Methods, tools, and interfaces for the dynamic assignment of people to groups to enable enhanced communication and collaboration

• US 8,271,631 B1
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Kadie, Carl M., Blagsvedt, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US11/047,130
• Time in Patent Office: 2,787 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709203-204, 709/220, 709/228, 705300-301, 707/608, 715/751
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system for optimizing the value of communications between communicating parties is provided. The system includes a communication group manager that facilitates specifying policies, preferences and/or automated analysis of ideal communication channels, routing and/or scheduling in terms of communicating party groups that can be pre-populated clusters of communicating parties, assembled based on relationships (e.g., organizational), and/or assembled based on satisfying inclusion criteria (e.g., age, location, competence, communication history, meeting history). The communication group manager maps communicating parties into predefined and/or dynamically created groups that facilitate specifying and/or automatically computing ideal communication actions like selecting a channel, displaying lists of potential channels sorted by communicating party preferences, and (re)scheduling communications to different channels and/or times. Ideal communication actions can be identified by maximizing a measure of expected communication utility, where groups provide simplifying abstractions to facilitate assessment of outcome utilities. The method can employ representations of preferences of the contactor and contactee that allow for group-specific preference considerations that weight differentially contactor and/or contactee preference considerations in communication action optimization. The system includes a group wise communication coordinator that identifies optimal group communication sets. The method facilitates a recipient communicating with a group member where the communication utility is optimized based on a preference, and a context associated with the group to which the member belongs.

Claims

1. A system for dynamically assigning people to activity-centric communication groups, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, the processor executing computer executable instructions to effect the following;

a communication group manager that routes communications to members of groups and that receives context data associated with a communicating party, the context data indicating one or more activities with which the communicating party is associated; and

a communication group establisher that dynamically establishes a group of communicating parties based, at least in part, on the context data when the context data indicates that a set of communicating parties meeting dynamic assignment criteria exceeds a configurable threshold, the group relating to an activity and comprising communicating parties, each of which is indicated by the context data to be associated with the activity, wherein the communication group manager routes communications to communicating parties of the dynamically established group, and wherein the dynamic assignment criteria comprises at least communication with the communicating party occurring within a specified period of time.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication group modifier that dynamically modifies the group of communicating parties, the dynamic modification of the group is triggered by satisfying dynamic assignment criteria.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication group modifier that dynamically modifies the group of communicating parties based, at least in part, on the context data, wherein the dynamic modification of the group is the result of satisfying dynamic assignment criteria.

4. The system of claim 3, the context data comprising:

hardware data comprising at least one of;

hardware capacity data, hardware bandwidth data, hardware availability data, hardware status data, hardware cost data, hardware revision data, or hardware metadata.

5. The system of claim 3, the communication group establisher further deletes a group of communicating parties, merges two or more groups of communicating parties, or partitions a group of communicating parties into two or more new groups of communicating parties.

6. The system of claim 3, the context data comprising:

software data comprising at least one of;

software capacity data, software version data, software cost data, or software capability data.

7. The system of claim 3, the context data comprising:

observed data comprising at least one of;

time of day data, current activity data, current task data, calendar data, location data, communication history data, environment data, or communication needs data.

8. The system of claim 1, the dynamic assignment criteria further comprising:

meeting with the communicating party within a pre-determined amount of time.

9. The system of claim 1, the dynamic assignment criteria further comprising:

activity of the communicating party in a project.

10. The system of claim 1, the dynamic assignment criteria further comprising:

authoring a document within a pre-determined amount of time.

11. A method for dynamically assigning people to activity-centric communication groups, the method comprising:

receiving context data associated with a communicating party, the context data indicating one or more activities with which the communicating party is associated;

dynamically establishing a group of communicating parties based, at least in part, on the context data when the context data indicates that a set of communicating parties meeting dynamic assignment criteria exceeds a configurable threshold, wherein the dynamic assignment criteria comprises at least processing or viewing one or more related documents within a predetermined period of time, the group relating to an activity and comprising communicating parties, each of which is indicated by the context data to be associated with the activity; and

routing communications to communicating parties based on membership in the dynamically established group.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

dynamically modifies the group of communicating parties, wherein the dynamic modification of the group is triggered by satisfying dynamic assignment criteria.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

dynamically modifying the group of communicating parties based, at least in part, on the context data, wherein the dynamic modification of the group is the result of satisfying dynamic assignment criteria.

14. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method of operating a communication system including assigning people to activity-centric communication groups, the method comprising:

receiving context data associated with a communicating party, the context data indicating one or more activities with which the communicating party is associated;

dynamically establishing a group of communicating parties based, at least in part, on the context data when the context data indicates that a set of communicating parties meeting dynamic assignment criteria exceeds a configurable threshold, the group relating to an activity and comprising communicating parties, each of which is indicated by the context data to be associated with the activity; and

routing communications to communicating parties based on membership in the dynamically established group,

wherein the computer-readable storage medium is not a transitory signal, and

wherein the dynamic assignment criteria comprises at least meeting with the communicating party within a predetermined period of time.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

dynamically modifies the group of communicating parties, wherein the dynamic modification of the group is triggered by satisfying dynamic assignment criteria.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

dynamically modifying the group of communicating parties based, at least in part, on the context data, wherein the dynamic modification of the group is the result of satisfying dynamic assignment criteria.