Applet-Based Multimedia Telecollaboration: A Network-Centric Approach

Applet-Based Multimedia Telecollaboration: A Network-Centric Approach Shervin Shirmohammadi, Jauvane C. de Oliveira, and Nicolas D. Georganas Multimedia Communications Research Laboratory School of Information Technology and Engineering University of Ottawa, Canada Abstract Real-time collaboration systems, in which participants share multimedia documents and applications in real time, have been a subject of interest for many years. Although computer supported cooperative work systems have been around for a long time, recent advancements in Internet-related technologies have lead to the emergence of numerous Web-based collaboration tools, such as Microsoft NetMeeting or Vocaltec’s Internet Conference. Among these innovative technologies, Java applets seem to have introduced a very exciting notion: platform-independent applications provided by the network. From a network-centric computing point of view, the next logical step towards collaborative environments would be the real-time sharing of these applications. In this article, we examine the essential requirements of such systems, with focus on the multimedia aspect of collaboration. We will also present practical design and implementation issues encountered during our experimentation with the JETS system: a generic multimedia telecollaboration framework which enables sharing of Java applets through the Internet.