Method and apparatus for exchanging electronic business cards in a point-to-point or a multi-point personal computer conference

摘要

The conference manager of a general purpose personal conference application is enhanced, including a request management and a send/receive function for exchanging "business cards" electronically using a two-phase approach, a request phase and an answer phase. While request for another participant is automatic responsive to a connect/joint event, answering a request is conditionally depending on whether the receiving system is "in conference". The external manifestation of an electronic "business card" (bizcard) is a visual presentation of information commonly found on physical business cards in a format that resembles a physical business card. Preferably, the visual presentation also includes a picture of the person named. Internally, the information including the data necessary to render the picture are maintained in data structures.