Patent ID: 7533146
Filing Date: 2009-05-12
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for interactive communications over a network among participants of a single conference at a plurality of locations, the apparatus comprising: a leader computer operatively connected to the network; a computer readable storage device accessible by the leader computer, the storage device including: computer instructions for receiving and displaying information from the network; computer instructions for transmitting the information to a plurality of other computers over the network, wherein said other computers each generally simultaneously display the transmitted information; said computer instructions for transmitting comprising a shared web browser to allow the leader to surf through the Internet and to cause said other computers to follow the leader through the Internet, wherein various combinations of shared web browsers can be used for the leader and the other computers; and computer instructions for receiving additional information entered in a shared web browser white board from at least one of the other computers over the network, wherein said other computers and said leader computer each generally simultaneously display the additional information in the shared web browser white board, and wherein the additional information is entered by a user of a computer from the plurality of other computers to be associated with the already displayed information; and computer instructions for receiving text-based conferencing information from at least one of the other computers over the network, wherein said other computers and said leader computer each generally simultaneously display the text-based conferencing information in a shared web browser window separate from the white board, thereby not altering the information displayed in the shared web browser and the shared web browser white board, wherein the leader and the other computers are participating in no more than one conference simultaneously, wherein said computer instructions for transmitting information to each of the other of said plurality from the one of said plurality of computers comprises a presenter interface, the presenter interface further comprising computer instructions for communicating with each of the other of said plurality of computers and for causing the identical transmitted information to be generally simultaneously displayed on said other computers, wherein the shared web browser displayed by the lead computer and the other computers in the single conference are different based on the tool bar buttons on the other computers have different functions, wherein at least one tool bar button is an interactive indicator.