Managing Information and Content Sharing in a Virtual Collaboration Session

• US 20150149929A1
• Filed: 11/22/2013
• Published: 05/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Shepherd, Jason A., Gatson, Michael S., Swierk, Todd, Lo, Yuan-Chang, Barker, Clifton J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,398,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• 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 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• 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

Systems and methods for managing information and content sharing in a virtual collaboration session. In some embodiments, a method may include creating a virtual collaboration workspace for a plurality of participants, where each of the participants operates a device configured to access the workspace, the workspace including a public portion and a plurality of private portions, the public portion accessible to each of the participants and each of the plurality of private portions accessible to a corresponding participant to the exclusion of at least another participant. The method may also include providing, to a given one of the participants, a representation of the public portion and a representation of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion, where the representation of the public portion and the representation of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion are renderable concurrently in a single window of a graphical user interface displayable by the given participant'"'"'s device.

Claims

1. An Information Handling System (IHS), comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IHS to;

create a virtual collaboration workspace for a plurality of participants, wherein each of the plurality of participants operates a respective device configured to access the virtual collaboration workspace, the virtual collaboration workspace including a public portion and a plurality of private portions, the public portion accessible to each of the plurality of participants and each of the plurality of private portions accessible to a corresponding one of the plurality of participants to the exclusion of at least another one of the plurality of participants; and

provide, to a given one of the plurality of participants, a representation of the public portion and a representation of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion, wherein the representation of the public portion and the representation of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion are renderable concurrently in a single window of a graphical user interface displayable by the given participant'"'"'s respective device.

2. The IHS of claim 1, wherein the IHS includes a projector, and wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to host a virtual collaboration session among the plurality of participants using the virtual collaboration workspace.

3. The IHS of claim 2, wherein the projector is configured to create a rendering of the public portion, the rendering viewable in person by at least a subset of the plurality of participants independently of whether the public portion is being displayed by the subset of participants'"'"' respective devices.

4. The IHS of claim 2, wherein the virtual collaboration workspace includes a virtual whiteboard, and wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to store one or more aspects of the virtual collaboration workspace for reproduction after termination of the virtual collaboration session.

5. The IHS of claim 1, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to maintain an access control list for a piece of content stored in a folder associated with the virtual collaboration workspace.

6. The IHS of claim 5, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:

receive an indication that the given participant has added a piece of content to the public portion of the virtual collaboration workspace; and

create or modify an entry on the access control list corresponding to the piece of content, the entry indicating that the piece of content is accessible to any of the plurality of participants.

7. The IHS of claim 6, wherein the piece of content is created by the given participant in a whiteboard section of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion using the given participant'"'"'s respective device, and wherein prior to adding the piece of content, an entry on the access control list corresponding to the piece of content indicates that the piece of content is accessible to a private group associated with the given participant, the private group excluding one or more of the plurality of participants.

8. The IHS of claim 7, wherein the given participant adds the piece of content by visually dragging a graphical representation of the piece of content from the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion onto the public portion.

9. The IHS of claim 5, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:

receive an indication that the given participant has added a piece of content to the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion of the virtual collaboration workspace; and

create an entry on the access control list corresponding to the piece of content, the entry indicating that the piece of content is accessible to a private group associated with the given participant, the private group excluding one or more of the plurality of participants.

10. The IHS of claim 1, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to provide a list of participants having access to the virtual collaboration workspace to each of the plurality of participants, and wherein the list of participants is renderable concurrently with the representation of the public portion and with the representation of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion in the single window of the graphical user interface displayable by the given participant'"'"'s respective device.

11. The IHS of claim 10, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:

receive an indication that the given participant has dragged and dropped a selected participant of the list of participants from the public portion to the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion; and

create or modify an entry on the access control list corresponding to a piece of content associated with the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion, the entry indicating that the piece of content is accessible to the selected participant.

12. The IHS of claim 10, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:

receive an indication that the given participant has dragged and dropped a selected participant of the list of participants from the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion to the public portion; and

create or modify an entry on the access control list corresponding to a piece of content associated with the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion, the entry indicating that the piece of content is not accessible to the selected participant.

13. A method, comprising:

establishing, via an Information Handling System (IHS) operated by a given one of a plurality of participants of a virtual collaboration session, communications with a virtual collaboration host device, the virtual collaboration host device configured to host a virtual collaboration workspace having a public portion and a plurality of private portions, wherein the public portion is accessible to the plurality of participants and each of the plurality of private portions is accessible to a corresponding one of the plurality of participants to the exclusion of at least another one of the plurality of participants; and

rendering, in a single window of a graphical user interface displayable by the IHS, a representation of the public portion and a representation of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying, via the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a dragging gesture configured to move a file to a file folder in the graphical user interface and uploading the file, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, to a repository associated with the virtual collaboration workspace, wherein the uploaded file inherits an authorization privileges defined by the file folder;

or

identifying, via the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a dragging gesture configured to move a file to the public portion of the virtual collaboration workspace and uploading the file, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, to a repository associated with the virtual collaboration workspace, wherein the uploaded file is readable by any of the plurality of participants.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving, at the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a list of participants having access to the virtual collaboration workspace; and

rendering the list of participants, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, concurrently with the representation of the public portion and the representation of the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion in the single window of the graphical user interface.

16. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying, via the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a dragging gesture configured to move content to a selected participant from the list of participants; and

transmitting, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, an instruction that the selected participant be given moderator control over the content during the virtual collaboration session.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying, via the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a dragging gesture configured to move a selected participant from the list of participants to content displayed in the single window of the graphical user interface and transmitting, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, an instruction that the selected participant be given editor control over the content during the virtual collaboration session;

or

identifying, via the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a dragging gesture moving a selected participant from a section of the list of participants in the public portion to another section of the list of participants in the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion and transmitting, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, an instruction that the selected participant be given editor control over content associated with the given participant'"'"'s corresponding private portion during the virtual collaboration session.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by an Information Handling System (IHS), cause the IHS to:

receive an indication that a given one of a plurality of participants of a virtual collaboration workspace has begun drawing on a shared whiteboard, the drawing having an initial point; and

create a virtual border around the initial point, wherein the virtual border defines a protected area associated with the given participant, and wherein the virtual border prevents at least another one of the plurality of participants from drawing within the protected area.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the IHS, further cause the IHS to remove the virtual border a predetermined amount of time after the given participant stops drawing in the protected area.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the IHS, further cause the IHS to:

determine that the protected area overlaps with another protected area associated with another one of the plurality of participants; and

at least one of;

shift the protected area to a different location on the shared whiteboard in response to the determination;

or

reduce a size of the protected area.