Document collaboration system

• US 20060026502A1
• Filed: 07/28/2004
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Netguru, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Netguru, Inc.
• Inventors: Dutta, Koushik
• Application Number:
  US10/900,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20060026502A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission

Abstract

The invention relates to a network-distributed document collaboration interface for document review sessions that permits multiple participants to view, markup, and annotate a document simultaneously and in real-time. Both synchronous and asynchronous modes of document collaboration are possible. A network-based application permits the centralized control of documents and collaboration sessions to distributed participants. The document collaboration system also permits saving, retrieving, resuming, and replaying document review sessions and supports concurrent real-time audio, video, and text-based meetings.

Claims

1. A method for document collaboration, comprising:

establishing a document collaboration session;

defining a group of one or more users permitted to participate in the document collaboration session;

defining one or more documents to be part of the document collaboration session;

defining a synchronous mode or an asynchronous mode of operation for the document collaboration session;

permitting the one or more users to make changes to the one or more documents; and

propagating the changes to the one or more documents to the users in the group.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing a start date and time for the document collaboration session;

establishing a due date and time for the document collaboration session; and

notifying the group of one or more users that the document collaboration session has been established.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

annotating the one or more documents as indicated by one of the users; and

inserting notes into the one or more documents.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a record of the changes made to the one or more documents; and

playing back the record of changes made to the one or more documents.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing audio/visual communications between two or more users.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing text chat communications between two or more users.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

changing the mode of operation between synchronous mode and asynchronous mode.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

making simultaneous changes to the one or more documents by one or more users.

9. A machine-readable medium having one or more instructions to provide a document collaboration interface, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

establish a document collaboration session;

define a group of one or more users permitted to participate in the document collaboration session;

define one or more documents to be part of the document collaboration session;

define a synchronous mode or an asynchronous mode of operation for the document collaboration session;

permit the one or more users to make changes to the one or more documents; and

propagate the changes to the one or more documents to the users in the group.

10. The machine-readable medium instructions of claim 9 further comprising:

establish a start date and time for the document collaboration session;

establish a due date and time for the document collaboration session; and

notify the group of one or more users that the document collaboration session has been established.

11. The machine-readable medium instructions of claim 9 further comprising:

annotate the one or more documents as indicated by one of the users; and

insert notes into the one or more documents.

12. The machine-readable medium instructions of claim 9 further comprising:

maintain a record of the changes made to the one or more documents; and

play back the record of changes made to the one or more documents.

13. The machine-readable medium instructions of claim 9 further comprising:

make simultaneous changes to the one or more documents by one or more users.

14. The machine-readable medium instructions of claim 9 further comprising:

establish audio/visual communications between two or more users.

15. The machine-readable medium instructions of claim 9 wherein the document collaboration interface is provided over a network-based application and the one or more documents are viewed from a centralized location.

16. A system comprising:

a document collaboration server configured to

host a document collaboration session,

store one or more documents associated with the document collaboration session,

maintain a list of authorized participants who are permitted to join the document collaboration session,

notify the authorized participants that a document collaboration session has been created; and

one or more network-distributed client interfaces communicatively coupled to the document collaboration server, at least one client interface configured to

permit the authorized participants to access the document collaboration session,

permit the authorized participants to review the one or more documents associated with the document collaboration session,

permit the authorized participants to make simultaneous changes to the one or more documents, and

propagate the changes made to the one or more documents by one of the participants to all of the authorized participants.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the one or more network-distributed client interfaces are further configured to permit the one or more participants to

annotate the one or more documents,

insert notes into the one or more documents,

save a record of the changes made to the one or more documents;

and

play back the record of changes made to the one or more documents.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the one or more network-distributed client interfaces are further configured to

establish audio communications between two or more participants.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the one or more network-distributed client interfaces are further configured to

establish text-based chat communications between two or more participants.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the document collaboration server is further configured to

permit either synchronous or asynchronous document collaboration from the one or more participants from a centralized web server communicatively coupled to the document collaboration server.

21. The system of claim 16 wherein the changes made by a first participant is associated with that first participant.

23. The system of claim 16 wherein the network-distributed client interfaces are configured to permit participants view the markups according to the names of the authors.

22. The system of claim 22 wherein the changes made by the first participant cannot be edited by any other participant.