MANAGEMENT OF PARALLEL USER INPUTS IN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20150324424A1
• Filed: 05/07/2014
• Published: 11/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhide, Manish A., Bonagiri, Krishna K., Narla, Nagaraju, Pandey, Rajesh K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,540,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

A discussion thread is associated with a master recipients list that is maintained at an author'"'"'s computer or a server computer. The recipients list is revised as participants in the discussion are added to and/or removed from the discussion. An author is notified when target recipients do not match the master recipients list. When a participant is added to the discussion from an old discussion instance, a thread manager provides for the added participant to receive a more current discussion instance.

Claims

1-6. -6. (canceled)

7. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon:

first program instructions programmed to determine a participant list for a discussion thread;

second program instructions programmed to monitor participation in a discussion thread based on the participant list; and

third program instructions programmed to, responsive to a discussion instance related to the discussion thread and associated with a set of participants that doesn'"'"'t match the participant list, notify a user of a mismatch between the set of participants and the participant list.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the computer readable storage medium has further stored thereon:

fourth program instructions programmed to provide the user with one, or more, of the following actions;

adjust the set of participants to match the participant list, revise the participant list to match the set of participants, revise the participant list to include a new participant from the set of participants, and make no changes to the set of participants.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the computer readable storage medium has further stored thereon:

fifth program instructions programmed to revise the participant list to include a new participant from the set of participants;

sixth program instructions programmed to identify a starting discussion instance associated with the new participant; and

seventh program instructions programmed to identify a set of missed discussion instances based on the starting discussion instance.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein identifying a set of missed discussion instances is based on one, or more, of the following:

a set of discussion instances occurring before the starting discussion instance is generated, a set of discussion instances occurring before the new participant is added to the participant list, a set of discussion instances occurring in parallel with the generation of the starting discussion instance, a set of discussion instances occurring in parallel with the new participant being added to the participant list, a set of discussion instances occurring after the generation of the starting discussion instance, and a set of discussion instances occurring after the new participant is added to the participant list.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the computer readable storage medium has further stored thereon:

eighth program instructions programmed to suggest the set of missed discussion instances to the new participant.

12. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the computer readable storage medium has further stored thereon:

eighth program instructions programmed to provide the set of missed discussion instances to the new participant.

13. A computer system comprising:

a processor(s) set; and

a computer readable storage medium;

wherein;

the processor set is structured, located, connected and/or programmed to run program instructions stored on the computer readable storage medium; and

the program instructions include;

first program instructions programmed to determine a participant list for a discussion thread;

second program instructions programmed to monitor participation in a discussion thread based on the participant list; and

third program instructions programmed to, responsive to a discussion instance related to the discussion thread and associated with a set of participants that doesn'"'"'t match the participant list, notify a user of the discussion instance of a mismatch between the set of participants and the participant list.

14. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the program instructions further include:

fourth program instructions programmed to provide the user with one, or more, of the following actions;

adjust the set of participants to match the participant list, revise the participant list to match the set of participants, revise the participant list to include a new participant from the set of participants, and make no changes to the set of participants.

15. The computer system of claim 14 wherein the program instructions further include:

fifth program instructions programmed to revise the participant list to include a new participant from the set of participants;

sixth program instructions programmed to identify a starting discussion instance associated with the new participant; and

seventh program instructions programmed to identify a set of missed discussion instances based on the starting discussion instance.

16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein identifying a set of missed discussion instances is based on one, or more, of the following:

a set of discussion instances occurring before the starting discussion instance is generated, a set of discussion instances occurring before the new participant is added to the participant list, a set of discussion instances occurring in parallel with the generation of the starting discussion instance, a set of discussion instances occurring in parallel with the new participant being added to the participant list, a set of discussion instances occurring after the generation of the starting discussion instance, and a set of discussion instances occurring after the new participant is added to the participant list.

17. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the program instructions further include:

eighth program instructions programmed to suggest the set of missed discussion instances to the new participant.

18. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the program instructions further include:

eighth program instructions programmed to provide the set of missed discussion instances to the new participant.