Sundar - DimDim's Web Conferencing

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We are proud to have Sundar (co-founder & Director of Business Development) of DimDim Inc. DimDim is all set to bring the open source magic to the world of Web Conferencing. Meet the engineer who made it easy to show presentations, applications & desktop over the Internet, during online conferences.

Check out our Small Talk with Sundar...


CE: Hello Sundar, you are the co-founder & Director of Business Development at DimDim. Tell us about your job.

Sundar: As the voice of the community inside the company I translate the community needs into product specifications. This leads to innovative product design because many users not only convey their problems but also the solutions to those problems. Of course, this also leads to more users of DimDim which is the ultimate aim. I enjoy the rush of working on cutting edge technology because of multiple new opportunities created by technological disruptions.

CE: What is DimDim? How did you decide to launch DimDim?

Sundar: Dimdim is the Open Source web conferencing company. With Dimdim you can show Presentations, Applications and Desktops to any other person over the internet. You can chat, show your webcam and talk with others in the meeting. All this is possible without installing any on the Attendee side. Basically there is no mature accessible open source web meeting software. Our aim is to have an accessible (both technically as well as economically) web meeting software. So no download/installation on attendee side. Less than 1 MB browser plugin installation on Presenter side. Everything works out of the browser.

CE: What is the story behind the name ‘DimDim’?

Sundar: Dimdim stands for Distributed Immersive Meetings (DIM), one DIM for you and one DIM for me. Hence Dimdim. No seriously, the name is catchy, easily remember able and easy to spell. So we chose Dimdim.

CE: How does DimDim work?

Sundar: Dimdim uses Flash and Google Web Toolkit (GWT) on the front end. This way no installation/configuration is required and everything works out of the browser. On the backend, a streaming server is used to collect and funnel streams of data.

CE: How does DimDim take care of the lower Bandwidth connections while sharing high quality audio-video content over the web?

Sundar: On lower bandwidth situations, Dimdim switches to lower data transmission as it sends screen data in grayscale mode instead of full color mode. Also the updates are fewer in low bandwidth conditions. This low bandwidth mode ensures that Dimdim stays accessible to almost everybody who has internet connection.

CE: What, according to you, is the USP of DimDim?

Sundar: Accessibility (Both technically as well as economically): Simple yet powerful software is the aim. In Dimdim almost all the features of any Webmeeting software is possible without any download/install/configuration for attendees. The User Interface (UI) is simple enough to be used by my grandmother while the software itself works on most platforms, as the underlying software is cross platform compatible. This is achieved through innovative combination of technologies like AJAX and Flash.

Integration and Customization: Not only is the UI fully customizable but even features can be turned ON/OFF. Full fledged integration with any other web based product is easy as Dimdim comes with a web based API which supports all the management functionality of Dimdim to be externalized. Of course, Dimdim is also internationalized so that it is available in the language and locale of your choice.

Disruptive pricing: We want to free webmeeting solutions from “corporate usage only” mindset and make it accessible to normal internet users. We see webmeetings going ubiquitous the way email and chat have become now and believe the disruptive pricing of Dimdim will contribute towards this goal. Dimdim is available on a flat monthly rate. No per attendee fee. No per meeting fee. No separate audio fee.

CE: India has typically been into ‘Services’. So why did you decide to get into Software Product?

Sundar: Basically there is no mature accessible open source web meeting software. Our aim is to have an accessible (both technically as well as economically) web meeting software. So we ventured into product development as opposed to the traditional “Services” model.

CE: Is it true that you are trying to restrict Internet usage to 20 hours/day?

Sundar: Well…you will have to ask my boss to answer that…

CE: Thank you for talking to CE. What is your message to CEans?

Sundar: Now I feel really old and not so wise answering this question. Dream big and work hard towards your dreams and nothing is impossible.
________________________________________
CE is thankful to Mr. DD Ganguly for making the interview possible. Visit DimDim at #-Link-Snipped-# for more information about DimDim

Replies

  • davidroger
    davidroger
    Nice article regarding DimDim web conferencing tool. DimDim is an open source web conferencing service, but unfortunately it’s closed now. WebEx and Gotomeeting are two quality web conferencing services; however, they are expensive as compared to others. If you want something cheap, the try using GoMeetNow, which costs only $12.95 / month, next to free.
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    davidroger
    Nice article regarding DimDim web conferencing tool. DimDim is an open source web conferencing service, but unfortunately it’s closed now. WebEx and Gotomeeting are two quality web conferencing services; however, they are expensive as compared to others. If you want something cheap, the try using GoMeetNow, which costs only $12.95 / month, next to free.
    That's a very old Interview. I think DimDim got acquired. I've used WebEx and I think they've done the product really well. Would definitely try GoMeetNow.

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