Corporate board management system

• US 9,235,862 B1
• Filed: 06/23/2006
• Issued: 01/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Refinitiv US Organization, LLC (Refinitiv US Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Reuters Global Resources
• Inventors: Radner, Gregory, Prussman, Eric C., Stevens, Michael W., Dang, Danh, Bahlin, Nicole, Khurana, Rebecca Cho, Jain, Neeraj, Coran, Robert, Paul, Jeron, Zinni, Carmine
• Primary Examiner(s): Ouellette, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US11/426,290
• Time in Patent Office: 3,490 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11-912
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing financial and/or board member information in a secured manner to members of boards of directors of companies and others through a publicly-available widely disseminated network.

Claims

1. A computer-implement method comprising:

generating a first query from a server, the first query associated with a first electronic calendar maintained by a first party for periods of availability;

generating a second query from the server, the second query associated with a second electronic calendar maintained by a second party for periods of availability, the first query and second query;

receiving at said server a set of responses to the first query and the second query identifying from the set of responses a period of common availability adjusted for time-zone variations based on geographical differences of the first electronic calendar and the second electronic calendar;

generating automatically a group electronic calendar from the period of common availability adjusted for the time-zone variations; and

generating automatically one or more webpages, based on said group electronic calendar, and individually tailored to each said first party and said second party, each webpage comprising a set of selection tabs and at least one personalized link associated with available user actions, wherein said group electronic calendar is operable to receive input from the first party via at least one of said one or more webpages and said personalized link is based at least in part on membership associated with the first party.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether any of the periods of common availability fit within a desired time frame for a communication between said first and second party.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired time frame is contiguous.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired time frame is non-contiguous.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the communication between the first and second party is selected from at least one of:

a meeting, a teleconference, an audio-visual conference.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

sending out an invitation for a communication between said first and second party if a period of common availability is determined within a desired time frame for a communication between said first and second party.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said group electronic calendar is operable to receive input from both the first party and the second party.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said group electronic calendar is operable to receive input from a third party associated via one or more webpages individually tailored to said third party.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving input of a selection by the first party to said group electronic calendar via one of said one or more webpages causes a change to said at least one personalized link.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized link is a graphic.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said graphic personalized link depicts the type of activity scheduled.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving input of a selection by the first party to said group electronic calendar occurs via said at least one personalized link.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said group electronic calendar is operable to receive input from a third party associated with one or more webpages individually tailored to said third party.

14. The computer system of claim 13 wherein said graphic personalized link depicts the type of activity scheduled.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of selection tabs comprises a calendar tab for listing one or more upcoming scheduled events.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of selection tabs comprises a committees tab to manage information associated with a selected committee.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of selection tabs comprises a reference library tab for providing access to information related to topics of interest of one or both of the first part and the second party.

18. A computer system for providing suggested meeting times in a desired time realm to two or more individuals maintaining on separate networks electronic calendars indicating availability over a period of time, said system comprising:

(a) means for querying from a serve said electronic calendars to determine periods of time within said time realm in which each of said two or more individuals have not indicated non-availability on their calendars;

(b) means for correlating those periods of time in which non-availability is not indicated in each of said two or more individual'"'"'s electronic calendars to determine common periods of availability adjusted for time-zone variations based on geographical differences of the first electronic calendar and the second electronic calendar; and

(c) means for suggesting meeting times for said common periods of availability by one or more created webpages individually tailored to each of said two or more individuals and each webpage comprising a set of selection tabs and at least one personalized link associated with available user actions and based on an electronic group calendar generated and adjusted for the time-zone variations, said electronic group calendar operable to receive input from the first party via at least one of said one or more webpages and said personalized link is based at least in part on membership associated with the first party.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

(d) means for comparing said periods of common availability to determine those periods of time which most closely meet the desired time realm;

(e) means for transmitting one or more proposed meeting time encompassing said joint availability periods to said two or more individuals with a request for confirmation of attendance.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the desired time realm is selected from the group consisting of:

contiguous time frame, non-contiguous time frame, time of day, or time of year.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the desired time realm is a period of time in which a meeting is proposed to be held.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the desired time realm is a period of time during which a teleconference is proposed to be held.

23. The computer system of claim 18 wherein said electronic group calendar is operable to receive input from both the first party and the second party.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein said group electronic calendar is operable to receive input from a third party associated via one or more webpages individually tailored to said third party.

25. The computer system of claim 18 wherein receiving input of a selection by the first party to said electronic group calendar via one of said one or more webpages causes a change to said at least one personalized link.

26. The computer system of claim 18 wherein said personalized link is a graphic.

27. The computer system of claim 18 wherein said electronic group calendar is operable to receive input from a third party associated with one or more webpages individually tailored to said third party.

28. The computer system of claim 18 wherein receiving input of a selection by the first party to said electronic group calendar occurs via said at least one personalized link.

29. A computer-implement method comprising:

generating a first query from a server, wherein the communication uses a secure socket layer employing public key encryption over a publically available widely disseminated network, the first query associated with a first electronic calendar maintained by a first party for periods of availability;

generating a second query from the server, wherein the communication uses a secure socket layer employing public key encryption over a publically available widely disseminated network, the second query associated with a second electronic calendar maintained by a second party for periods of availability, the first query and second query;

receiving at said server a set of responses to the first query and the second query identifying from the set of responses a period of common availability adjusted for time-zone variations based on geographical differences of the first electronic calendar and the second electronic calendar;

determining whether any of the periods of common availability fit within a desired time frame for a communication between said first and second party;

generating a group electronic calendar from the period of common availability adjusted for the time-zone variations; and

generating automatically one or more webpages, based on said group electronic calendar, and individually tailored to each said first party and said second party, each webpage comprising a set of selection tabs and at least one personalized link associated with available user actions, wherein said group electronic calendar is operable to receive input from the first party via at least one of said one or more webpages and said personalized link is based at least in part on membership associated with the first party.