Visually Indicating a Calendar Event Among Different Time Zones

• US 20090077570A1
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Schirmer, Andrew L., Oral, Tolga
• Granted Patent: US 8,607,250 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2477 Temporal data queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A calendared event may be visually indicated. A proposed time for the calendared event can be identified and each of a plurality of event participants can be associated with the calendared event. For each of the participants, a local time of the participant that corresponds to the proposed time for the calendared event can be identified and displayed.

Claims

1. A method for visually indicating a calendared event, comprising:

identifying a proposed time for the calendared event;

associating each of a plurality of event participants with the calendared event;

for each of the participants, identifying a local time of the participant that corresponds to the proposed time for the calendared event and displaying the local time; and

for at least a first of the participants, displaying a first indicator of a difference between the first participant'"'"'s local time and an event time reference.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the event time reference as the local time of a second user to whom the indicator of the time difference is being displayed.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying at least one of the participants as an event coordinator; and

selecting the event time reference as the local time of the event coordinator.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for at least a second of the participants, displaying a second indicator of a difference between the second participant'"'"'s local time and the event time reference.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

displaying the first indicator and the second indicator in juxtaposition to one another.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

displaying a third indicator that visually associates the first indicator with the second indicator.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a user input to move the third indicator; and

responsive to the user input, changing the proposed time.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a user input to change a size of the third indicator; and

responsive to the user input, changing a duration of the calendared event.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

for the first participant, displaying a third indicator that indicates at least a first period in which the first participant is unavailable; and

for the second participant, displaying a fourth indicator that indicates a second period in which the second participant is unavailable.

10. A method for visually indicating a calendared event, comprising:

identifying a proposed time within the time table for the calendared event;

associating each of a plurality of event participants with the calendared event;

for each of the participants, displaying a respective time table, each of the respective time tables displaying a common start time in juxtaposition to one another;

for each of the participants, identifying a local time of the participant that corresponds to the proposed time for the calendared event; and

displaying a first indicator that indicates the local time of each of the participants.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

for a first of the participants, displaying a second indicator that indicates at least a first period in which the first participant is unavailable; and

for a second of the participants, displaying a third indicator that indicates a second period in which the second participant is unavailable.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

displaying at least a second indicator that visually associates the local times of the respective participants.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a user input to move the second indicator; and

responsive to the user input, changing the proposed time.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a user input to change a size of the second indicator; and

responsive to the user input, changing a duration of the calendared event.

15. A computer program product comprising:

a computer-usable medium comprising computer-usable program code that visually indicates a calendared event, the computer-usable medium comprising;

computer-usable program code that identifies a proposed time for the calendared event;

computer-usable program code that associates each of a plurality of event participants with the calendared event;

computer-usable program code that, for each of the participants, identifies a local time of the participant that corresponds to the proposed time for the calendared event and displays the local time; and

computer-usable program code that for a first of the participants, displays a first indicator of a difference between the first participant'"'"'s local time and an event time reference.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

computer-usable program code that selects the event time reference as the local time of a second user to whom the indicator of the time difference is being displayed.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

computer-usable program code that identifies at least one of the participants as an event coordinator; and

computer-usable program code that selects the event time reference as the local time of the event coordinator.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

computer-usable program code that, for at least a second of the participants, displays a second indicator of a difference between the second participant'"'"'s local time and the event time reference.

19. computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

computer-usable program code that displays the first indicator and the second indicator in juxtaposition to one another.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

computer-usable program code that displays a third indicator that visually associates the first indicator with the second indicator.