An algorithm and architecture to support cooperative multimedia editing

Abstract

Groupware systems have been made possible by developing algorithms and architectures which support collaborative tasks. The main rules of these algorithms are to maintain a global coherence state of the cooperative system and to control the information flow amongst the co-users. By architecture the authors mean the way the cooperative system is organized in order to enable the cooperative algorithm to work. The distribution of the physical processes and files over the different machines where the co-authors are located, as well as the way the communication is enabled, is discussed