Unyte: A free skype enabled desktop sharing tool
Published January 7th, 2006 in Main
I had planned on doing a post on Verosee, but came across another free skype enabled app or plugin mentioned on skype journal that has really impressed me. It’s called Unyte, and it’s developed by Web Dialogs - a company that offers web conferencing solutions in tow with WebEx, Live Meeting and Breeze.
About:
Unyte is a skype enabled plugin that allows anyone to share their computer screen, or open application, with up to four guests. What makes it unique is that guests don’t have to install it, nor download any plugin to participate. Infact, they don’t even have to have skype installed. You just send guest(s) a URL and password (these are automatically generated). They use these to initiate the session via a secure website, provided by WebDialogs.
Why I was drawn to it:
When I first read about it, two services at work came to mind immediately that might benefit from it; The online writing owl (OWL), and The Math Online Tutoring Help (MOTH). These online tutoring services are currently asynchronous, but this may partly be as a result of there not being aware of free synchronous solutions that can augment the current model; a scheduled time where online students can meet with a tutor “live” to get help. The fact that it’s free and that participants just need Explorer, Firefox, and Safari and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) makes it open to almost everyone.
Other features that makes it cool is that the “presenter” can yield control of their desktop, or application to guests so that they can interact with what’s being shared. In this way it could be used by students as a way to collaboratively edit Word documents or build group presentations. Since it ties into skype the process is further enabled by being able to send files during the share. In a team work scenario, one student could send an image using file sharing that gets placed into a PowerPoint. At the same time, the PowerPoint could be edited by a third person in real-time. The final file could then be emailed to the team member who couldn’t join because they were at work whose responsible for performing final edits and posting to the course website.
For a good overview look at the help pages:
collaboration, Skype, Unyte Webconferencing
Have you looked at http://odeo.com … built on Flash Communication server from what I can tell. Given you are Flash Comm expert, you have any impressions?
Hi James,
I’m Felix living in Shanghai.
Recently I also worke with my partner in USA by unyte.
But I found that there is about 6-7 seconds delay between two demote desktop.Did you come across the same situation?
If you wish,can we take a test about it?
Many tks!
my skype:huoheshu
Best Regards
Felix Zhu