A Format for a Graphical Communications Protocol

This article describes the requirements for a graphical format on which a graphical on-line communications protocol can be based. It is argued that on-line graphical communications is similar to graphical session capture, and thus we propose an Interactive Graphical Communications Format using the GKSM session metafile. The discussion includes items that complement the GKSM metafile as a format for on-line interactive exchanges. One key application area of such a format is multimedia on-line conferencing. Therefore, we present a conferencing software architecture for processing the proposed format. This format specification is made available to those planning multimedia conferencing systems, as a contribution toward the development of a graphical communication protocol that will permit the interoperation of these systems.