MANAGING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCES VIA CATEGORIES

• US 20090319913A1
• Filed: 06/23/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McClelland, Mark, Madsen, Mark, Serr, Robert, Bubolz, Jason, Huddleston, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,886,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5063 Centrally initiated conference, i.e. Conference server dials participants computer conference organisation arrangements H04L12/1818
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

A conference management system is described for administering large numbers of conferences in an organization. The conference management system receives a hierarchical set of categories from a system administrator and configuration settings for each category. When a user requests to create a new conference, the conference management system creates the conference and assigns the new conference to a category. The conference takes on the settings of the category to which it belongs, which eliminates individual configuration of each conference. Administrators can also delegate authority to manage conferences to others in the organization.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for administering configuration settings of a unified communications conference, the method comprising:

receiving a request to create a conference among two or more conference participants;

assigning a category to the conference, wherein the category has associated configuration settings that are common between at least two conferences; and

creating the conference based on the common configuration settings associated with the category to which the conference belongs,

such that an administrator of multiple conferences can administer the conferences by modifying the category configuration settings and without individually administering each conference.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the category to which the conference belongs is part of a hierarchical set of categories in which each category inherits configuration settings from its parent category.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration settings include at least a list of participants of the conference.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration settings differentiate active participants from passive participants in the conference.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration settings differentiate one or more users that can participate in the conference from one or more users that can administer the conference.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising creating a second conference based on the first conference that belongs to the same category and inherits configuration settings from the category.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration settings associated with the category specify a group of users, defined by a corporate directory, that can perform an action related to the conference.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the conference has associated configuration settings that override any conflicts with the configuration settings associated with the category.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the administrator can delegate authority to manage the category to another user within an organization.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after the conference has concluded, archiving the conference and providing access to the conference based on the configuration settings of the category when the conference is accessed.

11. A computer system for managing multiple conferences with hierarchical categories of conference settings, the system comprising:

a category store component configured to store a hierarchical set of categories and configuration settings associated with each category;

a conference store component configured to store one or more conferences, wherein each conference has an associated category in the category store from which the conference inherits configuration settings; and

a settings management component configured to determine the configuration settings to apply to a selected conference based on the category associated with the selected conference and the position of the associated category within the hierarchical set of categories.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising an administrative user interface component configured to interact with an administrator to manage categories and configuration settings.

13. The system of claim 11 further comprising a participant user interface component configured to interact with conference participants to provide settings applied to a conference.

14. The system of claim 11 further comprising a security entity provider component configured to manage users and groups of users that can be assigned roles associated with the configuration settings.

15. A computer-readable medium encoded with instructions for controlling a computer system to delegate conference management responsibilities, by a method comprising:

selecting a first category in a hierarchical set of categories;

assigning a first security entity to the first selected category, wherein the first security entity comprises one or more users that are granted the authority to manage conferences associated with the first selected category;

receiving from one of the one or more users comprising the first security entity a selection of a second category that is a child of the first category; and

assigning to the second category a second security entity different by at least one user from the first security entity, wherein the second security entity is delegated authority by the first security entity to manage conferences associated with the second selected category.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the first security entity comprises a security group defined by a corporate directory.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the first security entity comprises an organization unit defined by a corporate directory.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising receiving a request from a user to move the second category to have a different parent category and displaying a user interface to the user to determine whether settings of the original parent category will be copied to the second category.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising assigning a security entity to a list of blocked users of the second category that specifies users that do not have the authority to manage conference associated with the second category.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising receiving a setting from a member of the second security entity that specifies that members of the first security entity can manage conferences associated with the second category but not participate in conference associated with the second category.