Conference server simplifying management of subsequent meetings for participants of a meeting in progress
First Claim
1. A method of facilitating participants of meetings to manage subsequent meetings, said method being performed in a conference server, said method comprising:
- maintaining, in said conference server, information indicating a set of present participants of a meeting in progress, wherein each of said set of present participants has joined said meeting in progress but has not yet logged out of said meeting;
identifying, in said conference server, a participant of said meeting in progress as one of said set of present participants, wherein said identifying is performed by examining said information indicating said set of present participants; and
upon said identifying, requesting from said participant a scheduling option for a subsequent meeting,wherein said subsequent meeting is a meeting that follows said meeting in progress,wherein said participant is already scheduled, prior to said identifying, to attend said subsequent meeting,said set of present participants containing at least one participant who has joined said meeting but has not yet logged out such that said meeting is in progress when said identifying is performed,wherein said scheduling option is requested from said participant by said conference server in a duration when said meeting is in progress.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A conference server, provided according to an aspect of the present invention, identifies a participant of a meeting in progress and requests scheduling option for a subsequent meeting from the identified participant. On receiving a scheduling option from the participant, the conference server determines the possible participants (“recipients”) of the subsequent meeting and informs the recipients of the received scheduling option. In one embodiment, the conference server requests the scheduling option when a conflict between the meeting in progress and the subsequent meeting is found and sends notifications to the recipients (determines by examining the calendars of users). In another embodiment, the conference server requests the scheduling option for a follow-up meeting for the meeting in progress, and updates the calendars of the recipients (determined as the participants of the meeting in progress and any users invited).
54 Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method of facilitating participants of meetings to manage subsequent meetings, said method being performed in a conference server, said method comprising:
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maintaining, in said conference server, information indicating a set of present participants of a meeting in progress, wherein each of said set of present participants has joined said meeting in progress but has not yet logged out of said meeting; identifying, in said conference server, a participant of said meeting in progress as one of said set of present participants, wherein said identifying is performed by examining said information indicating said set of present participants; and upon said identifying, requesting from said participant a scheduling option for a subsequent meeting, wherein said subsequent meeting is a meeting that follows said meeting in progress, wherein said participant is already scheduled, prior to said identifying, to attend said subsequent meeting, said set of present participants containing at least one participant who has joined said meeting but has not yet logged out such that said meeting is in progress when said identifying is performed, wherein said scheduling option is requested from said participant by said conference server in a duration when said meeting is in progress. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for causing a conference server to facilitate participants of meetings to manage subsequent meetings, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in said conference server causes said conference server to perform the actions of:
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storing data in a memory indicating a corresponding set of participants for each of a plurality of meetings in progress, wherein each of said set of present participants has joined the corresponding meeting in progress but has not yet logged out of the meeting; examining said data in said memory to identify a participant of a meeting in progress and a subsequent meeting said participant is already scheduled to attend; requesting from said participant, in a duration when said meeting is in progress, a scheduling option for said subsequent meeting said participant is already scheduled to attend. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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19. A computing system comprising:
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a calendar server to maintain a corresponding calendar for each of a plurality of users, said corresponding calendar indicating the specific meetings and the corresponding durations the user is already scheduled to attend; and a conference server to facilitate participants of meetings to manage subsequent meetings, said conference server operable to; store data indicating which of said plurality of users have logged on to which of a plurality of meetings, but have not yet logged out such that said stored data indicates the present participants of each of said plurality of meetings; examine said data to determine that a first meeting is in progress and a first user is a participant of said first meeting, said plurality of meetings comprising said first meeting and said plurality of users comprising said first user; send to said calendar server, a request for information of the subsequent meetings already scheduled for said first user, wherein said request is sent while said first meeting is in progress and said first user is a participant of said first meeting; receive from said calendar server, a set of subsequent meetings scheduled for said first user as a response to said first request; identify that a second subsequent meeting of said set of subsequent meetings has a start time within a next duration from a current time to present a conflict between said meeting in progress and said second subsequent meeting for said first user, wherein said conflict is present since said first meeting, if continued by said next duration results in an overlap between said first meeting and said second subsequent meeting; and upon said identifying, request from said first user a scheduling option for said second subsequent meeting, wherein said request is operable in a duration when said first meeting is in progress. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification