Apparatus and method to provide conference data sharing between user agent conference participants

A computer readable medium embodied with a computer program comprising operations of:

• in response to a request of a user agent conference participant to create a data sharing element, informing the user agent conference participant in a session initiation protocol message of an address of a storage location where the user agent conference participant may store a shared media data file for use by at least one other of a plurality of user agent conference participants;
• storing the shared media data file at the address of the storage location;
• and
• establishing at least one conference policy that controls at least one of access to and distribution of the shared media data file with respect to other user agent conference participants of the plurality of user agent conference participants, wherein the data sharing element comprises the shared media data file.

A conference server, comprising:

• means, responsive to a request of a user agent conference participant to create a data sharing element, for informing the user agent conference participant in a session initiation protocol message of an address associated with storage means where the user agent conference participant may store a shared media data file for use by at least one other of a plurality of user agent conference participants;
• means for storing the shared media data file at the address;
• and
• means for establishing at least one conference policy that controls at least one of access to and distribution of the shared media data file with respect to the at least one other of the plurality of user agent conference, wherein the data sharing element comprises the shared media data file.

A computer readable medium embodied with a computer program comprising operations of:

• requesting, by a user agent conference participant of a plurality of user agent conference participants via a session initiation protocol, creation of a data sharing element by a conferencing server;
• receiving an address of a storage location where the user agent conference participant may store a shared media data file for use by other conference participants;
• sending the shared media data file for storage at the address of the storage location;
• and
• sending information to a conference server to establish at least one conference policy that controls at least one of access to and distribution of the shared media data file with respect to the other user agent conference participants of the plurality of user agent conference participants, wherein the data sharing element comprises the shared media data file.

A method comprising:

• requesting, by a user agent conference participant of a plurality of user agent conference participants, a conferencing server through a session initiation protocol dialog to create a data sharing element;
• receiving an address of a storage location associated with a data sharing server where the user agent conference participant is permitted to store a shared media data file for use by at least one other of the plurality of user agent conference participants;
• sending the shared media data file to the data sharing server for storage at the address of the storage location;
• and
• sending information to a conference policy server to establish at least one conference policy that controls at least one of access to and distribution of the shared media data file with respect to the at least one other of the plurality of user agent conference participants, wherein the data sharing element comprises the shared media data file.