The Synchronous Collaborative Object- Oriented Toolkit (SCOOT) provides reliable real-time multimedia collaboration for geographically separated participants. SCOOT does this by synchronizing application states and ensuring reliable shared tool control. It is designed to provide this functionality while minimizing the modifications to application code, the impact on a developer's design style and level of effort, and on an application's structure. SCOOT extends the end-user's working style by providing a continuum of collaboration styles, ranging from informal to formal.