The floor control of a conference is the mechanism for managing which
user(s) are allowed to speak to which listeners. In our model, we make
no assumptions about the distribution mechanisms. We require a
communications channel from each user to all the others. (This might
be optimized through use of multicast mechanisms).
The floor control mechanism assumes some out of band channel to <#1222#>
make bids<#1222#> to be placed in a queue of speakers, and requires some out
of band channel to turn on and off some <#1223#> valve<#1223#> on the connection
from any speaker/user to some others. Of course, we do not say that
the user at the end of an open channel is necessarily listening.
This model is not restricted to text conferencing.
We have made a number of design decisions in specifying a conference
which could be changed. We assert that given this general model, it is
not difficult to define most other desired models of conference.