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!

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

My morning meeting was free, my car repairs weren't

I spent this past weekend helping our team (led by Leslie Poston) to host the first PodCamp NH.  It was a fantastic two-day experience held at the beautiful New Hampton School.  Ted Pennings (@thesleepyvegan) even won a Dimdim Webinar account.  Sadly, my excitement diminished a little on the way home when my car's service engine light came on.

My challenge was the auto repair shop opens at 7:30 am Monday and I have a meeting at 8:00 am.  So  I left early to bring the car to the shop.  Instead of then finding a ride to run me to the office (which is about 45 min away), I sat down in the shop's waiting area, started my computer and joined the meeting.

For our morning meetings we use a Dimdim telephone conference bridge with the Dimdim meeting for sharing slides and video.  I dialed in with my mobile phone and used the auto repair shop's free internet access to join the Dimdim meeting.

I found a relatively quiet area and kept my finger on my phone's mute button to keep background noise to a minimum. When it was time for me to present, the meeting host gave me control of the meeting and I went through our portion of the meeting.  Controlling the slides while we alternated who spoke to each topic.

I'm used to collaborating with remote teams, but I always try to be conscious that others may not be as comfortable with it.  Just before my turn to present I repositioned my laptop so the built-in camera would show only me with the wall behind me.  Others were moving around in the waiting area and I wanted to prevent them from being seen in my video stream and possibly becoming a distraction.

The meeting went well, but as it ended I learned about the repairs needed for my car.  Unfortunately that's one thing my free web conferencing can't help me with. 

-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

Dimdim Recording Demystified

One the best kept secrets of Dimdim is that recording is available for free for all users, without anything installed on your computer (we do all the magic in our Synchrolive Cloud) and send you a URL to your recording and an embed code.  Often people ask us how to get the best video recording possible with Dimdim.  Here are the secret ingredients:

1. Get Dimdim Pro or Dimdim Webinar.  These products include a mode where you can resize the video up to 4 times larger.  Once you do, the Dimdim video looks like this to your attendees:

 

2. Now if you are not sharing any other resource, just click the record button and we'll record a much higher resolution video file.  After about 5 seconds of the following video you will be able to easily see the difference between normal and hirez video recording:

Finally, here is a Dimdim Knowledgebase article on all the different Dimdim recording modes.  Enjoy!

Draft Your Fantasy Football Team Online & WIN PRIZES!

I was talking to my cousin Mike this week and he gave me a great idea. Then I heard from my friend at FanDraft, a fantasy football live draft tool. Because so many people draft their Fantasy Football teams in person or via the phone, Dimdim is a great solution to save them time, money and travel. After all, fantasy football is about making some money and winning...so let Dimdim save you some money and help you win!

Here is how to use Dimdim to draft your team:

1. Sign up for Dimdim for free. You'll be able to host draft sessions with up to 20 people on your fantasy football team. (if you need bigger rooms you can easily upgrade at any time.)

2. Schedule a Dimdim meeting for draft day and enter the email addresses of your draft partners - an invitation will be sent automatically. Or grab our instant Webinar Widget and post it on your site or blog or tweet it to your partners & teammates.

3. Start your Dimdim meeting on draft day and share your desktop or web browser. Your partners all join via the link in the email and instantly see your computer screen while everyone talks to each other via the telephone conference bridge that comes with Dimdim for free.

4. Now collaborate in real time and pick that great team together! And don't worry, none of your draft partners need to install anything to help you pick the best players.

Ready... Set... Dimdim!

P.S. If you sign up for Dimdim or follow or RT @Dimdim or tweet #DimdimFantasy between now and Sept 13 you can win Madden 10 with a PS3, XBox or Wii system and FanDraft software! We're celebrating Dimdim, Madden and Fantasy Football!

Here is Kevin and Lou with the stuff you can win!

Here is the video description of the aforementioned Webinar Widget:

Online interviews and web conferencing

If our hiring process was the same as rest of our industry then we would build an organization like the rest of the industry. We aspire to do better. We want to attract exceptional players and build a great team. And I can guarantee you that Dimdimmers are exceptional not only in terms of skills but also in terms of being a team.

It is my belief that organizations fail not because they lack vision. Look around you and you will find that for each successful company that had a great vision there are dozens of failures with the same vision. Organizations fail because they cannot execute. And organizations cannot execute not because of the lack of talented individuals but because these individuals are not able to play as a team. The main reason for great players not playing as a cohesive force is culture. So the cultural fit between the individual and the existing team is of utmost importance.

