Scott Leslie at edtechpost is seeking a zero-install remote screen sharing application – something that would allow him to see his patron’s screen w/o the patron having to download an application. I think Yugma might do the trick, do any of you have actual experience with Yugma, or with any application that would fit the bill for Scott? There are a couple of decent suggestions in the comments of his post.
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4 Responses to “Zero-Install Remote Screen Sharing Apps?”
Hi Paul,
I’ve played around with Yugma-Skype a bit. Yugma requires that a plug-in be installed on the patron’s machine. It does not require that Yugma be installed on the patron’s machine. First-time patrons need to fill-in a form.
The default setting is for the Host (whoever has Yugma installed) to be the presenter (the one sharing the screen), but it’s easy to change the presenter to the patron. This can be done before any screen-sharing.
Upon changing the presenter to the patron, the patron must be told to click ‘begin sharing’. Once the session’s done, the patron must be told to click ‘stop sharing’. (There’s a residual ‘Presentation stopped. Please stand by…’ browser that can show resistance to closing.)
As an aside, when viewing the patron’s screen, an open Yugma (plug-in) box on the patron’s screen will be ‘cloaked’ (for lack of a better word). The Host/librarian can’t see the plug-in, but the plug-in distorts whatever part of the screen is behind it.
Cheers,
Dan
Dan pretty much sums it up as far as Yugma is concerned – I’ve used it to decent results myself several times (see my name link for a blog posting to this effect), but I feel that it’s still too buggy to recommend as a consistent screen-sharing app.
I haven’t tried it yet, but some have blogged about DimDim’s open-source, no download potential as a screen-sharing app (http://www.dimdim.com/), focusing particularly on its simplicity and speed. It’s currently in beta invite-only mode, but I’ll give DimDim a writeup as soon as I get set up with an account.
I’ve been doing pretty well with it. I think the “standby” message is resistant because it is controled by the program. If you close the app…. then the message closes. Also, the window can be placed to the background. So I see no issues there. Also, I often minimize the app and get the little tool bar. Regardless of that I’ve never had anyone tell me that there is distortion in the space where the app sits. So it could be your system?
paul – don’t know if you’ve heard, but yugma recently released a web browser based viewer. maybe that’ll be the trick for you. it’s even available with their free service. it works for me and my customers rather well. no install for them. it’s worth a check-out!