Electronic calendar with group scheduling and automated scheduling techniques for coordinating conflicting schedules

• US 6,101,480 A
• Filed: 06/19/1998
• Issued: 08/08/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines SA (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Conmy, Douglas Walter, Banks-Binici, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Morgan, George D.
• Application Number:
  US09/100,134
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9, 705/8, 705/1, 345/963, 700/99, 700/100, 708/110, 708/111
• US Class Current: 705/7.18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/963 Calendar or scheduling

Abstract

A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users on a network comprises a database system that stores a profile for each potential invitee of the system at one or more servers. The invitee profiles comprises user profiles wherein each user profile has information regarding available and unavailable times for that user. The system further comprises request generators located remotely from the servers and connected over a network that generate a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees. A busy time determination device gathers the profiles for the one or more requested invitees that are available in the databases and determining whether those invitees are available during the time interval requested by the request generating means. If not all invitees are available, a best fit determining system determines a next best time interval.

Claims

1. A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprising:

database means associated with one or more servers for storing a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user;

request generating means, remote from the database means and connected over a network to the one or more servers, for generating a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

busy time determination means for gathering the profiles for the one or more requested invitees that are available in the databases and determining whether those invitees are available during the time interval requested by the request generating means; and

best fit determining means for determining a next best time interval using a weighting function if all of the invitees are not available at the requested time.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein execution of the weighting function comprises the steps of:

assigning a weight to each invitee and to one or more potential reasons for unavailability of that invitee;

calculating an unavailability value for each time interval within a predetermined range of the requested time interval; and

selecting the time interval with the lowest unavailability value as the next best time interval.

3. The system of claim 2 further comprising:

invitation transmission means for inviting only those invitees that are available for the next best time interval.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising schedule updating means for updating an invitee'"'"'s schedule if that invitee accepts an invitation.

5. A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprising:

one or more databases, associated with one or more servers, which store a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user;

one or more user workstations connected over a network to the servers and operating a calendaring system which enables a user to request allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

wherein the calendaring system gathers the profiles for the one or more requested invitees and determines whether each of the invitees is available during the requested time interval; and

wherein the calendaring system determines a next best time interval if any of the requested invitees is not available using a weighting function.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein execution of the weighting function comprises the steps of:

assigning a weight to each invitee and to one or more potential reasons for unavailability of that invitee;

calculating an unavailability value for each time interval within a predetermined range of the requested time interval; and

selecting the time interval with the lowest unavailability value as the next best time interval.

7. The system of claim 5, further comprising an inviting module that invites only those invitees that are available for the next best time interval.

8. The system of claim 5, further comprising an updating module that updates an invitee'"'"'s schedule if that invitee accepts an invitation.

9. A process for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprising:

storing a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile of the system comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user;

receiving a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees;

gathering the profiles for the one or more requested invitees;

determining whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval; and

determining a next best time interval if all of the requested invitees are not available using a weighting function.

10. The process of claim 9 wherein execution of the weighting function comprises the steps of:

assigning a weight to each invitee and to each potential reason for unavailability of that invitee;

calculating an unavailability value for each time interval within a predetermined range of the requested time interval; and

selecting the time interval with the lowest unavailability value as the next best time interval.

11. The process of claim 9 further comprising:

inviting only those invitees that are available for the next best time interval.

12. The process of claim 11, further comprising the step of updating an invitee'"'"'s schedule if that invitee accepts an invitation.

13. A processor usable medium having processor readable code embodied therein for enabling group calendaring between a plurality of users on a system, the system comprising a database which stores a profile for each potential invitee of the system, the invitee profiles comprising user profiles wherein each user profile comprises information regarding available and unavailable times for that user, the processor readable code in said processor usable medium comprising:

processor readable code for causing a server to receive a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees from a remote terminal;

processor readable code for causing the server to gather the profiles for the one or more requested invitees;

processor readable code for causing a processor to determine whether those invitees are available during the requested time interval; and

processor readable code for causing a processor to determine a next best time interval if all of the requested invitees are not available using a weighting function.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the processor readable code that execution the weighting function comprises:

processor readable code for causing a processor to assign a weight to each invitee and to each potential reason for unavailability of that invitee;

processor readable code for causing a processor to calculate an unavailability value for each time interval within a predetermined range of the requested time interval; and

processor readable code for causing a processor to select the time interval with the lowest unavailability value as the next best time interval.

15. The medium of claim 14, further comprising processor readable code for inviting only those invitees that are available for the next best time interval.

16. The medium of claim 15, further comprising processor readable code for updating an invitee'"'"'s schedule if that invitee accepts an invitation.