Traversing between electronic mail and real time communications

• US 8,438,225 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2009
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Serr, Robert W., Gupta, Amit, McClelland, Mark, Huddleston, Scott, Misro, Santhosh
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Julian
• Application Number:
  US12/477,593
• Publication Number:
  US 20100312836A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,434 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

Users are enabled to traverse seamlessly between electronic mail and real time communications such as text messaging, group chats, and similar forms. A context of communications such as a history of the email exchange, attached or related documents, links, trail of exchanged text messages, and comparable information is used to automatically determine addressees for the communication form after the traverse and to provide context information.

Claims

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for enabling traversal between an email exchange and a real time conversation, the method comprising:

while facilitating a first email exchange including a trail of connected messages, replies and forwarded messages, receiving a request for activating a first real time conversation that includes at least one from a set of;

audio communication, video communication, application sharing, and data sharing based on an email of the first email exchange, wherein the first email exchange is part of two or more conversations concurrently;

ordering the first email exchange according to at least one from a set of;

a temporal order and a grouping by different threads;

reconstructing the email exchange in a story form including a topic to facilitate transitioning from the first email exchange to the first real time conversation;

determining participants of the first real time conversation based on a context of the first email exchange and a user entry in an entry box presented on a user interface;

populating the participants of the first real time conversation according to presence information associated with recipients of the first email exchange;

excluding at least one of the participants of the email exchange based on permission levels and attributes of the first email exchange content;

activating the first real time conversation, wherein a context for the first real time conversation is provided based on the context of the email and formatted based on a set of predefined rules and a user preference; and

displaying the first real time conversation over the user interface wherein the user interface includes textual and graphical selectable controls, links to functionalities including one or more of;

a calendar, a contact list that lists contacts categorized by user defined groups and their statuses, and a task list, a folder view providing a grouping of emails based on folder categories, a detailed view pane, and a conversation view pane displaying a list of available conversations and associated properties.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

while facilitating a second real time conversation, receiving a request for activating a second email exchange based on the second real time conversation;

determining recipients for the second email exchange based on at least one of the participants of the second real time conversation and a context of the second real time conversation; and

preparing an email for the second email exchange, wherein the email is populated with information based on the context of the second real time conversation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the context of the first and second email exchanges and the context of the first and second real time conversations include an exchanged content, exchanged links, and exchanged documents.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the real time conversation includes one of a text message exchange and a group chat session.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

filtering at least one of the participants of the first real time conversation, recipients of the second email exchange, a content of the first real time conversation, and the content of the email based on one of;

the security rule, a privacy rule, and a user defined rule.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing a conversion notification message to desired participants of the first real time conversation, wherein the conversion notification message includes at least one of an option to join the first real time conversation and an option to receive an email digest of exchanged messages within the first real time conversation.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

optimizing the context of the first real time conversation and a content of the email for the second email exchange by removing duplicated information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the email includes an attribute of the email comprising at least one from a set of:

a status category of the email, an action category of the email, and an addressee status of the recipients of the email.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the email is part of an email conversation, and wherein the context for the first real time conversation is further provided based on an attribute of the email conversation.

10. A computing device capable of executing a multimodal communication application, comprising:

a memory;

a data store;

a processor coupled to the memory and the data store, the processor being arranged to execute the multimodal communication application, wherein the multimodal application is configured to;

while facilitating an email exchange including a trail of connected messages, replies and forwarded messages, receive a request for activating a communication session based on the email exchange, the communication session including at least one from a set of;

audio communication, video communication, application sharing, and data sharing wherein the first email exchange is part of two or more conversations concurrently;

display the email exchange conversation in a folder view on a user interface, wherein the user interface includes textual and graphical selectable controls, links to functionalities including one or more of;

a calendar, a contact list that lists contacts categorized by user defined groups and their statuses, and a task list, the folder view providing a grouping of emails based on folder categories, a detailed view pane, and a conversation view pane displaying a list of available conversations and associated properties, and wherein the email exchange in the folder view is grouped based on folder categories including at least one from a set of;

