DARPA has identified collaborative computing as a technology not yet adequately developed in the marketplace. This need to share and interactively work with documents and other information objects across separate computer systems is really the underlying human business need that originally drove the creation of network technology, desktop video-teleconferencing, and even the failed earlier industry attempts at collaborative computing products. The advent of the new T.12x series of information technology standards (1993-1996), finally provides an open architecture foundation that makes cross-platform and cross-application collaborative computing possible in a industry compatible, cost-effective manner. Additionally, recent work in the H.32x series of standards for video-teleconferencing and repacketizing these real-time transmissions within existing transmission protocols offer a very robust and feasible potential to create collaborative computing multi-point conferences with visual and audio coordination in concert with multi-user editing and authoring collaboration on information objects or files. LB&M Associates, Inc. and DataBeam Corporation have formed a cooperative partnership (including consulting advice from TMS/Sequouia Corporation), with the intent to develop MMC:Share, a collaborative computing product that allows real-time sharing of information objects such as documents, graphics, and multi-media presentations, among multiple users, with simultaneous ability to markup, author and share changes, while participating in a desktop video-teleconference to speed coordination.
Keywords: collaborative computing; t.120;h.320; interactive authoring
