Knowledge management, capture and modeling tool for multi-modal communications

• US 20050254481A1
• Filed: 05/11/2004
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Vishik, Claire Svetlana, Suryanarayana, Lalitha
• Granted Patent: US 7,450,696 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration 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 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2044 Group features, e.g. closed user group
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42 Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers specially adapted for wireless communication networks H04W4/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42102 Making use of the called party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42161 via computer interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks

Abstract

Via a user interface, a user creates a device group that identifies communication devices of the user, the devices having different communication addresses. At least one of the devices is user-designated to receive an aggregated list of communications made with the devices in the user-defined device group. Communications made using devices in the group are detected, entries for the aggregated list are generated based thereon, and the entries are provided to the designated communication device(s). Thereafter, the user edits the user-defined device group via the user interface to add a communication device thereto or to remove a communication device therefrom.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating, by a user via a first user interface, a user-defined device group that identifies a plurality of different communication devices of the user, the communication devices having different communication addresses;

designating at least one of the communication devices to receive an aggregated list of communications made with the communication devices in the user-defined device group;

detecting a first communication made using a first communication device in the user-defined device group;

generating a first entry for the aggregated list based on the first communication, the first entry including information identifying the first communication device;

providing the first entry to the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list;

after providing the first entry, detecting a second communication made using a second communication device in the user-defined device group;

generating a second entry for the aggregated list based on the second communication, the second entry including information identifying the second communication device;

providing the second entry to the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list; and

editing the user-defined device group to add a communication device thereto or to remove a communication device therefrom.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said editing comprises adding a third communication device to the user-defined device group the method further comprising:

detecting a third communication made using the third communication device;

generating a third entry for the aggregated list based on the third communication, the third entry including information identifying the third communication device; and

providing the third entry to the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said editing comprises removing a third communication device from the user-defined device group via the first user interface, the method further comprising after said editing:

making a third communication using the third communication device; and

keeping the aggregated list unchanged based on the third communication.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

disbanding, by the user via the first user interface, the user-defined device group.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication devices comprise at least one landline or Internet telephone of the user, at least one wireless telephone of the user and at least one electronic mail device of the user, and wherein the different communication addresses comprise a plurality of telephone numbers and at least one electronic mail address.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the plurality of telephone numbers comprise a work telephone number, a home telephone number and a wireless telephone number.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein at least one of the telephone numbers comprises a virtual telephone number.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the communication devices further comprise a pager of the user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list comprises the first communication device and the second communication device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first communication comprises a first telephone call made to the first communication device, and wherein the second communication comprises a text message or a multimedia message sent to the second communication device.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a second user interface to receive from the user a first annotation associated with the first entry and a second annotation associated with the second entry.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a second user interface to receive from the user one or more commands to indicate how the user wants to organize the first entry and the second entry based on an ontology or user-defined categorization.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a second user interface to receive from the user one or more commands to link the first entry and the second entry.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the second user interface supports a private link that is visible only to one or more designated users.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

analyzing the first entry and the second entry to gain knowledge about a model of the user'"'"'s communications within a certain context.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the first communication device comprises a first mode of a converged communication device, the second communication device comprises a second mode of the converged communication device, wherein the first communication is made using the first mode of the converged communication device, and the second communication is made using the second mode of the converged communication device.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the user-defined device group further identifies at least one communication line of the user.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the at least one communication line comprises a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) virtual line on demand.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the first user interface comprises at least one of a Web interface and an Instant Messaging client.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

automatically creating an ontology or hierarchy of communication threads.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

communicating presence information to one or more network elements from an active device of the communication devices on which calls are received to indicate that the user is present and available on the active device.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the presence information further indicates a communication mode of the active device.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein said detecting the first communication is performed by at least one of a signaling system 7 (SS7) trigger, an automatic forwarding of e-mail or metadata about e-mail in a mail transfer protocol, program code in a short messaging service center (SMSC) or an instant messaging (IM) server, and an SIP signaling mechanism.

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising processing the first entry and the second entry for retrieval and analysis using text and multimedia processing and statistical analysis.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication addresses comprise at least one logical network address.

26. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing information about the device group in an ENUM database.

27. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing a mapping of a communication address to an identifier of a communication device or communication access mode in a public or private ENUM.

28. A system comprising:

a first user interface to create a user-defined device group that identifies a plurality of communication devices of a user, and to designate at least one of the communication devices to receive an aggregated list of communications made with the communication devices in the user-defined device group, wherein the communication devices have different communication addresses;

a capture module to detect a first communication made using a first communication device in the user-defined device group, to generate a first entry for the aggregated list based on the first communication, the first entry including information identifying the first communication device, and to provide the first entry to the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list;

wherein after providing the first entry, the capture module is to detect a second communication made using a second communication device in the user-defined device group, generate a second entry for the aggregated list based on the second communication, the second entry including information identifying the second communication device, and to provide the second entry to the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list; and

wherein after providing the second entry, the first user interface is to receive one or more commands to edit the user-defined device group to add a communication device thereto or to remove a communication device therefrom.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the user-defined device group is edited to add a third communication device thereto, and thereafter the capture module is to detect a third communication made using the third communication device, generate a third entry for the aggregated list based on the third communication, the third entry including information identifying the third communication device, and to provide the third entry to the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the user-defined device group is edited to remove a third communication device therefrom, and thereafter the capture module is to keep the aggregated list unchanged based on a third communication made using the third communication device.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein the first user interface is to provide a command for the user to disband the user-defined device group.

32. The system of claim 28 wherein the communication devices comprise at least one landline or Internet telephone of the user, at least one wireless telephone of the user and at least one electronic mail device of the user, and wherein the different communication addresses comprise a plurality of telephone numbers and at least one electronic mail address.

33. The system of claim 32 wherein the plurality of telephone numbers comprise a work telephone number, a home telephone number and a wireless telephone number.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein at least one of the telephone numbers comprises a virtual telephone number.

35. The system of claim 32 wherein the communication devices further comprise a pager of the user.

36. The system of claim 28 wherein the at least one communication device designated to receive the aggregated list comprises the first communication device and the second communication device.

37. The system of claim 28 wherein the first communication comprises a first telephone call made to the first communication device, and wherein the second communication comprises a text message sent to the second communication device.

38. The system of claim 28 further comprising:

a second user interface to receive a first annotation associated with the first entry and a second annotation associated with the second entry.

39. The system of claim 28 further comprising:

a second user interface to receive one or more commands to indicate how the user wants to organize the first entry and the second entry in an ontology or user-defined categorization.

40. The system of claim 28 further comprising:

a second user interface to receive one or more commands to link the first entry and the second entry.

41. The system of claim 40 wherein the second user interface supports a private link that is visible only to one or more designated users.

42. The system of claim 28 further comprising:

an analysis system to analyze the first entry and the second entry to gain knowledge about a model of the user'"'"'s communications within a certain context.

43. The system of claim 28 wherein the first communication device comprises a first mode of a converged communication device, the second communication device comprises a second mode of the converged communication device, wherein the first communication is made using the first mode of the converged communication device, and the second communication is made using the second mode of the converged communication device.

44. The system of claim 28 wherein the capture module is to distinguish communications made with different modes of communication for the same device.

45. The system of claim 28 wherein the capture module is to distinguish communications for different logical communication addresses for the same device.

46. The system of claim 28 wherein the user-defined device group further identifies at least one communication line of the user.

47. The system of claim 46 wherein the at least one communication line comprises a Voice over Internet Procotol (VoIP) virtual line on demand.

48. The system of claim 28 wherein the first user interface comprises at least one of a Web interface and an Instant Messaging client.

49. The system of claim 28 wherein the capture module is to exclude one or more communications, based on user-defined or system-established exclusions, from being captured.

50. The system of claim 28 further comprising a knowledge management component to automatically create an ontology or hierarchy of communication threads.

51. The system of claim 28 wherein the capture module interfaces and interacts with a database that stores logical identifiers to the communication devices and their access modes.

52. The system of claim 51 wherein the database comprises an ENUM database.