The multiplication of data types has been a big issue on the web. Helpers, plug-in’s and OLE controls have been used to let browsers handle new data types that they weren’t built to handle themselves. New data types, usually in the form of some new codec for audio or video, are just as big an issue for mbone apps. Right now you can see some pretty huge monolithic apps for the MBONE. For example, vat supports 8 audio formats, and vic supports 6 video formats. And there are plenty of formats they don’t handle.