Machine-implemented activity management system using asynchronously shared activity data objects and journal data items

• US 20050182773A1
• Filed: 02/18/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Accomplice, Inc. (Standpipe Studios LLC)
• Inventors: Feinsmith, Jason B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,197,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Machine-assisted methods and apparatus are disclosed for allowing individual users to develop and organize respective activity descriptions and supporting journal items according to their respective preferences. Cross-referencing mappings may be created between activity descriptions and journal items in order to find, filter and organize disparate data. Cross-referencing mappings may also be created between the developed activity descriptions of different users so they can better understand each others perspectives and possibly overlapping goals. Different users'"'"' activity descriptions can be presented to a user even while the user may be disconnected from communication networks. Hierarchical relationships between activity descriptions may be provided. Machine-assisted means may be provided for creating work-sharing, work-delegating and/or informational sharing agreements between different users. Further machine-implemented means may be provided for automatically and asynchronously updating users on shared activities by other users even though all users are not necessarily connected to one or more respective communication networks at same time.

Claims

1. A storage and presentation system for presenting to a user, expressions of recorded activity descriptions and/or of recorded journal data items, where the storage and presentation system comprises:

(a) activity description recording means for recording in an activity description storing area, corresponding ones of recorded activity descriptions;

(b) journaling means for recording in a journal data storing area, corresponding journal data items, where data of the recorded journal data items is derived from one or more sources and/or data of the journal data items is generated locally by local data-generating means;

(c) journal-activity linking means for recording first logical links indicating corresponding first logical linkages at least between a recorded activity description and a recorded journal data item; and

(d) expressing means for presenting to a given user and within an integrated presentation, expressions of one or more of the recorded journal data items, and expressions of one or more of the recorded activity descriptions.

2. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein said recorded activity descriptions include hierarchical organizing data for organizing the recorded activity descriptions hierarchically relative to one another.

3. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(c.1) said first logical links are structured such that a given recorded activity description can be logically linked with either one or a plurality of newly or already recorded journal data items.

4. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(c.1) said first logical links are structured such that a predefined group of recorded journal data items can be logically linked with either one or a plurality of recorded activity descriptions.

5. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) the expressing means is further for presenting to the given user and within the integrated presentation, expressions of one or more of the first logical links.

6. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(c.1) said first logical links are structured such that a given recorded journal data item can be logically linked with either one or a plurality of recorded activity descriptions.

7. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(b.1) said journaling means includes time-stamping means for automatically attaching initial time stamps to journal data items that are being recorded, indicating when the respective journal data items were initially recorded, prior to subsequent editing if any, in the corresponding journal storing area; and

(d.1) said expressing means includes sorting means for sorting the presented order of the user'"'"'s journaled data items at least chronologically according to the attached initial time stamps of the respective recorded journal data items.

8. The journaling means of claim 7 wherein:

(b.1a) said time-stamping means includes initial-override means for allowing an authorized user to record the automatically attached time stamp of a given journal data item to instead indicate as the initial journaling time, a time which the authorized user elects as the attached initial time stamp of the respective journal data item.

9. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(b.1) said journaling means includes one or more of;

(b.1a) text inputting means for generating text-containing journal data items;

(b.1b) rich text inputting means for generating rich text-containing journal data items;

(b.1c) sound inputting means for generating sound-containing journal data items;

(b.1d) graphics inputting means for generating graphic-imagery-containing journal data items;

(b.1d) Digitized handwriting inputting means for generating digitized-handwriting-containing journal data items;

(b.1f) HTML inputting means for generating HTML-containing journal data items;

(b.1g) XML inputting means for generating XML-containing journal data items;

(b.1h) Web-browser script inputting means for generating web-browser script-containing journal data items;

(b.1i) email reference inputting means for generating a journal data item containing a reference to a received email or to one or more subportions of an email received by the given user;

(b.1j) hyperlink inputting means for generating a journal data item containing a hyperlink referencing a Universal Record Locator, other network address, or local machine storage address; and

(b.1k) language translating means for converting first expressions provided in a first language to corresponding second expressions provided in a different second language and for storing the second, language-translated, expressions within one or more of the journal data storing areas.

10. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes linkage-indicating means for providing in the integrated presentation, an indication of one or more logical linkages between at least one presented activity description expression and at least one presented and correspondingly logically linked journal data item expression, where the provided linkage indication is other than that of a common linkage between all of said presented activity description expressions and all of said presented journal data item expressions.

11. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(c.1) the journal-activity linking means further includes new-linkage generating means for creating and recording one or more new logical links between a recorded one or more of the activity descriptions and a recorded one or more of the journal data items in response to a dragging of a cursor or a mouse pointer from a corresponding first presented expression to a corresponding second presented expression, where each of the corresponding first and second presented expressions respectively expresses either a recorded one or more of the activity descriptions or a recorded one or more of the journal data items.

12. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(a.1) said recorded activity descriptions include hierarchical organizing data for organizing the recorded activity descriptions hierarchically relative to one another; and

(c.1) said expressing means includes presentation format control means for causing two or more of said presented expressions of the recorded activity descriptions to selectively appear in at least one of a tabular form and a graphical-icons form.

13. The storage and presentation system of claim 12 wherein:

(c.1a) at least one of the user selectable tabular forms of presentation of the one or more recorded activity descriptions includes a spreadsheet presentation wherein the spreadsheet presentation provides;

(c.1a1) a hierarchy path indication indicating a position in a hierarchical tree where a corresponding activity node for a corresponding, given activity description resides; and

(c.1a2) an activity description presentation that provides at least part of a short or long description for the given activity that is being represented by the given activity description.

14. The storage and presentation system of claim 13 wherein:

(a.2) said recorded activity descriptions each include a respective activity long descriptor field and a respective activity short descriptor field; and

(a.3) said activity description recording means includes description-compressing means for automatically deriving and storing a corresponding short description of the respective activity from data recorded in the respective activity long descriptor field of a given activity description.

15. The storage and presentation system of claim 14 wherein:

(a.3a) said description-compressing means records at least part of the derived short description in the activity short descriptor field of the given activity description in response to detection that an authorized user has not recorded a user-generated, short description in the activity short descriptor field of the given activity description.

16. The storage and presentation system of claim 12 wherein:

(c.1b) said presentation format control means provides a user selectable first graphical-icons form of presentation of the one or more recorded activity descriptions where the first graphical-icons form of presentation displays one or more graphical nodes and a corresponding network of one or more branches and further wherein the first graphical-icons form of presentation displays;

(c.1b1) a hierarchy path indication indicating a position in one or more primary or other hierarchical branch networks where a corresponding node for a corresponding, given activity description resides; and

(c.1b2) an activity description presentation that provides graphical icons representing respective activity nodes, and that further provides, adjacent to or within the respective graphical icons of respective activity nodes, at least part of a short or long description for the given activity that is being represented by the given activity description.

17. The storage and presentation system of claim 12 and further wherein:

(d.1) the expressing means includes a modifications synchronizing means for automatically causing modifications made to presented ones of recorded activity description or presented ones of recorded journal data items in a first of said tabular forms and graphical-icons forms to appear correspondingly and substantially simultaneously in other presented ones of said tabular forms and graphical-icons forms.

18. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes presentation sorting means for automatically presenting in the integrated presentation, a selectively sorted arrangement of the presented expressions of the one or more of the recorded activity descriptions.

19. The storage and presentation system of claim 18 and further wherein:

(d.2) said expressing means further includes presentation filtering means for selectively limiting which of the sortable and presentable expressions of the one or more of the recorded activity descriptions will be actually presented in the integrated presentation.

20. The storage and presentation system of claim 18 wherein:

(d.1a) the presentation sorting means includes an attributes-based sorting means for causing the selectively arranged ones of said expressions to be presented according to a prespecified sorting based on one or more attributes of the underlying recorded activity descriptions.

21. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes selection-indicating means for presenting in the integrated presentation, one or more selection indications that indicate which of the one or more presented expressions have been selectively chosen for a corresponding one or more purposes.

22. The storage and presentation system claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes presentation filtering means for selectively limiting which of the presentable expressions of the one or more of the recorded activity descriptions will be actually presented in the integrated presentation.

23. The storage and presentation system of claim 22 wherein:

(d.1a) said expressing means includes presentation format control means for causing said selectively-limited expressions to be selectively presented in either one of a tabular form and a graphical-icons form.

