Intelligent delayed broadcast method and apparatus

• US 7,904,523 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2008
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cragun, Brian John
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava; Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goodchild; William J
• Application Number:
  US12/181,820
• Publication Number:
  US 20080281935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 379/92.01, 379/88.16, 379/88.22, 379/92.02, 379/92.04, 705/10, 707/11, 707/1
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• 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: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

A method, system, and article of manufacture that improves the chance of getting an answer to a broadcast chat by sending the messages in subscribers in periodically delayed groups. If a group of subscribers does not produce enough suitable answers, the present invention will then rebroadcast the inquiry to another group of subscribers. This process will continue until enough suitable answers are received.

Claims

1. A computer program product, comprising:

(a) a program configured to perform a method a broadcast messaging method, the method comprising;

receiving a message for a plurality of subscribers and a desired number of suitable responses from a sender;

broadcasting the message to subsets of the plurality of subscribers in a first round of waves;

if the sender does not receive the desired number of suitable responses, rebroadcasting the message to subsets of substantially the same plurality of subscribers in a second round of waves;

wherein broadcasting the message to subsets of the plurality of subscribers in a round of waves comprises periodically sending the message to two or more subscribers until substantially all of the plurality of subscribers receives the message; and

(b) a tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media encoded with the program.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an answer to the message; and

transmitting the answer to an original sender.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises receiving an approval indication from the original sender.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises tracking the subscriber who sent the approved message.

5. The computer program product of claim 3, further comprising stopping the broadcast if the original sender approves the answer.

6. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second inquiry; and

transmitting the second inquiry the plurality of subscribers in a series of periodic waves and rounds, wherein the first round of broadcasts of the second inquiry does not include the subscriber who sent the approved message.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising assigning a pass credit score to each subscriber, and wherein the method further comprises using the pass credit scores to select the first subset of subscribers.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein subscribers are exempted from the selection based at least in part on desirable pass credit score and wherein the desirable pass credit scores comprise a reward for responding to previous inquiries.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein answering an inquiry increases a subscriber'"'"'s pass credit score.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media comprises a non-rewritable storage media.

11. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media comprises a writable storage media.

12. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the second round comprises subscribers who are more likely to have a satisfactory answer.

13. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the message comprises an instant message transmitted over the Internet.

14. A message broadcast system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

a broadcast server stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the broadcast server is adapted to

receive a message for a plurality of subscribers and a desired number of suitable responses from a sender;

broadcast the message to subsets of the plurality of subscribers in a first round of waves;

if the sender does not receive the desired number of suitable responses, rebroadcast the message to subsets of substantially the same plurality of subscribers in a second round of waves; and

wherein broadcasting the message to subsets of the plurality of subscribers in a round of waves comprises periodically sending the message to two or more subscribers until substantially all of the plurality of subscribers receives the message.

15. The broadcast messaging system of claim 14, further comprising a first broadcast client that transmits the message to the broadcast server.

16. The broadcast messaging system of claim 15, further comprising a second broadcast client that receives the message from the broadcast server.

17. The broadcast messaging system of claim 14, wherein the message comprises an instant message.

18. A computer program product, comprising:

(a) a program configured to perform a method of polling a plurality of subscribers to a broadcast messaging system, the method comprising;

receiving an inquiry from a sender;

broadcasting the inquiry to groups of the plurality of subscribers in a first series of waves,

receiving an answer to the inquiry from one subscriber;

transmitting the answer to the sender; and

rebroadcasting the inquiry to groups of substantially the same plurality of subscribers in a second series of waves if the sender does not approve the answer;

wherein broadcasting and rebroadcasting the message to groups of the plurality of subscribers in a series of waves comprises repeatedly sending the message to two or more subscribers until substantially all of the plurality of subscribers receives the message; and

(b) a tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media encoded with the program.