Win an Apple iPad with Dimdim!

UPDATE: Feb 4, 2009

Our first iPad winner is Dimdim ID lifeinparadise

We'll contact you via email.  In the meantime, we're ready to giveaway more iPads.  Just keep tweeting and signing up!

 

That's right, Dimdim can help you get a new Apple iPad!

Simply sign up for a 30-day Dimdim Pro trial via this URL and you instantly qualify to win the new Apple iPad!  It's that simple. 

You will fall in love with Dimdim, the easy, open, affordable web conferencing tool while you wait to get your iPad.  We'll pick a winner in the next week, so sign up now!  No credit card required.

And tell all your friends via this Twitter link about our contest - if we reach 5x our normal daily signups by Tuesday we'll give away 5 iPads! So tweet away to increase your chances of winning!

(And we'll determine if there is enough buzz & excitement to build Dimdim for iPad)  Stay tuned!

Retweet To Give: Help the American Cancer Society (#dimdimgives)

The nominations are in and the American Cancer Society (@americancancer) was the clear choice for our Retweet To Give charity.  Now for the fun part, raising $2,500 together.

Here's how it works.  Every time someone takes one of the actions below, I get to add more money to our donation. 

Tweet or Retweet the message below (each tweet = $0.10 donated by Dimdim):

This tweet=$0.10 for @americancancer. Plz retweet to raise more. http://bit.ly/dimdimgives #dimdimgives

Try Dimdim & Raise Money

Have everyone you know use our special Dimdim sign up link.  Whether they're signing up for Dimdim Free web conferencing, starting a free 30-day trial of Dimdim Pro or Dimdim Webinar, or purchasing an account, using the link means more money donated.  

• Sign Up for Dimdim Free = $0.10 donated by Dimdim
  
• Sign Up for Dimdim Pro or Dimdim Webinar Trial = $1 donated by Dimdim
• Buy Dimdim Pro Monthly = $15 donated by Dimdim
• Buy Dimdim Webinar Monthly = $25 donated by Dimdim
• Buy Dimdim Pro Annual = $60 donated by Dimdim
• Buy Dimdim Webinar Annual = $120 donated by Dimdim

Or you can give them this link:

http://bit.ly/dimdimcaresaboutcancer

That's it! We just need to get people to tweet/retweet or sign up using the special Dimdim sign up link.  Every time someone does, I get to donate more money to the American Cancer Society (@americancancer.)

Thanks!

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
twitter: @dimdim

p.s. I know it's exciting to raise money for a good cause, but I won't be able to count scripted/automated tweets.  It's best if you tweet and just get your friends to retweet.

---

Money Raising Tweets!

 

Dimdim's Retweet To Give (#dimdimrtg) - Nominate Your Favorite Charity

Contests are fun. Giving makes us feel good.  Dimdim has other great things happening to help others, but let’s mix it up this year and earn some money for a charity together!

Nominations are closed.  Help us raise money for the American Cancer Society!

As we enter the holidays and bring 2009 to an end, join me in our Retweet To Give (#dimdimrtg) contest to help others.  I'm hoping to raise $2,500.00 for at least one charity.

1. To nominate your favorite charity, tweet this:

2. Get as many people as you can to retweet it! Family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, favorite celebrities -- anyone who will help you! 

See nominations at the bottom of this post.

The charity with the most tweets before midnight EST on Friday, December 19, 2009 will benefit from the contest.  (Could be up to $2,500.)

Starting this weekend, you’ll see @dimdim kick off the giving side of this contest.  There’ll be a number of ways to help increase how much the charity gets. 

Get your charity selected, good luck!

Thanks!

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
twitter: @dimdim

---

Charity	Count	Tweets
American Cancer Society	29
Caring for Carcinoid Foundation	1
Doctors Without Borders	1
@OneDaysWages	1
@DanaFarber	2
Granite State Independent Living	3
Autism Speaks!	2
USA Cares	1

Better webinars: Minimize distractions (noise)

I've been telling people to make sure they minimize distractions when their hosting webinars.  Yesterday, I didn't heed my own advice.

I hosted a webinar in the morning.  It's part of a series and I have them well structured, so I've even taken to doing them from my desk (which is in a big open space in our Lowell, MA offices.)  It went well, great discussion, no distractions.

