Hi -
Does anyone have a recommendation for a good tool that will allow me to lead a web-browsing session with multiple users? Basically, what I want is for users to attach to the session, and see what I see on my browser.
mike
Uhmm... 
I think a framed webpage might help... Although you can't be 100% sure that everyone is in the same page you are... Thus, you should test the paths you are going to follow prior to the sessions... Some pages does not like to get stuck in frames...
I bit taken by the hair could be to use a software like PcAnywhere from Symantec v10+, Carbon Copy, PcLink, etc...
Will
EDIT:
...Plus a chat window for feedback.
I think a framed webpage might help... Although you can't be 100% sure that everyone is in the same page you are... Thus, you should test the paths you are going to follow prior to the sessions... Some pages does not like to get stuck in frames...
I bit taken by the hair could be to use a software like PcAnywhere from Symantec v10+, Carbon Copy, PcLink, etc...
Will
EDIT:
...Plus a chat window for feedback.
Wow... I have a lot learn and meet from all this OS world!
Hi Martin -
I'm just taking a look at this product, but it looks like it need to run a server application on a windows machine that is also a web server serving out to the web. Is this correct? (Have you used it?)
Hmmmm. Maybe I can open a port for it in the firewall....
Yes I use it all the time for sharing screens. I'm not sure how it would go with many people at once - you may need a lot of bandwidth - but there is a lot of settings to reduce the amount of info you send (and the receiver can choose settings too).
You don't need a web server as such ... it's just a Windows program that serves information to port 5800 (ie it acts like a web server itself).
You don't need a web server as such ... it's just a Windows program that serves information to port 5800 (ie it acts like a web server itself).
I've been playing with it, and it seems to work, although twice it killed mine and another's Internet connection 
.
Have you ever used it with more than one person sharing it?
Librarians have been interested in this for a number of years now (to offer live chat reference)and there are some truly magnificent commercial wares out there. I've found only one open source product. It's Rakim, at http://rakim.sourceforge.net/ and while it doesn't literally co-browse it does allow one to "push" a URL (ie it appears as a hyperlink on the other browser). Maybe you could start with that and somehow figure out how to make it co-browse. It has some cool features now (go into their FAQ http://styro.lib.muohio.edu/rakim-faq/ and select "what is rakim").
On the otherhand .... Netmeeting is a free Microsoft product that allows for both chat and voice and camera AND you can opt to "share" selected programs, browser, word processor, literally any program on your computer - the other person doesn't have to have it installed and both people can edit. I've used this a lot for long distance collaboration.
There was, long ago, a program called PowWow which operated with a chat window and had true co-browsing. They called it "being the leader" in a meeting and where you sent your browser, the browsers of the people connected with you would follow. I don't think it exists anymore (ie not being maintained) but I expect you could find some version of it at one of the shareware sites.
I hope this helps
On the otherhand .... Netmeeting is a free Microsoft product that allows for both chat and voice and camera AND you can opt to "share" selected programs, browser, word processor, literally any program on your computer - the other person doesn't have to have it installed and both people can edit. I've used this a lot for long distance collaboration.
There was, long ago, a program called PowWow which operated with a chat window and had true co-browsing. They called it "being the leader" in a meeting and where you sent your browser, the browsers of the people connected with you would follow. I don't think it exists anymore (ie not being maintained) but I expect you could find some version of it at one of the shareware sites.
I hope this helps
Hi Mike,
We use Learnlinc for this purpose. It is a multipoint audioconferencing tool (one-on-many), which has some virtual classroom tools, chat and an interactive browser window. It is, however, a commercial product and it does involve downloading and installing client software.
Since I prefer open source software, I will check out Martin's suggestion.
Another commercial product, more limited in scope than Learnlinc, but which can be used even in combination with a whiteboard is eBeam.
Rgrds,
Paul.
I tried a web-based service called "Glance" (http://www.glance.net). It worked very well. They have a free trial you can use, that is fully active, and the service is not that expensive. It is based on "VNC" technology, and requires no set-up for you or your viewers (it uses background java downloads).
mike