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

• US 8,842,814 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2013
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• 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, Cenciarelli, Fulvio, Lewis, John E
• Primary Examiner(s): SING, SIMON P
• Application Number:
  US13/906,661
• Publication Number:
  US 20130259217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 480 Days
• Field of Search: 37920201-20701
• 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
• 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 participant'"'"'s 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 memory having stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by a processor causes the processor to effectuate operations comprising:

determining an amount of talk time of a first participant of a plurality of participants of a tele-networking meeting, wherein the determining is cumulative over a plurality of tele-networking meetings;

comparing the determined amount of talk time of the first participant with a target talk time; and

sending a telecommunication based on the comparing of the determined talk time of the first participant with the target talk time.

2. The memory of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

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

3. The memory of claim 1, wherein the telecommunication includes at least one of voice, text, SMS, tone, email, or data.

4. The memory of claim 2, wherein the status of the first participant of the tele-networking meeting comprises at least on of active, mute, standby, listen only, subconference, or disconnected.

5. The memory of claim 1, wherein the telecommunication is sent to the first participant of the tele-networking meeting if the talk time of the first participant is greater than the target talk time.

6. The memory of claim 1, wherein the telecommunication comprises instructions to create a subconference meeting facility.

7. The memory of claim 6, the operations further comprising receiving a telecommunication indicating participants in the subconference desire to rejoin the tele-networking meeting.

8. The memory of claim 6, further comprising:

qualifying a second participant of the plurality of participants for the subconference; and

admitting the second participant to the subconference based on the qualifying.

9. The memory of claim 8, further comprising providing instructions to the second participant to rejoin the tele-networking meeting.

10. The memory of claim 1, further comprising:

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

sending a second telecommunication indicating that the second 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.

11. The memory of claim 10, wherein the acknowledgement telecommunication indicates a preferred method for the sending of the second telecommunication.

12. The memory of claim 1, the operations further comprising;

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

sending a telecommunication indicating that greater participation is desired; and

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

13. A method comprising:

determining, by a network device, a talk time of a first participant of a plurality of participants of a tele-networking meeting;

responsive to the determined talk time of the first participant equaling or exceeding a target talk time, providing instructions, by the network device, to the plurality of participants to vote on at least one of a plurality of statuses for the first participant; and

providing an instruction, by the network device, to implement a first status of the plurality of statuses voted on by a majority of the plurality of participants.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of statuses voted on comprises at least one of:

mute, standby, listen only, subconference, and disconnected.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the instruction to implement the first status comprises at least one of:

muting the first participant,

disconnecting the first participant,

moving the first participant into a subconference, and

allowing the first participant to keep talking for a designated period of time.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the instruction to implement the first status is sent via a telecommunication to a chair of the tele-networking meeting.

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;

determining a talk time of a first participant of a plurality of participants of a tele-networking meeting;

responsive to the determined talk time of the first participant equaling or exceeding a target talk time, providing an instruction to the plurality of participants to vote on at least one of a plurality of statuses for the first participant; and

implementing a first status of the plurality of statuses voted on by a majority of the plurality of participants.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the plurality of statuses voted on comprises at least one of:

mute, standby, listen only, subconference, and disconnected.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the implemented first status comprises at least one of:

muting the first participant,

disconnecting the first participant,

moving the first participant into a subconference, and

allowing the first participant to keep talking for a designated period of time.

20. The device of claim 17, wherein implementing the first status is based on a chair of the tele-networking meeting approving a status change.