In the afternoon I filled in for Steve Chazin by hosting the Dimdim Live Webinar (Steve was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, flying back to Boston.)  I have a bluetooth headset I normally use with my phone that can pair with my laptop -- so I decided to give it a try.

The headset worked fine to start, but the noise cancellation features were not particularly good.  As the noise level in the office increased, my webinar attendees heard less of me and more of the office background noise.  (It wasn't even "water cooler" conversations, just people on calls.) It was clear in the public chat this was causing problems:

• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:07:19 PM EST] David : the background voices are very distracting 
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:07:41 PM EST] Bryan : I agree. The background voices are making it tough to hear you clearly.
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:07:47 PM EST] john : audio is breaking atm
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:08:01 PM EST] Linda : Can you quiet the background voices, please?
  
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:08:12 PM EST] Cy : please stop that background chat voices 
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:08:24 PM EST] Shoe : The sound in YOUR background is beyond annoying!:-/
  
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:08:33 PM EST] Attendee22 : Yes backgound not very professional 
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:08:57 PM EST] Cy : just stand up and shout 
  
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:10:20 PM EST] Diane : should we reschedule as this is quite distracting?
  
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:10:46 PM EST] Shoe : Does our dim-dim webinar come with annoying people talking in the background like yours does?
• [Thu 10 Dec 2009 01:13:00 PM EST] Shoe : It is hard for many of online to imagine that you are trying to make a favorable impression conducting your presentation from a cublicle with people chattering away and creating annoying distracting background noise

Tough position to be in.  The noise drew attention away from the webinar, essentially bringing it to a halt.  To fix it, I let everyone know in the office know what was going on and switched back to the USB headset I normally use.  Things went well for the rest of the webinar. 

My lessons learned:

• Test, then use what works! My bluetooth headset picks up too much background noise in the office.  Testing in advance could have shown the issues, letting me just use the headset I knew had better sound quality.
• Move somewhere quiet or keep people quiet! Running a webinar from my desk can mean more ambient noise.  If everyone was aware, they could help to keep the noise levels down.  Even better, host your event from an office or conference room where you can close the door to shut out the sounds completely.

Save yourself some headaches and minimize distractions before you start your webinar!  Have a "dress rehearsal" so you can make sure  everything is perfect.

Thanks!

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
twitter: @dimdim

Experience the Dimdim Live Webinar!

Dimdim web conferencing, giving thanks to you

With the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, I can't help but think about all the things I'm personally thankful for, like family and friends.  From a Dimdim perspective I'm thankful for the most important part of our business, you.

Whether you're one of the hundreds of thousands of Dimdim customers who have referred friends, the thousands following @dimdim on Twitter, or the millions who have met using Dimdim -- Thank You!

Building a collaboration platform and company to challenge an industry is incredibly exciting, but seeing how Dimdim is being used and shared makes it worth the effort!  We are taking steps to give back to you: from Dimdim Free referrals letting you increase your room size; to Dimdim Pro & Webinar referrals now letting you make money -- but it's always worth stopping to explicitly say thanks!

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

Thanks!

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim

Make Easy Money with Dimdim

We just added a new benefit to Dimdim Pro and Dimdim Webinar accounts: free money!

That's right - now simply refer friends and colleagues to try or buy Dimdim and you can earn big money. Like up to $120 per referral!  And there is no limit to the amount of cash you can earn!  And just like everything else about Dimdim we made it super easy. 

Just watch this video for all the details and start earning cash today!

What's more, we automatically put $25 into all Dimdim Pro and Dimdim Webinar accounts and have sent these paying customers an email today detailing their own special referral code with a built-in coupon to promote Dimdim Webinar and help their friends save big. Check your email and spam filter for a message from Dimdim Web Conferencing to get all the details and act fast because that coupon code expires on Dec 15th.

Preparing for the flu: Avoid 'SOS' - sick office syndrome

Last Friday DD Ganguly, our CEO, guest blogged on Silicon Valley Watcher - Avoiding 'SOS' - sick office syndrome.  As he mentions, the first precaution the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) lists in their worker guidelines this flu season is:

Stay at home if you are sick. The HHS/CDC recommends that workers who have a fever or chills and a cough or sore throat to stay at home until 24 hours after their fever ends (defined as 100 degrees Fahrenheit [37.8 degrees Celsius]), without the use of medication.

 The OSHA employer guidance recommends planning for "social distancing" if disease severity increases, including:

• Consider using flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting and staggered work schedules to reduce the number of workers who need to come into work at the same time.
  
