Recursive identification of individuals for casual collaborative conferencing

• US 6,721,410 B1
• Filed: 08/10/1999
• Issued: 04/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Will, Craig Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ADDY, THJUAN KNOWLIN
• Application Number:
  US09/371,781
• Time in Patent Office: 1,708 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 379/201.11, 709/219, 709/217
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• 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 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• 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 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2044 Group features, e.g. closed user group
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A method for real-time communication among two or more individuals separated in space. The method includes the steps of determining that a first individual is likely to be interested in communicating with a second individual via a first communications link; retrieving information via the first communications link about one or more additional individuals from electronic memory means associated with the second individual; and establishing communication with at least one of the additional individuals based on the retrieved information.

Claims

1. A method for real-time communication among two or more individuals separated in space, comprising the steps of:

determining that a first individual is likely to be interested in communicating with a second individual via a first communications link;

retrieving information via the first communications link about one or more additional individuals from electronic memory means associated with the second individual; and

establishing communication with at least one of the additional individuals based on the retrieved information; and

wherein the information retrieved from the electronic memory means associated with the second individual is organized in a personal directory included in the electronic memory means.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the information about one or more individuals in the personal directory is entered manually by the second individual.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second individual sets permissions associated to the access of the personal directory by others.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the permissions set allow the personal directory associated with the second individual to be accessed by the public.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the permissions set allow the personal directory associated with the second individual to be accessed by specific persons or group of persons designated by the second individual.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the permissions set make public a plurality of individual records, each record containing information corresponding to each of the at least one individuals.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the permissions set make available, to specific persons or group of persons, a plurality of individual records, each record containing information corresponding to each of the at least one individuals.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the permissions set for a given personal directory vary according to a mode of use in a collaborative conferencing session.

3. A method for real-time communication among two or more individuals separated in space comprising the steps of:

determining that a first individual is likely to be interested in communicating with a second individual via a first communications link;

retrieving information via the first communications link about one or more additional individuals from electronic memory means associated with the second individual; and

establishing communication with at least one of the additional individuals based on the retrieved information; and

wherein the information in the electronic memory means is obtained by observing previous communications between the second individual and one of the individuals in the electronic memory means; and

wherein the information is organized in a personal directory included in the electronic memory means.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the second individual sets permission associated to the access of the personal directory by others.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the permissions set allow the personal directory associated with the second individual to be accessed by the public.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the permissions set allow the personal directory associated with the second individual to be accessed by specific persons or group of persons designated by the second individual.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the permissions set make public a plurality of individual records, each record containing information corresponding to each of the at least one individuals.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the permissions set make available, to specific persons or group of persons, a plurality of individual records, each record containing information corresponding to each of the at least one individuals.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the permissions set for a given personal directory vary according to a mode of use in a collaborative conferencing session.