Methods, tools, and interfaces for the dynamic assignment of people to groups to enable enhanced communication and collaboration

• US 7,747,719 B1
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Issued: 06/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Blagsvedt, Sean, Horvitz, Eric J., Kadie, Carl M.
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US11/047,066
• Time in Patent Office: 1,975 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709203-204, 709/220, 709/228, 709/225
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system for optimizing the value of communications between communicating parties is provided. The system includes a communication group manager that facilitates specifying policies, preferences and/or automated analysis of ideal communication channels, routing and/or scheduling in terms of communicating party groups that can be pre-populated clusters of communicating parties, assembled based on relationships (e.g., organizational), and/or assembled based on satisfying inclusion criteria (e.g., age, location, competence, communication history, meeting history). The communication group manager maps communicating parties into predefined and/or dynamically created groups that facilitate specifying and/or automatically computing ideal communication actions like selecting a channel, displaying lists of potential channels sorted by communicating party preferences, and (re)scheduling communications to different channels and/or times. Ideal communication actions can be identified by maximizing a measure of expected communication utility, where groups provide simplifying abstractions to facilitate assessment of outcome utilities. The method can employ representations of preferences of the contactor and contactee that allow for group-specific preference considerations that weight differentially contactor and/or contactee preference considerations in communication action optimization. The system includes a group wise communication coordinator that identifies optimal group communication sets. The method facilitates a recipient communicating with a group member where the communication utility is optimized based on a preference, and a context associated with the group to which the member belongs.

Claims

1. A computer-based system that facilitates optimizing utility of a communication, the system comprising:

an identifier that identifies one or more communication channels that facilitate optimizing the utility of the communication;

a communication group manager that manages a group of communicating parties to facilitate optimizing the utility of the communication along a communication channel identified by the identifier, the communication group manager comprising;

a communication group establisher that establishes the group of communicating parties; and

a communication group modifier that dynamically modifies the group of communicating parties; and

a groupwise communication coordinator that coordinates communication between a subset of the managed group of communicating parties to facilitate optimizing the utility of the communication the groupwise communication coordinator comprising a groupwise communication assembler that assembles the group of communicating parties identifies one or more group member classifications required for the group communication identifies a minimal number of communicating parties from each of the one or more group member classifications required for the group communication and verifies that at least the minimal number of communicating parties from each of the one or more group member classifications are available for the group communication.

2. The system of claim 1, the communication group establisher creates a group of communicating parties, deletes a group of communicating parties, merges two or more groups of communicating parties, or partitions a group of communicating parties into two or more new groups of communicating parties.

3. The system of claim 1, the communication group modifier adds a new communicating party to a group of communicating parties, removes a communicating party from a group of communicating parties, moves a communicating party from a first group of communicating parties to a second group of communicating parties, or changes a communicating party data associated with a communicating party in a group of communicating parties.

4. The system of claim 1, the communication group establisher dynamically creating, deleting, merging, or partitioning a group of communicating parties based on an analysis of a communicating party group member communication.

5. The system of claim 4, the communication group establisher analyzing the communicating party group member communication by analyzing at least one of:

a communication channel employed, a communication channel available, a communication length, a communication frequency, a communication subject matter, a time between communications, a time to group deadline, a communication group member position in an organization, a communication group member position in a family, a communication group member inclusion in a trusted data, as an initiator of a communication to facilitate determining when to create, delete, merge, or partition a group of communicating parties.

6. The system of claim 1, the communication group modifier dynamically adding a new communicating party to a group of communicating parties, removing a communicating party from a group of communicating parties, moving a communicating party between groups of communicating parties, or changing a communicating party data associated. with a communicating party based on analysis of a group of communicating parties member communications.

7. The system of claim 6, the communication group modifier analyzing the communicating parties members communications by analyzing at least one of:

a communication channel employed, a communication channel available, a communication length, a communication frequency, a communication subject matter, a time between communications, a time to group deadline, a communication group member position in an organization, a communication group member position in a family, a communication group member inclusion in a trusted data, or an initiator of a communication to facilitate determining when to add, remove, or move a communicating party or to update a communicating parry data.

8. A computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon computer executable components of the system of claim 1.

9. The system of claim 1 the groupwise communication coordinator further comprises:

a groupwise communication scheduler that schedules a time for the group communication that optimizes the utility of the communication.