Asynchronous collaboration session linked to a synchronous collaboration session

• US 10,015,212 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2015
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc. (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Genband US LLC (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sylvain, Dany
• Primary Examiner(s): Zong, Ruolei
• Application Number:
  US14/939,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20170142170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 709205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4025 where none of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. downloading a file in a parallel FTP session, initiating an email or combinational services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for starting both a synchronous communication session and an asynchronous communication session that overlap in time, and sending a digital link to users associated with the synchronous communication session that allows them to access the asynchronous communication session. The synchronous communication session includes real-time multimedia data transfer among the users associated with the session. The asynchronous communication session includes allowing users to add information to or retrieve information from the session. The asynchronous communication session persists after the synchronous communication session ends.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

starting a synchronous communication session in response to user initiation, where the synchronous communication session includes real-time multimedia data transfer among a plurality of users associated with the synchronous communication session;

associating an asynchronous communication session with the synchronous communication session by associating identifiers of the asynchronous communication session and the synchronous communication session with each other;

providing the plurality of users with automatic access to the associated asynchronous communication session, the asynchronous communication session overlapping in time with the synchronous communication session and the automatic access including access to add information to the asynchronous communication session or retrieve information from the asynchronous communication session while the synchronous communication session is ongoing;

ending the synchronous communication session;

sending a digital link over a network to the plurality of users associated with the synchronous communication session, the digital link providing access to the asynchronous communication session; and

granting access to ones of the users for the asynchronous communication session in response to selection of the digital link.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the identifiers includes creating a relationship between an alphanumeric string identifying the synchronous communication session and an alphanumeric string identifying the asynchronous communication session.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing automatic access to the asynchronous communication session is performed simultaneously with starting the synchronous communication session.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising starting the asynchronous communication session prior to starting the synchronous communication session.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

starting a plurality of additional asynchronous communication sessions prior to starting the synchronous communication session, wherein

starting the synchronous communication session includes selecting one of the plurality of additional asynchronous communication sessions for user access.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the synchronous communication session and the asynchronous communication session to each of the plurality of users in a single user interface such that each of the plurality of users interact with the synchronous communication session and the asynchronous communication session simultaneously.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the digital link to the plurality of users associated with the synchronous communication session includes sending the digital link to a notification address for each of the plurality of users associated with the synchronous communication session.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving from each of the plurality of users respective notification address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the automatic access includes providing access to add to and to retrieve from the asynchronous communication session one or more collaboration objects.

10. A computing device, comprising:

a memory containing a machine readable medium comprising machine executable code having stored thereon instructions for performing a method of linking a synchronous communication session with an asynchronous communication session; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the machine executable code to;

establish a synchronous communication session including sending and receiving real-time multimedia data among a plurality of users associated with the synchronous communication session;

associate an asynchronous communication session with the synchronous communication session by associating identifiers of the asynchronous communication session and the synchronous communication session with each other; and

provide the plurality of users with automatic access to the asynchronous communication session associated with the synchronous communication session to allow the plurality of users to post information to the asynchronous communication session or retrieve information from the asynchronous communication session while the synchronous communication session is ongoing.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the machine executable code to end the synchronous communication session, while allowing the asynchronous communication session to persist after the end of the synchronous communication session.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the synchronous communication session includes one or more of a voice call, a video call, a voice conference call, a video conference call, screen sharing, and a webcast.

13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the machine executable code to:

in response to further user request, establish another synchronous communication session including real-time multimedia data transfer among another plurality of users associated with the other synchronous communication session; and

provide the other plurality of users with automatic access to the asynchronous communication session.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein

the processor is further configured to execute the machine executable code to:

assign a privilege level to a user of the plurality of users; and

based upon the privilege level, restrict the user'"'"'s access to do one or more of adding collaboration objects, retrieving collaboration objects, deleting collaboration objects, adding comments, deleting comments, or viewing comments and collaboration objects.

15. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly recording computer program logic, the computer program product comprising:

code to connect first and second users to a synchronous communication session in response to a request from one of the first and second users, where the synchronous communication session includes one or more of real-time video, audio, and screensharing between the first and second users;

code to associate an asynchronous communication session with the synchronous communication session by associating identifiers of the asynchronous communication session and the synchronous communication session with each other; and

code to automatically connect the first and second users with the asynchronous communication session, the asynchronous communication session overlapping in time with the synchronous communication session,

code to enable the first and second users to add or retrieve text communication and collaboration objects from the asynchronous communication session while the synchronous communication session is ongoing;

code to generate a digital link providing access to the asynchronous communication session;

code to end the synchronous communication session;

code to send the digital link over a network to the first and second users in response to ending the synchronous communication session; and

code to grant access to the first and second users, in response to selection of the digital link, for the asynchronous communication session after the synchronous communication session has ended.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the code to associate creates a relationship between an alphanumeric string identifying of the synchronous communication session and an alphanumeric string identifying of the asynchronous communication session within an accessible data structure.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the collaboration objects include at least one of:

meeting minutes, a list of team members associated with a project, a schedule, or a recording of the synchronous communication session.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

code to begin a subsequent synchronous communication session in response to further user request, where the subsequent synchronous communication session includes real-time multimedia data transfer between at least the first and second users; and

code to send an additional digital link over the network to the first and second users after the subsequent synchronous communication session has ended, the additional link providing access to the asynchronous communication session.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein a plurality of users in addition to the first and second users participate in the subsequent synchronous communication session and receive the additional digital link.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising code to assign a privilege level to each of the first and second users.