US 7,461,151 B2 · System and method enabling future messaging directives based on past participation via a history monitor

Abstract

A system and method for controlling the flow of documents by associating Globally Unique Identifiers with each original document, each reply document, each copy document and each forwarded document, such as e-mail messages. Historical analysis is performed on a locally stored history records containing the Globally Unique Identifiers extracted from received documents to determine which recipients are active participants and which are inactive participants, according to user preferences and thresholds. Lists for direct recipients (e.g. “To” list), carbon copy recipients, and blind copy recipients are automatically proposed to a user of a document handling system when authoring a new document, replying to a document, or forwarding a document, according to the results of the historical participation analysis, thereby stemming information flow to participants who are not active in an ad hoc asynchronous conversation.

Claims30

Dependent claims

A method for controlling the flow of exchanged electronic documents comprising the steps of:

receiving an electronic document by a recipient, said document being part of a set of documents which are interrelated through a non-thread historical tree structure;
extracting and storing a plurality of unique identifier values guaranteed to be unique within a messaging network (GUID) associated with said document including a GUID for the document itself (SelfGUID), a GUID indicating a original predecessor document (OriginGUID) to which said received document is related, and a GUID indicating an immediate predecessor parent document (ParentGUID) to said received document;
accumulating GUID values for a plurality of additional messages which are part of said non-thread historical tree structure;
responsive to a user composing a new document related to said received document performing historical participation analysis of said non-thread historical tree structure using said stored GUID values according to a set of user preferences to classify one or more potential recipients;
and
proposing at least one list of recipients of said new document according to said potential recipient classifications.

3 more elements

An article of manufacture for controlling the flow of exchanged documents comprising:

a computer readable medium suitable for encoding software programs;
one or more software programs encoded by said medium and configured to cause a processor to perform steps including:
(a) receiving an document by a recipient, said document being part of a set of documents which are interrelated through a non-thread historical tree structure;
(b) extracting and storing a plurality of unique identifier values guaranteed to be unique within a messaging network (GUID) associated with said document including a GUID for the document itself (SelfGUID), a GUID indicating a original predecessor document (OriginGUID) to which said received document is related, and a GUID indicating an immediate predecessor parent document (ParentGUID) to said received document;
(c) accumulating GUID values for a plurality of additional messages which are part of said non-thread historical tree structure;
(d) responsive to a user composing a new document related to said received document performing historical participation analysis of said non-thread historical tree structure using said stored GUID values according to a set of user preferences to classify one or more potential recipients;
and
(e) proposing at least one list of recipients of said new document according to said potential recipient classifications.

5 more elements

A system for controlling the flow of exchanged documents comprising:

a first electronic document having a plurality of associated Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) values including a GUID for the document itself (SelfGUID), a GUID indicating a original predecessor document (OriginGUID) to which said received document is related, and a GUID indicating an immediate predecessor parent document (ParentGUID) to said received document, said document being part of a set of documents which are interrelated through a non-thread historical tree structure, said GUID values being guaranteed unique within a messaging network;
a GUID extractor a configured to extract and store said first document GUID values, and to accumulate GUID values for a plurality of additional messages which are part of said non-thread historical tree structure;
an historical participation analyzer cooperative with a new document composer configured to, responsive to composing a new document related to said non-thread historical tree structure, analyze said stored GUID values and to classify one or more potential recipients according to a set of user preferences;
and
a recipient list generator configured to propose at least one list of recipients of said new document according to said potential recipient classifications.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method enabling future messaging directives based on past participation via a history monitor

Life of this patent

System and method enabling future messaging directives based on past participation via a history monitor

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims30