendees; in the FREE edition you are limited to 20 people in one session. You also have a limited number of audio feeds you can pass out, 4 total to be used. There is a chat window within the online meeting room though for everyone to share their input on the meeting. You can also chat with each user privately; the FREE version surprisingly has loads of options. There are a few other limitations to the FREE version of DimDim, you aren't able to record your session but there are always free screen capture tools that could be used as a work around for this limitation. CamStudio would work very well.

Overall I am impressed with the amount of functionality you get with the web based DimDim virtual conference room. There are many other sites that offer similar online meeting rooms with similar options and they charge for their services. I think DimDim would be a great place for small businesses that can't afford or don't want to pay for a premium service for a virtual meeting environment. It has some limitations but the fact that it's totally free makes up for any of these limitations; it's a very usable meeting room.

If you like the DimDim FREE online meeting room you can always pay $25 a month and get the premium services. They offer a free trial of the premium services so you can try it before you buy it. I haven't tested the pay service but I assume it's probably on par with other services like GoToMeeting.

Give DimDim a try and see if you like it, maybe it will suit your needs and you can save some money using this free service as an alternative.