A question about "Unified Communications" and the Telepathy model

[Shaheed]

Hi all,

I just saw http://quintasan.blogspot.com/2011/07/telepathy-kde-ppa.html, and 
its pointer to the summary description of Telepathy over at 
https://gkiagia.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/what-is-telepathy-kde. I like the 
sound of what is going on very much, but I wondered how the "many small apps" 
model might work compared to some of the "Unified Communications" productsout 
there.

To explain by way of example, Microsoft used to have these client programs:

	- Outlook calendar for scheduling meetings
	- An IM application called Office Communicator with MUC support
	- An electronic meeting application called Live Meeting supporting 
	the usual shared whiteboards, desktops, video and audio etc.

Over several releases, the level of ingtegration betwen these was increased in 
a way that corresponds directly to what I think Telepathy is doing, such as a 
unified notion of presence/busy/absence.

One other thing the integration did was to make it easy to change the scope of 
a "meeting". For example, I might start in IM application, and ask somebody a 
quick question. During the following discussion, we realise that we actually 
need to bring in another person, or a shared whiteboard, or video. Adding (or 
dropping) these was gradually made smoother. I found this a very nice model to 
use.

Now, I don't quite see how that might be achieved if the "many small programs" 
model means that the IM app is a distinct entity from the Audio app. I *think* 
this boils down to the notion of a session which the various apps and humans 
might be part of. Does Telepathy support that kind of concept (or something 
equivalent)?

Thanks, Shaheed
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