Method and system for creating a virtual team environment
First Claim
1. A system for facilitating collaboration between geographically dispersed members of a team, the system comprising a collaboration services suite including:
- a connection manager for mediating communication between the collaboration services suite and a respective team member interface of each team member;
a presence server for dynamically maintaining availability information of a plurality of persons, the availability information comprising communications information identifying types of communication in which each person prefers to participate, and, for each identified type of communication, a respective communication device that the person prefers to use to participate in that type of communication, wherein at least one communication device is only reachable through a Switched Telephone Network (STN);
a virtual switching point of the STN operating under control of the collaboration services suite, the virtual switching point being operative to control voice communications sessions set up through the STN between a team member and another person; and
a virtual team environment server for interacting with the connection manager, presence server and virtual switching point to control communications sessions between a team member and another person in response to communications invitation request messages received from the team member, the virtual team environment server including software code for;
receiving an invitation request message from the respective team member interface of a team member, the invitation request message including an identification of a person to be invited to join the communications session, and an identification of a desired type of communication;
identifying a preferred communications device of the person to be invited for the communications session, based on the received invitation request message and availability information of the person maintained by the presence server;
identifying a preferred communications medium associated with the person for handling an invitation to join the communications session; and
sending an invitation to the person using the identified preferred communications medium;
wherein the team member that initiates the communications session indicates whether the communications session is a public communications session or a private communications session;
wherein the communications session can be changed from said public communications session to said private communications session, and vice versa;
wherein the collaboration services suite displays information respecting public communications sessions on the communications session information display area of the graphical user interface, such that any team member can initiate a request to join the public communications session; and
wherein, if the communications session is changed from said public communications session to said private communications session, the collaboration services suite instructs respective graphical user interfaces to remove information related to the communications session from the communications session information display area.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A collaboration services suite is adapted to support a plurality of integrated telecommunications services accessed by geographically dispersed team members using a virtual team environment (VTE) client that generates a graphical user interface (GUI) for each of the respective team members. Communications sessions are automatically set up by the collaboration services suite in response to request messages generated by the VTE client when a team member initiates a communications session request using the GUI. Team members require no knowledge of another team member'"'"'s communications device address in order to initiate a communications session. The collaboration services suite includes a VTE server that communicates with the VTE clients, a presence engine that collects and maintains a status of communications devices specified in a current profile of the team member; and, a call server for handling setup and control of a voice component of each communications session completed.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A system for facilitating collaboration between geographically dispersed members of a team, the system comprising a collaboration services suite including:
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a connection manager for mediating communication between the collaboration services suite and a respective team member interface of each team member; a presence server for dynamically maintaining availability information of a plurality of persons, the availability information comprising communications information identifying types of communication in which each person prefers to participate, and, for each identified type of communication, a respective communication device that the person prefers to use to participate in that type of communication, wherein at least one communication device is only reachable through a Switched Telephone Network (STN); a virtual switching point of the STN operating under control of the collaboration services suite, the virtual switching point being operative to control voice communications sessions set up through the STN between a team member and another person; and a virtual team environment server for interacting with the connection manager, presence server and virtual switching point to control communications sessions between a team member and another person in response to communications invitation request messages received from the team member, the virtual team environment server including software code for; receiving an invitation request message from the respective team member interface of a team member, the invitation request message including an identification of a person to be invited to join the communications session, and an identification of a desired type of communication; identifying a preferred communications device of the person to be invited for the communications session, based on the received invitation request message and availability information of the person maintained by the presence server; identifying a preferred communications medium associated with the person for handling an invitation to join the communications session; and sending an invitation to the person using the identified preferred communications medium; wherein the team member that initiates the communications session indicates whether the communications session is a public communications session or a private communications session; wherein the communications session can be changed from said public communications session to said private communications session, and vice versa; wherein the collaboration services suite displays information respecting public communications sessions on the communications session information display area of the graphical user interface, such that any team member can initiate a request to join the public communications session; and wherein, if the communications session is changed from said public communications session to said private communications session, the collaboration services suite instructs respective graphical user interfaces to remove information related to the communications session from the communications session information display area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 43)
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34. A method of facilitating collaboration between members of a geographically-dispersed team, comprising steps of:
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providing a connection manager for mediating communication between the collaboration services suite and a respective team member interface of each team member; providing a presence server for dynamically maintaining availability information of a plurality of persons, the availability information comprising communications information identifying types of communication in which each person prefers to participate, and, for each identified type of communication, a respective communication device that the person prefers to use to participate in that type of communication, wherein at least one communication device is only reachable through a Switched Telephone Network (STN); providing a virtual switching point of the STN operating under control of the collaboration services suite, the virtual switching point being operative to control voice communications sessions set up through the STN between a team member and another person; and providing a virtual team environment server for interacting with the connection manager, presence server and virtual switching point to control communications sessions between a team member and another person in response to communications invitation request messages received from the team member, the virtual team environment server including software code for; receiving an invitation request message from the respective team member interface of a team member, the invitation request message including an identification of a person to be invited to join the communications session, and an identification of a desired type of communication; identifying a preferred communications device of the person to be invited for the communications session, based on the received invitation request message and availability information of the person maintained by the presence server; identifying a preferred communications medium associated with the person for handling an invitation to join the communications session; and sending an invitation to the person using the identified preferred communications medium; wherein the team member that initiates the communications session indicates whether the communications session is a public communications session or a private communications session; wherein the communications session can be changed from said public communications session to said private communications session, and vice versa; wherein information respecting public communications sessions is displayed on the communications session information display area of a graphical user interface, such that any team member can initiate a request to join the public communications session; and wherein, if a communications session is changed from said public communications session to said private communications session, respective graphical user interfaces are instructed to remove information related to the communications session from the communications session information display area. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification