ELECTRONIC CALENDAR WITH GROUP SCHEDULING

• US 20010014867A1
• Filed: 06/19/1998
• Published: 08/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/1997
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: CONMY, DOUGLAS WALTER
• Application Number:
  US09/100,223
• Publication Number:
  US 20010014867A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups

Abstract

A network based electronic calendaring system for a plurality of users comprises one or more databases which store a profile for each potential invitee of the system. The database may be stored at one or more servers. The invitee profile may comprise a user profile that contains information regarding available and unavailable times for that user. Connected to the databases over the network are one or more client systems operating a calendaring system. The calendaring system enables a user to request allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees. The calendaring system gathers the profiles for each of the one or more requested invitees and determines whether each of the invitees is available during the requested time interval. The calendaring system further permits the user to view results in a manner selected from the group consisting of: displaying those invitees that are available, displaying those invitees that are not available and displaying those invitees whose schedule could not be found.

Claims

1. A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users in a networked environment comprising:

database means for storing a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user, the database means being located at one or more server locations;

request generating means, located remotely from the server locations, for generating a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

busy time determination means for gathering the profiles for the one or more requested invitees and determining whether each of the invitees is available during the time interval requested by the request generating means; and

graphical user interface means associated with the request generating means for displaying results from the busy time determination means, the graphical user interface means permitting a user to view the results in a manner selected from the group consisting of;

displaying those invitees that are available, displaying those invitees that are not available and displaying those invitees whose schedule could not be found.

2. The system of

claim 1

wherein the user profile stores information on the user'"'"'s location;

and

wherein the busy time determination means takes into account the location of the requested event and the user'"'"'s location when determining that user'"'"'s busy time.

3. The system of

claim 2

wherein the busy time determination unit determines travel time if the locations of the event and the user differ and considers that travel time when determining if the user is available at the requested time interval.

4. A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprising:

one or more databases which store a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles, wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user, the databases being located at one or more servers;

one or more user client systems connected over a network to the one or more servers operating a calendaring system which enables a user to request allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

wherein the calendaring system gathers the profiles for each of the one or more requested invitees and determines whether each of the invitees is available during the requested time interval; and

wherein the calendaring system permits the user to view results in a manner selected from the group consisting of;

displaying those invitees that are available, displaying those invitees that are not available and displaying those invitees whose schedule could not be found.

5. A process for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprising:

storing a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user;

receiving a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

gathering the profiles for the one or more requested invitees;

determining whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval; and

displaying results by permitting a user to view the results in a manner selected from the group consisting of;

displaying those invitees that are available, displaying those invitees that are not available and displaying those invitees whose schedule could not be found.

6. A computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for enabling group calendaring between a plurality of users on a computer system, the computer system comprising a database which stores a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles, wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user, the computer readable program code means in said computer usable medium comprising:

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to receive a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to gather the profiles for the one or more requested invitees;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to determine whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to display results by permitting a user to view the results in a manner selected from the group consisting of;

displaying those invitees that are available, displaying those invitees that are not available and displaying those invitees whose schedule could not be found.