Meetings near me

• US 7,660,851 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2005
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Flannery, Eliot, Singhal, Sandeep K., Manion, Todd R., Rao, Ravi, Cunningham, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue; Larry D
• Application Number:
  US11/175,937
• Publication Number:
  US 20070011233A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 348/14.08, 715751-758
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms

Abstract

A method for creating, discovering, and joining meetings over a peer-to-peer network involves creation of a graph of meetings on a local subnet. When a meeting is created a meeting record is added to the graph where it may be discovered by other potential meeting attendees. A user may select from a list of meetings displayed in a meeting management window and send requested showing the selected meaning. Credentials, such as a password, may be supplied with the request. When the request is validated, information is sent to the requester for use in joining the meeting. When an ad hoc wireless session is used to hold a meeting the discovery process may further include analyzing data traffic to determine which wireless sessions are meetings.

Claims

1. A method of adding attendees to a meeting held over a peer-to-peer network comprising:

starting the meeting;

creating a meeting record corresponding to the meeting after starting the meeting;

sending the meeting record to at least one of a meeting graph of a subnet or a discovery protocol, the meeting record comprising at least one of an Internet protocol address or network endpoint;

enumerating current wireless sessions;

monitoring data traffic associated with each enumerated wireless session;

determining which of the enumerated wireless sessions represent online meetings; and

obtaining a meeting record from data published in each of the enumerated wireless sessions determined to be a meeting;

receiving a request to join the meeting from a requesting party, the request comprising data from the meeting record; and

sending an invitation to the requesting party when the request to join the meeting meets a criterion.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising joining the requested party to the meeting via a meeting organizer application instance.

4. The method claim 1, further comprising:

sending a password and an invitation for the meeting to a meeting invitee, wherein receiving the request to join the meeting further comprises receiving the password and the criterion comprises validation of the password.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying meeting information for at least one of the meeting record or each additional meeting record.

2. A computer adapted for a operation in a peer-to-peer network, the computer comprising:

a processing unit for executing instructions;

a networking device coupled to processing unit for coupling data transmitted between the computer and a network; and

a memory for storing computer executable instructions, coupled to the processing unit, the computer executable instructions for executing a method comprising;

discovering records corresponding to meetings on a peer-to-peer subnet cataloging observable wireless sessions, wherein monitoring data from each of the observable wireless sessions comprises;

determining which of the observable wireless sessions are meetings; and

obtaining the meeting record from data published in at least one of the observable wireless sessions determined to be a meeting;

reading the records;

displaying information corresponding to the meetings;

receiving a selection of one the meetings;

sending a request to join the one of the meetings; and

joining the meeting when the request is approved.