Method and Device for Managing a Conference

A method for conducting a conference among conference participants via a communication system, one set of conference participants being at a first conference environment, at least one other set of conference participants being at another conference environment, the conference participants being communicatively connected by the communication system, the communication system comprising at least one conference server having a processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium and at least one image reproduction unit at each conference environment on which images corresponding to at least some of the conference participants are displayed, wherein the method comprises:

• a) the communication system collecting context data concerning at least one of the conference participants at multiple timed intervals from multiple sources of the context data, the multiple sources comprising social network sources and public media sources accessible via at least one network connection the communication system has with these sources;
• b) the communication system calculating relationship values from the collected context data at the timed intervals for different relationship levels;
• c) the communication system determining at least one relationship status based on the calculated relationship values for the different relationship levels, wherein the relationship status is expressed using one of several categories that are each defined by a threshold value, depending on the calculated relationship value;
• and
• d) displaying the at least one relationship status on at least one image reproduction unit during the conference.

A communication apparatus connecting a plurality of conference environments comprised of at least one conference server and at least one image reproduction unit at each conference environment on which images corresponding to at least some conference participants are displayed, the at least one conference server containing a processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium containing a program which causes the communication apparatus to:

• a) collect context data concerning at least one of the conference participants at multiple timed intervals from multiple sources of the context data, the multiple sources comprising social network sources and public media sources accessible via at least one network connection the communication system has with these sources;
• b) calculate relationship values from the collected context data at the timed intervals for different relationship levels;
• c) determine at least one relationship status based on the calculated relationship values for the different relationship levels, wherein the at least one relationship status is expressed using at least one of several categories that are each defined by a threshold value, depending on the calculated relationship value;
• and
• d) display the at least one relationship status on at least one image reproduction unit during the conference.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having a program defining a method that is executable by a processor of a conference server in a communication system for conducting a conference among sets of conference participants, one set of conference participants being at a first conference environment, at least one other set of conference participants being at another conference environment, the conference participants being connected by the communication system, the communication system comprised of the conference server and at least one image reproduction unit at each conference environment on which images corresponding to at least some of the conference participants are displayed, wherein the method comprises:

• a) collecting context data concerning at least one of the conference participants at multiple timed intervals from multiple sources of the context data, the multiple sources comprising social network sources and public media sources accessible via at least one network connection the communication system has with these sources;
• b) calculating relationship values from the collected context data at the timed intervals for different relationship levels;
• c) determining at least one relationship status, wherein the at least one relationship status based on the calculated relationship values for the different relationship levels, each relationship status being expressed using one of several categories that are each defined by a threshold value, depending on the calculated relationship value;
• and
• d) displaying the at least one relationship status on at least one image reproduction unit during the conference.