Notification of activity around documents

• US 20040003352A1
• Filed: 06/27/2002
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Anoop, Brush, Alice Jane Bernheim, Bargeron, David M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,568,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/530
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Users are able to subscribe to notifications regarding activity around particular documents (e.g., changes to and/or annotations to the documents). A variety of different notification parameters can be set by the user, allowing him or her to request the type(s) of notifications he or she would like to receive, as well as how frequently notifications are to be received.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, for each of a plurality of documents, one or more annotations that have been made to the document;

including information regarding the annotations that have been made to the plurality of documents in a single electronic mail message; and

sending the single electronic mail message to a user that has subscribed to annotation notification for the plurality of documents.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more annotations for a first document of the plurality of documents includes a base annotation and a reply annotation in reply to the base annotation, and wherein the reply annotation is included in the single electronic mail message as offset from the base annotation.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the single electronic mail message further includes, for each of the annotations, a link to a location in the document to which the annotation has been made.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the user, a request to subscribe to receive annotation notifications for the plurality of documents at particular times.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein the particular times comprise immediate, daily, and weekly.

6. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein the particular times comprise a user-configurable day, a user-configurable time, and a user-configurable interval.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user request to receive notification of one or more annotations made to the plurality of documents in response to one or more of a plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied; and

sending, in response to one or more of the plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied, the single electronic mail message to the user.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request by the user to receive, at particular times, notification of changes to one of the plurality of documents;

monitoring activity on the one of the plurality of documents; and

including, in the single electronic mail message, an indication of the changes to the one of the plurality of documents in the time since the user was last notified of changes to the one of the plurality of documents.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

generating an abstract that summarizes the annotations; and

including the abstract in the single electronic mail message.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a request for a user to receive, at particular times, notification of changes to a document;

monitoring activity on the document; and

sending an electronic mail message to the user, the electronic mail message including an indication of changes to the document in the time since the user was last notified of changes to the document.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the particular times comprise a user-configurable day, a user-configurable time, and a user-configurable interval.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the indication of changes to the document is selected from a set including:

no changes, minor changes, and significant changes.

13. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising including, in the electronic mail message, an indication of a time at which the most recent change was made to the document.

14. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising including, in the electronic mail message, annotations that have been made to the document in the time since the user was last notified of changes to the document.

15. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

identify a plurality of annotations that have been made to a document;

generate an abstract that summarizes the plurality of annotations; and

send, to a user, an electronic mail message including the plurality of annotations and the abstract.

16. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the abstract indicates a number of annotations that have been made to the document.

17. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the plurality of annotations further include annotations that have been made to a plurality of additional documents.

18. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 17, wherein the abstract indicates a number of annotations that have been made to the document as well as a number of annotations that have been made to each of the plurality of additional documents.

19. A method comprising:

receiving a request for a user to be notified of replies by other users to a document annotation entered by the user;

monitoring annotating of the document to determine when a reply to the document annotation is entered by one of the other users; and

sending, to the user, a notification that the reply has been entered.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein receiving the request comprises receiving a request to be notified of replies by a particular one or more of the other users, and wherein monitoring annotating of the document comprises monitoring annotating of the document to determine when a reply to the document annotation is entered by at least one of the particular one or more other users.

21. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

receive a user request to receive notification of one or more annotations to a document in response to one or more of a plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied; and

send, in response to one or more of the plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied, an electronic mail message to the user, wherein the electronic mail message includes the one or more annotations.

22. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 21, wherein a first of the plurality of user-specified conditions comprises a time interval elapsing, and wherein a second of the user-specified conditions comprises an amount of activity regarding the document exceeding a threshold.

23. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the amount of activity exceeding the threshold comprises a number of new annotations on the document exceeding the threshold.

24. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the amount of activity exceeding the threshold comprises a number of new replies to annotations on the document exceeding the threshold.

25. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the amount of activity exceeding the threshold comprises a number of new users annotating the document exceeding the threshold.

26. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the amount of activity exceeding the threshold comprises a number of different users annotating the document exceeding the threshold.

27. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 22, wherein the amount of activity is relative to a normal amount of activity around the document.

28. A system comprising:

a database configured to store information regarding activity on a plurality of documents; and

a monitoring module configured to;

identify, for each of the plurality of documents, one or more annotations that have been made to the document,

include information regarding the annotations that have been made to the plurality of documents in a single electronic mail message,

send the single electronic mail message to a user that has subscribed to annotation notification for the plurality of documents,

receive a user request to receive notification of one or more annotations to the plurality of documents in response to one or more of a plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied,

send, in response to one or more of the plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied, the single electronic mail message to the user,

receive a request for the user to receive, at particular times, notification of changes to one of the plurality of documents,

monitor activity on the one of the plurality of documents,

include, in the single electronic mail message, an indication of changes to the one of the plurality of documents in the time since the user was last notified of changes to the one of the plurality of documents,

generate an abstract that summarizes the annotations that have been made to the plurality of documents,

include the abstract in the single electronic mail message,

receive a request for the user to be notified of replies by other users to a document annotation entered by the user,

monitor annotating of the document to determine when a reply to the document annotation is entered by one of the other users, and

send, to the user, a notification that the reply has been entered.

29. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions to display peripheral awareness notifications to a user that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

receive information describing annotations that have been made to a document; and

display the information in an annotation ticket within a persistent window rendered on a display device.

30. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to receive additional information describing annotations that have been made to another document, and further cause the one or more processors to display both the information and the additional information in the annotation ticket.

31. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the information comprises a total number of annotations that have been made to the document and a number of new annotations that have been made to the document.

32. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 31, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to receive, from the user, a selection of one or more parameters to be used to determine the number of new annotations.

33. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 31, wherein an annotation is new if the annotation has been added since the user last accessed the document.

34. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 31, wherein an annotation is new if the annotation has been added within a time interval specified by the user.

35. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to display a tooltip window associated with the annotation ticket, wherein the tooltip window includes additional information for the annotation.

36. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 35, wherein the additional information for the annotation comprises an author of the annotation.

37. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 35, wherein the additional information for the annotation comprises the content of the annotation.

38. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 35, wherein the additional information for the annotation comprises a subject of the annotation.

39. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 35, wherein the additional information for the annotation comprises a date and a time the annotation was made.

40. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to receive information describing annotations comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to receive information describing annotations that have been made to a plurality of portions of the document, and wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to display the information comprise instructions that cause the one or more processors to display a different annotation ticket for each of the plurality of portions of the document.

41. A method comprising:

receiving information regarding annotations that have been made to a document;

displaying a subset of the information in an annotation ticket within a persistent window rendered on a display device; and

displaying the information in a tooltip window associated with the annotation ticket.

42. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the subset of the information comprises a total number of annotations that have been made to the document and a number of new annotations that have been made to the document.

43. A method as recited in claim 41, further comprising receiving information regarding annotations that have been made to a plurality of additional documents, and wherein displaying the information in the tooltip window comprises displaying the information for the document as well as the plurality of additional documents in the tooltip window.

44. A method as recited in claim 43, wherein the information includes an abstract that summarizes the plurality of annotations.

45. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the information includes information about a base annotation and a reply annotation in reply to the base annotation, and wherein displaying the information in the tooltip window comprises displaying the information about the reply annotation offset from the base annotation.

46. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the information includes a link to a location in the document to which the annotation has been made.

47. A method comprising:

receiving, from a user, a selection of a role corresponding to the user;

identifying a set of notification parameters associated with the role; and

notifying the user of activity on a document in accordance with the set of notification parameters.

48. A method as recited in claim 47, wherein the set of notification parameters include a parameter identifying whether the user is to be notified of activity on the document by an electronic mail notification or a peripheral awareness notification.

49. A method as recited in claim 47, wherein the set of notification parameters include a parameter identifying whether the user is to receive an abstract summarizing annotations on the document.

50. A method as recited in claim 47, wherein the set of notification parameters include a parameter identifying how frequently the user is to be notified of annotations added to the document.

51. A method as recited in claim 47, wherein the set of notification parameters associated with the role are user-defined.

52. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

receive, from a user, a request to subscribe to activity regarding a document;

receive, from the user, an indication of another document;

identify a set of notification parameters associated with the other document;

associate the set of notification parameters with the user for the document; and

notify the user of activity on the document in accordance with the set of notification parameters.

53. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 52, wherein the set of notification parameters include a parameter identifying whether the user is to be notified of activity on the document by an electronic mail notification or a peripheral awareness notification.

54. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 52, wherein the set of notification parameters include a parameter identifying whether the user is to receive an abstract summarizing annotations on the document.

55. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 52, wherein the set of notification parameters include a parameter identifying how frequently the user is to be notified of annotations added to the document.

56. A system comprising:

a database configured to store information regarding activity on a plurality of documents; and

a monitoring module configured to notify a user of activity on one or more of the plurality of documents in accordance with a subscription to notifications received from the user, the subscription indicating whether electronic mail notifications are to be used and whether peripheral awareness notifications are to be used.

57. A system as recited in claim 56, wherein the monitoring module is further configured to:

identify, for each of the plurality of documents, one or more annotations that have been made to the document,

include information regarding the annotations that have been made to the plurality of documents in a single electronic mail message,

send the single electronic mail message to the user if the user has subscribed to annotation notification for the plurality of documents,

receive a user request to receive notification of one or more annotations to the plurality of documents in response to one or more of a plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied,

send, in response to one or more of the plurality of user-specified conditions being satisfied, the single electronic mail message to the user,

receive a request for the user to receive, at particular times, notification of changes to one of the plurality of documents,

monitor activity on the one of the plurality of documents,

include, in the single electronic mail message, an indication of changes to the one of the plurality of documents in the time since the user was last notified of changes to the one of the plurality of documents,

generate an abstract that summarizes the annotations that have been made to the plurality of documents,

include the abstract in the single electronic mail message,

receive a request for the user to be notified of replies by other users to a document annotation entered by the user,

monitor annotating of the document to determine when a reply to the document annotation is entered by one of the other users, and

send, to the user, a notification that the reply has been entered.

58. A system as recited in claim 56, wherein the monitoring module is further configured to:

receive, from the user, a selection of a role corresponding to the user and regarding one of the plurality of documents;

identify a set of notification parameters associated with the role; and

notify the user of activity on the one of the plurality of documents in accordance with the set of notification parameters.

59. A system as recited in claim 56, wherein the monitoring module is further configured to:

receive, from the user, an indication of one of the plurality of documents an indication of another of the plurality of documents;

identify a set of notification parameters associated with the other document;

associate the set of notification parameters with the user for the one document; and

notify the user of activity on the one document in accordance with the set of notification parameters.

60. A system as recited in claim 56, wherein the monitoring module is further configured to send, to a computing device, information describing annotations that have been made to a document in order for an annotation ticket to be displayed within a persistent window on a display of the computing device.

61. A system as recited in claim 56, wherein the monitoring module is further configured to send, to a computing device, information regarding annotations that have been made to a document in order for an annotation ticket and an annotation tooltip window to be displayed within a persistent window on a display of the computing device, wherein the annotation ticket includes a subset of the information and wherein the tooltip window includes the information.