VIRTUAL MEETING PLACE SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100251140A1
• Filed: 03/31/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voispot, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Voispot, LLC
• Inventors: Tipirneni, Kishore
• Granted Patent: US 8,887,069 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A virtual meeting place system is disclosed. The online virtual meeting place facilitates initiating, scheduling, or spontaneously organizing an online discussion or meeting, organizing the discussion into active and passive participants, limiting or eliminate participation of selected participants and soliciting, receiving and answering questions. The system is configurable to allow for customization based upon the social protocols or preferences of meeting participants and may present different user interfaces based upon participant identity, meeting topic or meeting format.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a virtual meeting computer and from a first participant, a request to create a meeting, wherein the meeting is associated with a user interface and a plurality of participants;

assigning, by the virtual meeting computer, a first participant type to the first participant;

receiving, by the virtual meeting computer, a first attendance request from a second participant for access to the meeting;

assigning, by the virtual meeting computer, a second participant type to the second participant;

receiving, by the virtual meeting computer, first input from the first participant; and

determining, by the virtual meeting computer and based upon the second participant type, that the second participant should receive the first input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first participant type and the second participant type are two of a plurality of participant types.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of participant types indicate at least one of a participant role and a participant permission.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising presenting a user interface to the plurality of participants, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of participant areas each associated with at least one participant type in the plurality of participant types.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of participant areas comprise an active participant area associated with the first participant type and a passive participant area associated with the second participant type.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of participant areas further comprises a quasi-active participant area associated with a third participant type.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving a request from the second participant to send input to the first participant and, based upon the second participant type, denying the communication request.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising, in response to the denying, placing the second participant in a queue associated with the quasi-participant area.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising, in response to the denying, moving the second participant to the quasi-participant area and associating the second participant with the third participant type.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising, determining a participation limit has been reached, moving the second participant to the passive participant area and associating the second participant with the second participant type.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining the participation limit has been reached comprises, evaluating at least one of a number of comments, an amount of input, the length of a queue, a time limit or input from a third participant.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a first user interface to a first subset of the plurality of participants wherein each participant in the first subset is associated with the first participant type and presenting a second user interface to a second subset of the plurality of participants wherein each participant in the second subset is associated with the second participant type.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an exclusion request to exclude a third participant from the meeting.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising in response to the receiving the excluding request, excluding the third participant based upon at least one of a participant, a participant type, a limit being reached, a meeting type associated with the meeting and a vote of the plurality of participants.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the request to create the meeting comprises receiving a request to at least one of:

schedule a meeting, list the meeting on a meeting schedule, and configure the meeting with user specified parameters wherein the user specified parameters comprise at least one of number of total participants, number of active participants, invitation list, participant exclusion rules, participation rules, participation types, number of passive participants, number of quasi-active participants, meeting type, topic, agenda, and time.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the meeting is associated with a meeting type associated with predefined meeting type rules, wherein the meeting type comprises at least one of a panel discussion, a debate, a discussion, a speech, a presentation, a parent teacher conference, an association meeting, an expert question and answer session, a club meeting, an association meeting, a nightclub interaction, an academic discussion, and a consultation with an expert.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising presenting the plurality of participants with a predefined meeting type user interface, wherein the predefined meeting type user interface is based upon at least one of the meeting type and the participant type.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the first participant with a user interface comprising a control and, in response to the first participant selecting the control, at least one of moving the participant to a second meeting, scanning active meetings, receiving a question input by the first participant, recording a meeting, and spawning a new meeting.

19. A system comprising:

a network interface communicating with a memory;

the memory communicating with a processor; and

the processor, when executing a computer program, is configured to;

receive, from a first participant, a request to create a meeting, wherein the meeting is associated with a user interface and a plurality of participants;

assign a first participant type to the first participant;

receive a first attendance request from a second participant for access to the meeting;

assign a second participant type to the second participant;

receive first input from the first participant; and

determine based upon the second participant type that the second participant should receive the first input.

20. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a first participant, a request to create a meeting wherein the meeting is associated with a user interface and a plurality of participants;

assigning a first participant type to the first participant;

receiving a first attendance request from a second participant for access to the meeting;

assigning a second participant type to the second participant;

receiving first input from the first participant; and

determining, based upon the second participant type, that the second participant should receive the first input.