Methods and systems for collaborative remote application sharing and conferencing

A method of providing a conferencing capability in a remote environment, comprising:

• providing a server remote access service, the server remote access service residing in a server tier;
• providing a respective client remote access application for each of a plurality of client computing devices, the respective client remote access applications running on the client computing devices;
• providing a state model, wherein the state model comprises an association of logical elements used to synchronize information between the respective client remote access applications and the server remote access service, wherein the logical elements are associated with user interface components of an application displayed at one or more of the client computing devices, each of the server remote access service and the respective client remote access applications being capable of modifying the state model, wherein the state model further comprises session information about the application and information for displaying the logical elements;
• providing at least one client media sharing application, the at least one client media sharing application running on at least one of the client computing devices, the at least one client media sharing application allowing the at least one of the client computing devices to share media accessible by the at least one of the client computing devices;
• providing a conferencing manager application and a plurality of conferencing stub applications, the conferencing manager application receiving media shared by the at least one of the client computing devices, each of the conferencing stub applications interfacing with the server remote access service to modify the state model, wherein there is one conferencing stub application for each of the client computing devices;
• and
• modifying the state model to further include the shared media such that the shared media is provided in one or more of the client computing devices,
• wherein the respective client remote access applications are configured to operate with the server remote access service in cooperation with the state model to interface with the conferencing manager application via the conferencing stub applications, wherein the conferencing manager application acts as a multiplexer by making the shared media from the at least one of the client computing devices available to each of the conferencing stub applications.