METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSTANT MESSAGE NOTIFICATION AND FORWARDING

• US 20070239830A1
• Filed: 04/05/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kinstler, Sheryl, Walton, Carol Sue, Dunsmoir, John, Barnes, Thomas, Wallace, Elizabeth
• Application Number:
  US11/278,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20070239830A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for receiving an instant message to form a received message. A determination is made as to whether a response to the received message has occurred within a period of time. The received message is selectively forwarding to a set of destinations based on a policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for processing a message, the computer implemented method comprising:

receiving an instant message to form a received message;

determining if a response to the received message has occurred within a period of time; and

selectively forwarding the received message to a set of destinations based on a policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the response is one of a user selection of the received message or a user input of text to respond to the received message.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selectively forwarding step comprises:

sending the message to a selected device specified in the policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the selected device is selected based on an identification of a user originating the received message.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the set of destinations comprises at least one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a pager, and another instant messaging program.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the policy specifies forwarding the message as one of a text message or a voice message to the set of destinations.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selectively forwarding step comprises:

forwarding the received message to the set of destinations if the current time is within a selected time range.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selectively forwarding step comprises:

sending the received message to a selected destination in the set of destinations;

determining whether the received message has been successfully sent to the selected destination;

responsive to an absence of a successful sending of the received message to the selected destination, selecting an unused destination from the set of selected destinations as the selected destination; and

responsive to selecting the unused destination, initiating the sending step.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selectively forwarding step comprises:

sending only a portion of the received message to the set of destinations.

10. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for processing a message, the computer program product comprising;

computer usable code for receiving an instant message to form a received message;

computer usable code for determining if a response to the received message has occurred within a period of time; and

computer usable code for selectively forwarding the received message to a set of destinations based on a policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the response is one of a user selection of the received message or a user input of text to respond to the received message.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer usable program code for selectively forwarding the received message to a set of destinations based on a policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time comprises:

computer usable code for sending the message to a selected device specified in the policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the selected device is selected based on an identification of a user originating the received message.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the set of destinations comprises at least one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a pager, and another instant messaging program.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the policy specifies forwarding the message as one of a text message or a voice message to the set of destinations.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer usable code for selectively forwarding the received message to a set of destinations based on a policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time comprises:

computer usable code for sending the received message to a selected destination in the set of destinations;

computer usable code for determining whether the received message has been successfully sent to the selected destination;

computer usable code for, responsive to an absence of a successful sending of the received message to the selected destination, selecting an unused destination from the set of selected destinations as the selected destination; and

computer usable code for, responsive to selecting the unused destination, initiating the sending step.

17. A data processing system comprising:

a bus;

a communications unit connected to the bus;

a memory connected to the bus, wherein the storage device includes computer usable program code; and

a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the computer usable program code to receive an instant message to form a received message;

determine if a response to the received message has occurred within a period of time; and

select forwarding the received message to a set of destinations based on a policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time.

18. The data processing system of claim 17, wherein the response is one of a user selection of the received message or a user input of text to respond to the received message.

19. The data processing system of claim 17, wherein the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to send the message to a selected device specified in the policy if the response to the received message is absent after the period of time.

20. The data processing system of claim 19, wherein the selected device is selected based on an identification of a user originating the received message.