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

US7644144B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

• Eric J. Horvitz · Kirkland, US
• Carl M. Kadie · Bellevue, US
• Sean Blagsvedt · Bengaluru, IN

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 21, 2001
• Grant date: Jan 5, 2010
• Expiry date: Apr 24, 2026

Classification

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

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 c…