Intelligent free-time search

• US 7,752,066 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Issued: 07/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sundstrom, Robert J., Kovales, Renee M., Doss, J. Smith, Pozefsky, Diane P.
• Primary Examiner(s): LOFTIS, JOHNNA RONEE
• Application Number:
  US11/831,732
• Publication Number:
  US 20080021760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/9, 705/32
• US Class Current: 705/7.19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for scheduling meetings by exploiting information of the type used with electronic calendars. By leveraging advanced calendaring system information and using location, other context information such as corporate policy, legal constraints, and technology constraints, and/or user-specific preferences to provide a complete picture of a person'"'"'s availability, the functionality (and therefore the value) of scheduling systems in increased, resulting in an ability to schedule meetings with more accuracy and less rework. Various allowable participation types for meeting invitees may be specified, and each invitee'"'"'s availability is determined accordingly. Location-sensitive travel times (including optional user-specific travel time adjustments) are used in preferred embodiments when in-person participation is required.

Claims

1. A method of scheduling a meeting, comprising using computer-readable program code executing on a computer for:

programmatically evaluating, for each of a plurality of meeting invitees of a meeting to be scheduled, calendar data of an electronic calendar of that meeting invitee to determine each meeting invitee'"'"'s availability for attending the meeting in each of at least one allowable participation type for which a meeting scheduler indicates that this meeting invitee is allowed to participate in the meeting, wherein at least one of the meeting invitees has at least two allowable participation types, by using calendared events of the calendar data of the meeting invitees to programmatically build, for each of the allowable participation types for each of the plurality of meeting invitees, a busy bar representing the calendared events of that meeting invitee, wherein;

each of the busy bars comprises a free-time segment for each time segment when the calendar data indicates that the meeting invitee is available for participation in the meeting in the corresponding allowable participation type and a busy-time segment for each time segment when the calendar data indicates that the meeting invitee is not available for participation in the meeting in the corresponding allowable participation type; and

for at least one of the plurality of meeting invitees that has at least two allowable participation types, the free-time segments and the busy-time segments in a first one of the busy bars programmatically built for a first one of the allowable participation types for that meeting invitee are different from the free-time segments and the busy-time segments in a second one of the busy bars programmatically built for a second one of the allowable participation types for that meeting invitee; and

programmatically scheduling the meeting at a time and location where the busy bars programmatically built by the programmatically evaluating indicate that each of the meeting invitees is available for attending the meeting by at least one of the at least one allowable participation type for that meeting invitee.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying user-specific preferences of a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the particular meeting invitee'"'"'s user-specific preferences indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting during this time segment in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying corporate policy considerations for a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the corporate policy considerations indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting during this time segment in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying corporate policy considerations for a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the corporate policy considerations indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting, in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built, at a particular meeting location associated with this time segment.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the programmatically scheduling further comprises programmatically determining, from the busy bars, one or more free-time segments when each of the plurality of meeting invitees is available for attending the meeting, in at least one of the at least one allowable participation type for that meeting invitee.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises, for all of the busy bars which were programmatically built for an allowable participation type of in-person participation, programmatically changing from a free-time segment to a busy-time segment each particular one of the free-time segments for which context-sensitive criteria indicate that the meeting invitee for whom the busy bar was programmatically built cannot participate in the meeting by in-person participation during that particular time segment.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the context-sensitive criteria comprise at least one of:

legal constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting;

location constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting;

technology constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting; and

device constraints of a device to be used by the meeting invitee at the meeting.

8. A system for scheduling a meeting, the system comprising:

a processor and a memory coupled thereto, the memory storing instructions which are executable, using the processor, to perform functions comprising;

programmatically evaluating, for each of a plurality of meeting invitees of a meeting to be scheduled, calendar data of an electronic calendar of that meeting invitee to determine each meeting invitee'"'"'s availability for attending the meeting in each of at least one allowable participation type for which a meeting scheduler indicates that this meeting invitee is allowed to participate in the meeting, wherein at least one of the meeting invitees has at least two allowable participation types, by using calendared events of the calendar data of the meeting invitees to programmatically build, for each of the allowable participation types for each of the plurality of meeting invitees, a busy bar representing the calendared events of that meeting invitee, wherein;

each of the busy bars comprises a free-time segment for each time segment when the calendar data indicates that the meeting invitee is available for participation in the meeting in the corresponding allowable participation type and a busy-time segment for each time segment when the calendar data indicates that the meeting invitee is not available for participation in the meeting in the corresponding allowable participation type; and

