Time-sensitive messages and events

• US 7,305,441 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2001
• Issued: 12/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mathewson, James M. II, Rafferty, Keith A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess; Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chea; Philip J.
• Application Number:
  US09/909,537
• Publication Number:
  US 20030018724A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,328 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/204, 709/206, 709/207, 345/752, 715/791, 715/802
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for enabling message senders and event creators to convey time-sensitivity of their messages and events (such as electronic mail messages, electronic calendar entries, and “to-do” items), and for handling such messages and events at a receiver. A message sender marks messages as to whether they are time-sensitive, and may also identify a starting and ending time and/or date during which the time-sensitive status applies. When such a message arrives at a recipient, it is evaluated and if the time-sensitive period has been reached, the message is automatically displayed to the recipient. Preferably, the recipient must handle the displayed message before continuing on to other messages. The disclosed techniques enable messages to be viewed in a timely manner, according to the sender'"'"'s representation of the time-sensitivity of the message. As a result of these improvements, communication between senders and receivers may become more effective.

Claims

1. A method of handling time-sensitive messages, comprising steps of:

marking a message, by a creator thereof, as time-sensitive;

sending the marked message from a computing device of the creator to a computing device of a recipient for whom the message was created, such that after the marked message is received at the computing device of the recipient, it will be processed by;

determining that the marked message is marked as being time-sensitive and that a time period of the time-sensitivity has been reached but not exceeded;

determining whether a hierarchy of recipient notification techniques has been defined for various intervals of the time-sensitivity, and if so, performing steps of;

determining an applicable one of the various intervals that corresponds to a current time;

selecting one of the recipient notification techniques which corresponds to the determined one of the various intervals; and

notifying the recipient of the marked message using the selected recipient notification technique; and

automatically rendering the marked message to the recipient using an application adapted for processing the message within a time period of the time-sensitivity, further comprising steps of;

automatically starting execution of the application, at the computing device of the recipient, if the execution of the application is not currently started;

automatically bringing a window rendered by the application to a foreground of a display of the computing device and making the window active;

automatically rendering the marked message in the active window; and

requiring the recipient to take action with the marked message before performing any other tasks with the application by preventing the recipient from performing other actions with the application until the recipient provides a response to the marked message; and

automatically receiving a reply from the recipient, sent from the computing device of the recipient to the computing device of the creator following the recipient'"'"'s response thereto.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the marking step further comprises indicating, by the creator, that snoozing is allowed by the recipient for this message, such that the recipient will be allowed to temporarily delay the response to the rendered message for a time that remains within the time period of the time-sensitivity.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the marking step further comprises indicating, by the creator, an ending time for the time period of the time-sensitivity of the message.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the marking step further comprises indicating, by the creator, a starting time for the time period of the time-sensitivity of the message.

5. A method of improving electronic communications, comprising steps of:

receiving a plurality of electronic messages at a computing device of a recipient to whom the electronic messages are addressed;

determining whether a selected one of the received electronic messages is marked as being time-sensitive; and

if the determining step has a positive result and a time period of the time-sensitivity has been reached but not exceeded, processing the selected one of the received electronic messages, further composing steps of;

determining whether a hierarchy of recipient notification techniques has been defined for various intervals of the time-sensitivity, and if so, performing steps of;

determining an applicable one of the various intervals that corresponds to a current time;

selecting one of the recipient notification techniques which corresponds to the determined one of the various intervals; and

notifying the recipient of the selected one of the received electronic messages using the selected recipient notification technique; and

automatically rendering the selected one of the received electronic messages to the recipient in an application adapted for processing the selected one of the received electronic messages within the time period of the time-sensitivity, further comprising steps of;

automatically starting execution of the application, at the computing device of the recipient, if the execution of the application is not currently started;

automatically bringing a window rendered by the application to a foreground of a display of the computing device and making the window active;

automatically rendering the selected one of the received electronic messages in the active window; and

requiring the recipient to take action with the selected one of the received electronic messages before performing any other tasks with the application by preventing the recipient from performing other actions with the application until the recipient provides a response to the selected one of the received electronic messages within the time period of the time-sensitivity.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the processing step further comprises the steps of:

determining whether snoozing is allowed for the selected one of the received electronic messages; and

if so, allowing the recipient to delay the response to the selected one of the received electronic messages until a later time, wherein the later time remains within the time period of the time-sensitivity.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the processing step further comprises the steps of:

determining whether snoozing is allowed for the selected one of the received electronic messages; and

if so, suppressing the preventing step only while (1) a starting time of the time period has been reached and (2) an ending time of the time period has not been reached.

8. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of:

sending a notification of the response to a computing device of a creator of the rendered selected one.

9. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of determining whether processing of the rendered selected one is complete, and if not, remembering the rendered selected one for subsequent evaluation at a later time, wherein the later time is within the time period of the time-sensitivity.

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein the electronic messages are e-mail messages.

