Microsoft SharedView

In the absence of a commercial web conferencing tool from time to time, I have used a utility called SharedView from Microsoft.  This tool has been out for at least a few years now, but still there are lot of people who do not know about it.  Microsoft SharedView is a screen sharing utility that works over most network connections including thru and over the internet using ports

SharedView works really well for sharing applications/screens across a network connection, regardless if you are across the internet, using a cell network or on the same local network.  It is easy fast and lightweight.  Think of it as a lightweight version of livemeeting (or webex), without out all the heavy infrastructure and for free.

You can share your app or desktop with 15 people (great for developer collaboration, among other types of business collaboration).

(Figure 1 – From the SharedView connect site)

Now meetings are ad-hoc, and there are no pre-scheduling of meetings, VoIP or saving shared resources to a conferencing server.

I have found this tool great for quick screen/desktop app sharing between developers, and business users.

You can download SharedView or find out more here

Note: You do not require a hotmail, live, or msn e-mail address, to get a live or passport id.  You can associate your yahoo, aol, gmail, corporate or other e-mail accounts with live id (aka passport). 

Here is the official sharedview team blog (with a better description of SharedView v1) also note the last entry on this blog was back in Q1 2008.

My experience is that this tool just works and works well. Good luck and have fun!