Enhanced online collaboration system for viewers of video presentations

• US 8,898,316 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2007
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Facemire, Michael Dennis, Mitchell, Gerald Laverte Jr., Wanderski, Michael C., Cohen, Gabriel Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Murray, Daniel C
• Application Number:
  US11/755,590
• Publication Number:
  US 20080301232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,736 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227, 709/228, 709/229, 386/241, 715/720, 715/733, 725/40, 725/102
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/155 involving storage of or access to video conference sessions tracking arrangements for later retrieval of a computer conference content or participants activities H04L12/1831

Abstract

An enhanced collaboration system makes it possible for viewers of post-original video presentations to collaborate online with others who are viewing the same video presentation at the same time. A collaborate room controller establishes and maintains sets of online collaboration sessions for the post-original video presentation with each collaboration session being associated with a particular time slot in the presentation. Typically, a viewer is assigned to a collaboration session that is associated with the user'"'"'s current view point; i.e., the presentation time slot the user is currently viewing. A graphical user interface conveys information about existing collaboration sessions to the user to assist the user in selecting an appropriate collaboration session.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for enhancing online collaboration among viewers of an event presentation, said method comprising:

providing two or more online collaboration sessions, each collaboration session being associated with a different time slot in the event presentation, the time slot associated with each collaboration session beginning at a different time offset from the start of the event presentation and having a predetermined duration;

displaying a graphical user interface on viewer computers showing the event presentation, the graphical user interface comprising;

a progress bar having a length representing the duration of the event presentation,

division markers along the progress bar indicating time slots with which the two or more collaboration sessions are associated,

a view indicator marking a current viewpoint in the event presentation, and

two or more session indicators marking the two or more collaboration sessions in the event presentation,

wherein an absence of one of the session indicators in a particular time slot containing the view indicator indicates that no other viewer is viewing the event presentation in a same place as a current viewer, and

wherein both the current viewer'"'"'s view indicator and the session indicators move across the screen from left to right as the event presentation progresses and as the viewers in the two or more collaboration session associated with particular time slots in the event presentation move from a current collaboration session to a next collaboration session associated with a next time slot in the event presentation;

receiving a request from the current viewer to join one of the two or more collaboration sessions;

rejecting the current viewer request to join a selected one of the online collaboration sessions associated with a time slot closer to the start of the event presentation than a time slot associated with the current viewer'"'"'s current viewpoint to prevent the current viewer from joining one of the collaboration sessions having viewers that have not viewed as much of the event presentation as the current viewer; and

assigning the current viewer to a selected one of said two or more online collaboration sessions associated with a time slot closer to the end of the event presentation than the time slot associated with the current viewer'"'"'s current viewpoint.

2. The computer-implemented method of in claim 1 further comprising:

determining when the event presentation reaches the end of a particular time slot; and

re-assigning viewers who had been assigned to the collaboration session associated with that particular time slot to a collaboration session associated with a time slot beginning at a greater time offset from the start of the event presentation.

3. The computer-implemented method of in claim 2 including the further step of receiving a viewer request to join an online collaboration session other than the current viewer'"'"'s current online collaboration session.

4. The computer-implemented method of in claim 3 including the further steps of:

determining whether the requesting viewer is identified as a trusted viewer; and

if the requesting viewer is determined to be a trusted viewer, granting the viewer request without regard to the properties of the time slot associated with the requested collaboration session.

5. The computer-implemented method of in claim 2 wherein said session indicators include properties of the different ones of the collaboration sessions.

6. A computer-implemented system for providing enhanced online collaboration for viewers of an event presentation, said system comprising:

an online collaboration system comprising at least one processor and memory that provides two or more collaboration sessions for the potential use of viewers of the event presentation, each of the collaboration sessions being associated with a different time slot in the event presentation, the time slot associated with each collaboration session beginning at a different time offset from the start of the event presentation and having a predetermined duration;

a visual display device controller that creates a graphical user interface for an end user display that displays a graphical user interface on viewer computers showing the event presentation, the graphical user interface comprising;

a progress bar having a length representing the duration of the event presentation,

division markers along the progress bar indicating time slots with which the two or more collaboration sessions are associated,

a view indicator marking a current viewpoint in the event presentation, and two or more session indicators marking the two or more collaboration sessions in the event presentation,

wherein an absence of one of the session indicators in a particular time slot containing the view indicator indicates that no other viewer is viewing the event presentation in a same place as a current viewer, and

wherein both the current viewer'"'"'s view indicator and the session indicators move across the screen from left to right as the event presentation progresses and as the viewers in the two or more collaboration session associated with particular time slots in the event presentation move from a current collaboration session to a next collaboration session associated with a next time slot in the event presentation; and

a collaboration system controller that

receives request from a current viewer to join one of the two or more collaboration sessions;

rejects the current viewer request to join a selected one of the online collaboration sessions associated with a time slot closer to the start of the event presentation than a time slot associated with the current viewer'"'"'s current viewpoint to prevent the current viewer from joining one of the collaboration sessions having viewers that have not viewed as much of the event presentation as the current viewer; and

assigns the current viewer to a selected one of said two or more online collaboration sessions associated with a time slot closer to the end of the event presentation than the time slot associated with the current viewer'"'"'s current viewpoint.

7. The computer-implemented system of in claim 6 wherein said collaboration system controller further comprises:

an event presentation monitor for determining when the event presentation reaches the end of a particular time slot; and

a user assignment controller for re-assigning users who had been assigned to the collaboration session associated with a particular time slot to a collaboration session associated with a time slot beginning at a greater time offset from the start of the event presentation.

8. The computer-implemented system of in claim 7 wherein each of said session indicators indicates the time slot of the associated online collaboration session relative to the start of the event presentation and one or more properties of the activity occurring in the collaboration session.

9. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium embodying program instructions for providing enhanced online collaboration among viewers of an event presentation, said program instructions when executed in a computer causing the computer to:

provide two or more online collaboration sessions, each collaboration session being associated with a different time slot in the event presentation, time slot associated with each collaboration session beginning at a different time offset from the start of the event presentation and having a predetermined duration;

display a graphical user interface on viewer computers showing the event presentation, the graphical user interface comprising;

a progress bar having a length representing the duration of the event presentation,

division markers along the progress bar indicating time slots with which the two or more collaboration sessions are associated,

a view indicator marking a current viewpoint in the event presentation, and two or more session indicators marking the two or more collaboration sessions in the event presentation,

wherein an absence of one of the session indicators in a particular time slot containing the view indicator indicates that no other viewer is viewing the event presentation in a same place as a current viewer, and

wherein both the current viewer'"'"'s view indicator and the session indicators move across the screen from left to right as the event presentation progresses and as the viewers in the two or more collaboration session associated with particular time slots in the event presentation move from a current collaboration session to a next collaboration session associated with a next time slot in the event presentation;

receive a request from the current viewer to join one of the two or more collaboration sessions;

reject the current viewer request to join to join one of said two or more collaboration sessions to prevent the current viewer from joining one of the collaboration sessions having viewers that have not viewed as much of the event presentation as the current viewer; and

assign the current viewer to a selected one of said two or more online collaboration sessions associated with a time slot closer to the end of the event presentation than the time slot associated with the current viewer'"'"'s current viewpoint.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 including additional program instructions that, when executed in the computer, causes the computer to:

determine when the event presentation reaches the end of a particular time slot; and

re-assign viewers who had been assigned to the collaboration session associated with said particular time slot to a collaboration session associated with the time slot beginning at a greater time offset from the start of the event presentation.

11. The computer program product of in claim 10 wherein the session indicators include properties of the different ones of the online collaboration sessions.