MANAGING PARTICIPANTS IN A CONFERENCE VIA A CONFERENCE USER INTERFACE

• US 20110270922A1
• Filed: 04/30/2010
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: American Teleconferencing Services Limited (Premiere Global Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: American Teleconferencing Services Limited (Premiere Global Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Frohwein, Robert J., Jones, Boland T., Guthrie, David Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/772,023
• Publication Number:
  US 20110270922A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• 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 65/1093 by adding participants; by removing participants
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2038 Call context notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/655 Combination of telephone service and social networking messaging within social networks H04L51/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/562 where the conference facilities are distributed
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/565 relating to time schedule aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication

Abstract

Various embodiments of systems, methods, and computer programs are disclosed for managing participants in an online conference via a graphical user interface. One such method comprises: displaying a conference interface via a graphical user interface on a client device connected to a conferencing system via a communication network; displaying a contact list via the graphical user interface, the contact list comprising a plurality of draggable contact objects; selecting one of the draggable contact objects; moving the selected contact object to the conference interface; determining contact information corresponding to the selected contact object; and the conferencing system establishing a connection with a participant associated with the contact information.

Claims

1. A method for managing participants in an online conference via a graphical user interface, the method comprising:

displaying a conference interface via a graphical user interface on a client device connected to a conferencing system via a communication network;

displaying a contact list via the graphical user interface, the contact list comprising a plurality of draggable contact objects;

selecting one of the draggable contact objects;

moving the selected contact object to the conference interface;

determining contact information corresponding to the selected contact object; and

the conferencing system establishing a connection with a participant associated with the contact information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a participant object identifying the participant in the conference interface.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

selecting the participant object;

moving the selected participant object from the conference interface; and

disconnecting the connection to the participant associated with the participant object.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising removing the participant object from the conference interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the moving the selected contact object to the conference interface comprises dragging the selected contact object to a predetermined portion of the conference interface and releasing the selected contact object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the dragging and releasing the selected contact object involves a touchscreen display.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the dragging and releasing the selected contact object involves a cursor and an input device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the conferencing system establishing the connection with the participant comprises adding the participant to an audioconference.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the conferencing system establishing the connection with the participant comprises:

the client device sending the contact information to the conferencing system;

the conferencing system sending a request via the contact information; and

the conferencing system receiving a response to the request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact information comprises a telephone number, and the conferencing system establishing the connection with the participant comprises initiating an outgoing call to the telephone number.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact information comprises an email address, and the conferencing system establishing the connection with the participant comprises sending a request to the email address.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the request includes information for accessing the conferencing system and establishing the connection.

13. A computer program embodied in a computer-readable medium and executable by a processor, the computer program for managing participants in an online conference via a graphical user interface on a client device, the computer program comprising:

logic configured to present a conference interface via a graphical user interface on a client device connected to a conferencing system via a communication network;

logic configured to display a contact list via the graphical user interface, the contact list comprising a plurality of contact objects;

logic configured to receive a user selection of one of the contact objects;

logic configured to determine that the selected contact object is moved to and released in a predetermined region in the graphical user interface;

logic configured to determine contact information corresponding to the selected contact object; and

logic configured to send the contact information to a conferencing system;

logic configured to receive a response from the conferencing system that a connection has been established with a participant associated with the contact information; and

logic configured to display a participant object associated with the participant in the conference interface.

14. The computer program of claim 13, further comprising:

logic configured to select the participant object;

logic configured to move the selected participant object from the conference interface; and

logic configured to disable the connection with the participant associated with the participant object.

15. The computer program of claim 14, further comprising logic configured to remove the participant object from the conference interface.

16. The computer program of claim 14, wherein the logic configured to move the selected contact object to the conference interface comprises a drag-and-drop functionality.

17. The computer program of claim 16, wherein the drag-and-drop functionality is performed via one of a touchscreen display and an input device operatively associated with a cursor.

18. The computer program of claim 13, wherein the contact information comprises one of a telephone number, an email address, and social networking profile information.

19. A computer system for providing an online conference, the computer system comprising:

a conferencing system for hosting an online conference via a communication network; and

a client device in communication with the conferencing system via the communication network, the client device comprising a memory, a processor and a participant management functionality embodied in the memory and executed by the processor, the participant management functionality for enabling a user of the client device to manage participants in the online conference via a graphical user interface, the participant management functionality comprising;

logic configured to display via a graphical user interface a conference interface presented to the client device by the conferencing system;

logic configured to display a contact list via the graphical user interface, the contact list comprising a plurality of contact objects;

logic configured to receive via the graphical user interface a user selection of one of the contact objects via one of a touchscreen display and a cursor input device;

logic configured to monitor movement and release of the selected contact object via the graphical user interface relative to a display region of the conference interface;

logic configured to determine, in response to the movement and release of the selected contact object, contact information corresponding to the selected contact object; and

logic configured to initiate an addition of a participant associated with the contact information to the online conference.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the movement and release of the selected contact object is performed via one of a touchscreen display and an input device operatively associated with a cursor, and wherein the contact information comprises one of a telephone number, an email address, and social networking profile information.