Remote real time co-authoring of internet based multimedia collaborative presentations

• US 9,792,584 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2010
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicholas T. Hariton
• Original Assignee: Nicholas T. Hariton
• Inventors: Hariton, Nicholas T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chow, Doon
• Assistant Examiner(s): NICHOLAS, WENDY K
• Application Number:
  US12/939,369
• Publication Number:
  US 20110106716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,539 Days
• Field of Search: 715703, 715201, 715750-759, 715731, 715256, 715203, 705311, 709203, 709217, 709202, 709218, 709219, 345473
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A method for preparing a presentation connects a plurality of geographically dispersed contributors to a controller through a network to collaborate to prepare the presentation, allows the contributors to propose contributions to the presentation residing on storage devices under the control of the contributors, makes the proposed contributions available for viewing and comment by all contributors, allows the controller to select one or more of the proposed contributions, and provides the controller access through the network to the storage devices to retrieve the selected contributions for inclusion into the presentation.

Claims

1. A method for providing a multimedia presentation, said method comprising:

locating a person, designated as a scripting controller, at a first location including a controller computer connected to a network;

providing software to run at least in part on the controller computer at the first location, the software operating to

a) present a draft multimedia script via the network to at least one of a plurality of contributors, at least one of the contributors being located at a location remote from the first location, the draft multimedia script including one or more software based slides, at least one software based slide containing at least one data source element to display underlying data source material of the data source element at least as part of at least one software based slide during presenting the draft multimedia script,

b) display changes to the draft multimedia script, proposed by any of the plurality of contributors, in real time to all of the plurality of contributors and to the scripting controller,

c) accept input, in real time, received from any of the plurality of contributors concerning a particular proposed change, for display to all of the plurality of contributors, and

d) selectively revise the draft multimedia script under the control of the scripting controller to include the particular proposed change after the input concerning the particular proposed change has been reviewed by at least some of the plurality of contributors and the scripting controller to create a revised multimedia script; and

using the revised multimedia script to organize the multimedia presentation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the software further comprises:

providing video teleconferencing software to present real time digital views of the scripting controller and the contributors to each other at least during selectively revising the draft multimedia script.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising:

retrieving the underlying data source material associated with at least one data source element via the network from the remote location for the display of the data source material as part of the at least one software based slide.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the multimedia script includes retrieval path data permitting the data source material of the data source element to be retrieved via the network.

5. The method of claim 1 including operating said software to also display proposed changes to the script proposed by a remotely located time shifted contributor at a different time.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein selectively revising the draft multimedia script further comprises:

providing a working copy of the draft multimedia script for remotely located potential contributors such that each remotely located contributor can work independently on the working copy.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the scripting controller and the contributors are collaborating to edit the draft multimedia script in a virtual scripting room connected by the Internet.

8. The method of claim 1 including presenting said multimedia presentation in at least one of a court room, a conference room, an arbitration facility and a mediation facility.

9. The method of claim 3 including associating a complete path to the data source element.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein associating includes storing no more than the complete path for tracking the data source element.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein associating includes an access code as part of the complete path.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein associating includes utilizing an Internet based repository that stores the data source element.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the Internet based repository is one of an FTP server and an Internet hard drive.

14. The method of claim 1 including operating said software to display proposed revisions to the draft multimedia script and to store the proposed revisions within the draft multimedia script as temporary script segments.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein storing the proposed revisions includes identifying each proposed revision with a creator and revision number.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein operating the software includes finalizing one of the proposed revisions as part of the draft multimedia script only in response to an acceptance by the scripting controller.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining each slide as a software matrix.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein selectively revising includes at least one of modifying an existing script slide, creating a new script slide, and appending comments to at least one scripted slide.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one or more contributors selectively modify the script and said method further comprises saving the actions of each such contributor in association therewith for later recall.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring the preparation of the multimedia script via a web browser accessed by a remote user.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein monitoring includes logging onto a web site and viewing the multimedia script.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising saving a copy of the draft multimedia script as a working copy responsive to a contributor choosing to work independently.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising modifying the working copy responsive to the independently working contributor.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising submitting the working copy to other contributors and the scripting controller for potential incorporation into the revised multimedia script.

26. The method of claim 1 further comprising broadcasting the multimedia presentation over the Internet.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein the network is the Internet.

28. The method of claim 1 further comprising accepting concurrent contributions to the revised multimedia script from a plurality of contributors with each contributor at a different physical location.

29. The method of claim 1 further comprising saving the multimedia script responsive to an interaction with the scripting controller.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein saving saves the multimedia script on the controller computer.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein saving saves the multimedia script on an Internet hard drive.

32. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one software based slide includes a live action video stream.

33. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the multimedia presentation to an audience that is physically in the presence of an operator.

34. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the multimedia presentation to an audience via one of the Internet, a direct intranet connection, fiber optic cable, satellite or ISDN.

35. The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting the multimedia presentation and streaming data source material for at least one data source element from an original source location of the data source element during the presentation without otherwise saving such underlying data source material on the controller computer.

36. The method of claim 1 further comprising streaming data source material for at least one data source element between the controller computer and at least one contributor computer during revising the draft multimedia script.

37. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the multimedia presentation to an audience over the Internet on a remote telecommunications device.

38. The method of claim 1 wherein said software further operates such that at least some contributors are simultaneously enabled to edit the draft multimedia script.

39. The method of claim 1 wherein said software further operates such that each contributor is enabled to modify existing slides, create new slides and append comments to any scripted slide.

40. The method of claim 1 wherein said software further operates such that a privilege of the scripting controller to accept and reject proposed changes by the contributors is selectively conferrable upon at least one of the contributors by the scripting controller.

41. The method of claim 1 wherein said software further operates such that each contributor is enabled to contribute at least one new data source element to the draft multimedia script.

42. The method of claim 1 further comprising saving the multimedia script on an Internet hard drive.

43. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying further comprises presenting a plurality of windows on a display screen, the location and size of each window being determined by one of the contributors, to visually integrate displayable information.

44. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

as part of the draft multimedia script, simultaneously displaying the underlying data source material associated with at least two different data source elements side-by-side on a display screen.

45. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

editing at least one software based slide of the revised multimedia script during the multimedia presentation.

46. The method of claim 1 including incorporating a form as a data source element of a given software based slide, saving the form as part of the given software based slide and subsequently adding text to the form and, thereafter, again saving the given software based slide.

47. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

individually controlling a volume setting of each video in a given software based slide having a plurality of videos as data source elements during creation of the given software based slide such that the revised multimedia script retains the volume setting of each video in the given software based slide as part of the revised multimedia script.

48. The method of claim 9 including accessing the underlying data on-the-fly without opening another software application that is associated with the underlying data.

20. The method of 19 wherein saving includes storing the actions of each contributor in a log file wherein each action is identifiable to one of the contributors.

49. A method for creating a multimedia presentation using a network, said method comprising:

presenting a draft multimedia script via the network to at least one of a plurality of contributors, at least one of the contributors being located at a location remote from a scripting controller having a controller computer, the draft multimedia script being maintained on the controller computer to include one or more software based slides, each software based slide being maintained as a software matrix to contain at least one data source element to display underlying data source material of the data source element at least as part of at least one software based slide during presenting the draft multimedia script;

displaying changes to the draft multimedia script, proposed by any of the plurality of contributors, in real time to all of the plurality of contributors and to the scripting controller;

accepting input, in real time, received from any of the plurality of contributors concerning a particular proposed change, for display to all of the plurality of contributors;

selectively revising the draft multimedia script under the control of the scripting controller to include the particular proposed change after the input concerning the particular proposed change has been reviewed by at least some of the plurality of contributors and the scripting controller to create a revised multimedia script; and

using the revised multimedia script to display the multimedia presentation.