Secured and filtered personal information publishing

• US 20070130221A1
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Abdo, Ralph, Stillion, Cameron, Wong, Eric, Hatakeda, Darrin, Michel, Theodore
• Granted Patent: US 8,200,699 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Selectively shared and filtered personal information collections are provided. Personal information collections include calendars, task lists, address books, and other collections of information that may be provided by personal information manager (PIM) software. Personal information collections published on a server may be limited on a user-by-user basis as to who may access the collections. Furthermore, collections may be automatically filtered based on a rolling window of dates, reducing file size and maintaining privacy of items outside the rolling window.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for publishing a personal information collection for the benefit of an audience, the method comprising:

receiving a request to publish the personal information collection, wherein the personal information collection comprises a plurality of collection items;

determining whether any changes have been made to the personal information collection since a previous publishing;

responsive to there being changes, comparing a publishable version of the personal information collection to a publishable version of the previous publishing; and

responsive to the two publishable versions being different;

putting the publishable version on a server accessible by the audience; and

providing to the server an indication of the audience authorized to view the publishable version.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the personal information collection comprises a task list having a plurality of tasks.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the personal information collection comprises a calendar having a plurality of events.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the publishable version of the calendar comprises and file formatted using the iCalendar standard.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a pre-set period of time has passed since the previous publishing;

responsive to the pre-set period of time having passed, comparing the publishable version of the personal information collection to the publishable version of the previous publishing; and

responsive to the two publishable versions being different;

putting the publishable version on a server accessible by the audience; and

providing to the server an indication of the audience authorized to view the publishable version.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining a subset of the plurality of collection items fewer in count than the plurality of collection items in the personal information collection; and

creating the publishable version of the personal information collection from the subset of the plurality of collection items.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining the subset of the plurality of collection items based on a range of dates which vary relative to the current date.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of users to be allowed access to the publishable version.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a level of access for each user, wherein each level of access comprises different amounts of detail about collection items.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

sending an email invitation to each of the selected users providing a link to the publishable version.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein comparing a publishable version of the personal information collection to a publishable version of the previous publishing comprises comparing hash values associated with each of the versions.

12. A computer-implemented method for providing a published personal information collection to a remote user, the method comprising:

receiving a publishable version of the personal information collection from a remote publisher;

receiving an indication of an audience authorized to view the publishable version;

receiving a request to access the publishable version from a remote user;

authenticating an identity of the remote user;

determining whether the remote user is a member of the audience authorized to view the publishable version; and

responsive to the remote user being a member of the authorized audience, allowing the remote user to access the publishable version.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein authenticating the identity of the remote user comprises receiving a confirmation of authentication as established by a remote authentication server.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the indication of an audience authorized to view the publishable version comprises a plurality of email addresses.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the personal information collection comprises a calendar having a plurality of events.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the publishable version of the calendar comprises a file formatted using the iCalendar standard.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the personal information collection comprises a task list having a plurality of tasks.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

receiving a request to republish the calendar;

determining whether a change has been made to the calendar by a publisher;

determining whether a day has passed since the calendar was previously published;

responsive to either a change having been made or a day having passed, comparing a to-be-published calendar to a previously published calendar; and

responsive to the to-be-published calendar and the previously published calendar being different, uploading the to-be-published calendar to the remote server.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

receiving a request to filter events in the calendar to display only events occurring during a set of business hours; and

filtering the published calendar to include only those events occurring during the set of business hours.

18. A system for securely publishing a calendar, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, storing instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions including steps of;

receiving a request to publish the calendar;

receiving a range of relative dates with which to filter events in a published calendar, the date range being relative to a current date;

receiving a plurality of authorized email addresses;

filtering events in the published calendar based on the range of dates relative to the current date;

uploading the published calendar to a remote server; and

providing the remote server a listing of the plurality of authorized email addresses.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein comparing a to-be-published calendar to a previously published calendar comprises comparing hash values associated with each calendar.