Intelligently detecting the leader of a co-browsing session

• US 9,313,282 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2013
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AirBNB Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bank, Judith H., Bradley, Lisa M., Sun, Lin
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J
• Assistant Examiner(s): GRIJALVA LOBOS, BORIS D
• Application Number:
  US13/769,492
• Publication Number:
  US 20140237039A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,149 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 709/208, 709/209, 709/213, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/231, 709/248
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

Managing a co-browsing session of multiple users where there are multiple roles that each user may have, and each respective user has a role. Software manages a computer system to: (i) monitor the co-browsing session to detect a condition; and (ii) responsive to detection of the condition, change the role(s) of at least one user. The change of role(s) is made automatically and without human intervention.

Claims

1. A method for managing a co-browsing session of multiple users where each respective user has at least one role selected from a set of at least two possible roles, the method comprising:

monitoring the co-browsing session to detect a condition; and

responsive to detection of the condition, changing the role(s) of at least one user;

wherein;

at the changing step, the change of role(s) is made automatically and without human intervention;

at least the changing step is performed by computer software running on computer hardware;

the set of possible roles includes the following possible roles;

leader role, and

non-leader role;

change of the role(s) of at least one user includes a change of role for a first user of the plurality of users from non-leader to leader role; and

the condition is based, at least in part, upon at least one of the following;

(i) a text analysis on chat or conference transcript indicates that a change in leaders would be helpful;

(ii) a web page is opened by the first user;

or (iii) highlighting of selected web page content, on the co-browsed web page, performed by the first user.

2. A computer program product for managing a co-browsing session of multiple users where each respective user has at least one role selected from a set of at least two possible roles, the computer program product comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media; and

program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media;

wherein;

the program instructions include program instructions to;

(i) monitor the co-browsing session to detect a condition, and (ii) responsive to detection of the condition, change the role(s) of at least one user;

the program instructions related to changing the role(s) of at least one user are programmed to change the role(s) automatically and without human intervention;

the set of possible roles includes the following possible roles;

leader role, and

non-leader role;

change of the role(s) of at least one user includes a change of role for a first user of the plurality of users from non-leader to leader role; and

the condition is based, at least in part, upon at least one of the following;

(i) a text analysis on chat or conference transcript indicates that a change in leaders would be helpful;

(ii) a web page is opened by the first user;

or (iii) highlighting of selected web page content, on the co-browsed web page, performed by the first user.