Providing conference information in a distributed conferencing system

A method for providing conference information to conference participants near real time using a distributed conferencing system, the distributed conferencing system including a plurality of conference bridges distributed across a plurality of sites, each site including at least one conference bridge that is part of a physical or logical grouping of communication devices, the method comprising:

• during a first period of time:
• providing the conference information from a first conference bridge to a first group of participants each participating in a conference call using devices that are communicatively coupled to the first conference bridge via ports on the first conference bridge, the conference information including at least one of audio, video, or web data, the first group of participants consisting of a plurality of participants at a first site and a participant at a second site, the first site including the first conference bridge and the second site including a second conference bridge;
• during a second period of time:
• providing the conference information from the first conference bridge to a first portion of a second group of participants each participating in the conference call using devices that are communicatively coupled to the first conference bridge via ports on the first conference bridge, the first portion of the second group of participants including the plurality of participants at the first site;
• providing the conference information from the first conference bridge to the second conference bridge;
• and
• providing the conference information from the second conference bridge to a second portion of the second group of participants each participating in the conference call using devices that are communicatively coupled to the second conference bridge via ports on the second conference bridge, the second portion of the second group of participants including the participant at the second site and one or more other participants at the second site that were not participating in the conference call during the first period of time.

A first conference bridge configured to provide conference information to attendees of a conference call near real time in a distributed conferencing system, comprising:

• a receiving module configured to receive the conference information, the conference information including at least one of video or web data;
• a first providing module configured to provide the conference information to a first group of attendees at a first site each participating in the conference call using devices that are communicatively coupled to the first conference bridge via ports on the first conference bridge;
• and
• a second providing module;
• wherein during a first period of time, the second providing module is configured to provide the conference information from the first conference bridge to a participant at a second site, the participant at the second site participating in the conference call using a device that is communicatively coupled to the first conference bridge via a port on the first conference bridge;
• wherein during a second period of time, the second providing module is configured to provide the conference information from the first conference bridge to a second conference bridge at the second site, the second conference bridge being separate from the first conference bridge and the conference information provided from the first conference bridge to the second conference bridge so that the conference information can be provided to participants at the second site, the participants at the second site each participating in the conference call using devices that are communicatively coupled to the second conference bridge via ports on the second conference bridge, the participants at the second site including the participant at the second site and one or more other participants at the second site that were not participating in the conference call during the first period of time.