24. The storage and presentation system of claim 22 wherein:

(d.1a) the presentation filtering means includes a text string-based selecting means for causing the selectively limited ones of said expressions to include only expressions whose underlying recorded activity descriptions contain respective data and/or attributes satisfying a text string-based matching criteria.

25. The storage and presentation system of claim 22 wherein:

(d.1a) the presentation filtering means includes an attributes-based selecting means for causing the selectively limited ones of said expressions to include only expressions whose underlying recorded activity descriptions contain activity attributes satisfying an attribute state criteria.

26. The storage and presentation system of claim 22 wherein:

(d.1a) the presentation filtering means includes a condition-satisfying selecting means for causing the selectively limited ones of said expressions to include only expressions whose underlying recorded activity descriptions contain respective data satisfying a supplied Boolean sum of products set of conditions, or equivalents thereof.

27. The storage and presentation system of claim 22 wherein:

(c.2) the presentation filtering means further includes journal presentation filtering means for automatically presenting in the journal presentation area of said integrated presentation, the expressions of only the underlying recorded journal data items that are logically linked with the underlying recorded activity descriptions that are presented in the selectively limited activity description expression presentation.

28. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(a.1) said recorded activity descriptions include hierarchical organizing data for organizing the recorded activity descriptions hierarchically relative to one another at least as primary parent nodes and a corresponding zero or more primary child nodes of a hierarchical tree; and

(d.1) said expressing means includes selection-indicating means for presenting in the integrated presentation, one or more selection indications that indicate which of the one or more presented expressions have been selectively chosen for a corresponding one or more purposes; and

(d.1a) said selection-indicating means further includes an automatic primary progeny-selecting means for causing an automatic selection of primary child activity descriptions and of further primary progeny activity descriptions of a chosen one of said presented expressions of recorded activity descriptions.

29. The storage and presentation system of claim 28 wherein:

(a.1a) said hierarchical organizing data further includes secondary data for organizing the recorded activity descriptions hierarchically relative to one another at least as secondary parent nodes and corresponding zero or more secondary child nodes of a secondary hierarchical network of nodes and branches which can overlap with nodes and/or branches of the primary hierarchical tree;

(a.1b) one or more of said activity descriptions that respectively serve as primary child nodes can be linked logically with, aside from their respective, one and only one primary parent nodes, one or more other activity descriptions that serve as one or more corresponding secondary parent nodes of each of said primary child nodes, where the one or more secondary parent nodes of each given, primary child node can be different than the one primary parent node of the given, primary child node;

wherein any primary or secondary parent node can have zero, one or more secondary child nodes; and

wherein the one or more secondary child nodes of each given, primary parent node can be different than primary child nodes, if any, of the given, primary parent node; and

(d.1a) said selection-indicating means includes an automatic secondary progeny-selecting means for causing an automatic selection of secondary child activity descriptions of a chosen one or more of said presented expressions of recorded activity descriptions.

30. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes journal presentation sorting means for automatically presenting in the integrated presentation, a selectively sorted arrangement of the presented expressions of the one or more of the recorded journal data items.

31. The storage and presentation system of claim 30 wherein:

(d.1) said journal presentation sorting means includes a chronologically sorted arrangement of the one or more recorded journal data items according to their respectively recorded timestamp information.

32. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes journal presentation selecting means for automatically presenting in the integrated presentation, one or more selection indications that indicate which of the one or more presented expressions of recorded journal data items have been selectively chosen.

33. The storage and presentation system of claim 32, wherein said journal presentation selecting means includes activity filtering means for limiting the presentation of activity description expressions in said integrated presentation to expressions of underlying recorded activity descriptions that are logically linked with selected expressions of the recorded journal data items.

34. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes journal presentation filtering means for selectively limiting which of the presentable expressions of the one or more of the recorded journal data items will be actually presented in the integrated presentation.

35. The storage and presentation system of claim 34 and further wherein:

(d.1a) said journal presentation filtering means includes means for filtering the presented expressions of the one or more of the recorded journal data items according to whether the underlying recorded journal data items are logically linked with selected expressions of the recorded activity descriptions.

