AUTOMATICALLY MODIFYING DISTRIBUTED COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20090307317A1
• Filed: 06/06/2008
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hertzig, James M., Pflug, Francis A., Murphy, Thomas E. Jr., Essenmacher, Michael D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Modifications are made to communications that have been distributed to one or more recipients. These modifications include at least one of adding a new recipient to the communication, deleting one or more recipients from the communication or moving one or more recipients from one or more of the fields of the communication to one or more other fields. These modifications may be performed automatically and/or transparently for the existing recipients.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating modification of communications distributed in a communications environment, said method comprising:

determining that a recipient list of a communication electronically provided to one or more recipients of the recipient list is to be modified; and

automatically initiating modification of the recipient list included in the provided communication, in response to the determining, wherein the modification is to be absent a resend of the complete communication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the modification comprises adding a recipient to the recipient list, wherein the added recipient receives a further provision of the communication.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the adding comprises including the recipient in at least one of a To:

header, a cc;

header or a bcc;

header of the communication.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the modification comprises deleting a recipient from the recipient list.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the modification comprises moving a recipient from one header field of the communication to another header field of the communication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modification comprises modifying the recipient list at each recipient.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the automatically initiating modification comprises:

creating an administrative record indicating the modification; and

providing the administrative record to an e-mail client of each recipient indicated in the recipient list prior to modification.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising processing the administrative record by the e-mail clients.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying one or more recipients of the recipient list of the modification.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication comprises an e-mail.

11. A system of facilitating modification of communications distributed in a communications environment, said system comprising:

at least one processor to;

determine that a recipient list of a communication electronically provided to one or more recipients of the recipient list is to be modified; and

automatically initiate modification of the recipient list included in the provided communication, in response to the determining, wherein the modification is to be absent a resend of the complete communication.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the modification comprises adding a recipient to the recipient list, wherein the added recipient receives a further provision of the communication.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the modification comprises deleting a recipient from the recipient list.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the modification comprises moving a recipient from one header field of the communication to another header field of the communication.

15. An article of manufacture comprising:

at least one computer usable medium having computer readable program code logic to facilitate modifying communications distributed in a communications environment, said computer readable program code logic when executing performing;

determining that a recipient list of a communication electronically provided to one or more recipients of the recipient list is to be modified; and

automatically initiating modification of the recipient list included in the provided communication, in response to the determining, wherein the modification is to be absent a resend of the complete communication.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the modification comprises adding a recipient to the recipient list, wherein the added recipient receives a further provision of the communication.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the modification comprises deleting a recipient from the recipient list.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the modification comprises moving a recipient from one header field of the communication to another header field of the communication.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the automatically initiating modification comprises:

creating an administrative record indicating the modification; and

providing the administrative record to an e-mail client of each recipient indicated in the recipient list prior to modification.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 15, further comprising notifying one or more recipients of the recipient list of the modification.