Method for communicating information among a group of participants
First Claim
1. A method of communicating information among participants of a group, comprising:
- creating and storing in a server, an electronic medium having a dynamic content region that stores dynamic content and all updates thereto;
sending an e-mail message to e-mail clients associated with the participants, wherein the e-mail message references the electronic medium and displays the dynamic content associated with the electronic medium including all then current updates thereto;
receiving input from at least one of an e-mail client associated with one of the participants and an external source in data communication with the server;
asynchronously dynamically updating the dynamic content stored in the server based on the input;
in response to any of the participants opening the e-mail message parsing the e-mail message received by each of the participants from the server in response to the participants opening the message; and
automatically providing the updated dynamic content to an *mail client associated with each of the participants by serving the e-mail client with the then current dynamic content stored in the server and associated with the electronic medium;
wherein the parsing step further comprises;
determining an e-mail receiving capability for each of the participants; and
accessing the dynamic content from the server based on the e-mail receiving capability.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method is described that can be used to communicate information among a group of participants. A participant may create an electronic form specifying a list of network addresses corresponding to other participants intended to receive the communication. A server receives the form and delivers a message associated with an electronic medium. When the participant opens the message, the electronic medium is produced by the server and includes static and dynamic content. The participant can add content to the dynamic content. The dynamic content may be asynchronously dynamically updated in the server to indicate a then current content of the electronic medium, and can be accessed by other to participants in the group.
285 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of communicating information among participants of a group, comprising:
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creating and storing in a server, an electronic medium having a dynamic content region that stores dynamic content and all updates thereto;
sending an e-mail message to e-mail clients associated with the participants, wherein the e-mail message references the electronic medium and displays the dynamic content associated with the electronic medium including all then current updates thereto;
receiving input from at least one of an e-mail client associated with one of the participants and an external source in data communication with the server;
asynchronously dynamically updating the dynamic content stored in the server based on the input;
in response to any of the participants opening the e-mail message parsing the e-mail message received by each of the participants from the server in response to the participants opening the message; and
automatically providing the updated dynamic content to an *mail client associated with each of the participants by serving the e-mail client with the then current dynamic content stored in the server and associated with the electronic medium;
wherein the parsing step further comprises;
determining an e-mail receiving capability for each of the participants; and
accessing the dynamic content from the server based on the e-mail receiving capability. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
promoting a collaboration among the participants using the interaction region; and
dynamically updating the dynamic content as a function of the collaboration.
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12. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is one of an electronic message and a voice mail message.
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13. The method of claim 1, wherein the parsing step further comprises causing the server to configure the electronic medium with a plurality of static content.
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14. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamic content comprises one of audio content, video content, binary content, text, executable content and images.
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15. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to support one of a plurality of electronic mail and Internet protocols.
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16. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of electronic mail protocols comprise one of MIME and SMTP.
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17. A method of communicating information among a group, comprising:
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receiving, from an email client associated with one of a plurality of participants in the group, an electronic form containing network addresses of recipients in the group to a server;
creating and storing in a server, based on the electronic form, an electronic medium having a dynamic content region that stores dynamic content and all updates thereto;
transmitting an e-mail message to e-mail clients associated with each of the recipients from the server in response to the sending of the electronic form wherein the e-mail message references the electronic medium and causes the e-mail clients to display the dynamic content associated with the electronic medium including all then current updates thereto;
receiving input from at least one of an e-mail client associated with one of the recipients and an external source in data communication with the server;
asynchronously dynamically updating the dynamic content stored in the server based on the input;
parsing the e-mail message when at least one of the recipients opens the e-mail message; and
serving the updated then current dynamic content from the server in response to the parsing of the message;
wherein the transmitting step further comprises transmitting the e-mail message to a sender of the electronic form having one of the network addresses contained in the electronic form to indicate that the e-mail message was received by each of the recipients. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification