System and method for identifying and establishing preferred modalities or channels for communications based on participants' preferences and contexts
First Claim
1. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:
- a first component associated with a request for attentional resources of a contactee; and
a second component that facilitates a response to the request based in part on the utility of the request to the contactee.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for identifying and establishing preferred modalities or channels for communications based on participants'"'"' preferences and capabilities is provided. In one approach, the system attempts to optimize the inferred or directly accessed preferences of a contactee given the accessed or inferred preferences, capabilities and goals of the contactor while keeping the rationale and context of the contactee private. Such optimization can be achieved using preferences and policies concerning handling the attempted contact based on a deterministic specification or through inferring context, content and task under uncertainty by employing decision-theoretic inferences to attempt to maximize the expected utility of the communication to the contactee. The methods may include a consideration of metadata within a standard schema that is transmitted along with a communication attempt, representing information about such attributes as the identity of the contactor, the task at hand, the overall context of the contactor, and the communication capabilities available to the contactor. The invocation of the communication service may be performed in a variety of ways, including single button invocations, and via a communication service that is more deeply integrated with other applications and functionalities. The service can also include automated rescheduling of communications based on a consideration of forecasts of availability of both the contactor and contactee.
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Citations
54 Claims
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1. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:
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a first component associated with a request for attentional resources of a contactee; and
a second component that facilitates a response to the request based in part on the utility of the request to the contactee. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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19. A method to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:
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communicating a first set of preferences to send information;
communicating a second set of preferences to receive the information; and
enabling communications between two or more parties based at least in part on the preferences.
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25. A system to facilitate communications between parties, comprising:
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means for specifying preferences to send and receive communications;
means for transmitting one or more selection options requesting the attention of at least one party via the communications; and
means for enabling further communications between the parties based at least in par t on the preferences and the selected option.
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26. A signal to establish communications between at least two entities, comprising:
a data packet comprising;
a first data field representing a request for attentional resources of a contactee; and
a second data field representing a response to the request, the response relating to the willingness of the contactee to engage in communications based upon the utility of the request to the contactee.
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27. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure to represent message contact data, comprising:
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a first field representing a contactor'"'"'s preferences associated with a request for the attention of a contactee; and
a second field representing the contactee'"'"'s preferences associated with responding to the request, the contactee'"'"'s preferences communicating the contactee'"'"'s desire for further communications based on the value of the request.
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28. A system to facilitate unsolicited communications between parties, comprising:
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a contact manager to transmit an offer to communicate from an unknown contactor to a contactee; and
a preference component associated with the contactee to enable an acceptance of the offer based in part upon consideration presented in the offer.
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42. A method to facilitate communications between unknown parties, comprising:
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transmitting an offer having at least one incentive to induce communications between parties;
analyzing preference data associated with at least one of the parties; and
establishing communications between the parties based at least in part on the preference data, the at least one incentive, and actions between the parties. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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48. A system to facilitate communications between unknown parties, comprising:
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means for transmitting an offer to induce communications between parties;
means for analyzing preference data associated with at least one of the parties;
means for establishing communications between the parties based at least in part on the preference data and actions between the parties; and
means for negotiating the offer.
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49. A method to facilitate communications between unknown parties, comprising:
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executing one or more contingency-based policies that guide payment and reimbursement to handle uncertainty in at least one of an identity of a contactee and content relating to communications with the contactee; and
forcing contactors to provide consideration to the contactee to access one or more modalities for communicating with the contactee.
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Specification