Methods and systems for collaborative whiteboarding and content management

• US 20040158495A1
• Filed: 01/08/2004
• Published: 08/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Gennaro, Norman, Patel, Umesh
• Granted Patent: US 7,681,136 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Described herein is a collaborative and Web-based whiteboarding tool for creating, collecting, storing, managing and performing searches on graphical customer information and information related thereto. When implementing the present invention, the company retains possession of and control over the sales-related diagrams generated by its sales force. Participants in a collaborative Web session are provided with one or more palettes of diagram primitives, which reduce the whiteboarding (diagram) task to an easily mastered series of object drag-and-drops, line connections, and text blurbs. The diagrams, as well as the diagram primitives (including, for example, icons, diagrams and portions thereof) are stored in a selectably accessible database. In addition, the diagram primitives may have fully searchable information associated therewith, in the form of metadata or tags, for example.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of conducting a collaborative web-based whiteboarding session, comprising the steps of:

establishing a selectively accessible web page defining a whiteboard area and a palette area, the palette area including a plurality of selectable palettes, each of the palettes including representations of a plurality of predefined diagram primitives that are each configured to be selected, dragged and dropped from the palette area into the whiteboard area by users having accessed the web page, each of the drawing primitives including an information tag associated therewith;

enabling a sales representative and a customer to separately or simultaneously access the established web page;

collaboratively creating a diagram by the sales representative and/or the customer selecting diagram primitives from the palette area dragging and dropping the selected diagram primitives into the whiteboard area;

storing the created diagram in a selectively accessible database controlled by an employer of the sales representative, and

associating the information tags of the selected diagram primitives with the created diagram and storing the associated information tags in the database.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising a step of retrieving a diagram stored in the database by carrying out a search of the information tags stored in the database.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising a step of the sales representative and the customer carrying out a voice conversation during the collaborative diagram creating step.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the step of logging an activity of the customer on the selectively accessible web page.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the logging step logs which drawing primitives the customer has selected for inclusion in the created diagram.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the logging step logs a time the customer spends on the selectively accessible web page.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the logging step logs any diagram created by the customer.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the storing step stores the created diagram in such a manner that neither the customer nor the sales representative may delete the created drawing without permission from the employer of the sales representative.

9. A software application configured to enable a sales representative at a first computer and a customer at a second computer to collaboratively create and edit a diagram over a network linking the first and second computers, and comprising, stored on a computer-readable medium:

code configured to establish a selectively accessible web page defining a whiteboard area and a palette area, the palette area including a plurality of selectable palettes, each of the palettes including representations of a plurality of predefined diagram primitives that are each configured to be selected, dragged and dropped from the palette area into the whiteboard area by users having accessed the web page, each of the drawing primitives including an information tag associated therewith;

code configured to enable the sales representative and the customer to separately or simultaneously access the established web page;

code configured to enable a collaborative creation of a diagram by the sales representative and/or the customer selecting diagram primitives from the palette area dragging and dropping the selected diagram primitives into the whiteboard area;

code configured to store the created diagram in a selectively accessible database controlled by an employer of the sales representative, and

code configured to associate the information tags of the selected diagram primitives with the created diagram and to store the associated information tags in the database.

10. The software application of claim 9, further comprising code configured to retrieving a diagram stored in the database by carrying out a search on the information tags stored in the database.

11. The software application of claim 9, further comprising code configured to enable the sales representative and the customer to carry out a voice conversation during the collaborative diagram creating step.

12. The software application of claim 9, further comprising code configured to log an activity of the customer on the selectively accessible web page.

13. The software application of claim 12, wherein the activity logging code is configured to log which drawing primitives the customer has selected for inclusion in the created diagram.

14. The software application of claim 12, wherein the activity logging code is configured to log a time the customer spends on the selectively accessible web page.

15. The software application of claim 12, wherein the activity logging code is configured to log any diagram created by the customer.

16. The software application of claim 9, wherein the diagram storing code is configured to store the created diagram in such a manner that neither the customer nor the sales representative may delete the created drawing without permission from the employer of the sales representative.