Harnessing information about the timing of a user's client-server interactions to enhance messaging and collaboration services

• US 20040199663A1
• Filed: 06/18/2003
• Published: 10/07/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Apacible, Johnson T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,634,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/404 characterised by control arrangements for compensation, e.g. for backlash, overshoot, tool offset, tool wear, temperature, machine construction errors, load, inertia G05B19/19, G05B19/41 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A system and method is provided to facilitate communication and collaboration by considering the timing of a user'"'"'s activities on one or more clients via accessing, from a centralized server, information about the user'"'"'s client-server interactions. The systems and methods can harness existing protocols and data exchange used in legacy client-server applications for email, making available to one or more client-side message routing applications, information about a user'"'"'s interactions with email across multiple clients. Applications include considering the time since the last client-server interaction to guide decisions about if, when, and how to route messages so as to limit the mobile relay of information a user has already seen, providing information to colleagues about a user'"'"'s current or past “inbox presence,” and forecasting the time until a user will have access to a device or communication channel.

Claims

1. A messaging system, comprising:

an activity component that aggregates presence data for at least one client application and at least one server application; and

a routing component that employs the aggregated presence data to deliver one or more messages to at least one of the client application, the server application, and a mobile device.

2. The system of claim 1, the routing component is employed by at least one of a notification system, a priorities system, the client application, and the server application to facilitate delivery of the messages.

4. The system of claim 1, the messages include at least one of an email, a voice mail, and an instant message.

5. The system of claim 1, the server application is an exchange email server.

6. The system of claim 1, the activity component monitors, records or caches user presence information to identify prospective locations of a user with respect to a message routing system.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a graphical user interface display and controls to enable adjusting of the routing component.

8. The system of claim 1, the activity component monitors or records at least one a message last sent, a sent folder, a computer activity, and a model to determine a user'"'"'s messaging presence.

9. The system of claim 1, the routing component specifies via that mobile messaging should not occur until the messages have not been either present at the client application or at the server for some time that is passed or that will pass.

10. The system of claim 8, the computer activity includes at least one of a scrolling action, a mouse activity, and a keyboard activity.

11. The system of claim 8, the model includes at least one of an inference model, a probability model, and a statistical model that predicts when and/or where the user desires to receive messages.

12. The system of claim 11, the model employs past or current evidence of a user'"'"'s comings and goings that relate to presence of the user.

13. The system of claim 12, the model predicts an amount of time it may take for the user'"'"'s likely return, expected arrival or current availability based upon recent and/or current evidence that the user has been present or away from a location associated with different types of communication channels and availabilities.

14. The system of claim 12, the model predicts notices that relate to the user'"'"'s continued availability given an indication of the user'"'"'s current availability.

15. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for implementing at least one of the activity component and the routing component of claim 1.

3. The system of claim 3, the routing component includes one or more rules for delivering messages between systems.

16. A system that facilitates message routing, comprising:

means for automatically determining a user'"'"'s presence with respect to a server and a client system that direct messages to the user; and

means for routing the messages to the client system when the user is detected to be present at the client system.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for routing the messages to the server when the user is at a desktop system.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising means for routing the messages to a mobile device.

19. A method that facilitates message routing, comprising:

automatically determining a user'"'"'s presence information with respect to a computer;

providing routing protocols to enable one or more messages to be routed to one or more other computers; and

automatically directing the messages to at least one computer based upon the routing protocol and the user'"'"'s determined presence information.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising sharing the user'"'"'s presence information between two or more systems.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising polling for presence information from one machine to another.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising transmitting presence information between machines when presence conditions change.

20. The method of claim 20 further comprising at least one of checking whether the user is currently reading their mail at a remote location, checking where the user has sent mail from, monitoring a keyboard or mouse, and deriving information from evidence of the user'"'"'s current or past presence.

24. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, comprising:

a first data field describing a user'"'"'s presence information;

a second data field describing a routing policy for a message; and

a third data field describing a routing destination for the message.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24, further comprising at least one of an activity field, a time field, and a device field.

26. A method to facilitate communication and collaboration, comprising:

considering the timing of a user'"'"'s activities on one or more clients via accessing a centralized server, information about a user'"'"'s client-server interactions; and

automatically sharing the information about the user'"'"'s client-server interactions across multiple clients to one or more client-side applications.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising employing existing protocols and data exchange for legacy client-server applications for email to support one or more message routing or user activity applications.

28. The method of claim 27, the applications include at least one of:

using a time since a last client-server interaction to guide decisions about if, when, and how to route messages so as to limit a mobile relay of information a user has already observed; and

providing information to colleagues about a user'"'"'s current or past inbox presence, and forecasting the time until a user will have access to a device or communication channel.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising utilizing standard protocols and methods developed for communication between email clients and email servers that is employed for gathering information relating to user presence and availability tracking across multiple clients.

30. The method of claim 29, the information is applied by local software modules that consider local context at a client in decisions to give access to the local context across other clients.

31. The method of claim 30, the information is employed for an identification of time since a last email interaction in order to control routing of email to a mobile device.

32. The method of claim 29, the information is employed to determine information relating to a user'"'"'s activity and presence, on other clients.

33. The method of claim 32, the activity and presence information includes a user'"'"'s likely past, present, and future presence and availability, attentional status or evidence for attentional status, such as head pose and gaze information, and location, based upon making standard calls to an email server.