Patent ID: 7587452

Claim:
A method of conducting a conference amongst remote participants, comprising: communicating a library of digital objects to a participant communications device; communicating a synchronization command from a host communications device to the participant communications device via a distributed computing network, the synchronization command commanding the participant communications device to present an object from the library of digital objects; receiving, at the host communications device, a synchronization acknowledgment from the participant communications device, the synchronization acknowledgment confirming a successful presentation of the object on the participant communications device; sending a synchronization override command from the host communications device to the participant communications device that allows the participant communications device to present any object from the library of digital objects; forcing the host communications device to await receipt of the synchronization acknowledgment from the participant communications device, thus preventing the host communications device from selecting another object in the library of digital objects; and presenting information describing conference participants that are synchronized to the host communications device and describing other conference participants that lag the host communications device.