36. The storage and presentation system of claim 1 wherein:

(d.1) said expressing means includes expression-format control means for selectively defining presentation formats of one or more of the presented expressions, if any, of the one or more of the recorded activity descriptions.

37. The storage and presentation system of claim 36 wherein:

(d.1a) said expression-format control means is further for selectively defining presentation formats of one or more of the first logical links when said first logical links are expressively represented in the integrated presentation.

38. The storage and presentation system of claim 36 wherein:

(d.1a) said expression-format control means includes one or more, predefined filtering tools for providing single-click or single-other-user-activation of a predefined presentation filtering operation for thereby determining which expressions of respective recorded activity descriptions will be on-display.

39. An expression storing and transmitting system usable by a first user such that the first user can develop and/or refine expressions of ideas for one or more activities and/or can share selectable ones of the expressed activity ideas with one or more other users, wherein the expression storing and transmitting system comprises:

(a) activity description recording means for recording in an activity descriptions holding area of the first user, a first set of first one or more activity descriptions wherein each said recorded activity description comprises an activity data object (ADO) and wherein each given ADO comprises;

(a.1) at least one of a short activity descriptor field and long activity descriptor field for respectively providing a relatively short description and a comparatively longer and/or more detailed description of a corresponding activity of the given ADO; and

(a.2) an ADO owner identifying field for identifying an owner-user who has ownership and modification rights over the said ADO for creating and/or modifying at least said short description and/or comparatively longer and/or more detailed description of the corresponding activity of the given ADO; and

(a.3) a uniqueness providing field for use alone or in combination with said ADO owner identifying field for providing the given ADO with a unique identification so as to make the given ADO uniquely identifiable respectively among other ADO'"'"'s owned by said owner-user of the given ADO and among other ADO'"'"'s owned by a specifiable pool of other users with whom the owner-user of the given ADO is sharing or may be sharing activity idea information; and

(b) first sharing means for transmitting derived copies of selected activity description expressions stored in the said activity descriptions holding area to alike systems or unalike systems usable by one or more other users.

42. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further comprising:

(c) second sharing means for receiving and recording a second set of second one or more activity description expressions where the second set may include alike ADO structures associated with, and owned by second users of alike said systems, wherein portions or wholes of said second set of activity descriptions can be recorded into the said activity descriptions holding area as updates to or as new members of respective first one or more activity descriptions; and

(d) expressing means for presenting to the first user in an integrated presentation, expressions of the first set of one or more of the recorded activity descriptions and expressions of the received and recorded second set of one or more activity descriptions.

43. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further including:

(e) a common-idea-tying field for identifying each given ADO as being a member of a corresponding and exclusive first group of further ADOs that can be logically tied together under an exclusive, common-idea-tying field such that said first group of common-idea-tied ADOs is unique among at least all other common-idea-tied groups of ADOs that are recorded in the activity descriptions holding area of the first user and in the activity description holding areas of other users in a specifiable sharing pool, and such that no ADO member of said exclusive, first group of common-idea-tied ADOs is also a member of another alike and exclusive group of common-idea-tied ADOs recorded in the said activity descriptions holding area of the first user and the holding areas of other users in a specifiable sharing pool.

44. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 43 and further comprising:

(a) second sharing means for receiving and recording a second set of second one or more activity description expressions where the second set may include alike ADO structures associated with, and owned by second users of alike said systems; and

(f) expressing and preview means for presenting to the first user a presentation including one or more of said second activity descriptions that may not yet have been reviewed by said first user, for which the ADOs corresponding to said presented second activity descriptions comprise said common-idea-tying fields that do not match such fields corresponding to any other ADOs that are already recorded in the activity descriptions holding area of the first user.

45. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 43 and further comprising:

(g) integrating means for allowing the first user to integrate into his own recorded collections of said recorded first activity descriptions, new, third respective, derived copies of second activity descriptions received from outside his collections, such that;

(g.1) the common-idea-tying fields of respective second activity descriptions do not match the common-idea-tying fields of any first activity descriptions before respective said integration;

(g.1) said integrated third derived copies are owned by the first user; and

(g.2) the common-idea-tying fields of respective said third derived copies indicate the same values as the common-idea-tying fields of the respective second activity descriptions.

46. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 43 and further comprising:

(h) second sharing means for receiving a second set of second one or more activity description expressions where the second set may include alike ADO structures associated with, and owned by second users of alike said systems;

and further wherein;

(a.1) the storage means includes means of automatically updating said activity descriptions in the activity descriptions holding area of the first user wherein if both the common-idea-tying field and the owner-user indicated by a said first activity description respectively match the common-idea-tying field and the owner-user indicated by a said received second activity description, then one or more portions of the received second activity description are used to update the values of the corresponding one or more portions of the matching first activity description in the activity descriptions holding area of the first user.

47. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 46 and further wherein:

(a.1a) the automatic updating means includes sharing progress tracking means wherein the said portions of updated activity descriptions owned by other than the said first user, include one or more of a sharing and/or delegating agreement indicator, an activity completion status indicator, a priority indicator and/or other activity description indicators; and

(b) said sharing progress tracking means includes expressing means for presenting to the first user expressions of these indicators.

48. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 43 and further wherein:

(b.1) the transmitting means includes means of automatically transmitting derived copies of said one or more first activity descriptions that are owned by said first user to machine areas of other users who are respectively indicated as originators of respective activity idea expressions corresponding to the respectively said common-idea-tying fields of the one or more first user owned first activity descriptions.

49. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 48 and further wherein:

(b.1a) the said indicators of originators of the respective activity idea expressions are recorded in the said one or more first owned activity descriptions or are recorded in any other of the first activity descriptions that are members of the common-idea-tied group of the respective said one or more first owned activity descriptions.

50. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 43 and further wherein:

(b.1) the transmitting means includes means of automatically transmitting derived copies of said one or more first activity descriptions that are owned by said first user, to machine areas of other users who are respectively indicated as the owners of respective other one or more of the said first activity descriptions wherein;

(a.5) the common-idea-tying field corresponding to the respective said owned activity descriptions match the common-idea-tying field corresponding to the said respective other one or more activity descriptions.

51. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further wherein:

(b) the transmitting means includes means of automatically transmitting derived copies of said one or more first activity descriptions that are owned by said first user, to machine areas of other users who are indicated as supervisory users relative to said first user and wherein;

(b.1) said automatic transmitting means is initiated directly and/or indirectly when said one or more first activity descriptions are created by said first user or if said one or more first activity descriptions are modified by said first user.

52. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 wherein each given ADO further comprises:

(a.4) common-idea-tying reference data which alone, or overlappingly with one or both of said ADO owner identifying field and said uniqueness providing field, logically ties the given ADO to one or more other ADO'"'"'s to thereby define a corresponding, first group of ADOs that are logically tied together under a unique identification for an expressed activity idea.

53. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 52 wherein:

(a.4a) said common-idea-tying reference data is defined by at least one of the ADOs-tying set consisting of;

(a.4a1) a Common Idea Expression Reference (CIER) field;

(a.4a2) a pointer pointing to a linked list of the other ADOs in said first group of common-idea-tied ADOs; and

(a.4a3) a reference to a linking table which identifies the other ADOs in said first group of common-idea-tied ADOs.

54. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 wherein each given ADO further comprises:

(a.4) one or more ADO naming fields which, alone or in combination, uniquely identify the said ADO from amongst at least all other ADO'"'"'s that are recorded in the activity descriptions holding area of the first user.

55. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further wherein each given ADO comprises at least one of:

(a.4) an indication of privacy level;

(a.5) an indication of other users to whom activity descriptions or derived copies of activity descriptions may be transmitted; and

(a.6) an indication of other users to whom activity descriptions or derived copies of activity descriptions may not be transmitted.

56. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further including:

(c) an inbound sharing request type indicating field for identifying each given respective activity description as corresponding to a respective inbound sharing request type, which may be null; and

further wherein the system includes;

(d) expressing means for presenting to the user, expressions of the first one or more recorded activity descriptions, wherein said expressing means includes means to automatically and selectively filter from the presentation, first activity descriptions corresponding to a specified one or more inbound sharing request types.

57. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further including:

(c) a sharing request type indicating field for identifying each given activity description as corresponding to a respective sharing request type, wherein the said indication of sharing request type is selected from a group of sharing request types including;

a “

For Your Information”

type (FYI) or equivalent type, wherein the “

For Your Information”

sharing type does not correspond to a request for receiving users to actively participate in regard to the activity description.

58. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further wherein each given ADO comprises:

(a.4) an indication of a sharing request type among a set of sharing request types, wherein a said set of said sharing request types includes one of at least;

(a.4a) a first combination indicating a no sharing request; and

a sharing request;

(a.4b) a second combination indicating a no sharing request;

a request for involvement; and

a request for awareness but no involvement (FYI); and

(a.4c) a third combination indicating a no sharing request;

a request for shared involvement;

a request for delegated involvement; and

a request for awareness but no involvement (for your information).

59. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further wherein sharing means for transmitting includes:

(b.1) transmitting translated ADO copies in one or more formats from the group consisting of;

(a) message body ASCII text;

(b) message body rich text;

(c) message body HTML;

(d) a message and/or email encoded binary attachment;

or

(e) data encrypted and/or compressed into message body ASCII text.

60. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further wherein:

(a) the transmitting means includes means of automatically transmitting derived copies of said one or more first activity descriptions that are owned by said first user to machine areas of other users to whom the first user has indicated the activity descriptions should be shared to; and

wherein;

(a.1) said automatic transmitting means is initiated directly and/or indirectly when said one or more first activity descriptions are created by said first user or if said one or more first activity descriptions are modified by said first user.

61. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 wherein those of said activity descriptions that are owned by a given user are hierarchically organized at least as parent nodes and corresponding child nodes of a primary hierarchical tree, wherein each said activity description has as its parent in the primary hierarchical tree, only one primary parent node, unless said activity description defines a root node, and each said activity description has as its children, zero or more primary child nodes.

62. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 61 wherein each ADO further comprises one or more of:

(b.2c) a primary parent identifying field for identifying the one primary parent ADO of the given ADO unless the given ADO defines a root node of its corresponding, primary hierarchical tree;

(b.2d) one or more primary children identifying fields for identifying, alone or in combination, the one or more primary child ADO'"'"'s, if any, of the given ADO.

63. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 61 wherein said activity descriptions that are primary child nodes can also have one or more secondary parent nodes that are not the same as their primary parent nodes, and wherein any activity description can have zero, one or more secondary child nodes for which such secondary child nodes can be different from their corresponding primary child nodes.

64. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 61 wherein:

(b) the transmitting means includes means for automatically transmitting a derived copy of a to-be-shared one of said first activity descriptions, that is owned by said first user, to machine areas of one or more predefined reporting-to users, if any.

65. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 61 wherein:

(b) the transmitting means includes means for automatically transmitting a derived copy of a to-be-shared one of said first activity descriptions, that is owned by said first user, to machine areas of reporting-to users, if any, wherein;

(b.1) a reporting-to user can be described as an owner of any activity description of said first activity descriptions and wherein the any activity description corresponds to a same common-idea-tied group of activity descriptions to which the given activity description is tied.

(b.2) said automatic transmission is transmitted to reporting-to users of the to-be-shared activity description'"'"'s primary parent activity descriptions and/or further progenitor activity descriptions.

66. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 61 further wherein those of said activity descriptions that are owned by a given user may optionally be hierarchically organized as child nodes to foyered nodes, wherein said foyered nodes can be described as nodes of recorded activity descriptions that are not owned by the said first user yet are recorded in the said activity descriptions holding area of the first user.

67. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 66 wherein:

(b.1) the transmitting means includes means of automatically transmitting a derived copy of a to-be-shared one of said first activity descriptions, that is owned by said first user, to machine areas of foyered parent reporting-to users, if any, wherein;

(b.1a) a foyered parent reporting-to user can be described as an originator of the activity idea expression corresponding to a foyered parent node of the to-be-shared activity description.

68. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 66 wherein:

(b.1) the transmitting means includes means of automatically transmitting a derived copy of a to-be-shared one of said first activity descriptions, that is owned by said first user, to machine areas of foyered parent reporting-to users, if any, wherein;

(b.1a) a foyered parent reporting-to user can be described as an owner of a foyered parent activity description of the to-be-shared activity description.

69. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 which further comprises:

(j) journal data recording means for recording in a journal items holding area of the first user, first one or more journal items wherein each said recorded journal item comprises a journal data item that is recorded in a format other than that of the activity data object format;

(k) first expression linking means for generating first logical links between selectable ones of the recorded activity data objects and at least a corresponding one of the recorded journal data items; and

70. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 69 which further comprises:

(l) transmitting means further wherein transmitting of derived copies of one or more of the recorded activity data objects includes transmitting of derived copies of the at least one respectively logically linked journal data item.

71. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 39 and further comprising:

(c) expressing means for presenting to the said first user, second activity description expressions owned by users other than the first user, wherein underlying activity descriptions are recorded in the activity descriptions holding area of the first user.

72. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 71 wherein:

(c.1) said expressing means includes presenting to the first user even when the said expression storing and transmitting system is decoupled from any telecommunications networks.

73. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 71 wherein:

(c.1) said expressing means includes integrated presenting means for presenting an integrated presentation of the expressions of said first activity descriptions owned by the first user and the expressions of the second activity descriptions owned by users other than the first user.

74. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 73 wherein:

(c.1a) said integrated expressing means includes foyered activity filtering means for limiting the presented expressions of the second activity descriptions to ones that correspond to a selected first activity description expression wherein the presented second activity description expressions and the selected first activity description expression all correspond to one common-idea-tied group of ADOs.

75. The expression storing and transmitting system of claim 71 wherein:

(c.1) said expressing means includes embedded attribute presentation means for presenting one or more of the second activity descriptions, owned by the other users, wherein;

(c.1a) presented expressions for specified ADO fields are replaced by presented expressions for alike ADO fields obtained from the respectively corresponding first activity descriptions, owned by the said first user; and

(c.1b) wherein the respective second and first underlying activity descriptions correspond according to respective common-idea-tied groups of ADOs.

40. The expression storing and transmitting system of 39 and further wherein:

(a) the said activity description recording means includes means for recording in one or more activity descriptions holding areas, corresponding ones of activity descriptions.

41. The expression storing and transmitting system of 39 and further comprising:

(b) journaling means for recording in one or more journal data items holding areas, corresponding ones of journal data items.

76. A manufactured signal for defining a given one of a plurality of activity data objects (ADO'"'"'s), the manufactured signal for the given ADO comprising:

(a) one or both of a short activity descriptor field for providing a relatively short and/or abbreviated description of a corresponding activity of the given ADO, and a long activity descriptor field for providing a comparatively longer and/or more detailed description of the corresponding activity of the given ADO;

(c) an ADO owner and/or telecommunications contact address identifying field for identifying an owner-user and/or telecommunications contact address of said owner-user who has ownership and modification rights over the given ADO for creating and/or modifying at least said short activity descriptor field and/or long activity descriptor field of the given ADO;

(d) a uniqueness providing field for use alone or in combination with said ADO owner and/or telecommunications contact address identifying field for providing the given ADO with a unique identification so as to make the given ADO uniquely identifiable respectively among other ADO'"'"'s owned by said owner-user of the given ADO and among other ADO'"'"'s owned by a specifiable pool of other users with whom the owner-user of the given ADO is sharing or may be sharing activity idea information; and

(e) a Time of Last ADO Modification field that indicates when a corresponding transmitting system last modified the recorded ADO from which the given ADO signal was derived.

77. The manufactured signal of claim 76 wherein the given ADO further comprises:

(d.1) a Common Idea Expression Reference (CIER) indicator field that identifies the given ADO as having its underlying original activity idea expression being common with that of one or more other ADOs recorded in a signal transmitting system from which the given ADO of the given manufactured signal has been generated or derived.

78. The manufactured signal of claim 76 wherein the given ADO is organizable to define a respective activity node in a hierarchical tree containing parent nodes and corresponding child activity nodes that are defined by alike ADOs, the manufactured signal for the given ADO further comprising one or more of:

(f) a parent identifying field for identifying a corresponding parent ADO that serves in a respective hierarchical tree as a parent of the given ADO; and

(g) one or more child identifying fields for identifying, alone or in combination, one or more child ADO'"'"'s, if any within the said hierarchical tree, of the given ADO.

