Additive and substractive messaging

• US 20050010645A1
• Filed: 06/26/2003
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Arshi, Taymoor, Downs, Terry, Pappas, Allison
• Application Number:
  US10/608,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20050010645A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Additive and subtractive message is performed based in least in part on an intersection of various distribution lists to determine, if only temporarily, a new distribution list for a message. A particular distribution list may respectively be combined or intersected with an additive or a subtractive distribution list. Thus, for example, an e-mail message may be addressed to a distribution list for all employees, but where a subtractive list is applied to remove certain employees from receiving the e-mail message. The distribution list for all employees need not be altered.

Claims

1. An electronic-mail (e-mail) method for distributing an e-mail message to selected ones of a pre-determined distribution list, comprising:

addressing the e-mail message to the pre-determined distribution list; and

selecting a subtractive list, which when applied to the pre-determined distribution list, determines a modified distribution list comprising members of the pre-determined distribution list not present in the subtractive list.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the e-mail message to an e-mail server operable to distribute the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the e-mail server is further operable to apply the subtractive list to the pre-determined distribution list to determine the modified distribution list.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

applying the subtractive list to the pre-determined distribution list to determine the modified distribution list; and

distributing the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the e-mail message is distributed via an e-mail server, the method further comprising:

submitting at least an indicator of the pre-determined distribution list and of the subtractive list to the e-mail server so that the e-mail server may determine the modified distribution list; and

receiving from the e-mail server data to facilitate distributing the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving from the e-mail server an indicator of the modified distribution list; and

automatically re-addressing the e-mail message to indicator of the modified distribution list, wherein the e-mail server is operable to distribute the e-mail message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the distribution list is a selected one of:

a manually created list, and an automatically generated list identifying members sharing a common characteristic.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing at least an identifier for the pre-determined distribution list and of the subtractive list to a list server operable to apply the subtraction list to the pre-determined distribution list to determine the modified distribution list; and

receiving data from the list server to facilitate performing said distributing the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the distribution server includes an e-mail server functionality.

10. An electronic-mail (e-mail) method for distributing an e-mail message to selected ones of a pre-determined distribution list, comprising:

receiving an e-mail message addressed to a first indicator for a pre-determined distribution list;

receiving a second indicator for a subtractive list, which when applied to the pre-determined distribution list, determines a modified distribution list comprising members of the pre-determined distribution list not present in the subtractive list; and

distributing the e-mail message to each member of the modified distribution list.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

first identifying, based at least in part on the first indicator, the members of the pre-determined distribution list;

second identifying, based at least in part on the second indicator, the members of the subtraction list; and

determining the modified distribution list based at least in part on membership of the pre-determined list and the subtraction list.

12. An article comprising a machine-accessible media having associated data for distributing an e-mail message to selected ones of a pre-determined distribution list, wherein the data, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

addressing the e-mail message to the pre-determined distribution list; and

selecting a subtractive list, which when applied to the pre-determined distribution list, determines a modified distribution list comprising members of the pre-determined distribution list not present in the subtractive list.

13. The article of claim 12 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

providing the e-mail message to an e-mail server operable to distribute the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

14. The article of claim 12 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

applying the subtractive list to the pre-determined distribution list to determine the modified distribution list; and

distributing the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

15. The article of claim 12, wherein the e-mail message is distributed via an e-mail server, and wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

submitting at least an indicator of the pre-determined distribution list and of the subtractive list to the e-mail server so that the e-mail server may determine the modified distribution list; and

receiving from the e-mail server data to facilitate distributing the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

16. The article of claim 15 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

receiving an indicator of the modified distribution list; and

automatically re-addressing the e-mail message to indicator of the modified distribution list, wherein the e-mail server is operable to distribute the e-mail message.

17. The article of claim 15 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

providing at least an identifier for the pre-determined distribution list and of the subtractive list to a list server operable to apply the subtraction list to the pre-determined distribution list to determine the modified distribution list; and

receiving data from the list server to facilitate performing said distributing the e-mail message to the modified distribution list.

18. An article comprising a machine-accessible media having associated data for distributing an e-mail message to selected ones of a pre-determined distribution list, wherein the data, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

receiving an e-mail message addressed to a first indicator for a pre-determined distribution list;

receiving a second indicator for a subtractive list, which when applied to the pre-determined distribution list, determines a modified distribution list comprising members of the pre-determined distribution list not present in the subtractive list; and

distributing the e-mail message to each member of the modified distribution list.

19. The article of claim 18 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

first identifying, based at least in part on the first indicator, the members of the pre-determined distribution list;

second identifying, based at least in part on the second indicator, the members of the subtraction list; and

determining the modified distribution list based at least in part on membership of the pre-determined list and the subtraction list.