Method and apparatus for managing pc conference connection addresses
First Claim
1. A personal computer (PC) conferencing system comprising a conferencing application havinga profile function for designating a first shared address book;
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1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Each PC conferencing application of a plurality PC conferencing systems is equipped with an enhanced profile function including the ability to allow a user to designate a personal address book, and a corporate address book. Each PC conferencing application is further equipped with functions for modeling exchange of business cards, including functions for creating, editing, sending, receiving, saving, and browsing electronic business cards. As an integral part of the bizcard create and edit process, each create and edit function causes an address record including a user'"'"'s PC conference connection addresses to be populated in the designated corporate address book when a bizcard is created, and the address record to be updated whenever the bizcard is updated. The various designated corporate address files are automatically synchronized. As a result, as an integral part of the bizcard create and edit process, PC conference connection addresses are automatically made available and maintained throughout the organization across geographical boundaries. Additionally, to further facilitate the physical or logical relocation of a user, conference connection addresses are maintained in the personal and corporate address books in a location independent format.
143 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A personal computer (PC) conferencing system comprising a conferencing application having
a profile function for designating a first shared address book; - and
a create/edit function for creating and editing a business card data structure with information commonly found in a business card and at least one conference connection address for a user of the PC conferencing application, automatically populating an address record in the first shared address book with the user'"'"'s at least one conference connection address when the business card data structure is created, and automatically updating the populated address record in the first shared address book whenever the business card data structure is subsequently updated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A network of computer systems comprising:
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a) a first personal computer (PC) having a first conferencing application including a first profile function for designating a first shared address book, and a first create/edit function for creating and editing a first business card data structure with information commonly found in a business card and at least one conference connection address for user of the first personal computer, automatically populating a first address record in the first shared address book with the at least one conference connection address of the user of the first personal computer when the first business card data structure is created, and for automatically updating the first address record in the first shared address book whenever the first business card data structure is subsequently updated; and b) a second personal computer (PC) having a second conferencing application including a second profile function for designating the first shared address book, and a second create/edit function for creating and editing a second business card data structure with information commonly found in a business card and at least one conference connection address for a user of the second personal computer, automatically populating a second address record in the first shared address book with the at least one conference connection address of the user of the second personal computer when the second business card data structure is created, and for updating the second address record in the first shared address book whenever the second business card data structure is subsequently updated. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. In a network of computer systems including at least a first and a second computer system each having a computer conferencing application, a method for maintaining conferencing connection addresses throughout the network, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) designating a first shared address book by a profile function of the conferencing application of the first computer system and the second computer system; b) populating a first address record and a second address record in the first shared address book with at least a first conference connection address corresponding to a user of the first computer system and at least a second conference connection address for a user of the second computer system by a create/edit function of the conferencing application of the first computer system and the second computer system when the structure including the first and second conference connection addresses; and c) updating the first and second address records in the first shared address book by the create/edit function, whenever the create/edit function updates the business card data structures of the first computer system or the second computer system, respectively. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification