System and method enabling future messaging directives based on past participation via a history monitor

• US 20050108402A1
• Filed: 11/13/2003
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Colson, James C., Eagle, Brian Lee White
• Granted Patent: US 7,461,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• 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 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

A system and method for controlling the flow of documents by associating Globally Unique Identifiers with each original document, each reply document, each copy document and each forwarded document, such as email messages. Historical analysis is performed on a locally stored history records containing the Globally Unique Identifiers extracted from received documents to determine which recipients are active participants and which are inactive participants, according to user preferences and thresholds. Lists for direct recipients (e.g. “To” list), carbon copy recipients, and blind copy recipients are automatically proposed to a user of a document handling system when authoring a new document, replying to a document, or forwarding a document, according to the results of the historical participation analysis, thereby stemming information flow to participants who are not active in an ad hoc asynchronous conversation.

Claims

1. A method for controlling the flow of exchanged documents comprising the steps of:

receiving a document by a recipient;

extracting and storing a plurality of GUID values associated with said document including a GUID for the document itself (SelfGUID), a GUID indicating a original predecessor document (OriginGUID) to which said received document is related, and a GUID indicating an immediate predecessor parent document (ParentGUID) to said received document;

composing a new document related to said received document;

performing historical participation analysis using said stored GUID values according to a set of user preferences to classify one or more potential recipients; and

proposing at least one list of recipients of said new document according to said potential recipient classifications.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of extracting a plurality of GUID values from a received message comprises extracting a set of meta data values.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of proposing a list of recipients comprises a step selected from the group of proposing a “

To”

list of addressees, proposing a “

Carbon Copy”

list of addressees, and proposing a “

Blind Copy”

list addressees.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of performing historical participating analysis comprises performing an analysis selected from the group of:

(a) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed a document within a specified period of time;

(b) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said potential recipient has not contributed a document within a specified recent number of messages;

(c) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said potential recipient does not belong to a top portion of a group of potential recipients when rank ordered by number of documents contributed within a specified period of time;

(d) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed a specified threshold number of documents within a specified time period; and

(e) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed documents at a rate favorably comparable to an determined pace for an entire group of potential recipients.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising sending a notice to recipients who have been classified as inactive participants.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of composing a new document comprises composing a reply message.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of composing a new document comprises composing a forwarded message.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of proposing at least one list of recipients comprises a step selected from the group of:

(a) replying to all document contributors and document recipients within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(b) replying to document contributors and document recipients within an entire conversation tree;

(c) replying to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

active participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(d) replying only to document contributors and document recipients as “

passive participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(e) replying only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

passive participants”

within an entire tree of conversation;

(f) forwarding to all document contributors and document recipients within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(g) forwarding to all document contributors and document recipients within an entire conversation tree;

(i) forwarding only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

active participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(j) forwarding only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

passive participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree; and

(k) forwarding only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

passive participants”

within an entire tree of conversation.

9. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

associating an OriginGUID value with said new document having a value equal to the OriginGUID value of said received document;

associating a ParentGUID value with said new document having a value equal to the SelfGUID of said received document; and

associating a new and unique SelfGUID value with said new document.

10. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising composing a new document with new context by performing the steps of:

associating a null OriginGUID value and null ParentGUID value with said new document; and

associating a new and unique SelfGUID value with said new document.

11. A computer readable medium encoded with software for controlling the flow of exchanged documents, said software performing the steps of:

receiving a document by a recipient;

extracting and storing a plurality of GUID values associated with said document including a GUID for the document itself (SelfGUID), a GUID indicating a original predecessor document (OriginGUID) to which said received document is related, and a GUID indicating an immediate predecessor parent document (ParentGUID) to said received document;

composing a new document related to said received document;

performing historical participation analysis using said stored GUID values according to a set of user preferences to classify one or more potential recipients; and

proposing at least one list of recipients of said new document according to said potential recipient classifications.

14. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software for performing historical participating analysis comprises software for performing an analysis selected from the group of:

(a) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed a document within a specified period of time;

(b) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said potential recipient has not contributed a document within a specified recent number of messages;

(c) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said potential recipient does not belong to a top portion of a group of potential recipients when rank ordered by number of documents contributed within a specified period of time;

(d) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed a specified threshold number of documents within a specified time period; and

(e) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed documents at a rate favorably comparable to an determined pace for an entire group of potential recipients.

15. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software for sending a notice to recipients who have been classified as inactive participants.

16. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software for composing a new document comprises software for composing a reply message.

18. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software for proposing at least one list of recipients comprises software for performing a step selected from the group of:

(a) replying to all document contributors and document recipients within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(b) replying to document contributors and document recipients within an entire conversation tree;

(c) replying to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

active participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(d) replying only to document contributors and document recipients as “

passive participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(e) replying only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

passive participants”

within an entire tree of conversation;

(f) forwarding to all document contributors and document recipients within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(g) forwarding to all document contributors and document recipients within an entire conversation tree;

(i) forwarding only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

active participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(j) forwarding only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

passive participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree; and

(k) forwarding only to document contributors and document recipients classified as “

passive participants”

within an entire tree of conversation.

19. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software further performs the steps of:

associating an OriginGUID value with said new document having a value equal to the OriginGUID value of said received document;

associating a ParentGUID value with said new document having a value equal to the SelfGUID of said received document; and

associating a new and unique SelfGUID value with said new document.

20. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 11 wherein said software for composing a new document with new context by performing the steps of:

associating a null OriginGUID value and null ParentGUID value with said new document; and

associating a new and unique SelfGUID value with said new document.

12. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 111 wherein said software for extracting a plurality of GUID values from a received message comprises software for extracting a set of meta data values.

13. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 111 wherein said software for proposing a list of recipients comprises software for performing a step selected from the group of proposing a “

To”

list of addressees, proposing a “

Carbon Copy”

list of addressees, and proposing a “

Blind Copy”

list addressees.

17. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 111 wherein said software for composing a new document comprises software for composing a forwarded message.

21. A system for controlling the flow of exchanged documents comprising:

a first document having a plurality of associated Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) values including a GUID for the document itself (SelfGUID), a GUID indicating a original predecessor document (OriginGUID) to which said received document is related, and a GUID indicating an immediate predecessor parent document (ParentGUID) to said received document;

a GUID extractor adapted to extract and store said first document GUID values;

a new document composer for creating a document related to said received document;

an historical participation analyzer adapted to consider said stored GUID values and to classify one or more potential recipients according to a set of user preferences; and

a recipient list generator configured to propose at least one list of recipients of said new document according to said potential recipient classifications.

22. The system as set forth in claim 21 wherein said GUID extractor is further adapted to extract a set of meta data values.

23. The system as set forth in claim 21 wherein said recipient list generator is further adapted to propose a list selected from the group of a “

To”

list of addressees, a “

Carbon Copy”

list of addressees, and a “

Blind Copy”

list addressees.

24. The system as set forth in claim 21 wherein said historical participating analyzer is further adapted to perform an analysis selected from the group of:

(a) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed a document within a specified period of time;

(b) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said potential recipient has not contributed a document within a specified recent number of messages;

(c) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said potential recipient does not belong to a top portion of a group of potential recipients when rank ordered by number of documents contributed within a specified period of time;

(d) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed a specified threshold number of documents within a specified time period; and

(e) designating a potential recipient as inactive if said participant has not contributed documents at a rate favorably comparable to an determined pace for an entire group of potential recipients.

25. The system as set forth in claim 21 further comprising a termination notice sender for sending notification to recipients who have been classified as inactive participants.

26. The system as set forth in claim 21 wherein said new document composer is further configured to compose a reply message.

27. The system as set forth in claim 21 wherein said new document composer is further configured to compose a forward message.

28. The system as set forth in claim 21 wherein said recipient list generator is adapted to propose a list to a set of recipients selected from the group of:

(a) all document contributors and document recipients within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(b) all document contributors and document recipients within an entire conversation tree;

(c) all document contributors and document recipients classified as “

active participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree;

(d) only document contributors and document recipients as “

passive participants”

within a current branch of a conversation tree; and

,

(e) only document contributors and document recipients classified as “

passive participants”

within an entire tree of conversation.

29. The system as set forth in claim 21 further comprising:

an OriginGUID value associated with said new document having a value equal to the OriginGUID value of said first document;

a ParentGUID value associated with said new document having a value equal to the SelfGUID of said first document; and

a new and unique SelfGUID value associated with said new document.

30. The system as set forth in claim 21 in which said new document is provided a new context including:

a null OriginGUID value and a null ParentGUID value associated with said new document; and

a new and unique SelfGUID value associated with associated with said new document.