Method and apparatus for message notification via RSS feed

#An embodiment of the invention relates generally to telecommunications services, and more specifically, to notification and delivery of voicemail and facsimile messages. Other embodiments are also described.

#j2 Global Communications of Hollywood, Calif., offers a range of services that deliver traditional public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) voice messages and facsimile transmissions to the recipient using Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (“MIME”) electronic mail (“e-mail”) and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”). For example, one service accepts facsimile messages directed to a predetermined telephone number, and notifies a subscriber associated with the number by transmitting an e-mail message to the subscriber's e-mail box. After opening the e-mail message, the subscriber can view and/or download an image of the facsimile by accessing a web site identified by a link in the e-mail message with her web browser program. A second service accepts voice mail (audio) messages over the standard telephone connection and can notify the subscriber by sending an e-mail message to her, alerting her to call in to her voicemail box.

#Embodiments of the invention respond to requests for summary aggregation items by preparing and transmitting structured documents containing information about recently-received telecommunication messages.

#Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean “at least one.”

#FIG. 1 shows an environment including a number of devices that can interact according to an embodiment of the invention.

#FIG. 2 shows a diagram of data transfer protocols, and indicates where an embodiment of the invention may operate.

#FIG. 1 shows various devices and systems that may be part of an environment operating according to an embodiment of the invention. These devices may interact as described generally here; several aspects of the interactions will be examined in greater detail below.

#First, a telecommunication device such as a facsimile machine 100 or an ordinary telephone 105 transmits a message (in this case, a voice message or a facsimile) across public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) 310 to a computer server 115 in data center 120. Server 115 contains interface hardware such as a sound digitizer or facsimile modem to permit it to receive the audio signal carried by the PSTN, and software to control the hardware and to perform other operations discussed here.

#The telecommunication message may be converted to a digital form for easier manipulation by server 115 (and other computers), and may be saved on a mass storage device such as hard disk 125. For example, a facsimile message containing images of one or more pages may be saved in a graphic format such as the Tagged Image File Format (“TIFF”), Graphic Interchange Format (“GIF”), Joint Photographic Experts Group (“JPEG”) format, Portable Network Graphics (“PNG”) format, or other similar format. Voice (audio) messages may be stored without compression (for example, as Windows' Wave (“WAV”) files), with lossless compression (e.g. using the Free Lossless Audio Codec or “FLAG” format), or with lossy compression (e.g. as MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 or “MP3” files). (“MPEG” stands for “Moving Picture Experts Group,” a working group of ISO/IEC, the International Standards Organization and International Electrotechnical Commission, in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video.) A more sophisticated embodiment could accept and store a message containing both audio and video data, such as might be produced by a video telephone (not shown).