Dropio presentation tool Presentio opens up

On Thursday, Web storage provider Dropio took its presentation tool Presentio out of private beta and opened it up to all users. Similar to the recently launched, real-time activity view found in its collaborative storage folders (or "drops" as the service calls them), the new tool gives users a simple set of controls to present those files to others.

It's effectively like watching someone else's screen as they navigate around the storage folder. If they open a file, you see it straight away. If they jump to a certain page in a PDF or PowerPoint presentation, you see it too. The same goes for music and movies, which play right in the browser using Dropio's integrated file-viewing tools.

Presentio also comes with a few handy features, like the capability to hand the presenter controls off to another person. There's also a free conference line that you can call into, along with a chat room that pops out from the bottom of the screen (which can also be found in Drops where real-time collaboration is turned on).

What I like about this tool, and more so than others, is that it's assuming that you're already using the storage service to stash your files. You can move files you already have stashed on Dropio, or very quickly upload new ones, then get straight to business. It's just taking that extra step out of when it's time to present to others.

Here's a quick run through of how it works by Dropio's founder Sam Lessin:

[doctrina]

Wow. I just uploaded a pptx to presentio, it is amazing! And simple to use. No login required. The in-line viewers are very very useful. Way way better than Google Doc's "View Together" mode in presentations. "View Together" essentially offers the same basic functionality as presentio, but lacks the support for media (audio/video) files and does not feature "free teleconferencing". Also, to use the "View Together" in Google Docs, the attendees need to sign-up for a Google Account.

However, I would be more comfortable with storing confidential data in Google Apps than in presentio. For e.g. I would never upload a presentation containing Intellectual Property to presentio :)

Anyone wanna guess how long before Google Doc catches up with presentio?

[dabbleboard]

It's great how drop.io is doing a different take on sharing files, and conducting presentations. There's waay too many WebEx clones out there doing the same thing. With <a href="http://almostmeet.com">AlmostMeet</a>, we're trying to change things as well. Expect we're focusing on small group collaboration where everyone's an equal participant (no "presenter" per se), even with webcam and screen sharing. Together with file sharing, Dabbleboard's whiteboard, and document embedding. And yep, it all works in the browser (even screen sharing) with no signup needed.

We don't have present.io's music and video playback though. I'm not sure how important those are in collaboration app?