Web Conferencing for Free or Almost Free...

Web Conferencing for Free or Almost Free...

by Sam Mudle -
Number of replies: 3

I have a small group of students that I conference with so I don't want to pay some host $50 per month.  I find that Adobe Connect, BBB, Elluminate, and OpenMeetings only make sense if you have an expensive server and large bandwidth.  What if you are just meeting with a few students?

Join.Me - https://join.me/ - Free - Supported by LogMeIn company.  You install a very small exe on your machine and I've have broadcasted my desktop up to 20 people at the same time. You can allow any of them to control your desktop, it's super easy to chat and send files.

Pros:

  1. Free
  2. Broadcasts desktop up to 20 people with high quality.
  3. Can transfer files between host and participants.
  4. Participants don't need to install ANY software. 

Cons:

  1. No VOIP - you'll need Skype or something else.
  2. No Webcam support
  3. Need to install a small piece of software to start.
  4. They just need a flash enabled browser.
  5. Can't "trade" desktop views. 

Yvew http://vyew.com/s/ - Shares a whiteboard with everyone. Free up to 10 participantss.  Yvew even has a table explaining why Yvew is better than Adobe Connect and WebEx. (http://vyew.com/site/product/comparison)

Pros:

  1. Free (Up to 10 people)
  2. Saves your sessions so that people can go back and review.
  3. People can easily share pictures, documents, videos.
  4. Can make breakout rooms and subchat rooms.
  5. Webcam and Audio Support
  6. Many Administrator features.. you can give people moderator access if you want.
  7. Can share desktops (not tested)

Cons:

  1. All clients need a flash browser.
  2. Video quality of webcam poor compared to Skype. Audio is not as good as well.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Sam Mudle

Re: Web Conferencing for Free or Almost Free...

by Sam Mudle -

Skype - Free

PROS:

  1. Free
  2. Best audio and webcam quality on the internet.  (Better than Big Blue Button, Adobe Connect, illuminate.
  3. Works on Linux, OSX, Windows

CONS:

  1. Students can't drop in on a conference call after it's started. You have to shut down the entire call and recall everyone
  2. Desktop sharing is terrible blurry quality. You also can't control their desktop at all or point at items.
In reply to Sam Mudle

Re: Web Conferencing for Free or Almost Free...

by Philipp See -

As one of the developers of CliqMeet (https://www.cliqmeet.com) i would like to share this tool.

IMHO:

Pros:

  1. Free for non commercialized usage, deveoped by a german university startup at the TU Munich
  2. Mostly HTML5 (Powered by Node.JS and Websockets, Ready for WebRTC as soon most browsers support it)
  3. Share PDF-Presentations, Whiteboard, Files, Watch Videos together, Text Editor, etc
  4. Webcam and Audio Support, record your sessions, support for mobile devices by Live-Streaming
  5. Widget-Based organization of room with layouts
  6. Can share desktop with Teamviewer and Java

Cons:

  1. Beta, english language 90% supported, you will need a modern browser 
  2. Please tell us!

Give it a try, we would love to get some feedback. 

In reply to Sam Mudle

Re: Web Conferencing for Free or Almost Free...

by Matthew Haden -
Another very good option is RHUB. Its web conferencing servers are easy to use and best part is, it has no download of any kind.