• Think about ways to eliminate face–to–face meetings between staff and with clients – use conference calls, webcasts, and other technologies to conduct meetings.

Hopefully we won't reach a level of increase severity, but it's better to be prepared if that happens.  Dimdim free web conferencing lets you meet with up to 20 people as often as you need, without costing you anything.  It includes a free telephone conference call number, the ability to share your desktop, slides, whiteboard, and web pages. 

If you are new to the concept of web conferencing, watch this video. Then see our Getting Started pages to learn more.

 

What steps are you taking to protect yourself and your company?  Having suffered through the flu myself recently, I've been spending time helping customers do everything they can to be ready.  I'd love your thoughts too.

 

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim

Experience the Dimdim Live Webinar!

Preparing for the flu: Plan now

Large and small companies will benefit from some advance planning for dealing with the flu pandemic.  To help you get started, the US Department of Homeland Security has published Planning for 2009 H1N1 Influenza: A Preparedness Guide for Small Business and multiple agencies collaborated on Preparing for the Flu: A Communication Toolkit for Businesses and Employers which has even more information and resources.  Some of the core planning steps include:

• defining the appropriate contacts
• reviewing your policies
• setting priorities
• establishing business continuity plans
  
• communicating clearly

The primary guidance for sick employees is to stay home.  Even while home, employees who feel up to it can continue working with the aid of technology.  In my time home sick (when I wasn't resting) I took several steps to stay available:

• run instant messaging application(s) to be available to coworkers for quick questions and conversations
  
• check email at regular intervals
• use telephone/Skype for necessary calls
• use Dimdim web conferencing for sharing resources and collaborating

In my experience with the flu, I wasn't able to work the entire time I was home, but there were periods of time where I had enough concentration and energy to get some work done.  By having tools available to assist me that I'm comfortable with, I was able to contribute again well before it was safe for me to return to the office.

If you're new to web conferening, get familiar with it before you need it.  You can start by creating a Dimdim free web conferencing account, then take a look at the resources in our Dimdim Getting Started section.  Go through some of the video tutorials and most importantly take the time to do some practice sessions with friends or coworkers.

Stay healthy and good luck!

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim

Experience the Dimdim Live Webinar!

Everybody Will Digg Dimdim!

Kevin and Alex from Diggnation love Dimdim!  You will too!  Try it today.

Preparing for the flu: 4 Conference Call Tips

Today is my first day back to the office, so the flu still dominates my thoughts.  Last week I talked about how Webinars don't share flu germs.  Today, let's focus on one of the most basic collaboration tools - the telephone conference call.  If you don't already have a conference call number, sign up for a Dimdim free web conferencing account.  Every account includes a free telephone conference call number.

Most people are comfortable using a telephone and it can be the fastest way to bring a group together.  Meeting by phone can also challenge anyone's attention when the meetings run long or whether there are complex topics being discussed.  Here are some tips I've found work well in making my meeting more productive:

• Work from an agenda.  It helps to give the meeting structure and keep people focused.  An agenda sent before the meeting lets people think about the topics to be covered. 
• Everyone says their name before speaking, every time. Some people are incredibly good at distinguishing voices.  I'm personally not one of them, so I go out of my way to say "This is Kevin..." each time I speak.  It gets redundant, but no one gets confused over who said it.
  
• Split the responsibilities.  Being a call moderator can take your full attention by itself.  Having someone responsible for keeping an eye on the clock can help prevent a 30 minute meeting from taking 60 minutes.
• Share your desktop to focus attention.  To help keep the meeting focused, I've often done things as simple as sharing my desktop in Dimdim with Microsoft Word open so people can see the agenda and my meeting notes as I type.  It's a visual reminder during the meeting and gives everyone a record after the meeting of what was discussed and what actions are needed.  [To make it a bit easier on the eyes, I'll typically Zoom the document in to about 160%.  It also gives the added benefit of keeping people's eyes on the portion of the notes you're focused on.]

For those used to web conferencing, this advice may be a bit "old school".  I'm a huge fan of making it as easy as possible.  Most people are able to make a call and click a link to see visuals.  If it works, why not take advantage of that.

 

Stay healthy! Good luck!

-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: kevin@dimdim.com
twitter: @dimdim

Experience the Dimdim Live Webinar! Register at:
http://www.dimdim.com/aboutus/events.html