Interactive web collaboration systems and methods

• US 8,732,251 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2008
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fiver LLC
• Original Assignee: Family Systems, Ltd.
• Inventors: Conway, Mark J., Reynolds, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): CHRISTENSEN, SCOTT B
• Application Number:
  US12/011,332
• Publication Number:
  US 20080228881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,307 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes

Abstract

A topic room is provided in which one or more individuals or other entities may collaborate on topics of mutual interest. Multiple individuals or participants may use the topic room to communicate in real or non-real time and may work together to create, browse, modify, comment on, and perform any other suitable action on content. A chat room within the topic room receives, records, and transmits the communications and all activity in the topic room to all participants as messages. Client processes at a participant'"'"'s user equipment may listen to the messages and take particular actions. For example, one participant can follow another participant as that participant browses through material by using the messages received from that participant.

Claims

1. A method for using a first software object implemented on one or more computers to communicate with a second software object implemented on the one or more computers and a human, comprising:

defining a role for the first software object;

receiving, by the first software object, a first chat message from the human in a language, the language being defined by one or more human language grammars,

parsing the first chat message to identify a content of the first chat message;

receiving, by the first software object, a second chat message from the second software object in the language, the second chat message being provided by the second software object in the language;

parsing the second chat message to identify a content of the second chat message; and

responding to the first and second chat messages based at least on the content of the first and second chat messages, respectively, and the role of the first software object in the language, wherein the responding to each of the first and second chat messages is performed in a similar manner.

2. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the first software object uses a first grammar to communicate with a third software object and humans and wherein the second software object uses a second grammar to communicate with the third software object and humans.

3. The method defined in claim 2, wherein the first grammar and the second grammar are compatible.

4. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising interpreting with the first software object the content of at least one of the first and second chat messages in the language.

5. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising storing the content of at least one of the first and second chat messages in a script.

6. The method defined in claim 5, further comprising storing the script in a location selected from the group consisting of a web page, a folder, a user'"'"'s identity, and any combination thereof.

7. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the content of at least one of the first and second chat messages includes a pattern of events and a corresponding action to be taken.

8. The method defined in claim 7, wherein the event on the pattern of events is specified in a whenever statement.

9. The method defined in claim 7, wherein the action is to run a script.

10. The method defined in claim 9, wherein running the script causes the first software object to interpret the content of at least one of the first and second chat messages.

11. The method defined in claim 7, wherein the event or pattern of events is represented by a regular expression.

12. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the content of at least one of the first and second chat messages includes a for statement that specifies an action or pattern of actions and a corresponding script.

13. The method defined in claim 12, wherein the action or pattern of actions are represented as a regular expression.

14. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising taking an action with the first software object in response to receiving a chat message in the language.

15. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the first software object exhibits a behavior of a persona.

16. The method defined in claim 15, further comprising storing scripts that define behaviors or capabilities of the persona.

17. The method defined in claim 16, wherein one or more of the behaviors is human-like.

18. The method defined in claim 15, further comprising using the persona to communicate in multiple languages.

19. The method defined in claim 15, further comprising using the persona to speak or listen to the second software object and the human using a language.

20. The method defined in claim 19, further comprising creating an audio recording that is communicated from the human to the first software object.

21. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising inheriting one or more behaviors with the first software object from one or more software objects.

22. The method defined in claim 21, wherein inheriting the one or more behaviors comprises storing at least one script to inherit the one or more behaviors.

23. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising copying the first software object.

24. The method defined in claim 23, further comprising using the first software object to control the behavior of copies of the first software object.

25. The method defined in claim 1, wherein receiving the first chat message from the human in the language comprises receiving the first chat message in a chat room and wherein receiving the second chat message from the second software object in the language comprises receiving the second chat message in the chat room.

26. The method defined in claim 25, wherein the first and second software objects have identities in the chat room, the method further comprising using the first and second software objects to participate in the chat room.

27. The method defined in claim 26, further comprising using the first and second software objects to listen to the chat messages in the chat room and take actions in response to the chat messages.

28. The method defined in claim 25, further comprising using the first software object to listen to chat messages in the chat room.

29. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising creating a log of interactions between the first software object, the second software object, and the human.

30. The method defined in claim 29, further comprising taking action with the first software object based on the log.

31. The method defined in claim 30, wherein taking actions with the first software object based on the log comprises playing back with the first software object the log of interactions between the first software object, the second software object, and the human.

32. The method defined in claim 29, further comprising filtering with the first software object the log based on content of the log.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating audio recordings utilizing the one or more computers;

enabling the audio recordings to be accessible as files on the one or more computers;

generating references to index points in the audio recording files on the one or more computers;

communicating the references to the index points in the audio recording files in chat messages to the one or more computers, wherein the references are communicated as textual information; and

enabling selection of one of the chat messages to play back the audio recordings starting from an index point referenced in the selected chat message.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising replying to the audio recordings that are played back by creating additional audio recordings utilizing the one or more computers.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

enabling the additional audio recordings to be accessible as files on the one or more computers;

generating references to index points in the additional audio recording files on the one or more computers;

communicating references to the index points in the additional audio recording files in chat messages to the one or more computers; and

enabling selection of one of the chat messages to play back the additional audio recordings starting from an index point referenced in the selected chat message.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising creating video recordings to accompany at least a portion of the audio recordings.