System and method for collaborative call management

• US 20050149876A1
• Filed: 01/07/2004
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Kortum, Philip T., White, P. David
• Granted Patent: US 7,617,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A system and method for collaborative call management are disclosed. In one embodiment of a method incorporating teachings of the present disclosure, a graphical user interface (GUI) element may be presented in connection with a collaborative call. The GUI element may display a listing of call participants and a status of each participant. Example participant states may include an on-call state, an off-call state, a currently speaking state, a waiting to speak state, and a paused-call state. In operation, information presented in the GUI element may change in response to a status change of a call participant. The method may also involve recognizing that a caller has joined the collaborative call and updating the GUI element to add the joining caller to the list of participants.

Claims

1. A collaborative call method comprising:

initiating presentation of a graphical user interface (GUI) element in connection with a collaborative call, the GUI element operable to display a listing of call participants; and

updating information presented in the GUI element in response to a status change of a call participant.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recognizing that a caller joins the collaborative call; and

presenting a name for the caller within the GUI element.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a caller ID service to identify a caller joining the collaborative call.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising prompting a caller joining the collaborative call to speak in connection with identifying the caller.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking a caller status for at least one participant of the collaborative call.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the caller status is selected from a group consisting of an on-call state, an off-call state, a currently speaking state, a waiting to speak state, and a paused-call state.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking a caller metric for at least one call participant.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the caller metric is selected from a group consisting of a call joining time, a call exiting time, an on-call duration time, an accepted to do list, and a participation level indicator.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a collaborative call report.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the collaborative call report comprises a list of participants and a tracked metric for at least one participant.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the collaborative call report further comprises a transcript of the collaborative call.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a signal indicating a desire of a caller to communicate with at least one other caller via the collaborative call.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising updating the GUI element to indicate the desire.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the signal launched in response to a keystroke of the caller.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

updating the GUI element to include an indication of the desire;

recognizing a subsequent communication by the caller; and

updating the GUI element to remove the indication.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting at least a portion of a transcript of the collaborative call in a textual format within a near real time chat window associated with the GUI element.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a blog of the collaborative call.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a collaborative call report comprising a list of participants and a transcript of at least a portion of the collaborative call; and

distributing the collaborative call report to at least one call participant.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein distributing the collaborative call report comprises sending a message selected from a group consisting of an electronic mail message, an Instant Message, a facsimile message, and a physical paper message.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI element comprises an administrative feature icon, the method further comprising:

recognizing that a caller joins the collaborative call;

determining that the caller is a call host;

initiating presentation of the GUI element on a display associated with the call host;

recognizing that a second caller joins the collaborative call; and

initiating presentation of a different GUI element on a display associated with the second caller, the different GUI element missing the administrative feature.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI element comprises an administrative feature icon operable to trigger termination of a web session associated with the collaborative call, the method further comprising:

recognizing that a caller joins the collaborative call;

determining that the caller is a call host; and

initiating presentation of the GUI element on a display associated with the call host.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving a signal indicating activation of the administrative feature icon; and

terminating the web session.

23. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable data to initiate presentation of a host graphical user interface (GUI) in connection with a collaborative call, the host GUI comprising an administrator icon and a listing of call participants, to initiate presentation of a participant GUI having an appearance different than the host GUI, and to update information presented in the host GUI and in response to a status change of a call participant.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 having additional computer-readable data to update participant GUI information presented in response to the status change of the call participant.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 having additional computer-readable data to generate a transcript of the collaborative call and to initiate communication of the transcript to at least one call participant.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the caller status is selected from a group consisting of an on-call state, an off-call state, a currently speaking state, a waiting to speak state, and a paused-call state.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 having additional computer-readable data to initiate presentation of a GUI element within the host GUI, the GUI element comprising at least a portion of a transcript of the collaborative call in a textual format.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein the transcript is presented in near real time.

29. A collaborative call system, comprising:

a computing platform operable to be communicatively coupled to a remote host station and a remote participant station;

a participant status engine executing on the computing platform and operable to track a caller status for at least one participant of the collaborative call, wherein the caller status is selected from a group consisting of an on-call state, an off-call state, a currently speaking state, a waiting to speak state, and a paused-call state; and

a presentation engine associated with the participant status engine, the presentation engine operable to initiate presentation of a first graphical user interface (GUI) on the remote host station and a different GUI on the remote participant station.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the first GUI comprises a list of call participants and a status icon for each of the participants.

31. The system of claim 29, further comprising a communication engine operable to initiate communication of a call report to the remote host station in response to completion of the collaborative call.

32. The system of claim 29, further comprising an update engine associated with the presentation engine, the update operable to initiate an updating of the first GUI and the different GUI in response to a change in status of a call participant.

33. The system of claim 29, further comprising a thin client executing at the remote host station.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein the collaborative call comprises a conference call via a bridge.

35. The system of claim 29, wherein the collaborative call comprises a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call.

36. The system of claim 29, further comprising an interactive voice response (IVR) unit communicatively coupled to the computing platform, the IVR unit operable to allow a participant to access information associated with the collaborative call via a voice telephone call.

37. The system of claim 29, further comprising a next to speak engine associated with the presentation engine, the next to speak engine operable to recognize a desire of a call participant to communicate via the collaborative call and to initiate presentation of an indication of the desire in the first GUI.