Methods and apparatuses for managing resources within a virtual room

• US 20080075118A1
• Filed: 10/13/2006
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Daniels, Christopher, Matt, Steffen, Knight, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,645,463 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/474
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

In one embodiment, the methods and apparatuses display a list configured to represent a plurality of virtual rooms; identify a selected participant device associated with a selected virtual room from the plurality of virtual rooms wherein the selected participant device is a member of the selected virtual room; selectively display content associated with the selected virtual room to the selected participant device; and notify the selected participant device of a change to the content associated with the selected virtual room.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying a list representing a plurality of virtual rooms;

viewing a status of each of the plurality of virtual rooms;

selecting one of the plurality of virtual rooms and forming a selected virtual room; and

selectively accessing the selected virtual room based on matching a requester with a list of a plurality of participant devices associated with the selected virtual room.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the participant device is one of a computer, a telephone, a personal digital assistant, and a pager.

3. The method according to claim 1 further comprising authenticating an identity of the participant device.

4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising notifying the plurality of participant devices of a change of content associated with the selected virtual room.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein a status of each of the plurality of participant devices is one of a logged in status and a logged off status.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein accessing further comprising sharing content associated with the selected virtual room with the plurality of participant devices associated with the selected virtual room.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein the content includes one of a document, an image, an audio segment, a video segment, a textual segment, and a graphical representation.

8. The method according to claim 1 further comprising notifying the plurality of participant devices of a meeting within the selected virtual room.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein the meeting is an electronic collaboration session.

10. The method according to claim 8 wherein the meeting is an audio conference.

11. The method according to claim 8 wherein the meeting is an instant messaging session.

12. A method comprising:

displaying a list configured to represent a plurality of virtual rooms;

identifying a selected participant device associated with a selected virtual room from the plurality of virtual rooms wherein the selected participant device is a member of the selected virtual room;

selectively displaying content associated with the selected virtual room to the selected participant device; and

notifying the selected participant device of a change to the content associated with the selected virtual room.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the selected participant device is one of a computer, a telephone, a personal digital assistant, and a pager.

14. The method according to claim 12 further comprising authenticating an identity of the selected participant device.

15. The method according to claim 12 further comprising notifying a plurality of participant devices of the change to the content associated with the selected virtual room.

16. The method according to claim 12 wherein a status of the selected participant device is one of a logged in status and a logged off status.

17. The method according to claim 12 further accessing the content associated with the selected virtual room from the selected participant device associated with the selected virtual room.

18. The method according to claim 12 wherein the content includes one of a a message, a document, an image, an audio segment, a video segment, a textual segment, and a graphical representation.

19. The method according to claim 12 further comprising transmitting a meeting reminder to a plurality of participant devices that are associated with the selected virtual room.

20. A system comprising:

means for displaying a list configured to represent a plurality of virtual rooms;

means for identifying a selected participant device associated with a selected virtual room from the plurality of virtual rooms wherein the selected participant device is a member of the selected virtual room;

means for selectively displaying content associated with the selected virtual room to the selected participant device; and

means for notifying the selected participant device of a change to the content associated with the selected virtual room.

21. The system according to claim 20 where the means for notifying includes transmitting a text message to the selected participant device.

22. The system according to claim 20 where the means for notifying includes transmitting an audio message to the selected participant device.

23. The system according to claim 20 where the means for notifying includes transmitting an electronic mail message to the selected participant device.