Generic inbox system and method

• US 20050076110A1
• Filed: 07/12/2004
• Published: 04/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Catalystweb LLC
• Original Assignee: Catalystweb LLC
• Inventors: Mathew, Boban, John, Thomas, Evans, Dagny
• Application Number:
  US10/889,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20050076110A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

A system is described for managing messages of multiple media types comprising: one or more communication channels for receiving and sending messages of different media types the media types including both electronic messaging types and telephony message types; a generic inbox for uniformly storing messages from each of the media types without necessarily being tied to an account of any of the media types; and a generic inbox manager configured to manage the contents of the generic inbox according to a plurality of generic inbox management rules specified by the user.

Claims

1. A system for managing messages of multiple media types comprising:

one or more communication channels for receiving and sending messages of different media types, the media types including both electronic messaging types and telephony message types;

a generic inbox for uniformly storing messages from each of the media types without necessarily being tied to an account of any one of the media types; and

a generic inbox manager to manage the contents of the generic inbox according to a plurality of generic inbox management rules specified by a user.

2. The system as in claim 1 wherein the electronic messaging types include standard email, text messaging, and instant messaging.

3. The system as in claim 2 wherein the communication channels include standard public switched telephony connections and Internet Protocol (IP) telephony connections and wherein the telephony message types include voicemail messages and faxes received over the PSTN channels and/or IP channels.

4. The system as in claim 1 further comprising:

a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) comprising a unified view of the generic inbox.

5. The system as in claim 4 further comprising:

a view filter for generating different views of the generic inbox in response to a plurality of view rules.

6. The system as in claim 5 wherein the view rules specify a first view for viewing only electronic messaging types and a second view for viewing only telephony message types.

7. The system as in claim 5 wherein the view filter comprises a Web view filter for filtering electronic messages in response to Web filter rules and a phone view filter for filtering telephony messages in response to phone filter rules.

8. The system as in claim 5 wherein the view filter rules define at least one view including only new or unread messages.

9. The system as in claim 5 wherein the view filter rules define at least one view including only messages sent from a particular user.

10. The system as in claim 5 wherein the view filter rules define at least one view including only messages of a specified media type or group of media types.

11. The system as in claim 1 further comprising:

an internal communication channel communicatively coupled to the generic inbox manager and configured to receive generic messages directly over the internal communication channel from internal system users in a unified message format.

12. The system as in claim 1 wherein the generic inbox manager assigns a unique ID code to each message received over each communication channel prior to storing each message in the generic inbox, the unique ID code usable to uniquely identify each message within the generic inbox.

13. A method for managing messages of multiple media types comprising:

receiving a plurality of messages of different media types over a plurality of communication channels, the media types including both electronic messaging types and telephony message types;

uniformly formatting and storing the messages from each of the different media types within a generic inbox; and

managing the contents of the generic inbox according to a plurality of generic inbox management rules specified by a user.

14. The method as in claim 13 wherein the electronic messaging types include standard email, text messaging, and instant messaging.

15. The method as in claim 14 wherein the communication channels include standard public switched telephony connections and Internet Protocol (IP) telephony connections and wherein the telephony message types include voicemail messages and faxes received over the PSTN channels and/or IP channels.

16. The method as in claim 13 further comprising:

providing a unified view of the generic inbox within a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

).

17. The method as in claim 16 further comprising:

generating different views of the generic inbox in response to a plurality of view rules.

18. The method as in claim 17 further comprising generating a first view for viewing only electronic messaging types and a second view for viewing only telephony message types.

19. The method as in claim 17 wherein the first view is generated in response to a set of Web filter rules and the second view is generated in response to a set of phone filter rules.

20. The method as in claim 17 further comprising generating a view including only new or unread messages.

21. The method as in claim 17 further comprising generating a view including only messages sent from a particular user.

22. The method as in claim 17 further comprising generating one view including only messages of a specified media type or group of media types.

23. The method as in claim 13 further comprising:

receiving generic messages directly over an internal communication channel from internal system users in a unified message format.

24. The method as in claim 13 wherein uniformly formatting includes assigning a unique ID code to each message received over each communication channel prior to storing each message in the generic inbox, the unique ID code usable to uniquely identify each message within the generic inbox.

25. A system comprising:

communication channel means for receiving and sending messages of different media types, the media types including both electronic messaging types and telephony message types;

generic inbox means for uniformly storing messages from each of the media types without necessarily being tied to an account of any one of the media types; and

generic inbox manager means to manage the contents of the generic inbox according to a plurality of generic inbox management rules specified by the user.

26. The system as in claim 25 wherein the electronic messaging types include standard email, text messaging, and instant messaging.

27. An article of manufacture including program code which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the operations of:

receiving a plurality of messages of different media types over a plurality of communication channels, the media types including both electronic messaging types and telephony message types;

uniformly formatting and storing the messages from each of the different media types within a generic inbox; and

managing the contents of the generic inbox according to a plurality of generic inbox management rules specified by a user.

28. The article of manufacture as in claim 27 wherein the electronic messaging types include standard email, text messaging and instant messaging.