Dimdim Launches a Webinar Platform, Lets Producers Make Money
by Sam Dean - Sep. 02, 2009Comments (2)- Related Blog Posts
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Dimdim, an open source web conferencing provider that we've covered many times, launched what it is billing as "an easy webinar service" today. Dimdim has long competed closely with proprietary web conferencing services such as WebEx, and its new service will provide personalized webinar platforms for webinars delivered to up to 1,000 people. In conjunction with the new service, Dimdim has struck a partnership with Eventbrite, which does event management and ticketing, so that anyone delivering webinars can find avenues to make money with them.
Dimdim is offering a free 30-day trial of Dimdim Webinar, and more information is available here. After one month, you can host an unlimited number of webinars for $828 per year, or you can pay $75 per month for pay-as-you-go service. That last option also includes unlimited access to a 100-attendee version of Dimdim Pro, the paid version of Dimdim, which supports more attendees than the 20 allowed in the free version of Dimdim, among other extras.
Dimdim Webinar is aimed at those who would like to charge fees for delivering webinars. With it, you get resources that guide you through the steps for making money. According to the company, these include an affiliate program that pays up to $150 for each webinar signup, help videos and guides, a dedicated microsite, a free eBook, and the ability to schedule and provide tickets on a cost basis through Eventbrite (or you can provide free admission). You also get a webinar widget that allows you to accept registrations on your web site or blog.
Webinar attendees do not have to install any software to see presentations, and there are also analytics features, so that you can track how many people came to a webinar, how long they stayed, and more. “To date webinars have been difficult, expensive and, as a consequence, restricted to corporations with the necessary technical and financial resources. Now anybody can freely and easily share their ideas, their interests and their expertise and even make money doing it,” said DD Ganguly, CEO and co-founder of Dimdim.
If you are interested in open source platforms for webinars and other online events, also see our coverage of Moodle. Big publishing companies such as CNet offer free online courses with it, and top universities such as U.C. Berkeley offer free, Moodle-based webcasts and podcasts to the public. U.C. Berkeley is also funding a large scale open source project designed to provide a platform for delivering online classes and webinars. It's called Opencast Matterhorn, and several international developers are working on it, after which it's expected that it will be released to the public.
Webinars are increasing in popularity, and open source players are likely to keep the costs of delivering them down on the proprietary side, and free or close to free on the open source side.
