Download Squad

I love Yugma. It is extremely painless to setup, use, and it is free to do it. Yugma is a web-conferencing tool that has excellent annotation tools, easy controls, and a simple sign-up process. It took me little more than ten minutes from sign-up to knowing how to use Yugma's tools and launching my first web conference without the trouble that WebEx usually gives me. I haven't tried Yugma yet with a bunch of participants, but I plan to. This is the perfect tool for anyone who is teaching a class, discussing a group project, or even collaborating on a business deal. I can't tell you the many times in the last few months that I wished I had a service like this to illustrate a point visually instead of over the phone. Yugma uses a fast-loading Java interface that looks great, responds without me clicking a million times on it, and operates much like a regular desktop app. The tools it sports include a colored highlighter (changeable colors), a nicely done colored pen, and some other gadgets to help you get your point across. I love how you can have a collaborative presentation as well, by "passing the baton" or "passing the buck" (whatever you prefer) to another colleague so they can present their part of the deal without having to be in the same room with you. This is great for a class project or programming exercise, because others besides the host can take control to explain a point of view or a difficult topic. Many applications are great but charge for their services, and I of course love them too, but in this case, I've got to admit, quick and dirty and free is the cat's meow, or to be more "blogosphereically correct" Yugma is the trifecta of easy and effective online collaboration. Yugma is currently available for Windows and Mac, and will be available soon for Linux.