11. The method according to claim 5, wherein the electronic messages are electronic calendar events.

12. The method according to claim 5, wherein the electronic messages are to-do items.

13. A system for handling time-sensitive messages, comprising:

means for marking a message, by a creator thereof, as time-sensitive;

means for sending the marked message from a computing device of the creator to a computing device of a recipient for whom the message was created, such that after the marked message is received at the computing device of the recipient, it will be processed by;

determining that the marked message is marked as being time-sensitive and that a time period of the time-sensitivity has been reached but not exceeded;

determining whether a hierarchy of recipient notification techniques has been defined for various intervals of the time-sensitivity, and if so, performing steps of;

determining an applicable one of the various intervals that corresponds to a current time;

selecting one of the recipient notification techniques which corresponds to the determined one of the various intervals; and

notifying the recipient of the marked message using the selected recipient notification technique; and

N

automatically rendering the marked message to the recipient using an application adapted for processing the message within a time period of the time-sensitivity, further comprising;

automatically starting execution of the application, at the computing device of the recipient, if the execution of the application is not currently started;

automatically bringing a window rendered by the application to a foreground of a display of the computing device and making the window active;

automatically rendering the marked message in the active window; and

requiring the recipient to take action with the marked message before performing any other tasks with the application by preventing the recipient from performing other actions with the application until the recipient provides a response to the marked message; and

means for automatically receiving a reply from the recipient, sent from the computing device of the recipient to the computing device of the creator following the recipient'"'"'s response.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the marking means further comprises means for indicating, by the creator, an ending time for the time period of the time-sensitivity of the message.

15. A system for improving electronic communications, comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of electronic messages at a computing device of a recipient to whom the electronic messages are addressed;

means for determining, at the computing device, whether a selected one of the received electronic messages is marked as being time-sensitive; and

means for processing the selected one if the means for determining has a positive result and a time period of the time-sensitivity has been reached but not exceeded, further comprising;

means for determining whether a hierarchy of recipient notification techniques has been defined for various intervals of the time-sensitivity, and if so, means for using the hierarchy by;

determining an applicable one of the various intervals that corresponds to a current time;

selecting one of the recipient notification techniques which corresponds to the determined one of the various intervals; and

notifying the recipient of the selected one of the received electronic messages using the selected recipient notification technique; and

means for automatically rendering the selected one of the received electronic messages to the recipient in an application adapted for processing the selected one of the received electronic messages within the time period of the time-sensitivity by;

automatically starting execution of the application, at the computing device of the recipient, if the execution of the application is not currently started;

automatically bringing a window rendered by the application to a foreground of a display of the computing device and making the window active;

automatically rendering the selected one of the received electronic messages in the active window; and

requiring the recipient to take action with the selected one of the received electronic messages before performing any other tasks with the application by preventing the recipient from performing other actions with the application until the recipient provides a response to the selected one of the received electronic messages within the time period of the time-sensitivity.

16. A computer program product for handling time-sensitive messages, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code for marking a message, by a creator thereof, as time-sensitive;

computer-readable program code for sending the marked message from a computing device of the creator to a computing device of a recipient for whom the message was created, such that after the marked message is received at the computing device of the recipient, it will be processed by;

determining that the marked message is marked as being time-sensitive and that a time period of the time-sensitivity has been reached but not exceeded;

determining whether a hierarchy of recipient notification techniques has been defined for various intervals of the time-sensitivity, and if so, performing steps of;

determining an applicable one of the various intervals that corresponds to a current time;

selecting one of the recipient notification techniques which corresponds to the determined one of the various intervals; and

notifying the recipient of the marked message using the selected recipient notification technique; and

automatically rendering the marked message to the recipient using an application adapted for processing the message within a time period of the time-sensitivity, further comprising;

automatically starting execution of the application, at the computing device of the recipient, if the execution of the application is not currently started;

automatically bringing a window rendered by the application to a foreground of a display of the computing device and making the window active;

automatically rendering the marked message in the active window; and

requiring the recipient to take action with the marked message before performing any other tasks with the application by preventing the recipient from performing other actions with the application until the recipient provides a response to the marked message; and

computer-readable program code for automatically receiving a reply from the recipient, sent from the computing device of the recipient to the computing device of the creator following the recipient'"'"'s response thereto.

17. The computer program product according to claim 16, wherein the computer-readable program code for marking further comprises computer-readable program code for indicating, by the creator, an ending time for the time period of the time-sensitivity of the message.

18. A computer program product for improving electronic communications, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code for receiving a plurality of electronic messages at a computing device of a recipient to whom the electronic messages are addressed;

computer-readable program code for determining, at the computing device, whether a selected one of the received electronic messages is marked as being time-sensitive, and if so, whether a time period of the time-sensitivity has been reached but not exceeded; and

computer-readable program code for processing the selected one when the computer-readable program code has a positive result, further comprising computer-readable program code for;

determining whether a hierarchy of recipient notification techniques has been defined for various intervals of the time-sensitivity, and if so, performing steps of;

determining an applicable one of the various intervals that corresponds to a current time;

selecting one of the recipient notification techniques which corresponds to the determined one of the various intervals; and

notifying the recipient of the selected one of the received electronic messages using the selected recipient notification technique; and

automatically rendering the selected one of the received electronic messages to the recipient in an application adapted for processing the selected one within the time period of the time-sensitivity, further comprising;

automatically starting execution of the application, at the computing device of the recipient, if the execution of the application is not currently started;

automatically bringing a window rendered by the application to a foreground of a display of the computing device and making the window active;

automatically rendering the selected one of the received electronic messages m the active window; and

requiring the recipient to take action with the selected one of the received electronic messages before performing any other tasks with the application by preventing the recipient from performing other actions with the application until the recipient provides a response to the selected one of the received electronic messages within the time period of the time-sensitivity.