An experiment in integrated multimedia conferencing

Abstract

This paper deals with the integration of multimedia conferencing facilities into an existing software environment. We assume that the "semantics" of the conferencing facilities have already been defined and address only the issue of how to implement those semantics in such a way as to minimize the impact on existing software. In particular, users should be able to invoke any application from within the framework of a conference, and programmers should be able to develop new applications without having to deal explicitly with eonfereneing issues, We present the basic architectural approachs to this problem and discuss an early experiment with one of them.

Resource sharing for replicated synchronous groupware

“…Distributed software architectures fall in a range from centralized, where all of the shared data are maintained and processed at a single location, to replicated, where each site maintains and processes a complete copy of the shared data [13], [5]. The diagrams in Figs.…”

Lost in translation: investigating the ambiguity of availability cues in an online media space

“…First, several of these studies have been conducted as experiments (Lantz 1986, Johnson and Greenberg 1999 and have not focused upon availability management in real-life work settings. Johnson and Greenberg (1999), for example, conduct an experiment where participants estimate the availability of others based upon video snapshots that excludes the asynchronous aspects of awareness so vital in a real work setting.…”

“…Johnson and Greenberg (1999), for example, conduct an experiment where participants estimate the availability of others based upon video snapshots that excludes the asynchronous aspects of awareness so vital in a real work setting. Second, several of the conducted studies took place over a decade ago with technological limitations that hopefully to some degree have been dealt with in modern systems (Lantz 1986, Root 1988, Mantei et al 1991. The third reason is that several previous studies have been conducted upon use of prototype versions of media spaces instead of upon media spaces that are used in actual work settings and that have been used for an extended period of time (Lantz 1986, Mantei et al 1991, Dourish and Bly.…”

Multimedia Conferencing

“…Input from the site with the floor is broadcast to the other participating sites and output is generated locally at each site. Replicated systems minimize the input to output delay for the participant with the floor, but are harder to construct [7,24].…”

“…In a geographically distributed environment, a centralized system may result in unacceptable communication delays. Centralized architectures may provide poor interactive response to the conferee with the floor when accessing an application running at a different site [24]. They may also have the drawback that they impose a heavier level of network traffic than replicated architectures because output, rather than input, must be distributed to all sites.…”