Development and evaluation of an in-house multimedia desktop conference system

An in-house computer-supported desk-to-desk conference system that allows a group of users to conduct a meeting in real time from their telephone-attached personal computers is described. Participants can jointly view and edit relevant multimedia information, including text, graphics, images, and handwritten information distributed through a local area network. Participants can also simultaneously communicate by voice to discuss the information they are sharing. The system´s design principle, i.e. the group communication architecture, and the protocol for conference coordination are discussed. The system configuration, service functions, and related control mechanisms are presented. User experiences and the results of feasibility evaluations are examined. The system has proved to be applicable to a wide variety of cooperative work, such as distributed software development, joint authoring, and group decision support