METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AUTO-SORTING OF COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS OR COMPONENTS BASED ON FREQUENCY OF COMMUNICATION AND/OR ACCESS IN A COLLABORATION SYSTEM USER INTERFACE

• US 20080155471A1
• Filed: 12/20/2006
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Doris L., Daughtry, Chenita D., Lynn, Angelo, Stephen, Razeyah, Sankey, Latoya, Okafor, Ebubechukwu I., Kehn, Daniel B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,811 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/811
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages

Abstract

A system for auto-sorting of lists based on most frequent component access or partner collaboration. The elements in the lists may represent collaboration partners (e.g. instant messaging contacts), and/or collaboration components such as Web addresses, events, collaborative documents, activity objects, and/or desktop applications. The system monitors component accesses and/or partner collaborations over a configurable time period to determine the frequency of collaborations with specific collaboration partners, and/or the frequency of accesses to collaboration components. The disclosed system then determines a set of collaboration partners and/or components that are most frequently collaborated with and/or accessed, and moves the list elements representing those collaboration partners and/or components into a top-located sub-list within a list of elements representing a larger number of collaboration partners and/or components in a user interface provided to a local user. The size of the top-located sub-list is user configurable, and the user may further indicate that certain collaboration partners and/or components are to be added to the sub-list, removed from the sub-list, always excluded from the sub-list, or always included in the sub-list. The local user may also be provided with a configurable set of alert notifications through the user interface communicating when collaboration partners and/or components have been added to and/or removed from the sub-list.

Claims

1. A method for auto-sorting of a list in a user interface of a collaboration system, comprising:

determining, for each element in the list, a frequency of actions associated with that element;

determining a subset of the elements in the list having the highest frequencies of actions; and

locating the subset of elements in the list having the highest frequencies of actions at a top-most part of the list within the user interface of the collaboration system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein each element in the list represents a corresponding collaboration partner; and

wherein the actions associated with elements in the list are collaboration between a local user and the corresponding collaboration partner.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein each element in the list represents a corresponding collaboration component;

wherein the actions associated with elements in the list are accesses to the corresponding collaboration component; and

wherein the collaboration component is one of the set consisting of a Web address, event, collaborative document, activity object, and desktop application.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a user configured size of the sub-list;

determining a user configured set of collaboration components that can not be included within to the sub-list; and

determining a user configured set of collaboration components that are to always be included in the sub-list;

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing at least one alert to a local user in response to a change in the set of list elements contained in the sub-list.

6. A method for auto-sorting based on most frequently chatted-with contacts in an instant messaging application user interface, comprising:

determining the frequency with which each contact in a local user'"'"'s contact list has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user;

determining a predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user; and

displaying the predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user in a sub-list located in a top portion of a display of the contact list that is part of the instant messaging user interface.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the frequency with which each contact in the local user'"'"'s contact list has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user comprises counting the number of instant messaging sessions each contact in the local user'"'"'s contact list has participated in over a predetermined time period.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

broadcasting a first on-line status for the local user to contacts in the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list; and

broadcasting a second on-line status for the local user to contacts not in the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

wherein the first on-line status for the local user indicates that the local user is available for an instant messaging session; and

wherein the second on-line status for the local user indicates that the local user is not available for an instant messaging session.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining that a contact has been added to the sub-list displayed in the top portion of the contact list display; and

responsive to the determining that a contact has been added to the sub-list displayed in the top portion of the contact list display, displaying an alert to the local user informing the local user that the contact has been added to the sub-list displayed in the top portion of the contact list display.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining that a contact has been removed from the sub-list displayed in the top portion of the contact list display; and

responsive to the determining that a contact has been removed from the sub-list displayed in the top portion of the contact list display, displaying an alert to the local user informing the local user that the contact has been removed from the sub-list displayed in the top portion of the contact list display.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining that at least one contact contained in the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list is to be removed from the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list; and

responsive to the determining that the at least one contact contained in the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list is to be removed from the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list, temporarily removing the contact from the sub-list until the sub-list is next recalculated.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining that at least one contact not contained in the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list is to be added to the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list; and

responsive to the determining that the at least one contact not contained in the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list is to be added to the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list, temporarily adding the contact to the sub-list until the sub-list is next recalculated.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining at least one of the contacts in the local user'"'"'s contact list to be a primary contact; and

responsive to the determination that the contact is a primary contact, including the primary contact in the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list, regardless of how frequently the primary contact has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining at least one of the contacts in the local user'"'"'s contact list to be an excluded contact; and

responsive to the determination that the contact is an excluded contact, excluding the excluded contact from the sub-list located in the top portion of the display of the contact list, regardless of how frequently the excluded contact has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining that at least one contact has been determined to be an excluded contact; and

responsive to the determination that at least one contact has been determined to be an excluded contact, displaying a user interface object enabling the local user to cause a list of excluded contacts to be displayed within the instant messaging user interface.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

ordering the contacts within the sub-list located at the top of the contact list display based on a first criteria; and

ordering the contacts in the contact list below the sub-list based on a second criteria.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

wherein the first criteria is how frequently each contact in the sub-list has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user; and

wherein the second criteria is alphabetical order of contact screen names.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the following are configured by the local user through the instant messaging user interface:

the predetermined time period;

the predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user;

the at least one primary contact;

the at least one excluded contact;

the at least one added contact; and

the at least one removed contact.

20. A system including a computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having program code stored thereon for auto-sorting based on most frequently chatted-with contacts in an instant messaging application user interface, the program code comprising:

program code for determining the frequency with which each contact in a local user'"'"'s contact list has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user;

program code for determining a predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user; and

program code for displaying the predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user in a sub-list located in a top portion of a display of the contact list that is part of the instant messaging user interface.

21. A computer program product including a computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having program code stored thereon for auto-sorting based on most frequently chatted-with contacts in an instant messaging application user interface, the program code comprising:

program code for determining the frequency with which each contact in a local user'"'"'s contact list has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user;

program code for determining a predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user; and

program code for displaying the predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user in a sub-list located in a top portion of a display of the contact list that is part of the instant messaging user interface.

22. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, the computer data signal having program code stored thereon for auto-sorting based on most frequently chatted-with contacts in an instant messaging application user interface, the program code comprising:

program code for determining the frequency with which each contact in a local user'"'"'s contact list has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user;

program code for determining a predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user; and

program code for displaying the predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user in a sub-list located in a top portion of a display of the contact list that is part of the instant messaging user interface.

23. A system for auto-sorting based on most frequently chatted-with contacts in an instant messaging application user interface, comprising:

means for determining the frequency with which each contact in a local user'"'"'s contact list has participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user;

means for determining a predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user; and

means for displaying the predetermined number of contacts that have most frequently participated in instant messaging sessions with the local user in a sub-list located in a top portion of a display of the contact list that is part of the instant messaging user interface.