79. The manufactured signal of claim 76 wherein the manufactured signal for the given ADO further comprises one or more of:

(f) an idea originator field for identifying an originator user name or other reference to the originator of an activity idea expression for which the given ADO has been correspondingly created; and

(g) an idea originator address field for indicating a telecommunications contact address at which the said activity idea expression originator may be telecommunications-wise contacted.

80. The manufactured signal of claim 76 wherein the manufactured signal further comprises:

(f) an authenticity certifying field for providing certification of one or both of determinations that information provided by the given ADO has not been tampered with and that information provided by the given ADO originated from the owner-user identified in said ADO owner identifying field.

81. A machine-implemented method for generating reports relating to hierarchically organized activity descriptions and/or activity-supporting information, the method comprising:

(a) first maintaining a recorded and logically linked plurality of activity data objects (ADO'"'"'s) which identify and/or represent respective activities and indicate interrelationships between the respective activities;

(b) second maintaining a recorded and logically linkable plurality of journal data items (JDI'"'"'s) which identify and/or represent respective items of supporting information for supporting current or future activities and indicate, if the JDI'"'"'s are logically linked with one another and/or with other data, interrelationships between the respective JDI'"'"'s and/or the other data;

(c) performing one or more filtering searches through one or both of said maintained ADO'"'"'s and JDI'"'"'s for identifying one or more filtered subsets of said maintained ADO'"'"'s and JDI'"'"'s; and

(d) presenting to a user at least one of said filtered subsets of the maintained ADO'"'"'s and/or JDI'"'"'s.

82. The machine-implemented method of claim 81 wherein:

(d.1) said presenting includes presenting an integrated presentation to the user, where the integrated presentation simultaneously provides a first expression of a filtered subset of, or of an unfiltered set of, the maintained ADOs and a second expression of a filtered subset of, or of an unfiltered set of, the maintained JDIs.

83. The machine-implemented method of claim 82 wherein:

(d.2) said first presented expressions are selectively expressed in a respective one of a tabular form or a graphical-icons form.

84. The machine-implemented method of claim 82 and further comprising:

(e) causing a print out to be generated of one or both of a first expression of a filtered subset of the maintained ADOs and a second expression of a filtered subset of the maintained JDIs, if any, that are logically linked with the filtered subset of maintained ADOs.

85. The machine-implemented method of claim 81 wherein:

(b.1) said recorded and logically linkable plurality of journal data items (JDI'"'"'s) include one or both of derived copies of external JDI'"'"'s that are stored outside of a machine area controlled by a JDI-owning user, or references to said external JDIs.

86. The machine-implemented method of claim 85 wherein:

(b.1a) said external JDI'"'"'s include JDI'"'"'s that are stored on internet-accessible servers.

87. The machine-implemented method of claim 81 wherein:

(b.1) said recorded and logically linkable plurality of journal data items (JDI'"'"'s) include one or more sets of grouped JDI'"'"'s that are logically linked to one another within the respective sets so that a reference made to one of the grouped JDI'"'"'s in a given set can invoke an automatic presentation to the user of one or more other JDI'"'"'s of the given set.

88. A manufactured instructing signal for causing an instructable machine to carry out an activity description generating process, where the process caused by said instructing signal includes a recording of activity-describing data (AD data) where each respectively recorded instance of AD data comprises:

(a) one or both of a short activity descriptor field for providing a relatively short and/or abbreviated description of a corresponding activity of the instant AD data, and a long activity descriptor field for providing a comparatively longer and/or more detailed description of the corresponding activity of the instant AD data;

(c) an ADO owner and/or telecommunications contact address identifying field for identifying an owner-user and/or telecommunications contact address of said owner-user who has ownership and modification rights over the instant AD data for creating and/or modifying at least said short activity descriptor field and/or long activity descriptor field of the instant AD data; and

(d) a uniqueness providing field for use alone or in combination with said ADO owner and/or telecommunications contact address identifying field for providing the instant AD data with a unique identification so as to make the instant AD data uniquely identifiable respectively among other AD data owned by said owner-user of the instant AD data and/or among other AD data owned by a specifiable pool of other users with whom the owner-user of the instant AD data is sharing or may be sharing activity idea information.