Distinguishing conference participants
First Claim
1. A method for distinguishing conference participants, the method comprising:
- receiving a message associated with a conference participant;
determining a group of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated from a plurality of groups of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated, the group of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated being determined according to a rendering priority rule defining an order in which the plurality of groups are to be rendered;
receiving a representation attribute associated with the group, the representation attribute comprising data defining a visual format for rendering messages associated with the group on a computer display; and
rendering the message on the computer display in the visual format defined by the representation attribute.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Technologies are described herein for distinguishing between conference participants associated with different groups. A communication is received from a participant during a conference. The participant'"'"'s group affiliation is determined and a representation attribute corresponding to the group is used to render the communication within the conference. As a result, the communications from participants of like groups are displayed with like representation attributes to visually distinguish the communications according to group affiliations. An administrator may designate the representation attributes so that all of the communications from participants of the same group are similarly distinguished without action from the participants. Participants may filter the communications as desired according to the groups and corresponding representation attributes.
29 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for distinguishing conference participants, the method comprising:
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receiving a message associated with a conference participant; determining a group of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated from a plurality of groups of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated, the group of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated being determined according to a rendering priority rule defining an order in which the plurality of groups are to be rendered; receiving a representation attribute associated with the group, the representation attribute comprising data defining a visual format for rendering messages associated with the group on a computer display; and rendering the message on the computer display in the visual format defined by the representation attribute. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for distinguishing conference participants, the method comprising:
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determining a group of conference participants with which a conference participant is associated from a plurality of groups of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated, the group of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated being determined according to a rendering priority rule defining an order in which the plurality of groups are to be rendered; maintaining extended presence data associated with the conference participant; storing a representation attribute associated with the group with the extended presence data, the representation attribute defining a visual format for rendering messages associated with the group on a computer display; and publishing the extended presence data with the representation attribute. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer storage medium comprising one or more of an optical disk, a solid state memory device or a magnetic storage device having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:
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receive a message associated with a conference participant; determine, based upon extended presence data, a group of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated from a plurality of groups of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated, the group of conference participants with which the conference participant is associated being determined according to a rendering priority rule defining an order in which the plurality of groups are to be rendered; determine a representation attribute associated with the group, the representation attribute defining a visual format in which messages associated with the group are rendered on a computer display, the visual format comprising a visual indication that distinguishes the message from another message not associated with the group; and render the message on the computer display in the visual format defined by the representation attribute. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification