Teamslide: Live Web Conferencing

There has been a lot of talk recently about Web 2.0 services for conferencing and shared editing of documents, just recently we covered DimDim and PresenterNet. This market is really heating up as outsourcing and faster internet connections make the world a smaller and flatter place.

Like other online conferencing services, Teamslide allows attendees and presenters to talk to eachother while viewing a common presentation. There is a PowerPoint plugin available that allows you to upload and present a presentation. Unlike PresenterNet you cannot videoconference, so there is no real face-to-face feel in the service.

Their implementation of voice within the app is not how I would like it, ie. one invites an attendee via Skype. I just get the feeling that these online conferencing apps need more than ‘click here to invite a Skype contact’. VoIP should be central in their application and a fundamental aspect of their business plan for the short and longer term. Why? Because not only can you attract people to use a service where everything is integrated in a single window (no calls to open an external app), the company will generate a passive revenue stream from calls.

It comes priced at just $99, so it will pay itself back very quickly. I can’t help think how many times I have had to take a flight when I could have used something like this, businesses will find it extremely beneficial. While you can use the hosted version on Teamslide’s own servers, you can install it on your own server and use it, cutting down on costs but probably incurring a support cost. And because it is browser based, Teamslide can run independent of OS.

So all-in-all, Teamslide is a welcome addition to this field. I just hope they work on integrating VoIP more.