Collaborative environment implemented on a distributed computer network and software therefor

• US 7,162,528 B1
• Filed: 10/01/2002
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Hebert, Julian B. Jr., Simonoff, Adam J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Won; Michael Y.
• Application Number:
  US10/260,716
• Time in Patent Office: 1,561 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225, 709/229, 709/240, 709/338, 709/244, 709/238, 709/204, 709/206, 709/207, 709/205, 713/166, 713/167, 726/3, 726/27
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• 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 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066

Abstract

A Collaborator computer collaborative environment (CCE) instantiated by a computer network includes N Collaborator CCE clients and a Collaborator CCE server. Each of the N Collaborator CCE clients generates message objects each including a nested group identifier and an associated privilege level; the Collaborator CCE server filters the generated message objects and routes only those message objects to an Nth Collaborator CCE client that is a member of the respective group having the group identifier and that has a privilege greater than or equal to the associated privilege level. Corresponding software is also described.

Claims

1. Machine readable code stored on a tangible computer-readable medium for converting a general purpose computer system including at least first, second, and third computers operatively coupled to one another by a communications channel to instantiate a Collaborator common collaboration environment (CCE) facilitating collaboration between users co-located with the second and third computers, the machine readable code instantiating:

a Collaborator CCE server on the first computer, the Collaborator CCE server providing a web page invoking selected portions of the machine readable code; and

first and second Collaborator CCE clients on the second and third computers, respectively, in response to receiving the web page from the Collaborator CCE server,

wherein;

each of the first and second Collaborator CCE clients generates first and second message objects, respectively, each message object containing a group identifier and a privilege level; and

the Collaborator CCE server receives the first and second message objects, stores the first and second message objects, and transmits the first and second message objects to the second and first Collaborator CCE clients, respectively, when the receiving one of the first and second Collaborator CCE clients belongs to a group corresponding to the group identifier and when the privilege level of the receiving one of the Collaborator CCE clients equals or exceeds the privilege level of the respective one of the first and second message objects, wherein;

one of the first and second Collaborator CCE clients instantiates a Meteorological Aviation Report (METARS) Applet; and

at least one of the first and second message objects conforms to the Global Information System (GIS) map standard.

2. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the communications channel conforms to Internet protocols; and

the first and second message objects correspond to first and second audio packets to thereby permit the first and second users to communicate with one another using a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) function.

3. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein the Collaborator CCE server accumulates the first and second message objects to thereby permit the accumulated first and second message objects to be replayed under user control.

4. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second Collaborator CCE clients instantiates fist and second Applets capable of communicating with one another.

5. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the computer system further comprises a fourth computer instantiating an object server generating a servable object, and

one of the first and second Collaborator CCE clients instantiates an object Applet using the machine readable code, for receiving the servable object via the communications channel.

6. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the computer system further comprises a fourth computer instantiating an object server generating a servable object; and

one of the first and second Collaborator CCE clients instantiates an object Applet using the machine readable code, for receiving the servable object from the proxy server via the communications channel.

7. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein the first and second message objects correspond to live video packets.

8. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second message objects conforms to the Global Information System (GIS) map standard.

9. The machine readable code as recited in claim 1, wherein one of the first and second Collaborator CCE clients instantiates a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)-enabled Applet using the machine readable code.