Methods, tools, and interfaces for the dynamic assignment of people to groups to enable enhanced communication and collaboration

• US 7,644,144 B1
• Filed: 12/21/2001
• Issued: 01/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Blagsvedt, Sean, Kadie, Carl M.
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US10/036,566
• Time in Patent Office: 2,937 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-204, 709/220, 709/223, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system for optimizing the value of communications between communicating parties is provided. The system includes a communication group manager that facilitates specifying policies, preferences and/or automated analysis of ideal communication channels, routing and/or scheduling in terms of communicating party groups that can be pre-populated clusters of communicating parties, assembled based on relationships (e.g., organizational), and/or assembled based on satisfying inclusion criteria (e.g., age, location, competence, communication history, meeting history). The communication group manager maps communicating parties into predefined and/or dynamically created groups that facilitate specifying and/or automatically computing ideal communication actions like selecting a channel, displaying lists of potential channels sorted by communicating party preferences, and (re)scheduling communications to different channels and/or times. Ideal communication actions can be identified by maximizing a measure of expected communication utility, where groups provide simplifying abstractions to facilitate assessment of outcome utilities. The method can employ representations of preferences of the contactor and contactee that allow for group-specific preference considerations that weight differentially contactor and/or contactee preference considerations in communication action optimization. The system includes a group wise communication coordinator that identifies optimal group communication sets. The method facilitates a recipient communicating with a group member where the communication utility is optimized based on a preference, and a context associated with the group to which the member belongs.

Claims

1. A computer-based system that facilitates optimizing utility of a communication, the system comprising:

an identifier that identifies one or more communication channels that facilitate maximizing the utility of the communication, the utility of the communication based on a cost and a benefit of the communication to a contactor and a contactee, the cost and the benefit of the communication is related to one or more preferences of the contactor and the contactee;

a communication group manager that manages a group of communicating parties to facilitate optimizing the utility of the communication along a communication channel identified by the identifier, membership of the group of communicating parties based at least in part on a reciprocated communication history between entities that comprise the group;

a groupwise communication coordinator that coordinates communication between a subset of the managed group of communicating parties to facilitate maximizing the utility of the communication; and

a groupwise communication assembler that assembles the group of communicating parties, identifies one or more group member classifications required for the group communication, identifies a minimal number of communicating parties from each of the one or more group member classifications required for the group communication, and verifies that at least the minimal number of communicating parties from each of the one or more group member classifications are available for the group communication.

2. The system of claim 1, where the communication occurs between one or more contactors and one or more contactees and where the identifier comprises:

a processor;

a preference resolver that analyzes a contactee preference data and a contactor preference data and produces a resolved preference data;

a context analyzer that analyzes a contactee context data and a contactor context data and produces an analyzed context data;

a channel analyzer that analyzes one or more communication channels between a contactor and a contactee and produces a communication channel data; and

a communication establisher that establishes a communication between the contactor and the contactee based, at least in part, on the resolved preference data, the analyzed context data, communicating party selection data and the communication channel data.

3. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether two or more communicating parties are concurrently engaged in a related activity, or are likely to become concurrently engaged in a related activity.

4. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether two or more communicating parties are concurrently engaged in a similar activity, or are likely to become concurrently engaged in a similar activity.

5. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether two or more communicating parties are concurrently processing one or more related documents, or are likely to concurrently process one or more related documents.

6. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether two or more communicating parties are concurrently viewing one or more related documents, or are likely to concurrently view one or more related documents.

7. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether two or more communicating parties are concurrently engaged in a shared project, or are likely to become concurrently engaged in a shared project.

8. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether two or more communicating parties are scheduled to communicate within a pre-defined period of time, or have communicated within a pre-defined period of time.

9. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether two or more communicating parties are scheduled to meet within a pre-defined period of time, or have met within a pre-defined period of time.

10. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether a communicating party has engaged in one or more pre-defined activities of interest within a pre-defined period of time, or is likely to engage in one or more pre-defined activities of interest within a pre-defined period of time.

11. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon whether a communicating party has purchased one or more pre-defined items of interest, or has registered an interest in one or more pre-defined items of interest.

12. The system of claim 1, the utility optimization based at least in part upon the degree to which a communicating party is trusted by one or more other communicating parties.

13. The system of claim 1 where an expected utility for the communication is computed by E[u(d_i, c)]=s_j ε

S Σ

m (s_j, d_i) p(s_j|d_i, c) where p(s_j|d_i, c) represents a probability of achieving a future state s_j give a decision d concerning situation c, capturing communication channel parameters, nature of a contactor and a context of the a contactee.

14. The system of claim 1, where a utility function employed to compute the utility of the communication is a combination of functions that separately consider the cost and the benefit of the communication to the contactor and contactee.

15. The system of claim 1, where a utility function employed to compute the utility of the communication is a multi-linear combination of one or more weighted terms associated with the contactor and contactee.

16. The system of claim 1, where the group wise communication coordinator comprises:

a group wise communication scheduler that schedules a time for the group communication that maximizes the utility of the communication.

17. A computer implemented system for optimizing the utility of a communication involving a group member, the system comprising:

means for creating a group where membership of the group is based at least in part on one or more common communication history between members of the group;

means for managing a group;

means for a recipient to communicate with a group member, where the utility of the communication is optimized based, at least in part, on a preference, and a context associated with the group to which the member belongs, the communication further optimized based on a cost and a benefit of the communication to individual members of the group, the cost and the benefit associated with the preference and the context associated with the group to which the member belongs; and

means for assembling a group of communicating parties, identifying one or more group member classifications required for group communication, identifying a minimal number of communicating parties from each of the one or more group member classifications required for the group communication, and verifying that at least the minimal number of communicating parties from each of the one or more group member classifications are available for the group communication.