On Fri, 22 Aug 2003, Henry Sinnreich wrote: > > I certainly don't share that assumption. Then again, I don't share the > > assumption that any central coordinating authority is needed to set up > > conferencing services. > > This is an interesting point. The XCON WG is about _Centralized_ > conferencing platforms. Who does operate such centralized systems? It seems to me that the issue isn't whether a conferencing service could be setup without a central authority but rather if when there is a need for central control, what are the protocols used to coordinate with the controlling authority. I believe there is a need for both forms of organization: a. Distributed control b. Centralized control WebEx and Placeware (now owned by MS) are examples of centralized systems which currently exist. Dave Morris