Screensharing application Yuuguu is an old favorite of WebWorkerDaily. Today, the company launched support for Skype users, bringing its screensharing expertise to one of the largest communication platforms in the world. We caught up with CEO Anish Kapoor to learn a little about the features announced today and the company’s future plans.
Imran: Could you outline the new features announced in the latest edition of Yuuguu?
Anish: This new edition was all about making it really easy for Skype users to instantly screenshare and collaborate in real time with anyone, on any major IM network, not just Skype. Read the rest of this entry »
Screensharing applications are one of the essential weapons in the web workers’ arsenal and a popular topic here on WebWorkerDaily; in the past we’ve covered services such as Yuuguu and Oneeko.
The latest to join the fray is Mikogo, a cross-platform (Windows & OS X) screensharing solution that’s just launched a new Mac edition with a “remote support” feature, which takes the product from a straightforward web conferencing application to a broader service, offering live support and desktop sharing for remote clients and customers.
As well as conferencing and remote support, Mikogo suggest that screensharing is useful for product demonstrations, webcasts and teaching applications. The technology allows for 10 participants in a session, more than enough for all of these scenarios. Read the rest of this entry »
Neil Kay-Jones — of screensharing vendor Yuuguu — has put together a useful overview of recent shifts in UK employment law regarding flexible working arrangements. These changes allow working parents the right to request more flexible working arrangements and could swell the ranks of web workers.
Businesses have been concerned at the potential impact of these changes and, as such, Neil’s guide focuses on five tips to help employers prepare for a potential influx of flexible working applications from employees.
- Understand the process of application
The entire process of review and negotiation can take up to 14 weeks. Employers need to be prepared with transparent processes to tackle each case consistently.
- Take time to understand your staff and the roles they play
Preempt applications by identifying potential candidates early.
- Trust your staff
There’s a mismatch between what web workers think they can achieve and the trust employers place in them to work effectively in remote conditions. Kay-Jones suggests that presence and IM-based tools can act as useful technological measures to help create “remote trust.”
- Understand the effects on your business
Efficiency, morale, reduced absenteeism, retention, loyalty and competitiveness are all potential upsides to proactively encouraging flexible working patterns.
- Security
It’s harder to maintain the security of your data with remote workers. It’s important to take steps to ensure that your business-critical data is secure..
It’s interesting to see that remote working is practically codified in this legislation. The British government sees increased flexibility in working as a means to address social issues. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this thinking extended to environmental issues, too.
What do you think of these changes to UK law?
It’s been a busy few weeks for the team at online meeting service Yuuguu, with the announcement of Linux and Flash clients as well as support for Google Talk users.
Earlier today the company rounded out its ‘Yuuguu Inside’ strategy by extending its integration of Google Talk buddies to users from AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo’s instant messaging networks, bringing cross-platform and cross-network support to the company’s ‘Yuuniverse’.
With a reach extending into hundreds of millions now, its easier than ever for users of the service to invite participants to a Yuuguu session, though it remains to be seen if removing previous barriers actually makes a difference in adoption of screensharing over face-to-face meetings.
Regardless, Yuuguu remains a useful free tool for web workers and one that now extends a little further.
UPDATE: Yuuguu CEO Anish Kapoor assures me that a bug in the acceptance of .Mac-based AIM screennames will shortly be resolved.
Yuuguu is a favorite amongst Web Worker Daily’s writers, with new features being added continuously to the popular screen-sharing service, largely driven by the real needs of its users.
Around a month ago the company added Linux and Flash clients, but I suggested that this perhaps needed to be enhanced with Yugma-style plugins for existing social networks.
Fortunately, Yuuguu’s been thinking ahead and at this week’s The Future of Web Apps in London, announced that Gmail and Google Talk users will be able to invoke Yuuguu screensharing sessions with existing contacts, rather than those within the Yuuguu client. Coupled with the earlier launch of a Flash-based viewer, this helps to broaden the usefulness of the service as its reach extends beyond previous technical barriers. Read the rest of this entry »
Web Worker Daily has previously covered ongoing developments around screen-sharing tool Yuuguu (apparently the Japanese term for fusion!), but Aliza’s post on PalBee and a bunch of new Yuuguu features in recent days makes for a good opportunity to revisit the Liverpool-based startup’s take on screen-sharing, collaboration and web conferencing.
At the Office 2.0 conference, earlier this month, CEO Anish Kapoor launched Linux editions of their software, directly providing supported clients for SUSE, Ubuntu & Fedora. Though the company has a modest user base, providing support to Linux can only help to enhance it’s utility as a collaboration bridge between Linux, Windows and the Mac community, to whom Yuuguu launched it’s product at Macworld earlier this year.
Read the rest of this entry »
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
