Collaborative document authoring

• US 20090006936A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Prickril, Greg, Cox, Martin, Parker, Jared
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,952 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Embodiments are provided to enable a collaborative authoring of a document or other data structure. In an embodiment, a system includes a number of components configured to structure a collaborative authoring process. The components of the system can be used to define a number of sections, roles, and other collaboration parameters associated with a collaboration effort. A workspace can be provisioned to allow participants to interact with the document based in part on a number of permissions. Components of the system can be used to communicate a customized document to the participants based in part on an associated role and other collaboration parameters. Other embodiments and collaborative functionality are available.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed, collaborate information by:

using a client to define an assembly workspace including associating one or more users as one or more participants of the assembly workspace, wherein the client is configured to interact with other clients as part of a collaborative authoring effort;

associating an assembly document with the assembly workspace, wherein the assembly document includes a number of sections; and

,

applying a number of constraints to the assembly document, wherein the number of constraints determines which of the one or more participants is permitted to interact with the number of sections of the assembly document.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by using an open XML standard as part of the collaborative authoring effort.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by storing the assembly document in a data store associated with the client, wherein the assembly document is stored as a collection of constituent parts.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by launching a word processing application when a user selects the assembly document, wherein one or more of the number of constraints are applied based in part on an identity of the user.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by notifying each participant of a modification to the assembly document when an associated client is in communication with a computing network.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by updating the assembly document with the modification after notifying a participant of the modification.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by notifying a participant of a modification to the assembly document when an associated client is in communication with a peer-to-peer computing network.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by notifying a participant of a modification to the assembly document when an associated client is in communication with a client/server computing network.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by presenting the assembly document to one of the number of participants based on a workspace identity, workspace role, or an assembly document role.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by using metadata to define the number of constraints to determine which of the one or more participants is permitted to interact with one or more of the number of sections of the assembly document.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by building the assembly document using information associated with a data store and an assembly document object to create authored section content controls and other document parameters.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by using a schema to identify the assembly workspace associated with the assembly document.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, collaborate information by assigning one or more of the number of sections to one or more authors associated with the assembly document.

14. A system configured to provide for the collaboration of information comprising:

a client associated with each user of the system, the client comprising;

an assembly workspace including a sections component and an assembly document representation; and

,

a data store to store information with a number of participants associated with an assembly document, wherein the information is associated with content, state, relationship with other entities, version, locking behavior, or status; and

,

an assembly component to assemble the assembly document after interacting with the assembly document representation, wherein the assembly document is customized for an end-user based in part on the information stored in the data store including an associated role and other permission parameters associated with the end-user.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising an assembly document proxy to provide a manifestation of the assembly document, wherein the assembly document proxy includes data, metadata, and content to be used to persist the assembly document on the client.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising a number of custom XML parts to uniquely associate the assembly document with the assembly workspace.

17. A method of contributing to a collaborative effort comprising:

creating a collaborative document based in part on a template, wherein the template includes document XML, content controls, and custom XML parts, and can be used to define a number of participants that can interact with the collaborative document;

specifying a number of sections associated with the collaborative document, wherein an author selected from the number of participants can be associated with one or more of the number of sections;

associating the collaborative document with a workspace for interacting with the collaborative document;

using the workspace to add content to one or more of the number of sections of the collaborative document; and

,

notifying one or more of the number of participants of a change to the collaborative document.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising associating a number of permissions to aspects of the collaborative document and associated workspace.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising communicating the collaborative document using a peer-to-peer communication network.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising communicating the collaborative document as part of a client/server communication network.