Systems and methods for enabling dialog amongst different participant groups

• US 9,160,550 B1
• Filed: 10/28/2014
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Phanto, LLC
• Original Assignee: Rushline, LLC
• Inventors: Morrison, Daniel, Sielaff, Martin, Fletcher, Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Jeong S
• Application Number:
  US14/526,488
• Time in Patent Office: 350 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• 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 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

An electronic communication system, such as a question-and-answer service, is provided in which a user submitting a question specifies one or more recipients of the question. Authenticated responses by a recipient are published to the asker and other recipients. Responses may be made available to external users, with content contributors being either publicly identified or anonymous.

Claims

1. An electronic communication service hosted on one or more servers communicating with a plurality of user devices via one or more digital communication networks, the servers having one or more processors and memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processors, cause the servers to perform a method comprising:

receiving user-input from an opening user via communication between a user device associated with said opening user and one or more of said servers, the user-input to include opening dialog content and specification of electronic contact addresses associated with a plurality of target responders;

transmitting electronic notifications to one or more user devices associated with each of the target responders by one or more of said servers;

receiving a response to said notifications from a user device associated with a responding one of said target responders; and

in response to receiving said response, configuring default communication preferences associated with the responding target responder such that the servers transmit further push notifications to the responding target responder upon receipt by the servers of responses containing dialog content from the opening user or other target responders.

2. The electronic communication service of claim 1, in which the method further comprises the step of making at least a portion of the opening dialog content and content from the responding target responder response available to external users via a request to a networked database.

3. The electronic communication service of claim 1, in which each of said electronic notifications includes a dialog identifier uniquely associated with the opening dialog content;

and in which the step of receiving a response to said notifications from a user device associated with a responding one of said target responders is further comprised of the substeps of;

receiving a response from the responding target responder, the response containing the dialog identifier;

querying the responding target responder for user identification information; and

triggering notifications if the user identification information received from the responding target responder corresponds to user identification information previously associated with the plurality of target responders.

4. The electronic communication service of claim 3, in which said user identification information is an electronic contact address.

5. The electronic communication service of claim 1, in which each of said electronic notifications includes a dialog identifier uniquely associated with the opening dialog content;

in which the step of receiving a response to said notifications from a user device associated with a responding one of said target responders is further comprised of the substeps of;

receiving a response from the responding target responder, the response containing the dialog identifier; and

querying the responding target responder for a preferred electronic contact address; and

in which the step of configuring default communication preferences is comprised of the substep of configuring default communication preferences associated with said responding target responder such that said servers transmit further push notifications to the preferred electronic contact address.

6. The electronic communication service of claim 1, in which the step of receiving a response to said notifications from a user device associated with a responding one of said target responders is further comprised of the substeps of:

detecting an inbound electronic contact address from which the responding target responder transmits said response; and

determining that the inbound electronic contact address matches one of said electronic contact addresses associated with the plurality of target responders.

7. An electronic communication service hosted on one or more servers communicating with a plurality of user devices via one or more digital communication networks, the servers having one or more processors and memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processors, cause the servers to perform a method comprising:

receiving user-input from an opening user via communication between a user device associated with said opening user and one or more of said servers, the user-input to include opening dialog content and specification of electronic contact addresses associated with one or more target responders;

transmitting electronic notifications to one or more user devices associated with each of the target responders by one or more of said servers;

receiving one or more responses to said opening dialog content from user devices associated with the target responders, the opening user or external users, the responses including responsive dialog content;

receiving a query for dialog content at a network-connected database from a query originator;

determining if said query originator is the opening user or one of the target responders;

if said query originator is the opening user or one of the target responders, publishing a dialog view comprising personally identifiable author attribution for dialog content contributed by target responders; and

if said query originator is not the opening user or one of the target responders, publishing a dialog view excluding personally identifiable author attribution for dialog content contributed by target responders.

8. The electronic communication service of claim 7, in which personally identifiable author attribution includes an author'"'"'s electronic contact address.

9. The electronic communication service of claim 7, in which personally identifiable author attribution includes an author'"'"'s name.

10. The electronic communication service of claim 7, in which personally identifiable author attribution includes an author'"'"'s username.

11. The electronic communication service of claim 7, in which personally identifiable author attribution includes a hyperlink to a biographical profile of the author.

12. An electronic communication service hosted on one or more servers communicating with a plurality of user devices via one or more digital communication networks, the servers having one or more processors and memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processors, cause the servers to perform a method comprising:

receiving user-input from an opening user via communication between a user device associated with said opening user and one or more of said servers, the user-input to include opening dialog content and specification of electronic contact addresses associated with one or more target responders;

publishing the opening dialog content by making said opening dialog content available via query of a network-connected database;

transmitting push notifications to said target responder electronic contact addresses, said notifications comprising a uniform resource locator containing a user identifier uniquely associated with one of said target responder electronic contact addresses;

receiving a response to one of said notifications comprising an access request to a resource specified by said uniform resource locator by a responding target responder, the response further including the user identifier;

querying the responding target responder for responsive dialog content;

attributing the responsive dialog content to the responding target responder by correlating the response user identifier with one of said target responder electronic contact addresses;

publishing the responsive dialog content by making said responsive dialog content available via query of a network connected database without requiring further authentication of the responding target responder response; and

transmitting further push notifications of the responsive dialog content to the opening user and a subset of said target responders without requiring further authentication of the responding target responder response.

13. The electronic communication service of claim 12, in which the subset of said target responders includes target responders having previously responded to said opening dialog.

14. The electronic communication service of claim 12, in which the subset of said target responders comprises target responders having previously interacted with one or more of said servers to opt into notifications of content contribution to the dialog for which content was received.

15. An electronic communication service hosted on one or more servers communicating with a plurality of user devices via one or more digital communication networks, the servers having one or more processors and memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processors, cause the servers to perform a method comprising:

receiving user-input from an opening user via communication between a user device associated with said opening user and one or more of said servers, the user-input to include (a) opening dialog content, and (b) specification of electronic contact addresses, each associated with an individual person, collectively comprising a plurality of target responders;

transmitting electronic notifications to one or more user devices associated with each of the target responders by one or more of said servers;

making the opening dialog content publicly available via request to a networked database; and

accepting responses to said opening dialog content from user devices associated with the target responders, the opening user or external users.

16. The service of claim 15, in which the step of making the opening dialog content publicly available via request to a networked database is further comprised of implementing an Internet web site, the web site including user interface elements to present dialog content requested from the networked database, and to query the networked database for dialog content.

17. The service of claim 15, in which the step of making the opening dialog content publicly available via request to a networked database is further comprised of providing a mobile application for download onto user electronic devices, the mobile application when executed rendering user interface elements on the user electronic devices to present dialog content requested from the networked database, and to query the networked database for dialog content.

18. The service of claim 15, the method further comprising:

automatically creating a reusable dialog network by storing within a database a dialog network record comprising references to the electronic contact addresses associated with the one or more target responders; and

subsequently presenting a first user interface element to said opening user enabling selection of said reusable dialog network while specifying target responders during creation of a subsequent dialog.

19. The service of claim 18, said dialog network record further comprising an electronic contact address associated with the opening user, in which the method further comprises:

subsequently presenting a second user interface element to one or more of said target responders, enabling selection of said reusable dialog network by a target responder during creation of a subsequent dialog by said target responder.

20. The service of claim 19, in which the method further comprises:

presenting a third user interface element enabling the target responders to modify the electronic contact addresses contained within the selected reusable dialog network in connection with the subsequent dialog.

21. The service of claim 18, in which the method further comprises:

presenting a third user interface element enabling the opening user to modify the electronic contact addresses contained within the selected reusable dialog network in connection with the subsequent dialog.

22. The service of claim 15, in which the opening user has dialog special privileges greater than those of target responders and external users.

23. The service of claim 15, in which the target responders have dialog special privileges greater than those of external users.