Dynamic creation of mail aliases usable in electronic communications

• US 8,055,716 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2006
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Morgan, Janet, Shieh, Johnny M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele; Krista
• Assistant Examiner(s): FABBRI, ANTHONY E
• Application Number:
  US11/550,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20080098069A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,846 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/206, 709/220, 713/155, 713/159
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

Mail aliases are dynamically created in response to replies of an electronic mail (e-mail) communication. An e-mail communication is sent to a plurality of recipients, and one or more recipients of the e-mail communication respond to the e-mail. In response to receiving the replies, one or more mail aliases are automatically created.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically creating mail aliases usable in electronic communications in a communications environment, said method comprising:

receiving a response to an electronic mail sent via a mail alias to a plurality of recipients, said receiving comprising receiving one or more responses from one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients, the mail alias being different than respective electronic mail addresses of the plurality of recipients;

determining, in response to the receiving, that one electronic mail with one message is to be sent to one group of one or more members meeting a first criterion and another electronic mail with another message is to be sent to another group of one or more members meeting a second criterion different than the first criterion, wherein the first criterion comprises non-responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients, and wherein the second criterion comprises responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients;

subsequently, upon a predefined occurrence, automatically creating, by a communications unit of the communications environment, one or more additional mail aliases, in response and with reference to receiving of the one or more responses, the one or more additional mail aliases being distinct from the mail alias, wherein the automatically creating comprises automatically generating for each additional mail alias of the one or more additional mail aliases a new name for the additional mail alias and automatically associating an electronic mail address of each member of a group of members to the automatically generated new name of the additional mail alias to enable the group of members to be specified via the additional mail alias, the additional mail alias being distinct from the respective electronic mail addresses of the group of members, and wherein the additional mail alias is subsequently selected and inserted into a TO section of the electronic, mail header of a subsequent electronic mail to be sent to the group of members via an electronic mail program and wherein the group of members is selected, at least in part, responsive to the receiving of the one or more responses from the one or more recipients; and

wherein the automatically creating further comprises creating a mail alias for the one group, wherein the mail alias for the one group includes an electronic mail address for each member of the one or more members meeting the first criterion, and wherein the automatically creating further creates a mail alias for the another group that includes an electronic mail address for each member of the one or more members meeting the second criterion, wherein the automatically creating further includes adding an electronic mail address for a responder to the mail alias for the another group, in response to the responder responding.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating the mail alias for the one group comprises automatically creating a mail alias of non-responders that includes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail and excludes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating the mail alias for the another group comprises automatically creating a mail alias of responders that includes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail and excludes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically creating further comprises creating the one or more mail aliases without user intervention based on the one or more responses.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically creating is performed in response to receiving the one or more responses and in response to the predefined occurrence of a predetermined event.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined event comprises one of expiration of a predetermined amount of time and receipt of a selected number of replies.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically creating further comprises:

determining whether a mail alias of non-responders is to be created;

creating a mail alias of non-responders, in response to the determining indicating the mail alias of non-responders is to be created, said mail alias of non-responders comprising the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail and excluding the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail;

determining whether a mail alias of responders is to be created; and

creating the mail alias of responders, in response to the determining indicating the mail alias of responders is to be created, said mail alias of responders comprising the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail and excluding the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of recipients are identified in a mail alias, and wherein at least one mail alias of the one or more mail aliases automatically created comprises a modified version of the mail alias.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating the electronic mail to be sent to the plurality of recipients, said creating including an indication that one or more mail aliases are allowed to be automatically created; and

sending the electronic mail to the plurality of recipients.

10. A method of dynamically creating mail aliases usable in electronic communications in a communications environment, said method comprising:

creating an electronic mail to be sent to a plurality of recipients via a mail alias, the mail alias being different than respective electronic mail addresses of the plurality of recipients, and said creating including an indication that one or more additional mail aliases are allowed to be automatically created;

sending the electronic mail to the plurality of recipients via the mail alias;

receiving one or more replies to the electronic mail from one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients;

determining, in response to the receiving, that one electronic mail with one message is to be sent to one group of one or more members meeting a first criterion and another electronic mail with another message is to be sent to another group of one or more members meeting a second criterion different than the first criterion, wherein the first criterion comprises non-responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients, and wherein the second criterion comprises responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients;

determining whether a predetermined event has occurred;

upon occurrence of the predetermined event, automatically creating, by a communications unit of the communications environment, an additional mail alias of non-responders in response to the occurrence of the predetermined event, said additional mail alias of non-responders being distinct from the mail alias and including recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail and excluding recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail, wherein the automatically creating the additional mail alias of non-responders comprises automatically generating a new name for the additional mail alias of non-responders and automatically associating an electronic mail address of each non-responder to the electronic mail to the automatically generated new name of the additional mail alias of non-responders to enable the non-responders to be specified via the additional mail alias of non-responders, the additional mail alias of non-responders being distinct from the respective electronic mail addresses of the non-responders;

upon occurrence of the predetermined event, automatically creating, by the communications unit of the communications environment, an additional mail alias of responders, in response to the occurrence of the predetermined event, said additional mail alias of responders being distinct from the mail alias and including the recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded over time to the electronic mail and excluding recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail, wherein the automatically creating the additional mail alias of responders comprises automatically generating a new name for the additional mail alias and automatically associating an electronic mail address of each responder to the electronic mail to the automatically generated new name of the additional mail alias of responders to enable the responders to be specified via the additional mail alias of responders, the additional mail alias of responders being distinct from the respective electronic mail addresses of the responders, and wherein the automatically creating further includes adding an electronic address for at least one responder to the additional mail alias of responders, in response to the responder responding; and

selecting at least one of the additional mail alias of non-responders or the additional mail alias of responders to send an electronic mail to members of the at least one of the additional mail alias of non-responders or the additional mail alias of responders, wherein the selecting includes providing the selected additional mail alias in a TO header of the electronic mail to be sent to members of the at least one of the additional mail alias of non-responders or the additional mail alias of responders.

11. A computer system for dynamically creating mail aliases usable in electronic communications, said computer system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor, in communications with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, the method comprising;

receiving a response to an electronic mail sent via a mail alias to a plurality of recipients, the receiving comprising receiving one or more responses from one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients, the mail alias being different than respective electronic mail addresses of the plurality of recipients;

determining, in response to the receiving, that one electronic mail with one message is to be sent to one group of one or more members meeting a first criterion and another electronic mail with another message is to be sent to another group of one or more members meeting a second criterion different than the first criterion, wherein the first criterion comprises non-responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients, and wherein the second criterion comprises responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients;

subsequently, upon a predefined occurrence, automatically creating one or more additional mail aliases, in response and with reference to receiving of the one or more responses, the one or more additional mail aliases being distinct from the mail alias, wherein the automatically creating comprises automatically generating for each additional mail alias of the one or more additional mail aliases a new name for the additional mail alias and automatically associating an electronic mail address of each member of a group of members to the automatically generated new name of the additional mail alias to enable the group of members to be specified via the additional mail alias, the additional mail alias being distinct from the respective electronic mail addresses of the group of members, and wherein the additional mail alias is subsequently selected and inserted into a TO section of the electronic mail header of a subsequent electronic mail to be sent to the group of members via an electronic mail program, and wherein the group of members is selected, at least in part, responsive to the receiving of the one or more responses from the one or more recipients; and

wherein the automatically creating further comprises creating a mail alias for the one group, wherein the mail alias for the one group includes an electronic mail address for each member of the one or more members meeting the first criterion, and wherein the automatically creating further creates mail alias for the another group that includes an electronic mail address for each member of the one or more members meeting the second criterion, wherein the automatically creating further includes adding an electronic mail address for a responder to the mail alias for the another group, in response to the responder responding.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the creating the mail alias for the one group comprises automatically creating a mail alias of non-responders that includes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail and excludes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the creating the mail alias for the another group comprises automatically creating a mail alias of responders that includes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail and excludes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail.

14. A computer program product for dynamically creating mail aliases usable in electronic communications, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processor and storing instructions for execution by the processor to perform a method comprising;

receiving a response to an electronic mail sent via a mail alias to a plurality of recipients, said receiving comprising receiving one or more responses from one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients, the mail alias being different than respective electronic mail addresses of the plurality of recipients;

determining, in response to the receiving, that one electronic mail with one message is to be sent to one group of one or more members meeting a first criterion and another electronic mail with another message is to be sent to another group of one or more members meeting a second criterion different than the first criterion, wherein the first criterion comprises non-responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients, and wherein the second criterion comprises responding to the electronic email sent via the mail alias to the plurality of recipients;

subsequently, upon a predefined occurrence, automatically creating one or more additional mail aliases, in response and with reference to receiving of the one or more responses, the one or more additional mail aliases being distinct from the mail alias, wherein the automatically creating comprises automatically generating for each additional mail alias of the one or more additional mail aliases a new name for the additional mail alias and automatically associating an electronic mail address of each member of a group of members to the automatically generated new name of the additional mail alias to enable the group of members to be specified via the additional mail alias, the additional mail alias being distinct from the respective electronic mail addresses of the group of members, and wherein the additional mail alias is subsequently selected and inserted into a TO section of the electronic mail header of a subsequent electronic mail to be sent to the group of members via an electronic mail program and wherein the group of members is selected, at least in part, responsive to the receiving of the one or more responses from the one or more recipients; and

wherein the automatically creating further comprises creating a mail alias for the one group, wherein the mail alias for the one group includes an electronic mail address for each member of the one or more members meeting the first criterion, and wherein the automatically creating further creates a mail alias for the another group that includes an electronic mail address for each member of the one or more members meeting the second criterion, wherein the automatically creating further includes adding an electronic mail address for a responder to the mail alias for the another group, in response to the responder responding.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the creating the mail alias for the one group comprises automatically creating a mail alias of non-responders that includes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail and excludes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the creating the mail alias for the another group comprises automatically creating a mail alias of responders that includes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have responded to the electronic mail and excludes the one or more recipients of the plurality of recipients that have not responded to the electronic mail.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the automatically creating is performed in response to receiving the one or more responses and in response to the predefined occurrence of a predetermined event.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

creating the electronic mail to be sent to the plurality of recipients, said creating including an indication that one or more mail aliases are allowed to be automatically created; and

sending the electronic mail to the plurality of recipients.