Hierarchical Events

• US 20080141145A1
• Filed: 11/23/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dan Klausmeier
• Original Assignee: Skadool, Inc.
• Inventors: Klausmeier, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,578,301 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Systems and methods for the organization of hierarchical events are disclosed. A parent event in a first calendar application workspace classifies a hierarchy of events. A child event child event corresponds to a hierarchy of events. Identification of the parent event and a new child event results in the display of the new child event in a second calendar application workspace, the new child event being a scheduled event in the hierarchy of events that does not indicate a calendaring conflict with the parent event. A collaborative organization environment for discussion concerning the new child event may be provided.

Claims

1. A system for organization of hierarchical events, the system comprising:

a first computing sub-system configured to generate a parent event classifying a hierarchy of events, the first computing sub-system associated with a planner of the parent event;

a second computing sub-system configured to generate a new child event corresponding to the hierarchy of events, the second computing sub-system associated with an invitee to at least one event from the hierarchy of events; and

a server configured to generate information related to the display of the new child event in a calendar application displayed at the computing sub-systems associated with the planner and the invitee.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to host a collaborative organization environment for a discussion concerning the parent event and the new child event.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the discussion includes feedback generated by at least one of the computing sub-systems associated with the planner and the invitee.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the new child event is a scheduled event in the hierarchy of events and does not indicate a calendaring conflict with the parent event.

5. A method for organization of hierarchical events, the method comprising:

receiving an identification of a parent event in a first calendar application workspace, the parent event classifying a hierarchy of events;

receiving an identification of a new child event, wherein the new child event corresponds to the hierarchy of events; and

displaying the new child event in a second calendar application workspace, wherein the new child event is a scheduled event in the hierarchy of events and does not indicate a calendaring conflict with the parent event.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising hosting a collaborative organization environment for a discussion concerning the new child event.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the second calendar application workspace displays only child event and associated siblings.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the first calendar application workspace and the second calendar application workspace are the same workspace but display a different set of events based on the identification of a current level of the event hierarchy.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein identification of the parent event in the first calendar application workspace results in the display of a workspace dedicated to the hierarchy of events.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the hierarchy of events includes the new child event.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the second calendar application workspace is a sub-set of the first calendar application workspace.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the first calendar application workspace is independent of the second calendar application workspace.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first calendar application workspace is displayed independent of the second calendar application workspace.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein the new child event includes a time of day interval for at least one day of the week within a range of dates defined by a starting date and an ending date of the parent event.

15. The method of claim 6, wherein the discussion concerning the new child event occurs amongst invited participants.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the discussion concerning the new child event occurs through an instant messenger application.

17. The method of claim 6, wherein the discussion concerning the new child event occurs through a native messaging application.

18. The method of claim 6, wherein the discussion concerning the new child event occurs though a message board.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the discussion concerning the new child event includes polling amongst invited participants.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the invited participants for the new child event differ from the invited participants for a sibling event to the new child event.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the invited participants for the new child event differ from the invited participants for the parent event.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein a participant to the discussion may create a new child event.

23. The method of claim 6, wherein an entity identifying the parent event has been granted access to the collaborative organization environment by the owner of the parent event.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the entity identifying the parent event has been granted access to the collaborative calendar environment through the use of a keyed-URL.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the entity identifying the parent event has been granted access to the collaborative calendar environment through the use of a password.

26. The method of claim 5, wherein availability of an individual at a given level in the hierarchy of events is determined by time reservations of all events for the individual based on the hierarchical relationship of all the events relative to the given level of the hierarchy.

27. The method of claim 5, wherein availability of a group of individuals at a given level in a hierarchy of events for each individual is determined by time reservations of all events for each of the individuals from the group of individuals based on the hierarchical relationship of each of the events for all of the individuals relative to the given level of the hierarchy.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising displaying the availability of the individual at the given level in the hierarchy of events.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising displaying the availability of the group of individuals at the given level in the hierarchy of events.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the time reservations of ancestor events are excluded from the determination of the availability of the individual.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising displaying the availability of the individual at the given level in the hierarchy of events, wherein displaying the availability of the individual includes overlaying time reservations.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the time reservations are semi-transparent.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the darkness of the overlaid time reservations indicate the severity of an overbooking of the individual.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the color of the overlaid time reservations indicate the severity of an overbooking of the individual.

35. The method of claim 27, wherein the time reservations of ancestor events for the given level in the hierarchy of events for each individual are excluded from the determination of the availability of each individual from the group of individuals.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising displaying the collective availability of the group of individuals at the given level in the hierarchy of events.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein displaying the collective availability of the group of individuals includes overlaying time reservations.

38. The method of claim 5, further comprising displaying a map corresponding to a location of one or more events from the hierarchy of events.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the map is configured for zooming in on a particular region of the map.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the map is configured for panning to a particular region of the map.

41. The method of claim 38, further comprising displaying a list of the one or more events displayed on the map.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the map navigates to an event selected from the list of one or more events.

43. The method of claim 38, wherein selection of an event displayed on the map allows for editing of details corresponding to the event.

44. The method of claim 38, wherein the one or more events from the hierarchy of events displayed on the map are all child events of the same parent.

45. A computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for organization of hierarchical events, the method comprising:

receiving an identification of a parent event in a first calendar application workspace, the parent event classifying a hierarchy of events;

receiving an identification of a new child event, wherein the new child event corresponds to the hierarchy of events; and

displaying the new child event in a second calendar application workspace, wherein the new child event is a scheduled event in the hierarchy of events and does not indicate a calendaring conflict with the parent event.

46. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 45, the program being further executable by the processor to host a collaborative organization environment for a discussion concerning the new child event.