Guest account life cycle

• US 7,904,558 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2009
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Malik, Dale W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US12/397,079
• Publication Number:
  US 20090164235A1
• Time in Patent Office: 735 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-229, 709/220, 709/221, 709/250
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for managing accounts within a network community. Briefly described in architecture, some embodiments of such a system provide an account server to manage direct accounts for resident users of the network community and guest accounts for guests of the resident users. In addition, a client of a respective resident user of the network community is configured to send to a non-resident user of the network community an invitation to become a guest of the respective resident user. Other systems and methods are also provided.

Claims

1. A system for managing accounts within a network community, comprising:

an account server configured to;

manage a plurality of direct accounts for a plurality of resident users of the network community and a guest account for a guest user of a respective resident user;

send to the guest user of the network community an invitation to become a direct member of the network community; and

create a direct member account for the guest user after the sending of the invitation.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a client of the guest user of the respective resident user configured to send a response to the invitation to become a direct member of the network community.

3. The system of claim 1, the account server further configured to:

send the invitation to the guest user prior to cancellation of the guest user account.

4. The system of claim 1, further configured to:

notify a host of an acceptance or declination of the invitation to become a direct member of the network community by the guest user.

5. The system of claim 1, the account server further configured to:

receive a response from the guest user to the invitation to become a direct member of the network community; and

activate the direct member account of the guest user if the response to the invitation is acceptance of the invitation, wherein guest information stored within the guest account is used to setup the direct member account.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the invitation is an email message.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a respective guest account contains a data field to specify an end-date for canceling the respective guest account, the account server configured to:

after occurrences of the end-data, offer the guest user associated with the respective guest account an opportunity to convert the respective guest account into a new direct account;

schedule a cancellation date of the guest account after receiving a request to cancel a respective direct account of the respective resident user sponsoring the guest account;

schedule a cancellation date of the guest account after receiving a request, from the respective resident user sponsoring the guest account, to cancel the guest account of the guest user; and

schedule a cancellation date of the guest account after receiving a request, from the guest user associated with the guest account, to cancel the guest account.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the request to cancel the guest account is generated by an act of removing the guest user associated with the guest account from a roster list of the respective resident user.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the request to cancel the guest account is generated by an act of removing the respective resident user from a roster list of the guest user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein members of the network community utilize a common network service, the members of the network community comprising the plurality of resident users and guest users of the plurality of resident users.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the network service is an Internet application.

12. A system for managing accounts within a network community, comprising:

means for sending an invitation to a guest user to become a direct member of the network community;

means for managing a guest account of the guest user of the network community;

means for creating a new direct member account for the guest user after sending an invitation to the guest user; and

means for setting up the new direct member account with information contained within the guest user account.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for answering the invitation;

means for activating the new direct member account if an answer to the invitation is an acceptance of the invitation; and

means for deleting the guest account if the answer to the invitation is a declination of the invitation.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for specifying an end-date for canceling the guest account; and

means for, after occurrence of the end-date, offering the guest user an opportunity to convert the guest account into the new direct member account.

15. A method for managing accounts within a network community, comprising:

managing a guest account of a guest user of the network community;

sending an invitation to the guest user to become a direct user of the network community; and

creating a new direct member account for the guest user after sending the invitation to the guest user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein identification information about the guest user contained in the guest account is utilized to setup the new direct member account.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

specifying and end-date for canceling the guest account, wherein the end-date is stored in a data field contained in the guest account; and

after occurrences of the end-data, offering the guest user an opportunity to convert the guest account into the new direct account.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

after receiving an acceptance to the invitation by the guest user, activating the new direct member account.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving an answer to the invitation;

deleting the guest account if the answer to the invitation is a declination of the invitation; and

activating the new direct member account if the answer to the invitation is an acceptance of the invitation.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein members of the network community utilize a common network service, the members of the network community comprising resident users and guests of the resident users.