FlashMeeting is a Web-based, hosted videoconferencing system based on the Macromedia Flash MX Server technology.
It is extremely easy-to-use and it integrates a few well thought out and implemented conferencing and collaboration features.
I have first heard of this new tool from Marc Canter who had mentioned it on his very interesting blog. Marc Canter is a very popular technology enthusiast, inventor, developer, futurist and poet. He is also the person who originally started the company that has now become Macromedia. I greatly enjoy his rants and passionate arguments and would highly recommend giving a look, from time to time, to what he is up to.
Back to FlashMeeting.
This VERY interesting Flash implementation, is still in beta. A live demo version is always accessible online and you can test it yourself with a friend or colleague. The demo kicks you out of the public room after 15 minute of continuos use (you are elegantly warned by a sound and a color-changing timer :: very cool).
FlashMeeting shows all of its character through a very simple and intuitive interface which has been optimized for three different computer screen sizes. Different facilities are easily grouped under a simple tabbed interface.
What looks as obvious and even dull design is clearly fruit of very attentive UI (user interface) design work at its foundation.
Major functions are highlighted and their relative size and position greatly facilitates their use.
Since adoption it's one of the major obstacles with real-time collaboration tools, Flashmeeting has lots to show to the many new industry players leveraging the new Flash server technology as to how intelligent and usable design really looks like.
Since FlashMeeting is based on the Flash-plugin which is now native in most popular browsers, this videoconferencing system is ready- to-go as soon as you open a browser window without ay further software installation. It is compatible with standard browsers across all major computing platforms including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
FlashMeeting integrates a full text chat facility, co-browsing, the ability to vote, raise a hand and a good set of visual emoticons (these are small icons that allow to express with much greater speed and effectiveness concepts, ideas and symbols that would otherwise require long and sophisticated word phrases).
The voting feature is designed with extreme care and is an absolute breeze to use. Kudos. Great job!
A simple but properly engineered bookmarking facility allows the presenter to store and edit a good list of web site URLs which can be later "broadcast" to all meeting participants during a session.
I really must underline again that what I appreciate the most in this tool is the effort placed toward usability and UI design. I can definitely appreciate the extra mile the design team has gone to, to make everything in this tool work as intuitively as one would expect.
You can try FlashMeeting right now on the web. Go to:
http://tinyurl.com/4lsj2
For more information or an "early adopter" account, mention Robin Good and send a direct email to: sales@flashmeeting.com
