TECHNIQUES TO RESTORE COMMUNICATIONS SESSIONS FOR APPLICATIONS HAVING CONVERSATION AND MEETING ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20110185288A1
• Filed: 02/22/2011
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Eckert, Michael, Gupta, Amit, Bouchard, Thomas, Truffat, Marcelo, Morrison, Kevin, Carpenter, Blaine
• Granted Patent: US 9,171,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4053 without floor control

Abstract

Techniques for restoring communications sessions for applications having conversation environment and a meeting embodiment are described. A system may include a meeting component of a communications application for selecting a meeting from multiple meetings, a conversation component of the communications application for managing multiple conversation threads, and a recovery component of the communications application for recovering an active meeting from the multiple meetings or an active conversation thread from the multiple conversation threads. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented communications system, comprising:

a meeting component of a communications application for selecting a meeting from multiple meetings;

a conversation component of the communications application for managing multiple conversation threads; and

a recovery component of the communications application for recovering an active meeting from the multiple meetings or an active conversation thread from the multiple conversation threads.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a store component for storing recovery information related to at least one of the multiple meetings or multiple conversation threads using a unique identifier.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a store component for storing recovery information including session information and content information.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a permissions component for storing recovery permissions associated with the recovery component.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a store component for storing recovery information on a client datastore or a server datastore based on a set of recovery permissions.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a monitor component for monitoring active meetings and active conversation threads to detect a recovery event.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the multiple conversation threads are associated with at least one of instant messaging, group chat, or an online meeting.

8. A computer-implemented communications system, comprising:

a navigation menu component for selecting between communications components that include communications items, the communications components include,

a conversations component of a real-time communications application in which the communications items comprise at least one conversation thread in a conversation format;

a meeting component of the real-time communications application in which the communications items comprise at least one meeting;

a recovery component of the real-time communications application to recover one or more communications item in response to a recovery event; and

a selection pane component for displaying a list of the recovered communications items; and

a preview pane component for displaying a preview of a specific recovered communications item from the list.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the conversation format is associated with instant messaging, group chat, a telephone call, voice, video, email, application sharing, or an online meeting.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the selection pane component includes a list of recovered active communications items.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising a notification component for indicating a recovered active communications item has been restored.

12. A computer-implemented method of communications, comprising:

exposing functionality for a conversations environment and a meetings environment in a communications application;

displaying a list of items associated with the conversations environment or the meetings environment;

initiating a first communications session for a specific item from the list of items;

detecting a recovery event for the first communications session; and

recovering the first communications session in response to the recovery event.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising initiating the first communications session for a specific item comprising an active meeting or an active conversation thread.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising detecting a recovery event comprising a disconnect event for the first communication session for the specific item.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving a user control directive to recover the first communication session.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising retrieving recovery information associated with the specific item from a local datastore in response to the recovery event.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising retrieving recovery information associated with the specific item from a remote datastore in response to the recovery event.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising initiating a second communications session having one or more communications parameters of the first communication session using recovery information associated with the specific item.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising initiating a second communications session having one or more content items of the first communication session using recovery information associated with the specific item.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising presenting a notification indicating the specific item has been restored.