The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - Collaboration Software for Remote Development

Collaboration Software for Remote Development

I have a couple of developers abroad that I would like to collaborate with (code walk-throughs, application demos, etc).

I'd like some sort of conferencing/application sharing/whiteboard solution that doesn't cost thousands of $$$. Voice and video would not be necessary.

Obviously there is Netmeeting, but am I overlooking some other possible solutions? Are there any open source solutions that would fit the bill?

Thanks in advance.

Thinking Hard.
Friday, March 12, 2004

Windows XP has some kind of remote control built-in, but I don't know what exactly. My peers try to invoke it using MSN IM, but that doesn't work with me because I'm running Win2K.

Christopher Wells
Friday, March 12, 2004

By "Netmeeting" I assume that you mean MSN Messenger 6.1 ?

Haven't looked at NM in years, but I *think* the features (white board, app sharing, video conferencing, etc.) have been folded into MSN Msgr.

It works pretty well over two computers with DSL/Cable internet connections.

I just did it the other day with audio conferencing and app sharing. Worked great.

I've been saying for years that what we need isn't VIDEO conferencing (for collaboration) it's a shared whiteboard and app sharing. If I'm protoyping something to someone that I know reasonably well, It's more important for them to see the APP, not my face.

The real Entrepreneur
Friday, March 12, 2004

Is the latest version of MSN Messenger available for all versions of Windows, or just XP?

Thinking Hard.
Friday, March 12, 2004

NetMeeting is still available, and can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/
"NetMeeting delivers a complete Internet conferencing solution for all Windows users with multi-point data conferencing, text chat, whiteboard, and file transfer, as well as point-to-point audio and video."

Philip Dickerson
Friday, March 12, 2004

New version doesn't have whiteboarding. That astounds me. Seems like a very valuable and relatively easy feature.

"Previous versions of NetMeeting included Whiteboard functionality. We regret that we are no longer able to offer Whiteboard in this version of NetMeeting.
" From:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/NetMeeting/Features/default.ASP

The real Entrepreneur
Friday, March 12, 2004

You most certainly already have it, though for whatever markertroid reason it's being hidden.

Start/Run/conf.exe

Microsoft has some sort of other new collaboration software that they're promoting. It's the commercial where a bunch of people meet on the top of a mountain I believe. Never really paid attention to it so I'm not sure which one it is.

Dennis Forbes
Friday, March 12, 2004

Groove?

Farid
Friday, March 12, 2004

> Is the latest version of MSN Messenger available for all versions of Windows, or just XP?

I'm using Messenger 6.1 on Win2K, but its built-in collaboration is disabled; to collaborate I would need to use stand-alone NetMeeting. XP provides additional functionality, for example I think that XP Home has something builtin that allows peers to tech-support each other.

Christopher Wells
Friday, March 12, 2004

webex - has a pay as you go plan.

c
Friday, March 12, 2004

Have you considered just using a version of VNC?

Mike Swieton
Friday, March 12, 2004

Microsoft's current online meeting solution is LiveMeeting:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/livemeeting/prodinfo/default.mspx

30-minute free trial on a hosted server. What have you got to lose? :-)

[caveat: I am a Microsoft employee]

Philo

Philo
Friday, March 12, 2004

30 minutes.

christopher baus (www.baus.net)
Saturday, March 13, 2004

Here is one 'thinking out of the box' approach:

Get two macs with two iSight cameras. Now you can not only point the cameras to the code you need to look at, but you can also collaborate/communicate with your developers by reading the body (face) language while involved in discussions regarding schedules, design approaches, etc...

Miguel Estrada
Saturday, March 13, 2004

What about Groove?

http://www.groove.net/

Seems like it's more up the alley for collaborating developers than LiveMeeting (which is primarily designed to be a one-to-many distribution of information).

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Saturday, March 13, 2004

We use NetMeeting for pair-programming and Mimio for whiteboarding. Mimio works great and the price is good.

http://www.mimio.com/index.shtml

Vegar
Tuesday, March 16, 2004