Systems and methods for managing the status of participants of a tele-networking meeting

• US 8,477,920 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2009
• Issued: 07/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mikan, Jeffrey, McNamara, Justin, Lewis, John, Cenciarelli, Fulvio
• Primary Examiner(s): SING, SIMON P
• Application Number:
  US12/568,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20110075820A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: 37920201-20702
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5027 Dropping a party from a conference conducting a computer conference, e.g. admission detection H04L12/1822
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/563 User guidance or feature selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/564 whereby the feature is a sub-conference
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/566 relating to a participants right to speak arrangements for multi-party communication with floor control, e.g. for conferences, H04L65/4038, H04L65/4046, H04L65/4053
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing the status of participants of a tele-networking meeting are disclosed. During a tele-networking meeting, a network device may monitor the talk time of each participant of the meeting. If a participant'"'"'s talk time exceeds the target talk time, the network device may prompt the chair, and the chair may take action. Action may include managing a participants status by muting, disconnecting, or spinning the participant off into a subconference. Additionally, during a tele-networking meeting, a chair may also create a subconference on network device. Thus, the chair may be able to spin off participants of a tele-networking meeting into a subconference controlled by a subchair.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a measuring component configured to measure a talk time of each participant of a tele-networking meeting,

wherein the measuring component is configured to compare the measured talk time of each participant with a target talk time for each participant, and

wherein the measured talk time is cumulative over a plurality of tele-networking meetings; and

,

a messaging component configured to send or receive telecommunications based on the comparing of the measured talk time of each participant with the target talk time.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a managing component configured to allow a manager to control a status of the participants of the tele-networking meeting, wherein the status of the participants of the tele-networking meeting is one of active, mute, standby, listen only, subconference, and disconnected.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein telecommunications is one of voice, text, SMS, tone, email, and data.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a storage medium configured to store information related to the tele-networking meeting;

a display configured to view a status of the participants of the tele-networking meeting; and

a qualifying component for authenticating the participants of the tele-networking meeting.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the storage medium is configured to store the target talk time and/or the measured talk time of each participant.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a subconference component configured to connect a subset of the participants of the tele-networking meeting in a second tele-networking meeting.

7. A method for managing status of participants of tele-networking meetings on a network device, comprising:

measuring a talk time of each participant of a tele-networking meeting, wherein the measuring is cumulative over a plurality of tele-networking meetings;

storing the measured talk time of each participant;

comparing the measured talk time of each participant with a target talk time; and

,

sending a telecommunication to a participant of the tele-networking meeting based on the comparing of the measured talk time of each participant with the target talk time.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

controlling a status of the participants of the tele-networking meeting based on the comparing of the measured talk time of each participant with the target talk time, wherein the status of the participants of a tele-networking meeting is one of active, mute, standby, listen only, subconference, and disconnected.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein telecommunications includes one of voice, text, SMS, tone, email or data.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the telecommunication is sent to a participant of the tele-networking meeting if a participant'"'"'s talk time is greater than the target talk time.

11. The method of claim 7,

wherein the telecommunication comprises instructions to create a subconference meeting facility.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

qualifying participants for a second tele-networking meeting; and

,

admitting participants to the second tele-networking meeting based on the qualifying step;

wherein the participants in the second tele-networking meeting are provided instructions to rejoin the tele-networking meeting.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a telecommunication indicating the participants in the subconference desire to rejoin the tele-networking meeting.

14. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

sending a first telecommunication indicating that a participant is not needed for a first portion of the tele-networking meeting; and

,

sending a second telecommunication indicating that the participant is needed for a second portion of the tele-networking meeting; and

,

receiving an acknowledgement telecommunication as a result of sending the first telecommunication.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the acknowledgement telecommunication indicates a preferred method for the sending of the second telecommunication.

16. The method of claim 7, further comprising;

connecting the participant to the tele-networking meeting in a listen only status;

sending a telecommunication indicating that greater participation is desired; and

,

transitioning the participant from a listen-only status to an active status.

17. A device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising;

measuring a talk time of each participant of a tele-networking meeting, wherein the measuring is cumulative over a plurality of tele-networking meetings;

storing the measured talk time of each participant;

comparing the measured talk time of each participant with a target talk time; and

,

sending a telecommunication to a participant of the tele-networking meeting based on the comparing of the measured talk time of each participant with the target talk time.

18. The device of claim 17, further operations comprising:

controlling a status of the participants of the tele-networking meeting based on the comparing of the measured talk time of each participant with the target talk time, wherein the status of the participants of the tele-networking meeting is one of active, mute, standby, listen only, subconference, and disconnected.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the status of the participants of the tele-networking meeting comprises active, mute, standby, listen only, subconference, or disconnected.

20. The device of claim 17, wherein the telecommunication includes one of voice, text, SMS, tone, email or data.