RICH SIGNALING FEEDBACK MECHANISM FOR GROUP COMMUNICATION

• US 20100218120A1
• Filed: 02/25/2009
• Published: 08/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jayandra, Arun Prasad, Gaurav, Suraj
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Managing a web based conference. The web based conference includes one or more presenters connected through a network to one or more conference attendees. The presenters control data sent to the attendees. User input is received at a presenter computing system from a presenter indicating that a message should be sent to a number of computing systems being used by attendees. In response to receiving the user input at the presenter computing system, a message is sent to the of computing systems. One or more acknowledgment messages are received from at least a portion of the plurality of computing systems. Based on the one or more acknowledgement messages, a metric is generated for the number of recipients that received the message. The metric is displayed to the presenter.

Claims

1. In a network computing environment, a method of managing a web based conference, the web based conference including one or more presenters connected through a network to one or more conference attendees, wherein the presenters control data sent to the attendees, the method comprising:

receiving user input at a presenter computing system from a presenter indicating that a message should be sent to a plurality of computing systems being used by attendees;

in response to receiving the user input at the presenter computing system, sending a message to the plurality of computing systems;

receiving one or more acknowledgment messages from at least a portion of the plurality of computing systems;

based on the one or more acknowledgement messages, generating a metric for the number of recipients that received the message; and

displaying the metric to the presenter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a flip slide message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending a message to the plurality of computing systems comprises sending the message to one or more attendee servers, whereafter the message is sent to individual attendees through a reliable transport channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying a metric comprises displaying a percentage of attendees that received the message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying a metric comprises displaying an average or mean latency for the message to reach attendees.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving one or more acknowledgment messages from at least a portion of the plurality of computing systems comprises receiving an acknowledgement message from an attendee computing system with another message from the attendee computing system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving an acknowledgement message from an attendee computing system with another message from the attendee computing system comprises receiving the acknowledgement message in a same packet as the another message.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an attendee experience view to a presenter.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein displaying an attendee experience view to a presenter is performed as a result of the presenter connecting to the conference as an attendee in addition to being connected as a presenter.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein displaying an attendee experience view to a presenter comprises simulating an attendee experience in the aggregate by applying average or mean latencies to display graphical transitions.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that an attendee computer system has disconnected from the web based conference prior to receiving the message;

detecting that the attendee computer system has reconnected to the web based conference; and

in response to detecting that the attendee computer system has reconnected to the web based conference, resending the message to the attendee computer system.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an attendee interaction portion of a user interface to the presenter, the attendee interaction portion displaying messages received from attendees and the attendee interaction portion including functionality for receiving user input from a presenter to respond to attendee messages or to sua sponte send messages to one or more attendees.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving user input at the user interface indicating that an interactive message should be broadcast to a plurality of the attendees, and in response, broadcasting the interactive message to computer systems for the plurality of the attendees.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving user input at the user interface indicating that an interactive message should be unicast to a single attendee, and in response, unicasting the interactive message to a computer system for the single attendee.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein sending a message to the plurality of computing systems comprises sending the message as a result of the message having a higher priority than another message.

16. In a network computing environment, a method of managing a web based conference, the web based conference including one or more presenters connected through a network to one or more conference attendees, wherein the presenters control data sent to the attendees, the method comprising:

at an attendee computing system, receiving a message from a presenter computing system, wherein the messages is received from the presenter computer system as a result of user input at a presenter computing system from a presenter indicating that a message should be sent to a plurality of computing systems being used by attendees and in response to receiving the user input at the presenter computing system, the presenter computing system sending a message to the plurality of computing systems;

at the attendee computing system, sending one or more acknowledgment messages indicating that the message from the presenter computing system was received;

where after, the one or more acknowledgement messages are used to generate a metric for the number of recipients that received the message; and

to display the metric to the presenter.

17. The method of claim 16 comprising connecting the attendee computing system to an attendee server.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising selecting the attendee server to connect to by selecting a new attendee server as a result of other attendee servers being used in the web conference being at full capacity.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein sending one or more acknowledgment messages indicating that the message from the presenter computing system was received comprises sending the acknowledgement message through the attendee server and a presenter server to which the presenter computing system is connected without sending to any intermediate attendee servers between the attendee computing system and the presenter computing system.

20. In a network computing environment, a method of managing a web based conference, the web based conference including one or more presenters connected through a network to one or more conference attendees, wherein the presenters control data sent to the attendees, the method comprising:

connecting a presenter computer system to a presenter server;

connecting an attendee computer system to an attendee server separate from the presenter server, and wherein the attendee server is selected so as to minimize the number of attendee servers used by maximizing the usage of resources on any given attendee server before adding additional attendee servers to service additional attendee computer systems;

sending a slide flip message from the presenter computer system through the presenter server and the attendee server to the attendee computer system without sending the slide flip message through other presenter or attendee servers,

sending an acknowledgment from the attendee computer system to the presenter computer system through the attendee server and the presenter server without sending through other attendee servers and presenter servers between;

using the acknowledgement message, in combination with acknowledgement messages received from other attendee computing systems to create and display a metric to a presenter at the presenter computing system illustrating a quantity of slide flip messages received by attendee computer systems.