User-defined online interaction method and device

US6944655B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Rachel K. E. Bellamy · Bedford, US
• Jason B. Ellis · New York, US
• Thomas D. Erickson · Minneapolis, US
• Wendy A. Kellogg · Hawthorne, US
• Mark Richard Laff · Mount Kisco, US
• Peter K. Malkin · Yorktown Heights, US
• John T. Richards · Honeoye Falls, US
• Philip Yu · Chappaqua, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 3, 2000
• Grant date: Sep 13, 2005
• Expiry date: Apr 3, 2020

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/10
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The present invention provides a method, system and apparatus enabling user-defined, genre-structured interaction online. The present invention enables users to define their own genres, including rules of interaction, as well as rules of enforcement. Genre definitions also can include the specification of roles, parameters, and states. The present invention also facilitates a given user to modify a given genre definition. Allowable modifications include addition, modification, and deletion of parameters and interaction and enforcement rules. The present invention also provides dynamically updated graphical representations of the state of genre instances, these graphical representations definable by the users.