I'm not much of a collab person myself but I know many of us are - so having found this tool the other day, I thought I'd share it.
Mikogo is a free screen-sharing tool for both Windows and Mac systems. Features include (copied from the website):
- Screen Sharing
- Switch Presenters
- Participant Pointer
- Remote Control
- Pause Transmission
- Copy/Paste/Email Meeting Info
- Voice Conferencing Service
- Instant Screen Buildup
- 256-Bit AES Encryption
Plus several more for PCs, including file transfer. Visit the site I linked to above for details. Of course, some of these features, such as switch presenters, remote control, and file transfer, may have pretty obvious uses for our purposes. A screenshot from the website is at the bottom of this thread.
After a very quick five-minute download, install, and signup, I did a bit of testing (thanks to Mrmilkcarton and Nav!). I've found the screen refresh rate and remote control are slightly laggy at times but otherwise very good, and the file transfer is decent, more or less at the level of chat services more commonly used for file transfer such as MSN/AIM. It's also light on CPU - Nav and I were able to play some pretty intense project files and run Mikogo simultaneously without problems. The only significant drawback was that Macs can send files, but cannot receive them.
Perhaps most importantly for us, Mikogo cannot send sound alone - but when used in conjunction with Skype (or something similar) and Stereo/Wave Out Mix, remote access to another computer in just about every way becomes possible. There are two ways to do this: to launch both separately, or to use Mikogo as a Skype Extra.
Overall I would almost call Mikogo powerful, but it's definitely useful for collabs, or for teaching - it's the closest thing there is to sitting there with someone.
Thoughts?
