System and process for network collaboration through embedded annotation and rendering instructions

• US 7,647,373 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2001
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ePlus Capital, Inc. (ePlus Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: ePlus Capital, Inc. (ePlus Incorporated)
• Inventors: Johnson, Stephen, Hornbaker, Cecil V. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Siddiqi; Mohammad A
• Application Number:
  US09/804,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20030023679A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,227 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-205, 709/219, 709/300, 709/231, 709/232, 709/237, 709/246, 709/719, 717/512, 717/513, 717/501, 117/501, 117/512, 117/513, 715/515, 715/512, 715/523, 715/230, 715/232, 715/233
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A process for network collaboration using embedded annotations and rendering instructions allowing collaborators to generate, share, and render collaborative content over the internet without installing any applications other than a web browser is disclosed, which allows the recipients of such collaborative content to view the content without installing any application other than the web browser. The message containing collaborative content sent between collaborators is a URL and collaborative content elements, which not only contain the identity of the base document, but an encoded representation of the collaborative content itself. These URLs are self-contained, and can be distributed using synchronous or asynchronous messaging systems.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of network collaboration through embedded annotation and rendering instructions to generate, transmit, and render collaborative content, the method comprising the steps of:

generating by an originator client workstation a collaborative content including a base document having a document identifier that identifies a location of a content; and

at least one collaborative content element that comprises at least one annotation therein and rendering instructions therefore so as to annotate said base document by embedding said at least one annotation and instructions therefore as an encoded representation of collaborative content and forwarding the collaborative content to a server for execution;

rendering by a server said collaborative content element to said base document in accordance with said rendering instructions, and providing said collaborative content to said originator client workstation for display.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of annotating said collaborative content by adding another collaborative content element.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein said annotating step comprises presenting annotation options to said client workstation.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein said annotating step comprises inputting a text element to name said collaborative content element.

5. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein said annotating step comprises inputting at least one of a symbol, shape and a text input element to generate said at least one of a symbol, shape and a text as said collaborative element.

6. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein said annotating step comprises providing a visual cue to indicate the state of said collaborative content.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein said visual cue comprises at least one of a marker, cursor, icon, and marquee box.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said originator client workstation includes as least one of a personal computer equipped with internet browser software, a mobile communication device with a graphical or textual display, and a personal digital assistant equipped with a hypertext viewer.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said originator client workstation includes a program execution capability comprising:

an interpreted software program;

a compiled software program; and

a software program executed by a virtual machine.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said network is a peer-to-peer network, and the rendering step is performed on a server portion of said originator client workstation in said peer-to-peer network.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

transmitting between said originator client workstation and at least one receiver client workstation a document identifier having said rendering instructions embedded therein and comprising said collaborative content.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said transmitting step is initiated by a user selecting a visual element to transmit said collaborative content subsequent to said collaborative content being saved.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said transmitting step is performed using a messaging system.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein said messaging system includes at least one of:

an electronic mail system;

an electronic news or bulletin-board system; and

a mobile paging system.

15. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said transmitting step is performed using a transport mechanism including at least one of:

a wireless protocol;

a synchronous messaging protocol; and

an asynchronous messaging protocol.

16. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the collaborative content transmitted in said transmitting step includes a URL and rendering instructions.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of annotating said collaborative content by adding another collaborative content element by said at least one receiver client workstation.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the document identifier comprises a Universal Resource Locator (URL).

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein the document identifier comprises a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein the document identifier comprises an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

21. A system for network collaboration using embedded annotation and rendering instructions comprising:

a processor for receiving and transmitting data; and

a memory coupled to the processor, said memory having stored therein sequences of instructions which, when executed by said processor, cause said processor to generate a collaborative content including a base document having a document identifier that identifies a location of content of said base document, and at least one collaborative content element having an embedded annotation in said document identifier and rendering instructions therefore, to render the collaborative content in accordance with rendering instructions.

22. The system as claimed in claim 21 wherein said memory further comprises sequences of instructions which, when executed by said processor, cause said processor to annotate the collaborative content by adding another collaborative content element.

23. The system as claimed in claim 22 wherein said annotate instructions comprise presenting annotation options to a user at the client workstation.

24. The system as claimed in claim 22 wherein said annotate instructions comprise inputting a text element to name said collaborative content element.

25. The system as claimed in claim 22 wherein said, annotate instructions comprise inputting at least one of a symbol, shape and a text input element to generate said at least one of a symbol, shape and text as said collaborative element.

26. The system as claimed in claim 22 wherein said annotate instructions comprise providing a visual cue to indicate the state of said collaborative content.

27. The system as claimed in claim 26 wherein the visual cue comprises at least one of a marker, cursor, icon, and marquee box.

28. The system as claimed in claim 21 wherein the client workstation includes at least one of a personal computer equipped with internet browser software, a mobile communication device with a graphical or textual display, and a personal digital assistant equipped with a hypertext viewer.

29. The system as claimed in claim 21 wherein the client workstation includes a program execution capability comprising:

an interpreted software program;

a compiled software program; and

a software program executed by a virtual machine.

30. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the rendering instructions are performed on a client workstation.

31. The system as claimed in claim 21 wherein the rendering instructions are performed on a server.

32. The system as claimed in claim 21 wherein said sequences of instructions include at least one of a client-side scripting language.

33. The system as claimed in claim 21 wherein said sequences of instructions include at least one of Javascript and dynamic HTML.

34. The system according to claim 21, further adapted for transmitting the collaborative content and rendering instructions therefore between client workstations.

35. The system as claimed in claim 34, wherein said transmit instruction is initiated by a user selecting a visual element to transmit the collaborative content subsequent to said collaborative content being saved.

36. The system as claimed in claim 34, wherein a transmit instruction is performed using a messaging system.

37. The system as claimed in claim 36 wherein the messaging system includes at least one of:

an electronic mail system;

an electronic news or bulletin-board system; and

a mobile paging system.

38. The system as claimed in claim 34, wherein a transmit instruction is performed using a transport mechanism including at least one of:

an internet protocol;

a wireless protocol;

a synchronous messaging protocol; and

an asynchronous messaging protocol.

39. The system as claimed in claim 34, wherein the collaborative content transmitted includes a URL comprising the embedded annotation and rendering instructions.

40. The system according to claim 34, wherein the client workstations transmit collaborative content and rendering instructions via a server.