GATHERING AND USING AWARENESS INFORMATION

• US 20080320025A1
• Filed: 06/22/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Devlin, William D., Moromisato, George P., Ozzie, Raymond E., Andrews, Anthony D., Edelstein, Noah B., Parasnis, Abhay V.
• Granted Patent: US 8,954,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

Systems, methods, and user interfaces for gathering and using awareness information with common awareness functionality accessible to multiple applications are disclosed. Such systems, methods, and user interfaces may aggregate awareness information from multiple sources and provide awareness data and other derived information to multiple destinations. In some implementations, such systems and methods may provide additional functionality related to awareness information, such as common user interfaces that display awareness information or mechanisms for determining the relevance of particular pieces of awareness information.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an awareness data gather module configured to;

gather awareness data associated with a user, an application, and a device; and

gather second awareness data associated with a second user, a second application, and a second device wherein the second application is not the same as the application;

an awareness data relevance module configured to;

determine a relevance of the awareness data; and

an awareness data use module configured to;

use the relevance of the awareness data to provide information including at least a portion of the awareness data to a third user.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein a computing device runs executable code associated with the system, and the system can provide awareness functionality to any application running on the computing device that has a capability of accessing an API provided by an application programming interface module associated with the system.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the awareness data use module further comprises:

a user interface module configured to;

provide a user interface to the third user wherein the user interface includes at least the portion of the awareness data and is displayed depending on the relevance of the awareness data.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the awareness data use module further comprises:

an application programming interface module configured to;

provide an API to a third application associated with the third user and wherein the third application may access the awareness data using the API.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the awareness data further comprises:

action information associated with an action taken by the user on the device; and

device information associated with the device.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein the user interface is associated with an operating system shell.

7. The system of claim 3 wherein the user interface comprises an icon that includes a user interface representation of the portion of the awareness data.

8. The system of claim 3 wherein the user interface comprises a notification pane that includes aggregated awareness data comprising the portion of the awareness data and at least a second portion of the second awareness data.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the portion of the awareness data is included in the aggregated awareness data when the relevance of the awareness data is determined to be higher than a threshold.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the notification pane is not displayed to the third user when the awareness data is added to the notification pane, and wherein the third user later displays the notification pane to view the portion of the awareness data.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an application configured to;

display a user interface to the third user wherein the user interface is generated by the application using the awareness data.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the user and third user are the same user.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the determining the relevance further comprises using the awareness data and context data associated with the third user.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the device and the second device are not the same device and wherein the awareness data relevance module is implemented on a third device that is not the same as the device and that is not the same as the second device.

15. A method, comprising:

obtaining change information about a change to first data wherein the change is associated with a first user that uses a first device;

obtaining context information associated with a second user and a second device used by the second user wherein the second user is not the first user; and

determining if the change is relevant to the second user by using the context information and the change information and an awareness data relevance module that is associated with providing awareness functionality to multiple applications.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the context information further comprises an activity being performed by the second user, and the change is determined to be relevant when the activity is related to the change.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the change information further comprises an identification of the first user making the change, and the change is determined to be relevant when the first user is related to the second user.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the change is determined to be relevant when the first data is related to the second user.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the change is determined to be relevant when the second user has shown an interest in a previous change that is similar to the change.

20. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by an awareness system, first awareness data from a first application and second awareness data from a second application, wherein the awareness system executes using an operating system and the awareness system is accessible to any application running on the operating system that has a capability of accessing an API provided by the awareness system;

determining that the first awareness data is relevant to a first entity; and

displaying a user interface that includes information derived from at least a portion of the first awareness data, wherein the user interface is provided by the operating system and the user interface is not provided by an application running on the operating system.