SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GROUP COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20110029622A1
• Filed: 06/24/2010
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Walker Digital LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Walker Digital LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Inventors: Masarek, Jordan M., Dyer, Nikita S., Shufro, Lisa H., Walker, Jay S.
• Application Number:
  US12/823,118
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029622A1
• 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

Systems, apparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture for group communications.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by an electronic controller and from a device operated by a group coordinator, an indication of a request to transmit a message to a group;

distributing, by the electronic controller and in response to the receiving of the indication of the request to transmit the message to the group, the message to the group, wherein the group comprises a plurality of members;

receiving, by the electronic controller, after the distributing of the message to the group, and from the group, a plurality of responses to the message;

generating, by the electronic controller and after the receiving of the plurality of responses to the message, a status report message, wherein the status report message comprises information summarizing the received plurality of responses to the message; and

transmitting, by the electronic controller and to the device operated by the group coordinator, the generated status report message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message distributed to the group comprises an indication of a task that the group coordinator desires at least one of the group members to perform.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the message distributed to the group is selected from a set of template messages associated with the task.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating, by the electronic controller and based at least in part on the task, the message distributed to the group.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, by the electronic controller, from a member of the group, and after a determination that the task is completed, a response to the message distributed to the group;

generating, by the electronic controller and in response to the post-task receiving of the response to the message distributed to the group, a message indicating that the task is completed; and

transmitting, by the electronic controller and to the member of the group from which the post-task response was received, the generated task-completion.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the task comprises contacting a patient and reminding the patient to take a scheduled medication.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the task comprises communicating with the group coordinator.

8. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining, by the electronic controller, that one of the group members from which one of the plurality of responses to the message was received is selected to perform the task.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining that the one of the group members from which one of the plurality of responses to the message was received is selected to perform the task, comprises:

receiving, by the electronic controller and from the device operated by the group coordinator, an indication of a selection of the one of the group members.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining that the one of the group members from which one of the plurality of responses to the message was received is selected to perform the task, comprises:

determining, by the electronic controller and based on one or more stored rules, a selection of the one of the group members.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating, by the electronic controller and after the determining of the selected group member, a closing message comprising an indication of at least one of;

(i) an end of a need for the task to be completed; and

(ii) an indication of the selected group member.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

distributing, by the electronic controller and to all group members except the selected group member, the generated closing message.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting, by the electronic controller, after the determining of the selected group member, and to the selected group member, a task selection message comprising an indication of the selection of the group member to complete the task.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the task selection message further comprises an instruction for the selected group member to perform the task.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

establishing, by the electronic controller, a communication session between a device operated by the selected group member and the device operated by the group coordinator.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein the receipt of the response to the message from the selected group member comprises a completion of the task.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the task comprises answering a question in the message.

18. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving, by the electronic controller, a second message from the selected group member.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second message comprises information descriptive of a completion of the task.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

forwarding, by the electronic controller, the information indicative of the second message to the device operated by the group coordinator.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the information indicative of the second message comprises at least one of a summarized and a redacted version of the second message.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

storing, by the electronic controller and in a task progress database, the information descriptive of the completion of the task.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the request received from the device operated by the group coordinator comprises a request to schedule the message to be distributed to the group on a recurring basis.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the message comprises a series of different messages.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributing comprises transmitting a plurality of messages in accordance with at least one of a Short Message Service (SMS) and a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) protocol.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the information summarizing the received plurality of responses to the message, comprises at least one of:

(i) tagging the plurality of responses to the message; and

(ii) redacting the plurality of responses to the message.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the status report message is conducted upon an occurrence of an end of a predetermined time period.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the status report message is conducted upon receiving a request for the status report message from the device operated by the group coordinator.

30. A method, comprising:

receiving, by an electronic controller and from a device operated by a group coordinator, an indication of a request to schedule recurring communications between a recipient and a group, wherein the group comprises a plurality of members;

determining, by the electronic controller and in response to the receiving of the indication of the request to schedule recurring communications between the recipient and the group, a schedule defining when each member of the group is responsible for communicating with the recipient;

determining, by the electronic controller and after the determining of the schedule defining when each member of the group is responsible for communicating with the recipient, based on a current time and the schedule, which group member is next responsible for communicating with the recipient;

transmitting, by the electronic controller, in response to the determining of which group member is next responsible for communicating with the recipient, and to the determined responsible group member, a reminder to communicate with the recipient during the next scheduled time; and

determining, by the electronic controller and after the transmitting of the reminder to communicate with the recipient during the next scheduled time, whether the determined responsible group member has communicated with the recipient as scheduled.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the determining of the schedule defining when each member of the group is responsible for communicating with the recipient, comprises:

receiving, by the electronic controller and from the device operated by the group coordinator, an indication of the schedule.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the determining of the schedule defining when each member of the group is responsible for communicating with the recipient, comprises:

receiving, by the electronic controller and from the device operated by the group coordinator, an indication of a plurality of times when communications between the recipient and the group are desired; and

assigning, by the electronic controller and after the receiving of the indication of the plurality of times when communications between the recipient and the group are desired, at least one group member to be responsible for communicating with the recipient during each time of the plurality of times when communications between the recipient and the group are desired.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the recipient comprises a patient and wherein the recurring communications comprise reminders for the patient to take a medication.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein the recipient comprises an electronic device configured to present electronic media and wherein the recurring communications comprise indications of electronic media.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the recurring communications are conducted utilizing Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

36. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

determining, by the electronic controller and in the case that it is determined that the determined responsible group member has communicated with the recipient as scheduled, a reward.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the reward is provided by a third-party.

38. The method of claim 30, wherein the group coordinator is different than the recipient.

39. The method of claim 30, wherein the determining of whether the determined responsible group member has communicated with the recipient as scheduled, comprises:

receiving, by the electronic controller, and from a device operated by the determined responsible group member, a message comprising information descriptive of a communication between the determined responsible group member and the recipient.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

forwarding, by the electronic controller and to the device operated by the group coordinator, the information indicative of the message received from the device operated by the determined responsible group member.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein information indicative of the message received from the device operated by the determined responsible group member comprises at least one of a summarized and a redacted version of the message received from the device operated by the determined responsible group member.

42. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

storing, by the electronic controller and in a progress-tracking database, the information descriptive of the communication between the determined responsible group member and the recipient.

43. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

triggering, by the electronic controller and based on the information descriptive of the communication between the determined responsible group member and the recipient, an action.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the action comprises one or more of (i) an initiation of communication with a healthcare professional, (ii) an initiation of a communication to the device operated by the group coordinator, and (iii) an initiation of a communication with the recipient.

45. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a mobile device result in:

transmitting, to a remote electronic controller and via a Short Message Service (SMS), an indication of definition of a group of recipients;

transmitting, to the remote electronic controller and via the SMS, a request to distribute an SMS message to the group;

receiving, from the remote electronic controller, an SMS status report message generated by the remote electronic controller, wherein the SMS status report message is based on a plurality of responses received by the remote electronic controller in response to a distribution of the SMS message to the group, and wherein the SMS status report message comprises information summarizing the plurality of responses; and

transmitting, to the remote electronic controller, via the SMS, and in response to the receiving of the SMS status report message, a selection of one of the recipients of the group.