When it comes to interviewing there are two different philosophies for determining cultural-fit between the candidate and the company. The first is called the behavioral method. In this method the candidate is asked a series of insightful questions, such as - “Are you a team player?”; What does the interviewer expect to hear? “No, I am not a team player?”; Some interviewers get sophisticated by asking, “Give me an example from your past experience when you played as a team player.”; Again, what’s the expectation here? Does the interviewer expect the candidate to say, “I am sorry I am drawing a complete blank on that one?”; If the candidate does say that then the interviewer can see that there isn’t an alignment between the company’s goals and the candidate’s goals. But a smart candidate knows what the interviewer wants to hear. And so the interviewer is faced with a dilemma - “I am being told this answer because the candidate knows that this is what I want to hear? Or is this really true?”; The interviewer can never make a positive decision based on the answer - unless he’s a trained psychoanalyst and most of us are not.

The second method is a task oriented approach. This is what we use at Dimdim. In the first conversation, the candidate is not asked any questions. He’s urged to ask us questions with the second conversation in mind. In the second conversation, the candidate delivers a presentation on a certain topic. For example, a potential VP of Sales might be asked to present a sales plan for the first six months. An engineer might be asked to learn and present on a topic that he knows nothing about.

We have seen that candidate’s questions tell us much more about her than the answers to those insightful behavioral questions. Which should not be surprising because questions are more interesting than answers - aren’t they?

During the presentation (which of course, is done using the candidate’s Dimdim Free web conference account) we look for 3 abilities. 1. Communication ability 2. Ability to learn 3. Ability to execute. We are usually able to decide within the first few minutes whether we have a hire or not.

This is the process we have followed for every hire. We know it works and btw, we are looking for a great VP of Sales.

New Headquarters for Dimdim Free Webinars & Web Conferencing

This week we officially moved into our new offices in the Cross Point Towers, Lowell, MA. As we're settling in I'll add more pictures. For now, here are some shots of how the space was transformed for us.

Thanks!

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

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

Swine Flu Remedy: Dimdim Web Conferencing

OK, so it's not a remedy but it WILL prevent the spread of the virus while ensuring you can still meet freely. Tell everyone you know: don't cancel your business because you have to cancel your trip. Use Dimdim via any web browser and you can still meet - and breathe - freely from the comfort of your home or office.

Remember, meetings up to 20 participants are FREE (sign up for Dimdim Free and start using it within 30 seconds) and a full year of unlimited Dimdim Pro meetings with 100 participants is less than the cost of one round-trip flight: $468 for the year (that's only $39/month). Sign up for Dimdim Pro today.

Why use a conference call if I can use Dimdim for audio and video?

Since I started with Dimdim, I've been asked a few times why we include an conference call number with Dimdim Free if we can deliver audio and video via the web.  My feeling is, sometimes you don't have internet access but still need to join the meeting.  I've been living this experience for a week now.

I live in NH in the US and own one of the 320,000+ homes that lost power seven days ago.  We had a terrible ice storm that caused more damage to the power grid than any other in our history. To give an idea of the extent of the restoration efforts, the utility company has crews in from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Quebec assisting.  So far today they are saying there are still about 44,000 of us without power. 

Every Monday morning we start with a company meeting via Dimdim and the phone conference.  (actually using a Dimdim Free account with a free conference call number.)  This Monday I was able to run to a local Starbucks and get on the Starbucks AT&T Wifi.  I dialed-in to the conference call from my cell phone and was able to follow the meeting via Dimdim and even shared a slide deck.  The shop was packed, so I doubt I'd have done well with video, but it still worked out well.

So for most of the week I've been bouncing between coffee shops and home.  I call it my "local" Starbucks, but it's actually 30 minutes away.  So my pattern has been to run down and work for a few hours in the morning, run home to tend the woodstoves, then run back to work some more. 

Yesterday morning I had a meeting at 8am, but snow was falling and the roads were potentially dangerous--I was stuck at home.  I ended up having to sit in my car and dial-in with my cell phone (picture at right was taken during this meeting). If we had relied on online audio only, I would not have been able to participate at all.  I've also seen this happen with less extreme situations, like people stuck at the airport or traveling and in a hotel with spotty internet service.

They're now saying power in our town should be restored by Saturday, though there is a snowstorm coming tomorrow.  I may have a few more days of calls (or driving) before I can enjoy the benefits of seeing the visuals again.  For now, I get to enjoy the wonders of winter and squeeze in my work where I can.

Thanks.

-k

p.s. If you have a chance, stop by and say 'hi' on Twitter or Facebook.

Eating our own dog food.

Talk about eating our own dog food - we just held our board meeting on Dimdim. There was 1 attendee from California, 1 from New York, 2 from Massachusetts, 2 more from London, 1 from Mumbai, and 1 from Hyderabad. If we had flown to California, then we would have spent at least $4,000 per person in airline, hotel and car rental costs. By avoiding the travel of 7 people, we saved about $28,000 by conducting the meeting over Dimdim.

This year we have had about 8 such board meetings over Dimdim. So we have saved about $224,000 this year.

On top of that I have another Dimdim meeting with a potential partner in 30 minutes. If I had a face to face board meeting then I would never be able to make it to this next meeting. And so my productivity increases too. Bye, gotta run to the next meeting.

Warm regards,
ddg
CEO