Method and apparatus for a structured, synchronized conversation using electronic messages over a computer network

• US 6,594,693 B1
• Filed: 01/22/1999
• Issued: 07/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Borwankar Research, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Borwankar Research, Inc.
• Inventors: Borwankar, Nitin A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Avellino, Joseph E
• Application Number:
  US09/235,174
• Time in Patent Office: 1,635 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/203, 709/230, 709/232, 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are disclosed for having an electronic online conference among multiple clients over a computer network. A method of sending and receiving conference or conversation messages over a computer network is described. The conference messages are sent from and by a computer network client and are not posted to a conference server. This is done according to an Internet e-mail protocol in which messages are synchronized among a defined group of conversation participants. The Internet e-mail protocol is SMTP or ESMTP, and the messages are sent and received in MIME format. A MIME conversation message includes data specifying at least one of the following actions: initiate the conversation, respond to an invitation, post a conversation message to the conversation, initiate a topic in the conversation, initiate a sub-conversation within the conversation, terminate the topic, terminate the sub-conversation, and terminate the conversation, invite a late participant, delete an existing participant, and provide a conversation history to the late participant. The conversation messages are synchronized by automatically storing all messages in the conversation at a client computer in a message store organized according to a history of the conversation.

Claims

1. A method of conducting a synchronized conversation using electronic messages over a computer network and among a plurality of network clients on the computer network, said network clients being members of a defined group of conversation participants,

wherein said messages are sent and received in a MIME format, and wherein messages are exchanged using at least one of SMTP, ESMTP, IMAP, POP, HTTP, HTTS and

wherein the synchronized conversation is specified as a MIME Content-Type, and

wherein the content of the message is included in one or more MIME body parts, and

wherein the synchronized conversation messages include data in MIME-specific tags, or in one or more body parts of a MIME message, specifying at least one of the following actions:

initiate the conversation,

respond to an invitation,

post a conversation message to the conversation,

initiate a topic in the conversation,

initiate a sub-conversation within the conversation,

terminate the topic,

terminate the sub-conversation,

terminate the conversation,

invite a late participant,

delete an existing participant, and

provide a conversation history to the late participant,

the method comprising;

a) sending and receiving conversation messages over the computer network, from and by a computer network client and without posting said conversation messages to a specially designated conference server,

b) providing a group messaging engine means for synchronizing the conversation messages between all participants by

i) automatically storing all messages in the conversation at the computer network client in a message store organized in a hierarchy according to conversation, sub-conversation and topic,

ii) automatically directing all messages sent by the computer network client of a participant in a conversation to all members of the defined group of conversation participants,

iii) automatically preventing a message sender who is not amongst the participants, from sending a message to the participants, in the context of the synchronized conversation,

c) providing an application helper means for combining said group messaging engine with said network client,

d) providing a computer-readable medium allowing a plurality of such messages to be stored in a message store organized in a hierarchy according to conversation, sub-conversation and topic, said messages stored in a format allowing dissemination to one or more participants joined in a conversation,

whereby a spontaneous, synchronized conversation using electronic messages can be initiated and conducted by any user of a network client combined with said group messaging engine using said application helper means, without the significant cost and maintenance burden of a separate conferencing server, and

whereby each such synchronized conversation can be spontaneously initiated by a user of said network client combined with said group messaging engine using said application helper means, without the need for intervention by or permission of, a user outside the defined group of participants, said user having special administrative privileges as an application administrator, and

whereby the totality of messages comprising a synchronized conversation and its hierarchically structured sub-conversations and topics are automatically and methodically organized and stored in a hierarchically organized message store by conversation, sub-conversation and topic without the need for manual filing of messages in the synchronized conversation, or any further manual intervention other than the initial creation of the conversation or acceptance of invitation to join a synchronized conversation, and

whereby synchronization takes place between message stores of all participants in a conversation, said synchronization being between a subset of said hierarchically organized message store, said subset containing all messages pertaining to said conversation, and corresponding subsets of hierarchically organized message stores on each participating network client, said corresponding subsets each containing all messages pertaining to said conversation, without the need for any other means for inter-client message storage synchronization, and

whereby any sender of messages on said network, if not a member of said defined group of participants in a conversation, is automatically prevented from sending messages in the context of said conversation, which behavior when combined with the hierarchically organized synchronized message stores of participants, significantly increases the coherence of said conversation by preventing irrelevant and unsolicited messages and increasing the organization of the existing ones.

2. The method of claim 1, where said data in conversation message tags, placed in MIME-specific headers or in a body part of a MIME message, are comprised of:

a) a conversation header indicating the content of the message as a conversation,

b) a conversation name tag containing the name of the conversation represented by the message,

c) a unique conversation identifier tag containing a character string identifying the conversation,

d) a conversation topic tag containing the name of a topic within the conversation and

e) a conversation action header signaling one or more actions taken by a participant in the conversation;

where a combination of said conversation header, said conversation name tag, said unique conversation identifier tag, said conversation topic tag and said conversation action header define a context of the conversation represented by the message, including hierarchical relationship between conversation, sub-conversations and topic.

3. A computer-readable medium on which is stored the message as recited in claim 2, wherein the unique conversation identifier tag character string includes a conversation initiator address, conversation name, and a unique message identifier string.

4. The method of claim 1 where the network client is an Internet web browser.

5. The method of claim 1 the method comprising:

a) initiating a conversation by sending an invitation message to each participant in a first group of participants,

b) receiving an acceptance message from each participant in a second group of participants where the second group is either the same as the first group of participants or is a sub-set of the first group of participants, thereby

c) creating a conversation represented by a conversation structure, said conversation structure having a domain of participants defined as the second group of participants, having as a creator the recipient of the acceptance message from each participant in the second group of participants, and

d) accessing said conversation structure stored on a client machine, said client machine normally accessible by one of said participants in the second group of participants.

6. The method of claim 5, further including creating a topic within the conversation, said topic having a creator, where said creator of said topic can only be the sender of the invitation message from each participant in the second group.

7. The method of claim 6, further including methodically storing, in the conversation structure, one or more topics within a conversation.

8. The method of claim 5, further including methodically storing in the conversation structure general conversation meta information for a particular participant, including

a) information uniquely identifying conversations which said participant has initiated, and

b) information uniquely identifying conversations of which participant is a member but is not the initiator,

such that, said conversation structure, that stores said general conversation information for said particular participant, resides on the client machine of said particular participant.