for at least one of the plurality of meeting invitees that has at least two allowable participation types, the free-time segments and the busy-time segments in a first one of the busy bars programmatically built for a first one of the allowable participation types for that meeting invitee are different from the free-time segments and the busy-time segments in a second one of the busy bars programmatically built for a second one of the allowable participation types for that meeting invitee; and

programmatically scheduling the meeting at a time and location where the busy bars programmatically built by the programmatically evaluating indicate that each of the meeting invitees is available for attending the meeting by at least one of the at least one allowable participation type for that meeting invitee.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying user-specific preferences of a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the particular meeting invitee'"'"'s user-specific preferences indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting during this time segment in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying corporate policy considerations for a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the corporate policy considerations indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting during this time segment in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was built.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying corporate policy considerations for a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the corporate policy considerations indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting, in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built, at a particular meeting location associated with this time segment.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the programmatically scheduling further comprises programmatically determining, from the busy bars, one or more free-time segments when each of the plurality of meeting invitees is available for attending the meeting, in at least one of the at least one allowable participation type for that meeting invitee.

13. The system according to claim 8, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises, for all of the busy bars which were programmatically built for an allowable participation type of in-person participation, programmatically changing from a free-time segment to a busy-time segment each particular one of the free-time segments for which context-sensitive criteria indicate that the meeting invitee for whom the busy bar was programmatically built cannot participate in the meeting by in-person participation during that particular time segment.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the context-sensitive criteria comprise at least one of:

legal constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting;

location constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting;

technology constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting; and

device constraints of a device to be used by the meeting invitee at the meeting.

15. A computer program product for scheduling a meeting, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable program code embodied therein for:

programmatically evaluating, for each of a plurality of meeting invitees of a meeting to be scheduled, calendar data of an electronic calendar of that meeting invitee to determine each meeting invitee'"'"'s availability for attending the meeting in each of at least one allowable participation type for which a meeting scheduler indicates that this meeting invitee is allowed to participate in the meeting, wherein at least one of the meeting invitees has at least two allowable participation types, by using calendared events of the calendar data of the meeting invitees to programmatically build, for each of the allowable participation types for each of the plurality of meeting invitees, a busy bar representing the calendared events of that meeting invitee, wherein;

each of the busy bars comprises a free-time segment for each time segment when the calendar data indicates that the meeting invitee is available for participation in the meeting in the corresponding allowable participation type and a busy-time segment for each time segment when the calendar data indicates that the meeting invitee is not available for participation in the meeting in the corresponding allowable participation type; and

for at least one of the plurality of meeting invitees that has at least two allowable participation types, the free-time segments and the busy-time segments in a first one of the busy bars programmatically built for a first one of the allowable participation types for that meeting invitee are different from the free-time segments and the busy-time segments in a second one of the busy bars programmatically built for a second one of the allowable participation types for that meeting invitee; and

programmatically scheduling the meeting at a time and location where the busy bars programmatically built by the programmatically evaluating indicate that each of the meeting invitees is available for attending the meeting by at least one of the at least one allowable participation type for that meeting invitee.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying user-specific preferences of a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the particular meeting invitee'"'"'s user-specific preferences indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting during this time segment in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built.

17. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying corporate policy considerations for a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the corporate policy considerations indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting during this time segment in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built.

18. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the programmatically evaluating further comprises programmatically changing at least one of the free-time segments in at least one of the busy bars to a busy-time segment, thereby applying corporate policy considerations for a particular one of the meeting invitees for whom that busy bar was programmatically built, when the corporate policy considerations indicate that the particular meeting invitee cannot participate in the meeting, in the allowable participation type for which this busy bar was programmatically built, at a particular meeting location associated with this time segment.

19. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the programmatically scheduling further comprises programmatically determining, from the busy bars, one or more free-time segments when each of the plurality of meeting invitees is available for attending the meeting, in at least one of the at least one allowable participation type for that meeting invitee.

20. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein:

the programmatically evaluating further comprises, for all of the busy bars which were programmatically built for an allowable participation type of in-person participation, programmatically changing from a free-time segment to a busy-time segment each particular one of the free-time segments for which context-sensitive criteria indicate that the meeting invitee for whom the busy bar was programmatically built cannot participate in the meeting by in-person participation during that particular time segment; and

the context-sensitive criteria comprise at least one of;

legal constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting;

location constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting;

technology constraints for the meeting invitee at the meeting; and

device constraints of a device to be used by the meeting invitee at the meeting.