1. A method for controlling a personal conference between a server (30) and one or more clients (32A,32B, 32C) for sharing common conference model data (60) comprising: storing the conference model data (60) on each client in the conference; generating, at a client, a pre-instruction representing an operation on the conference model data (60) and sending the pre-instruction from the client to the server (30); receiving at the server the pre-instruction from the client; broadcasting an instruction, in response to the pre-instruction, for operating on the conference model from the server to all the clients; and operating on the conference model, at each client, according the broadcast instruction; whereby the server provides a centralized meeting place for clients to advertise and participate in shared work and whereby each client receives broadcast instructions in the same order and performs operations on its respective conference data model in the same order so that all copies of the conference model data remain consistent.