A few days ago, I made a post about a new service on MeBeam, which would open up the world of multi-party or multi-user video conferencing to Skype users.
Initially, my idea, or solution, was to provide a service like our operator feature, where you would add MeBeam to your skype contact list, and type in 'call username' for every person you wanted to invite to the conference, and MeBeam would send out the invitations on your behalf.
After thinking about this a bit more, the last few weeks, I came to the relisation, that this in itself, would not be very practical for two reasons.
(1) You would have to type in every persons username,
(2) You may have set up skype, so that you see your contacts by their nickname, as opposed to their real username.
From this challenge came innovation, and we have come up with something which I know your going to like.
Without the need to download anything, you can start a video conference with up to 16 of your skype friends, directly from the Skype user interface, with minimal effort.
Although, this service does not go online officially until tomorrow, I am going to post, the how-to now, for all those who have already added MeBeam as a contact to their skype list.
Assuming you have already added the contact MeBeam to your skype list, and your ready to start a multi person video call - click on user MeBeam in your contact list, and then click on the 'send contacts' menu item, as shown in this screen shot.
Next, you send the contacts you want to invited to the video conference to MeBeam, by clicking the names on the left hand column and clicking the 'Add' button - as shown in this screen shot.
Once you have added everyone, click the 'Send' button and wait for the status message to complete.
At this point MeBeam, will generate a unique room for you and your friends, and send the invitations out automatically.
The service is in beta, and may not be 100% stable, but, you should now all have 16 person video calls available from skype.
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The service is now up and running again, so please feel free to try it out, and get back to me with your comments and suggestions.
So, if your using Linux, Mac, or Windows, and want video conferencing for up to 16 people, without the need to download or install any plugins or software, then click the following link.
Click here to add 'MeBeam video chat' to your contact list
If the link does not work, then add 'MeBeam.video' as a Skype contact
A couple of months ago, I posted an entry about 
Many plugins have been released over the months to integrate MeBeam into your favorite instant messenger.
