Intelligent Free-Time Search

• US 20080021760A1
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Doss, J., Pozefsky, Diane, Sundstrom, Robert, Kovales, Renee
• Granted Patent: US 7,752,066 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for performing free-time searches that exploit information of the type used with electronic calendars. By leveraging advanced calendaring system information and using location, other context information such as corporate policy, legal constraints, and technology constraints, and user-specific preferences to provide a complete picture of a person'"'"'s availability, the functionality (and therefore the value) of scheduling systems in increased, resulting in an ability to schedule meetings with more accuracy and less rework. Various allowable participation types for meeting invitees may be specified, and each invitee'"'"'s availability is determined accordingly. Location-sensitive travel times (including optional user-specific travel time adjustments) are used in preferred embodiments when in-person participation is required.

Claims

1. A method of programmatically scheduling a meeting, comprising steps of:

evaluating, for each invitee of the meeting, calendar data of an electronic calendar to determine each invitee'"'"'s availability for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types; and

scheduling the meeting at a time and location where the invitees are determined to be available for the allowable participation types.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluating step further comprises applying a particular invitee'"'"'s user-specific preferences to determine whether the particular invitee is available for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types for this particular invitee.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluating step further comprises applying corporate policy considerations to determine whether a particular invitee is available for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types for this particular invitee.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of applying corporate policy considerations to determine whether a particular meeting location is available for scheduling the meeting.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each meeting invitee may have a plurality of allowable participation types and wherein the scheduling step further comprises scheduling the meeting at a time and location where each invitee is determined to be available for at least one of his/her allowable participation types.

6. A computer-implemented system for programmatically scheduling a meeting, comprising a processor and a memory coupled thereto, the memory storing instructions configured to:

evaluate, for each invitee of the meeting, calendar data of an electronic calendar to determine each invitee'"'"'s availability for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types; and

schedule the meeting at a time and location where the invitees are determined to be available for the allowable participation types.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the instructions configured to evaluate further comprise instructions configured to apply a particular invitee'"'"'s user-specific preferences to determine whether the particular invitee is available for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types for this particular invitee.

8. The system according to claim 6, wherein the instructions configured to evaluate further comprise instructions configured to apply corporate policy considerations to determine whether a particular invitee is available for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types for this particular invitee.

9. The system according to claim 6, further comprising instructions configured to apply corporate policy considerations to determine whether a particular meeting location is available for scheduling the meeting.

10. The system according to claim 6, wherein each meeting invitee may have a plurality of allowable participation types and wherein the instructions configured to schedule further comprise instructions configured to schedule the meeting at a time and location where each invitee is determined to be available for at least one of his/her allowable participation types.

11. A computer program product for scheduling a meeting, the computer program product comprising at least one computer-usable storage media storing computer-usable program code, wherein the computer-usable program code, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to:

evaluate, for each invitee of the meeting, calendar data of an electronic calendar to determine each invitee'"'"'s availability for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types; and

schedule the meeting at a time and location where the invitees are determined to be available for the allowable participation types.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the computer-usable program code that causes the computer to evaluate further comprises computer-usable program code that causes the computer to apply a particular invitee'"'"'s user-specific preferences to determine whether the particular invitee is available for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types for this particular invitee.

13. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the computer-usable program code that causes the computer to evaluate further comprises computer-usable program code that causes the computer to apply corporate policy considerations to determine whether a particular invitee is available for attending the meeting in one or more allowable participation types for this particular invitee.

14. The computer program product according to claim 11, further comprising computer-usable program code that causes the computer to apply corporate policy considerations to determine whether a particular meeting location is available for scheduling the meeting.

15. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein each meeting invitee may have a plurality of allowable participation types and wherein the computer-usable program code that causes the computer to schedule further comprises computer-usable program code that causes the computer to schedule the meeting at a time and location where each invitee is determined to be available for at least one of his/her allowable participation types.