Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Thomas Pfenning

Michael Ray Clark

Mu Han

Rajeev Byrisetty

Stefan Solomon

Lev Novik

Moe Khosravy

Oliver C Lee

Andres Vega-Garcia

Donald R Ryan

Don Ryan

Synchronization of a web syndication item over a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format between a publisher and a subscriber. The publisher creates the web syndication item by including a media content associated therewith. The synchronization metadata is defined to include a first virtual clock value associated with the created web syndication item. The first virtual clock value indicates when the web syndication item was last updated. A request for subscribing the published web syndication item is received from the subscriber. In response to the received request, the published web syndication item is transmitted to a location remote from the publisher and accessible by the subscriber. The first virtual clock value is provided to the subscriber for use by the subscriber to modify the first virtual clock value when the subscriber modifies the media content associated with the web syndication item.

Two-way and multi-master synchronization over web syndications

Client-server conference and user seeking is disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes at least one server of a first type, a server of a second type, and a client. Each of the at least one server of the first type maintains at least one conference. The server of the second type stores a server list of the servers of the first type. The client queries this latter server to obtain the server list, and then is able to query each server on the list to learn of the conferences maintained by these servers. User lists may also be maintained by either the first and/or second server types, for querying by the client.

Client-server conference and user seeking through a server storing a list comprising active conference servers and excluding nonactive conference servers

Computers, particularly personal computers, have become everyday communications devices, nearly as common as telephones and televisions. A big reason for this is the expansion of computer networks, such as the Internet, which allow sending and receiving information, including audio and video information, from one computer to one or more other computers. Communicating audio and video information between computers can be problematic because users have to wait for the information to be fully downloaded before viewing or hearing it and because different computers sometimes communicate using incompatible communications protocols, which prevents comprehension. Accordingly, the inventors devised new methods, software, and computer systems that support interactive data streaming (real-time exchange of multimedia data) and full-duplex communications, for example, network conferencing, using more than one communications protocol.

Multimedia communications software with network streaming and multi-format conferencing

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Thomas Pfenning