Importance

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Abstract

A messaging system has a first computer and a second computer connected via a network. A first Edge Terminal Device (ETD) connects to the first computer and a second ETD connects to the second computer. The first ETD is responsive to a received message transmitted by the second ETD to reproduce content of the received message and to accept user input in response to the message. A software product has instructions, stored on computer-readable media, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computer, perform steps for controlling the computer and an ETD connected to the computer, including: instructions for interpreting user inputs of the ETD; instructions for re-characterizing the user inputs as directive instructions for a second computer, the directive instructions having control information for a second ETD connected to the second computer; and instructions for capturing content from the ETD, through the computer and second computer, for delivery to the second ETD. A method is provided for best effort delivery messaging for a recipient user agent, including: as directed by the recipient user agent, forming one or more surrogate proxy user agents for the user agent; and through operation of the surrogate proxy user agents, storing multimedia data for the recipient user agent due to one or both of (a) unavailability of the recipient user agent and (b) request by the receiving user agent. A server system manages mark-ups of multimedia data of one or more communicating devices on a network, comprising: means for buffering first multimedia data; and means for accepting inputs from the communicating devices to mark-up the first multimedia data such that, for each mark-up, a node is added to a hierarchical list structure having child and peer relationships, and such that applying the mark-ups to the first multimedia data defines a second multimedia data that is of equal or different duration and content to the first multimedia data.

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First Claim