Method and Software for Enabling N-Way Collaborative Work Over a Network of Computers

• US 20090077474A1
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZAMA Innovations LLC
• Original Assignee: Rosebud LMS, Inc.
• Inventors: Lejter, Moises, Greene, Stephen, Mohan, John J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,046,699 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

Method, software, and system for efficiently enabling n-way collaborative work using common software over a network of computers. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, each participant in a collaborative session starts up a common software application, which includes a collaboration component. This collaboration component is used to establish a common session that includes all interested parties. The collaboration component replicates operations performed on any one instance of said application to all other instances participating in the same session, so the effect is as if all members of the session were sharing a single instance of the application on a single computer. In one aspect, the collaboration component also supports broadcast of audio and video over a computer network, to enable session participants to see and/or hear each other, and further includes other features that support collaborative work.

Claims

1. A method for collaboration over a computer network, comprising:

intercepting data regarding one or more application level events that occur within a first instance of a stand-alone application operable to create and edit documents in response to user actions, and wherein said one or more application level events reflect user actions that result in changes to a native document file generated by said first instance of stand-alone application;

transmitting data comprising said native document file and said data regarding one or more application level events over said computer network, automatically and in real time, to a second instance of said stand-alone application; and

causing said second instance of said stand-alone application;

to display a local copy of a document corresponding to a local copy of said native document file,

to receive and use said data comprising data regarding one or more application level events to replicate said events that occurred within said first instance,

to mirror said user actions performed in said first instance without user intervention by performing an equivalent action on said local copy of said native document file and thereby make corresponding changes to said local copy of said native document file, and

to display said changes to said local copy of said document.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said stand-alone application is Adobe Acrobat.

3. A method as in claim 1, wherein said second instance of said stand-alone application is further configured to queue received event notifications.

4. A method as in claim 3, wherein said second instance of said stand-alone application controls retrieval of said queued event notifications from multiple participants and resolves conflicts between said events.

5. A method as in claim 3, wherein said stand-alone application is Adobe Acrobat.

6. A method as in claim 1, wherein said data regarding one or more application level events is transmitted to said second instance via a session manager, and in which conflict resolution between events from different sources is performed by said session manager.

18. A method as in claim 1, wherein said application level events comprise one or more text changing events.

19. A method as in claim 18, wherein said text changing events comprise changing one or more characters.

20. A method as in claim 18, wherein said text changing events comprise changing one or more fonts.

21. A method as in claim 18, wherein said text changing events comprise changing one or more text colors.

22. A method as in claim 18, wherein said text changing events comprise changing character spacing.

23. A method as in claim 18, wherein said text changing events comprise changing line spacing.

24. A method as in claim 18, wherein said text changing events comprise changing paragraph spacing.

25. A method as in claim 1, wherein said application level events comprise opening a new document file.

26. A method as in claim 1, wherein said application level events comprise closing said native document file.

27. A method as in claim 1, wherein said application level events comprise zooming in or out.

28. A method as in claim 1, further comprising saving said local copy of said native document file with changes made by said replicated events incorporated therein.

7. A computer readable storage medium storing software for collaboration over a computer network, comprising:

a first instance of a software plug-in operable to intercept data regarding one or more application level events that occur within a first instance of a stand-alone application operable to create and edit documents in response to user actions, and to which said first instance of said software plug-in has been plugged in and wherein said one or more application level events reflect user actions that result in changes to a native document file generated by said first instance of stand-alone application are delivered to said plug-in;

software for transmitting a copy of said native document file and said data regarding one or more application level events over said computer network to a second instance of said plug-in plugged into a second instance of said stand-alone application; and

said second instance of said software plug-in plugged into said second instance of said stand-alone application and operable to receive and use said data regarding one or more application level events to replicate said events that occurred within said first instance of said stand-alone application, using said second instance of said stand-alone application to mirror said user actions performed on said first instance by performing an equivalent action on a local copy of said native document file, and to display said changes to said local document corresponding to said native document file, automatically, in real time, and without user intervention.

8. A computer readable storage medium storing software as in claim 7, wherein said stand-alone application is Adobe Acrobat.

9. A computer readable storage medium storing software as in claim 7, wherein said second instance of said application is further configured by said second instance of said plug-in to queue received event notifications.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing software as in claim 9, wherein said second instance of said stand-alone application controls retrieval of said queued event notifications.

11. A computer readable storage medium storing software as in claim 9, wherein said application is Adobe Acrobat.

12. A computer readable storage medium storing software as in claim 7, wherein said data regarding one or more application level events is transmitted to said second instance via a session manager.

13. A computer readable storage medium storing software as in claim 12, further comprising session manager software.

14. A computer readable storage medium storing software as in claim 13, wherein said session manager software comprises an instance of said application.

15. A method for collaboration over a computer network, comprising:

intercepting data regarding one or more viewer level events that occur within a first instance of a stand-alone application comprising a document viewer viewing a first copy of a native document file generated by said first instance of said stand-alone application; and

transmitting said data regarding one or more viewer level events over said computer network to a second instance of said stand-alone application;

wherein said second instance of said stand-alone application is operable to display a document corresponding to a second copy of said native document file and to receive and use said data regarding one or more viewer level events to replicate said events that occurred within said first instance of said stand-alone application, to mirror said user actions performed in said first instance, and to display changes to said document corresponding to said user actions.

16. A method as in claim 15, wherein said application is Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

17. A computer readable storage medium storing software for collaboration over a computer network, comprising:

a first software plug-in operable to intercept data regarding one or more application level events that occur within a first stand-alone application operable to create and edit documents in response to user actions, and to which said first software plug-in has been plugged in and wherein said one or more application level events reflect user actions that result in changes to a native document file generated by said first stand-alone application are delivered to said plug-in;

software for transmitting a copy of said native document file and said data regarding one or more application level events over said computer network to a second plug-in plugged into a second stand-alone application; and

said second software plug-in plugged into said second stand-alone application and operable to receive and use said data regarding one or more application level events to replicate said events that occurred within said first stand-alone application, using said second stand-alone application to mirror said user actions performed on said first instance by performing an equivalent action on a local copy of said native document file, and to display said changes to said local document corresponding to said native document file, automatically, in real time, and without user intervention.