Importance

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Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are disclosed for having an electronic online conference among multiple clients over a computer network. A method of sending and receiving conference or conversation messages over a computer network is described. The conference messages are sent from and by a computer network client and are not posted to a conference server. This is done according to an Internet e-mail protocol in which messages are synchronized among a defined group of conversation participants. The Internet e-mail protocol is SMTP or ESMTP, and the messages are sent and received in MIME format. A MIME conversation message includes data specifying at least one of the following actions: initiate the conversation, respond to an invitation, post a conversation message to the conversation, initiate a topic in the conversation, initiate a sub-conversation within the conversation, terminate the topic, terminate the sub-conversation, and terminate the conversation, invite a late participant, delete an existing participant, and provide a conversation history to the late participant. The conversation messages are synchronized by automatically storing all messages in the conversation at a client computer in a message store organized according to a history of the conversation.

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First Claim