Shared Collaboration Canvas

• US 20100306004A1
• Filed: 05/26/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Burtner, Russ, Sands, Ian, Snavely, John, Russ, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 10,127,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A computing system causes a plurality of display devices to display user interfaces containing portions of a canvas shared by a plurality of users. The canvas is a graphical space containing discrete graphical elements located at arbitrary locations within the canvas. Each of the discrete graphical elements graphically represents a discrete resource. When a user interacts with a resource in the set of resources, the computing system modifies the canvas to include an interaction element indicating that the user is interacting with the resource. The computer system then causes the display devices to update the user interfaces such that the user interfaces reflect a substantially current state of the canvas. In this way, the users may be able to understand which ones of the users are interacting with which ones of the resources.

Claims

1. A method for displaying a canvas that facilitates collaboration among a plurality of users, the method comprising:

receiving, at a computing system, interaction input indicating that a first user in the plurality of users is interacting with a target resource in a plurality of resources, each resource in the plurality of resources being associated with a canvas shared by the plurality of users, the canvas being a multidimensional graphical space, each resource in the plurality of resources graphically represented by a graphical element in a plurality of discrete graphical elements, each graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements located at an arbitrary location within the canvas, each user in the plurality of users being a resource in the plurality of resources, a first graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the first user, a target graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the target resource;

in response to receiving the interaction input, modifying, by the computing system, the canvas to include an interaction indicator, the interaction indicator being a graphical element, the interaction indicator graphically indicating a relationship between the first graphical element and the target graphical element such that the interaction indicator graphically indicates that the first user is currently interacting with the target resource; and

causing, by the computing system, a plurality of display devices to repeatedly update user interfaces displayed by the display devices such that the user interfaces reflect a substantially current state of the canvas, the substantially current state of the canvas being the plurality of discrete graphical elements along with locations within the canvas of the graphical elements of the plurality of discrete graphical elements at a substantially current moment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each resource in the plurality of resources is associated with a project, the project being a planned undertaking of an enterprise to achieve a specific goal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the user interfaces reflects a different portion of the canvas.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first graphical element is located within the canvas at a location within the canvas corresponding to a portion of the canvas that is currently being displayed to the first user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the interaction input comprises:

receiving, at the computing system, a request to open the target resource, the computing system receiving the request from a client computing system; and

in response to receiving the request, sending, from the computing system to the client computing system, information needed by the client computing system to open the target resource.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a given graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically represents a file in the plurality of resources, the given graphical element comprising a thumbnail of the file.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein the target resource is a file;

and

wherein causing the display devices to repeatedly update the user interfaces comprises updating, by the server computing system, a thumbnail of the target resource such that the thumbnail is based on a part of the target resource with which the first user is currently interacting.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a given graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically represents a given user in the plurality of users, the given graphical element comprising an image selected by the given user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the interaction indicator comprises a line connecting the first graphical element and the target graphical element.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the canvas is an infinite canvas.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the computing system, message input from a given user in the plurality of users, the message input specifying a message; and

in response to receiving the message input, modifying, by the computing system, the canvas to include a message box containing the message, the message box located in the canvas adjacent to a given graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements, the given graphical element graphically representing the given user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each user in the plurality of users is linked to the first user in a social networking service.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the canvas is three-dimensional.

14. The method of claim 1,

wherein the computing system is a server computing system;

wherein the display devices are communicatively connected to a plurality of client computing systems; and

wherein causing the display devices to repeatedly update the user interfaces comprises sending, by the server computing system, canvas display data to each client computing system in the plurality of client computing systems, each client computing system in the plurality of client computing systems configured to use the canvas display data to update the user interfaces on the display devices such that the user interfaces reflect the substantially current state of the canvas.

15. The method of claim 1,

wherein the computing system comprises a data storage system and a processing unit, the data storage system comprising at least one computer-readable data storage medium that stores software instructions, the processing unit comprising at least one integrated circuit;

and

wherein the software instructions cause the computing system to perform the steps of claim 1 when the processing unit executes the software instructions.

16. A computing system comprising:

a processing unit comprising at least one integrated circuit; and

a data storage system comprising at least one computer-readable data storage medium, the data storage system storing software instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the computing system to;

determine whether the computing system has received interaction input, the interaction input indicating that a first user in a plurality of users wants to interact with a target resource in a plurality of resources, the plurality of resources associated with a canvas shared by the plurality of users, the canvas being a multidimensional graphical space, each resource in the plurality of resources graphically represented by a graphical element in a plurality of discrete graphical elements, each graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements located at an arbitrary location within the canvas, each user in the plurality of users being a resource in the plurality of resources, a first graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the first user, a target graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the target resource;

modify, in response to determining that the computing system has received the interaction input, the canvas to include an interaction indicator, the interaction indicator being a graphical element, the interaction indicator graphically indicating a relationship between the first graphical element and the target graphical element such that the interaction indicator indicates that the first user is currently interacting with the target resource; and

cause a plurality of display devices associated with the plurality of users to repeatedly update user interfaces displayed by the display devices such that the user interfaces reflect a substantially current state of the canvas, the substantially current state of the canvas being the plurality of discrete graphical elements along with locations within the canvas of the graphical elements of the plurality of discrete graphical elements at a substantially current moment.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the software instructions, when executed by the processing unit, further cause the computing system to automatically locate the first graphical element within the canvas based on a portion of the canvas that is displayed to the first user.

18. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the software instructions, when executed by the processing unit, further cause the computing system to:

determine whether the computing system has received message input from a given user, a given graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the given user; and

in response to determining that the computing system has received the message input from the given user, modifying the canvas to include a message box located within the canvas adjacent to the given graphical element, the message box containing a message that the given user wishes to express to other users.

19. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the software instructions, when executed by the processing unit, further cause the computing system to:

determine whether the computing system has received canvas open input from a given user in the plurality of users, the canvas open input indicating that the given user wishes to view the canvas; and

in response to determining that the computing system has received the canvas open input from the given user, modifying the canvas to include a new graphical element, the new graphical element graphically representing the given user.

20. A data storage system comprising at least one computer-readable data storage medium, the at least one computer-readable data storage medium storing software instructions that, when executed by a processing unit of a server computing system, cause the server computing system to:

determine whether the server computing system has received interaction input, the interaction input indicating that a user who originated the interaction input wants to interact with a target resource in a plurality of resources, each resource in the plurality of resources associated with an infinite canvas shared by a plurality of users, the infinite canvas being a multidimensional graphical space, each resource in the plurality of resources graphically represented by a graphical element in a plurality of discrete graphical elements, each graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements located at an arbitrary location within the infinite canvas, each user in the plurality of users being a resource in the plurality of resources, the plurality of resources including a set of documents, the plurality of users including the user who originated the interaction input, each resource in the plurality of resources being associated with a project, the project being a planned undertaking of an enterprise to achieve a specific goal, a first graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the user who originated the interaction input, a target graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the target resource;

send, in response to determining that the server computing system has received the interaction input, to a client computing system used by the user who originated the interaction input, information needed by the client computing system to interact with the target resource;

modify, in response to determining that the server computing system has received the interaction input, the infinite canvas to include a first interaction indicator, the first interaction indicator graphically indicating that the user who originated the interaction input is currently interacting with the target resource, the first interaction indicator comprising a line connecting the first graphical element and the target graphical element;

determine whether the server computing system has received canvas open input, the canvas open input indicating that a user who originated the canvas open input wishes to view the infinite canvas;

modify, in response to determining that the server computing system has received the canvas open input, the infinite canvas to include a second graphical element, the second graphical element graphically representing the user who originated the canvas open input;

determine whether the server computing system has received canvas close input, the canvas close input indicating that a user who originated the canvas close input wishes to close the infinite canvas;

modify, in response to determining that the server computing system has received the canvas close input, the infinite canvas to remove from the infinite canvas a third graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements, the third graphical element graphically representing the user who originated the canvas close input;

determine whether the server computing system has received view change input, the view change input indicating that a user who originated the view change input wishes to change a portion of the infinite canvas currently displayed to the user who originated the view change input;

modify, in response to determining that the server computing system has received the view change input, the infinite canvas to move a fourth graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements from a first location within the infinite canvas to a second location within the infinite canvas, the second location within the infinite canvas being within a view of the infinite canvas currently displayed to the user who originated the view change input, the fourth graphical element graphically representing the user who originated the view change input;

determine whether the server computing system has received message input, the message input comprising a message that a user who originated the message input wishes to share with other users in the plurality of users, a fifth graphical element in the plurality of discrete graphical elements graphically representing the user who originated the message input,

modify, in response to determining that the server computing system has received message input, the infinite canvas to include a message box located within the infinite canvas adjacent to the fifth graphical element, the message box containing the message;

determine whether the server computing system has received interaction termination input, the interaction termination input indicating that a user who originated the interaction termination input wants to stop interacting with a given resource in the plurality of resources, the plurality of discrete graphical elements including a given graphical element representing the given resource;

modify, in response to determining that the server computing system has received the interaction termination input, the infinite canvas to remove a second interaction indicator from the infinite canvas, the second interaction indicator indicating that the user who originated the interaction termination input is currently interacting with the given resource; and

cause a plurality of display devices associated with the plurality of users to repeatedly update user interfaces displayed by the display devices such that the user interfaces reflect a substantially current state of the canvas, the substantially current state of the canvas being the plurality of discrete graphical elements along with locations within the canvas of the graphical elements of the plurality of discrete graphical elements at a substantially current moment,

wherein the processing unit comprises at least one microprocessor,

wherein the user who originated the interaction input, the user who originated the canvas open input, the user who originated the canvas close input, the user who originated the view change input, the user who originated the message input, and the user who originated the interaction termination input are in the plurality of users.