Patent ID: 8862731

Claim:
An apparatus for coordinating data sharing in a computer network, comprising: an interface for connecting to each of at least two physical display devices, each of the physical display devices including a touch surface; a storage device storing associations between each of at least one unique temporary session connection code (SCC) and a respective at least one of the at least two physical display devices, the storage device also storing a respective future SCC activation date or time; an interface receiving requests from one or more source computers to establish communications sessions for sharing data, each of the requests including a client SCC; and a processor configured to determine whether a request is valid by verifying that it is received on or after the respective SCC activation date or time, and that the client SCC is stored in the storage device; choose fewer than all of the at least two physical display devices as at least one designated physical display device based on a stored association between the client SCC and the at least one designated physical display device; establish a bidirectional communications session between the requesting source computer and the at least one designated physical display device based on the associations stored in the storage device only in the event that the request is determined to be valid; and once the bidirectional communications session is established, transmit touch data received from the at least one designated physical display device to the requesting source computer and transmit video data received from the requesting source computer to the at least one designated physical display device.