Multimedia distributed cooperative system

Multimedia cooperative applications aim at providing the means by which people may communicate and exchange information for attaining a common goal. With development in the area of computer communications, information represented in different formats, such as voice, graphics, images and text can be processed, stored, retrieved and distributed. In the area of communications, new technologies are being used for developing integrated networks capable of providing the level of service required by different media. The challenge remains, however, to define a model and communication architecture for multimedia cooperative applications. In this paper, we analyse the main issues for implementing cooperative multimedia applications with current and emerging technologies. Then, based upon the current trends in standardization, we propose an open model and an architecture to support multimedia cooperative applications.