inbox, sent items, and drafts;

reconstruct the email exchange in a story form including a topic to facilitate transitioning from the email exchange to the communication session;

determine participants of the communication session based on at least one of the participants of the email exchange, a context of the email exchange, and a user entry in an entry box presented on the user interface;

include information from an original discussion and associated conversation branches having a shared history with the email exchange in the context of the email exchange;

exclude at least one of the participants of the email exchange in a blind courtesy copy field of the email exchange from the participants of the communication session based on one of a privacy rule, a security rule, and a user defined rule, wherein the privacy rule is based on permission levels and attributes of the communication session content; and

activate the communication session, wherein a context for the communication session is provided based on the context of the email exchange;

while facilitating another communication session, receive a request for preparing an email based on the other communication session;

determine recipients for the email based on at least one of the participants and a context of the other communication session; and

populate the email with context information based on the context of the other communication session.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the processor is further arranged to:

provide a user interface for the multimodal communication application that includes at least one from a set of;

a communication mode change element for switching between a communication session and an email exchange, a graphical element for initiating a communication session from an email, and a graphical element for initiating an email from a communication session.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further arranged to:

provide one of;

an email user interface capable of initiating a communication session from an email, a communication session user interface capable of initiating an email from a communication session, and a combined user interface capable of switching between a communication session and an email exchange.

13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the multimodal communication application is further configured to:

include at least one of a link, a document, and a non-textual file within the email as one of;

an attachment and as part of a content of the email based on a context of the communication session.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the participants of the communication session and recipients of the email are further determined from a contacts list based on at least one from a set of:

a user preference, an organizational default rule, and attributes of contacts list entries.

15. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon for enabling users to traverse between an email exchange and a real time conversation, the instructions comprising:

receiving a request for initiating a communication session based on an email exchange including a trail of connected messages, replies and forwarded messages, the communication session including at least one from a set of;

audio communication, video communication, application sharing, and data sharing wherein the first email exchange is part of two or more conversations concurrently;

displaying the email exchange conversation in a folder view on a user interface, wherein the user interface includes textual and graphical selectable controls, links to functionalities including one or more of;

a calendar, a contact list that lists contacts categorized by user defined groups and their statuses, and a task list, the folder view providing a grouping of emails based on folder categories, a detailed view pane, and a conversation view pane displaying a list of available conversations and associated properties, and wherein the email exchange in the folder view is displayed based on folder categories including at least one from a set of;

inbox, sent items, and drafts;

ordering the email exchange according to at least one from a set of;

a temporal order and a grouping by different threads;

reconstructing the email exchange in a story form including a topic to facilitate transitioning from the email exchange to the communication session;

automatically determining participants of the communication session based on at least one of the participants of the email exchange and a context of the email exchange, wherein the participants of the communication session are filtered based on one of;

a security rule, a privacy rule, and a user defined rule, wherein the privacy rule is based on permission levels and attributes of the communication session content;

populating the participants of the communication session according to presence information associated with the participants of the email exchange;

including information from an original discussion and associated conversation branches having a shared history with the email exchange in the context of the email exchange;

excluding at least one of the participants of the email exchange in a blind courtesy copy field of the email exchange from the participants of the communication session based on the privacy rule, the user defined rule, and the security rule;

initiating the communication session, wherein a context for the communication session is provided based on the context of the email exchange;

receiving a request for preparing an email based on another communication session;

automatically determining recipients for the email based on at least one of the participants and a context of the other communication session, wherein the recipients of the email are filtered based on one of;

the security rule, the privacy rule, and the user defined rule; and

populating the email with context information based on the context of the other communication session as one of;

an attachment and as part of a content of the email.

16. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, wherein the context for the communication session is provided as at least one from a list of:

a link, a document, and a reference within a chat room associated with the communication session.

17. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

filtering the context of the communication session and the content of the email based on one of;

a security rule, a privacy rule, a user defined rule, and a duplication of data.

18. The computer-readable memory device of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

enabling a user to modify the automatically determined participants of the communication session and recipients of the email.