Signaling Correspondence Between A Meeting Agenda And A Meeting Discussion

• US 20090271438A1
• Filed: 04/24/2008
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cross, Charles W. JR., Jania, Frank L., Goodman, Brian D., Bodin, William K., Agapi, Ciprian, Shaw, Darren M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,214,242 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for signaling correspondence between a meeting agenda and a meeting discussion that include: receiving a meeting agenda specifying one or more topics for a meeting; analyzing, for each topic, one or more documents to identify topic keywords for that topic; receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting; identifying a current topic for the meeting in dependence upon the meeting agenda; determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussions and the topic keywords for the current topic, the correspondence indicator specifying the correspondence between the meeting agenda and the meeting discussion; and rendering the correspondence indicator to the participants of the meeting.

Claims

1. A method of signaling correspondence between a meeting agenda and a meeting discussion, the method comprising:

receiving a meeting agenda specifying one or more topics for a meeting;

analyzing, for each topic, one or more documents to identify topic keywords for that topic;

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting;

identifying a current topic for the meeting in dependence upon the meeting agenda;

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussions and the topic keywords for the current topic, the correspondence indicator specifying the correspondence between the meeting agenda and the meeting discussion; and

rendering the correspondence indicator to the participants of the meeting.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeatedly recording the correspondence indictor throughout the meeting in a historical repository for further evaluation.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying the topics of the meeting agenda that were discussed during the meeting;

identifying the topics of the meeting agenda that were not discussed during the meeting; and

generating a report that specifies the topics of the meeting agenda that were discussed during the meeting and the topics of the meeting agenda that were not discussed during the meeting.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting further comprises receiving voice utterances for the meeting of participants; and

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussion and the topic keywords for the current topic further comprises;

transcribing the voice utterances for the meeting into a current meeting transcription;

tracking a frequency at which the topic keywords for the current topic appear in the current meeting transcription; and

determining the correspondence indicator in dependence upon the tracked frequency.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting further comprises receiving instant messages for the meeting of participants; and

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussion and the topic keywords for the current topic further comprises;

tracking a frequency at which the topic keywords for the current topic appear in the instant messages; and

determining the correspondence indicator in dependence upon the tracked frequency.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing, for each topic, one or more documents to identify topic keywords for that topic further comprises:

identifying a first set of documents related to that topic;

identifying a second set of documents related to the other topics;

calculating a first frequency at which a particular word appears in the first set of documents;

calculating a second frequency at which the particular word appears in both the first set of documents and the second set of document; and

designating the particular word as one of the topic keywords in dependence upon the first frequency and the second frequency.

7. Apparatus for signaling correspondence between a meeting agenda and a meeting discussion, the apparatus comprising a computer processor and a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

receiving a meeting agenda specifying one or more topics for a meeting;

analyzing, for each topic, one or more documents to identify topic keywords for that topic;

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting;

identifying a current topic for the meeting in dependence upon the meeting agenda;

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussions and the topic keywords for the current topic, the correspondence indicator specifying the correspondence between the meeting agenda and the meeting discussion; and

rendering the correspondence indicator to the participants of the meeting.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the computer memory has disposed within it computer program instructions capable of repeatedly recording the correspondence indictor throughout the meeting in a historical repository for further evaluation.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the computer memory has disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

identifying the topics of the meeting agenda that were discussed during the meeting;

identifying the topics of the meeting agenda that were not discussed during the meeting; and

generating a report that specifies the topics of the meeting agenda that were discussed during the meeting and the topics of the meeting agenda that were not discussed during the meeting.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting further comprises receiving voice utterances for the meeting of participants; and

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussion and the topic keywords for the current topic further comprises;

transcribing the voice utterances for the meeting into a current meeting transcription;

tracking a frequency at which the topic keywords for the current topic appear in the current meeting transcription; and

determining the correspondence indicator in dependence upon the tracked frequency.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting further comprises receiving instant messages for the meeting of participants; and

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussion and the topic keywords for the current topic further comprises;

tracking a frequency at which the topic keywords for the current topic appear in the instant messages; and

determining the correspondence indicator in dependence upon the tracked frequency.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein analyzing, for each topic, one or more documents to identify topic keywords for that topic further comprises:

identifying a first set of documents related to that topic;

identifying a second set of documents related to the other topics;

calculating a first frequency at which a particular word appears in the first set of documents;

calculating a second frequency at which the particular word appears in both the first set of documents and the second set of document; and

designating the particular word as one of the topic keywords in dependence upon the first frequency and the second frequency.

13. A computer program product for signaling correspondence between a meeting agenda and a meeting discussion, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions capable of:

receiving a meeting agenda specifying one or more topics for a meeting;

analyzing, for each topic, one or more documents to identify topic keywords for that topic;

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting;

identifying a current topic for the meeting in dependence upon the meeting agenda;

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussions and the topic keywords for the current topic, the correspondence indicator specifying the correspondence between the meeting agenda and the meeting discussion; and

rendering the correspondence indicator to the participants of the meeting.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions capable of repeatedly recording the correspondence indictor throughout the meeting in a historical repository for further evaluation.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions capable of:

identifying the topics of the meeting agenda that were discussed during the meeting;

identifying the topics of the meeting agenda that were not discussed during the meeting; and

generating a report that specifies the topics of the meeting agenda that were discussed during the meeting and the topics of the meeting agenda that were not discussed during the meeting.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein:

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting further comprises receiving voice utterances for the meeting of participants; and

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussion and the topic keywords for the current topic further comprises;

transcribing the voice utterances for the meeting into a current meeting transcription;

tracking a frequency at which the topic keywords for the current topic appear in the current meeting transcription; and

determining the correspondence indicator in dependence upon the tracked frequency.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein:

receiving meeting discussions among participants for the meeting further comprises receiving instant messages for the meeting of participants; and

determining a correspondence indicator in dependence upon the meeting discussion and the topic keywords for the current topic further comprises;

tracking a frequency at which the topic keywords for the current topic appear in the instant messages; and

determining the correspondence indicator in dependence upon the tracked frequency.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein analyzing, for each topic, one or more documents to identify topic keywords for that topic further comprises:

identifying a first set of documents related to that topic;

identifying a second set of documents related to the other topics;

calculating a first frequency at which a particular word appears in the first set of documents;

calculating a second frequency at which the particular word appears in both the first set of documents and the second set of document; and

designating the particular word as one of the topic keywords in dependence upon the first frequency and the second frequency.

19. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer readable medium comprises a recordable medium.

20. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer readable medium comprises a transmission medium.