Patent ID: 7707262

Claim:
A method of administering access to an electronic conference with a plurality of users over a network, the network including at least one host device and a plurality of client devices, the method comprising: receiving at the host device, an electronic instruction configured to establish the electronic conference; enabling more than one user of the plurality of users to generate content restrictions that limit content rendered during the electronic conference, wherein each of the more than one user is associated with one of said client devices; receiving at the host device, proposed content restrictions provided by each of the more than one user; comparing, by the host device, the proposed content restrictions received from each user of the more than one user to the content restrictions received from each other user of the more than one user; identifying one or more disputed parameters in the proposed content restrictions based on the comparing, prompting each client device associated with the more than one user to resolve the disputed parameters by: automatically identifying, based on identifying the one or more disputed parameters, a list of potential solutions; presenting, to a conference administrator in association with the disputed parameters, a list of potential solutions that may be selected by the user in order to identify a solution to the disputed parameters, asking the more than one user to select a value, from among the list of potential solutions, for the disputed parameters, determining if a value from the list of potential solutions is agreed-to by the more than one user based on the more than one user selecting a value in response to the asking the more than one user to select the value, removing parameters having less than a threshold of support, and using the selected value as the value for the disputed parameters if the value is agreed-to by the more than one user; locking down agreed-to parameters appearing in the proposed content restrictions so that the more than one user cannot change a status of the agreed-to parameters; enabling the more than one user to engage in continued negotiations to resolve remaining disputed parameters of the one or more disputed parameter while precluding the more than one user from modifying the agreed to parameters that have been locked down; analyzing one or more participant devices to ensure compliance with the content restrictions; establishing the electronic conference in accordance with the content restrictions; and enabling user access to the electronic conference consistent with the content restrictions.