System and method for recording collaborative information

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a computer readable program for recording a collaborative session, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to perform the steps of:

• determining portions of a composite image of collaborative session content that are constant over time or preprocessed in a storable format;
• removing the portions from the composite image of the collaborative session content;
• compressing and storing remaining content of the composite image and any of the portions not already compressed;
• decoding the remaining content of the composite image and the portions to reconstruct the composite image of the collaborative session content;
• and
• formatting the composite image for storage.

A method for recording a collaborative session, comprising:

• determining visual components in a composite image that can be represented by a bit stream for reconstruction of their visual appearance and have a known position and size in the composite image;
• removing the visual appearance of those visual components from the composite image in an order that permits higher efficiency of data compression;
• compressing a resulting composite image including its corresponding audio stream;
• storing a data compressed version of the composite image with element data streams, element data stream references, element composition information over time, and the audio stream;
• when off-line, decoding the data compressed version of the composite image using the data compressed composite image, the element streams, the element composition information over time, and the audio stream such that a representation of the collaborative session is reconstructed;
• and
• storing the representation of the composite image stream with the audio stream into a file stored in machine readable storage media.

A system for recording a collaborative session, comprising:

• a recording device configured to record composite information in real-time during a collaborative session between two or more participants, the recording device being configured to determine constant or known representations in the composite information and remove the constant or known representations to enable more efficient compression of a resulting composite image;
• the recording device being configured to compress the resulting composite image with the constant or known representations removed and being configured to store in memory the compressed resulting composite image along with the removed constant or known representations and any previously compressed information in an intermediate format file;
• and
• a decoder configured to decode the intermediate format file to reconstruct the composite image of the collaborative session and format the composite image in a standard format file.