Systems and Methods to Manage Privilege to Speak

• US 20070201659A1
• Filed: 04/03/2007
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: HIRSON, Ron, FABER, Scott, ALTBERG, Ebbe, VAN DER LINDEN, Sean, MANCA, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,681,778 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/201.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42008 Systems for anonymous communication between parties, e.g. by use of disposal contact identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/428 Arrangements for placing incoming calls on hold

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses to prioritize requests for speaking privilege in a communication session. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving from an audience one or more bids for privilege to speak in a communication session; selecting one or more speakers from the audience based at least in part on the one or more bids; receiving voice communications from the one or more speakers; and transmitting the voice communications to the audience in the communication session.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving from an audience one or more bids for privilege to speak in a communication session;

selecting one or more speakers from the audience based at least in part on the one or more bids;

receiving voice communications from the one or more speakers; and

transmitting the voice communications to the audience in the communication session.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the selecting of the one or more speakers, providing one or more communication connections to the one or more speakers to receive the voice communications.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the one or more communication connections comprises:

calling back a speaker at a telephone number provided by the speaker.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more communication connections are at least partially via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

5. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the one or more communication connections comprises:

a connection provider establishing a first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call with a telecommunication carrier using a telephone number provided by the speaker, the telecommunication carrier to bridge the first VoIP call to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to the speaker.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mixing the voice communications received from the one or more speakers with an audio stream for transmission to the audience.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the voice communications are transmitted to the audience substantially in real time as the voice communications are received from the one or more speakers.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing one or more communication connections to the one or more speakers;

wherein the one or more bids are received from the one or more communication connections.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more bids are received as audio signals transmitted from the one or more speakers over the one or more communication connections.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the privilege to speak is for a pre-determined period of time in the communication session.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a starting time of the pre-determined period of time is not known a priori to the audience.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing a starting time of the pre-determined period to the audience to indicate an end of auction of the privilege to speak.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the auction is conducted in a time period after an opportunity to speak is available.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

starting an auction of the privilege to speak prior to an opportunity to speak is available.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the auction is closed in response to the opportunity to speak.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

charging the one or more speakers according to the one or more bids in response to the selecting of the one or more speakers.

17. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a fee charged to a speaker based on a price bid of a next highest bid below a bid of the speaker;

wherein the fee charged to the speaker is one increment above the next highest bid below the bid of the speaker.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice communications are delivered to the audience via a broadcasting media;

and the voice communications are received from telephonic connections.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice communications are delivered to the audience via phone connections;

and the voice communications are received from a selected subset of the phone connections.

20. A machine readable medium containing instructions which when executed on a data processing system cause the system to perform a method, comprising:

receiving from an audience one or more bids for privilege to speak in a communication session;

selecting one or more speakers from the audience based at least in part on the one or more bids;

receiving voice communications from the one or more speakers; and

transmitting the voice communications to the audience in the communication session.

21. A data processing system, comprising:

means for receiving from an audience one or more bids for privilege to speak in a communication session;

means for selecting one or more speakers from the audience based at least in part on the one or more bids;

means for receiving voice communications from the one or more speakers; and

means for transmitting the voice communications to the audience in the communication session.