A distributed collaborative computer system is provided that comprises a plurality
of server computers interconnected via a high-speed link. Client computers can
connect to any available server computer and start or join a conference hosted
on either the server computer to which the client computer is connected or any
other server in the system. As a result, the system and method of the present invention
is easily scalable to support an arbitrary number of participants to a conference
by merely adding the appropriate number of server computers to the system. In addition,
by replicating the conference information on more than one server computer, the
single point of failure limitation is eliminated. In fact, if a server hosting
or participating in a conference malfunctions, the failure is detected by other
server computers and the client computer is able to reconnect to the conference
through a new server computer.
