Join.me is a collaborative working tool that is ridiculously simple to use. Updated 21 October 2010.
According to research from Forrester, 4 percent of people use some kind of screen-sharing on a daily basis at work. The same research suggests that as many as 50 percent of people could benefit from such collaboration. In the creative industries, for instance, being able to quickly show someone what you're working on direct from your desktop is a potential time- and money-saver. Enter Join.me.
Join.me offers free online meetings for both personal and commercial use to up to 250 participants – no registration, plug-ins or accounts required. A ‘pro’ version of the service with extended functionality is available for a monthly or annual subscription, costing $29 per month or $299 per year.
From the makers of LogMeIn and LogMeIn Ignition, Join.me is a web browser-based tool that allows you to share your PC's screen with anyone who has access to the web. The technology used to be known as 'Express', and is aimed at small business and social media users. According to LogMeIn, Join.me is supposed to be simple, fast, easy and light, and to be used by anyone: regardless of ability and the device they are using. Give that company a gold star for fulfilling its aims.
To share your screen, simply download a small application to your Windows or Mac OS X PC, and send the 9-digit code generated to your potential collaborator (an email is automatically created). They either click a link in the email, or go to the join.me website and input the code, and they can see your screen.
Via a single click on the Join.me interface you can VoIP or IM your collaborater. You can even give them access to your deskop via the 'Share control' feature, should they need to make changes to whatever you are working on. And because the screen viewer requires only a Flash-enabled web browser, plenty of mobile devices can view your PC's desktop, too.
Security is handled by 256-bit encryption, so no-one can hack in to your sharing session. You have to boot the Join.me utility and give your sharer the code before they can see anything, and you can shut them out at any time, so your data security is in your own hands. Unlike LogMeIn, you cannot use Join.me to access your PC when no-one is there to let you in. It's a simple, two-way street.
And it works fantastically well. Even better, Join.me is free.
LogMeIn promises a Linux version, and one that allows you to share your mobile phone's screen, as well as a Flash-free browser app for Apple's iPad and iPhone. Trust Apple to be awkward.
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