Preserving collaboration history with relevant contextual information

• US 9,288,167 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Scherpa, Josef A., Wolf, Tracee L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Serrao, Ranodhi
• Assistant Examiner(s): FIORILLO, JAMES N
• Application Number:
  US14/023,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20140082106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 916 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• 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

Abstract

Preserving collaborative history includes detecting a trigger for a chat session between at least two participants using a processor and, responsive to the trigger, obtaining event data for an event occurring during the chat session and involving at least one of the participants. The event data is included within a transcript of the chat session. In other cases, event data is obtained from external systems that is correlated with the chat session and is included within the transcript.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

establishing communications through a network to a server which comprises at least one processor coupled to at least one memory;

wherein the server is further configured to initiate executable operations comprising;

monitoring a chat session between at least two participants communicating over the network;

analyzing the content sent between the at least two participants;

creating a transcript describing the content sent between the at least two participants;

detecting a trigger in the chat session between the at least two participants, wherein the trigger is detected from at least one of the chat session or from one or more external systems communicatively linked through the network;

responsive to the trigger, identifying an event that is correlated with the chat session, wherein the event is included in the transcript;

obtaining event data for the event occurring during the chat session and involving at least one of the participants;

wherein the event data is obtained by at least one of an analysis of the messages exchanged as part of the chat session or from a query to the one of more external systems;

including the event data within an annotated transcript of the chat session; and

storing the annotated transcript for review.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger is derived from a message sent from a first participant to a second participant of the chat session.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger is a minimum amount of time in which no messages are exchanged between the at least two participants.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data is visually distinguished from messages within the annotated transcript.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data is included within the transcript only responsive to determining that a participant of the chat session associated with the event data provided permission to disclose the event data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the chat session is conducted by a messaging system and the event occurs within a different system from which the event data is obtained, wherein the method further comprises:

querying the different system for the event data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data included within the transcript comprises a link to the event.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data is included within the transcript in chronological order.