System and method for extensible computer assisted collaboration

• US 20060242236A1
• Filed: 04/22/2005
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Singhal, Sandeep K., Manion, Todd R., Thaler, David G., Sidhu, Gursharan S., Crevier, Daniel W., Gupta, Rohit
• Application Number:
  US11/113,218
• Publication Number:
  US 20060242236A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A collaborative services platform may include a connectivity service, an activity service and a contact management service. The connectivity service may provide communicative connectivity between users of the collaborative services platform. The activity service may provide one or more collaborative activities supporting various modes of communication. The contact management service may maintain contact information for each of the users of the collaborative service platform. It may be that not every user is capable of participating in every collaborative activity. The contact information maintained by the contact management service may indicate the collaborative activities in which each user is capable of participating. A set of programmatic objects utilized to implement the collaborative services platform may include contact objects, conference objects, MeContact objects, endpoint objects, published objects and presence objects. The presence object may represent a presence of a particular user in a networked computing environment and may reference multiple collaborative endpoints.

Claims

1. A computerized system for collaboration, comprising:

a connectivity service configured to, at least, provide communicative connectivity between a plurality of users of a collaborative services platform;

an activity service configured to, at least, provide at least one collaborative activity in which at least some of the plurality of users are capable of participating; and

a contact management service configured to, at least, maintain contact information for each of the plurality of users, the contact information comprising an indication of collaborative activities in which the user is capable of participating.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a publication service configured to, at least:

accept subscriptions to at least some of the contact information maintained by the contact management service; and

notify subscribers of changes to the contact information.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a signaling service configured to, at least:

coordinate verification that at least two of the plurality of users of the collaborative services platform are capable of participating in said at least one collaborative activity; and

coordinate establishment of a collaborative conference between said at least two of the plurality of users, the collaborative conference comprising said at least one collaborative activity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact management service comprises a contact location service configured to, at least, determine a location for any of the plurality of users of the collaborative services platform.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the connectivity service, the activity service, and the contact management service are incorporated into a single executable module.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein maintaining contact information for each of the plurality of users comprises maintaining a contact programmatic object for each of the plurality of users, the contact programmatic object comprising an indication as to whether the associated user is a privileged contact of another user.

10. The medium of claim 1, wherein the application programming interface of the MeContact programmatic object further comprises:

an authorized subscribers element enabling access to ones of said at least one contact programmatic object associated with contacts that are authorized to subscribe to data published by the further user represented by the MeContact programmatic object; and

an active subscribers element enabling access to ones of said at least one contact programmatic object associated with contacts that are subscribed to data published by the further user represented by the MeContact programmatic object.

11. The medium of claim 1, wherein the application programming interface of the MeContact programmatic object further comprises:

a find capabilities by type element enabling a query of the networked computing environment presence of said further user for capabilities of a specified type; and

a find published objects by type element enabling a query of the networked computing environment presence of said further user for published objects of a specified type.

12. The medium of claim 1, wherein each conference programmatic object references at least one activity programmatic object representing at least one collaborative activity in which at least some of the plurality of users of the collaborative services platform are capable of participating.

13. The medium of claim 1, wherein each contact programmatic object references a presence programmatic object representing a networked computing environment presence of the user of the collaborative services platform associated with the contact programmatic object.

7. A computer readable medium having thereon a set of computer-executable programmatic objects for collaboration, comprising:

at least one contact programmatic object representing at least one user of a collaborative services platform;

at least one conference programmatic object representing at least one collaborative conference in which a plurality of users of the collaborative services platform are capable of participating; and

a MeContact programmatic object representing a further user of the collaborative services platform, the MeContact programmatic object referencing, at least;

at least one of said at least one contact programmatic object; and

at least one of said at least one conference programmatic object.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein the MeContact programmatic object comprises an application programming interface, the application programming interface comprising:

a contacts element enabling access to the referenced at least one contact programmatic object; and

a conferences element enabling access to the referenced at least one conferences object programmatic object.

9. The medium of claim 8, wherein the application programming interface of the MeContact programmatic object further comprises a buddies element enabling access to ones of said at least one contact programmatic object associated with privileged contacts of the further user represented by the MeContact programmatic object.

14. A computer readable medium having thereon a set of computer-executable programmatic objects for collaboration, comprising:

at least one endpoint programmatic object representing at least one networked computing environment location;

at least one published object programmatic object representing data published to users of a collaborative services platform; and

a presence programmatic object representing a networked computing environment presence of a user of the collaborative services platform, the presence programmatic object referencing, at least;

at least one of said at least one endpoint programmatic object; and

at least one of said at least one published object programmatic object.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the presence programmatic object comprises an application programming interface, the application programming interface comprising:

an endpoints element enabling access to the referenced at least one endpoint programmatic object; and

a published objects element enabling access to the referenced at least one published object programmatic object.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the application programming interface of the presence programmatic object further comprises an aggregate status element enabling access to an aggregate presence status determined with respect to the set of endpoints represented by the referenced at least one endpoint programmatic object.

17. The medium of claim 15, wherein the application programming interface of the presence programmatic object further comprises an aggregate capabilities element enabling access to a set of aggregate capabilities determined with respect to the set of endpoints represented by the referenced at least one endpoint programmatic object.

18. The medium of claim 15, wherein the application programming interface of the presence programmatic object further comprises:

an invite to new activity element enabling the user of the collaborative services platform associated with the presence programmatic object to be invited to participate in a new collaborative activity; and

an invite to existing activity element enabling the user to be invited to participate in an existing collaborative activity.

19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the application programming interface of the presence programmatic object further comprises:

a find capabilities by type element enabling a query of the networked computing environment presence of the user for capabilities of a specified type; and

a find published objects by type element enabling a query of the networked computing environment presence of the user for published objects of a specified type.

20. The medium of claim 14, further comprising a MeContact programmatic object representing the user of the collaborative services platform.