Real-Time Collaboration in Heterogeneous Computing Environments

The recent proliferation of computing devices and the contexts in which they are used demand diversity in collaborative applications as well. The objective of our research is to enable conferees to share applications that are adapted to their (heterogeneous) computing environments. This is achieved by using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for the communication medium. The conferees share the same data or a subset of that data, represented in XML, but they may see it displayed in different ways as needed or desired. The framework adapts to the computing and network environment and transforms information so that it matches the client’s local capabilities and resources.