Patent ID: 7130883

Claim:
A distributed system for collaborative computing comprising: a web zone for allowing a plurality of client computers to access the distributed system via a global-area network, the web zone having at least one web server; a meeting zone for supporting an on-line conference among the plurality of client computers, the meeting zone having a meeting manager, a process manager, a plurality of collaborative servers, and a plurality of application servers, wherein: the meeting manager is operable to manage the on-line conference in the meeting zone; the process manager is operable to launch the plurality of collaborative servers; each collaborative server is operable to host at least a portion of the on-line conference; each application server is operable to support at least one service for the on-line conference; and the meeting manager is operable to detect failures of the collaborative servers and upon detecting failure of one of the collaborative servers, to send a request to the process manager to launch a new collaborative server.