Method and apparatus for scheduling a multi-point electronic conference

摘要

A computer system is programmed with a scheduler for scheduling multi-point electronic conferences with a multi-point conferencing control service. The scheduler is equipped to automatically connect a user to a remote directory service for selection of some or all of the participants the user wants to be included in the multi-point electronic conference being scheduled. In the presently preferred embodiments, the user is connected to an independent directory service of the user's choice, and the independent directory services available for selection are public directory services having names and connection addresses for a large number of persons.