Patent Application
20200167732
The invention relates to a computer-implemented method for controlling a collaboration platform, to a communication and collaboration application and to a communication and collaboration platform.
Communication and collaboration applications are becoming increasingly popular, particularly with regard to social networks. But in the business environment, it is also common today to integrate such applications into the workflow, where they serve users (USER) or user groups, for example, in a given session thread or context for processing a predetermined topic.
In a session, a user group which deals with a specific topic can be determined or selected. The discussion posts on the topic as well as questions and answers on the topic are received in a thread in a chronological and possibly hierarchical order and displayed to the users of the user group accordingly.
However, the documentation and control of the flow of information may make it necessary, particularly in the business environment, for a sender of information to draw the attention of one or more specific users of the user group to a particular information segment within the thread and to expect one or more users of the user group to receive feedback information about it. This feedback information, for example, may be a corresponding read notification so that the sender of information is notified that the information segment marked by him has been read by one or more users.
Read receipts are known in current communication and collaboration applications known from prior art; however, the information flow is limited to a simple bilateral exchange of information segments, and there is no possibility of generating the read receipt in the context of a session related to a specific topic.
For example, e-mail systems known from prior art provide read receipts for read e-mails. However, with regard to bilateral user conversations or in the case of multilateral conversations, for example, when using a mailing list during the sending of e-mails, they are not embedded in the context of a session or shared session where only a specific topic is being addressed.
Applications provided in social networks such as WhatsAPP, in which group conversations can also be conducted, also do not provide a selective read receipt for individually addressed group members, so a user in the group conversation has no opportunity to obtain information as to whether or not a specific other user has read a certain segment of such a group conversation.
One objective of embodiments of the present invention is to provide a computer-implemented method of controlling a collaboration platform, a communication and collaboration application and a communication and collaboration platform, by means of which said deficiencies are remedied, at least in part. In particular, it is desirable that embodiments be configured so that a user of a predetermined user group for a session in a thread of the user group is allowed to request and receive a read receipt selectively for one or more information segments of the thread from one or more predetermined users of the user group.
Embodiments according to the present invention can include a computer-implemented method for controlling a collaboration platform is provided, on which a communication and collaboration application (COL_APP) runs, which allows a number of users of a predetermined user group to communicate and collaborate about a predetermined topic in a session in which the user group participates, with posts by individual users being collected and displayed as information segments in a thread, with the method comprising the following steps:
Embodiments of the method according to the invention can allow each user of a user group of a specific session running on the COL_APP on the collaboration platform to mark individual posts of the user in the form of selectable information segments in a thread for a predetermined topic of the session and then to selectively or individually request a read receipt from one or more predetermined users. According to the invention, this is achieved by providing or displaying the desired information on a meta-level.
According to one preferred embodiment, all users of the user group have access to the aggregated metadata so that, for each user of the user group of a predetermined session, information is available at any time about which user has read which posts or information segments of the thread. The read receipt function of COL_APP is a function shared by all users of a user group.
According to another preferred embodiment, the method further comprises the step of generating a status instance for the at least one second user. The metadata can also include:
Thus, read receipts for all users of a shared session are generated and displayed via the communication and collaboration application in the context of a timestamp-based workflow. In particular, the meta-information for a session acquired from the relevant time stamp information or data with regard to the read receipt requests and associated acknowledgment messages for the session or thread is provided to all users of the user group.
According to yet another preferred embodiment, the method comprises the steps of
Preferably, the workflow-based view contains a sequence of individual information segments from the multiple information segments in chronological order within the thread for a predetermined session.
The workflow-based view may contain information as to whether the second user has read the information segment, with this being represented by visual modification of the character string identifying the second user.
The visual modification can be made by underlining or highlighting the information segment with color. This allows the user to quickly recognize at a glance whether a read receipt for an identified information segment has been received or not. Other presentation forms, however, are also possible.
According to the invention, a communication and collaboration application is provided, which is adapted to execute a method for selectively requesting and providing a read receipt for individual information segments within a thread of a user group with a predetermined number of users in a session.
Furthermore, a communication and collaboration platform can be provided, which is adapted to execute a method for selectively requesting and providing a read receipt for individual information segments within a thread of a user group with a predetermined number of users in a session. The communication and collaboration platform can be a type of communication apparatus that includes at least one computer device that hosts the platform. Each computer device can include hardware that includes a processor connected to non-transitory memory, at least one input device, at least one output device, and at least one interface or transceiver.
Additional features, functions, advantages and details of the present invention become clearer from the following description of specific embodiments and their graphic representation in the accompanying figures. It is understood that features, functions, advantages and details of individual embodiments are transferable to other embodiments and should also be considered as disclosed in connection with the other embodiments, unless this is apparently unfounded for technical or natural law reasons. In this sense, features of various embodiments can basically always be combined with each other, and the combination can also be understood as an embodiment of the invention.
In the following, the invention will be described in more detail using examples of preferred embodiments and with the aid of the figures.
Reference numerals used in the drawings include the below listed reference numbers:
In the figure, first of all, it can be seen that on a collaboration platform (not shown) on which the COL_APP 1 is running as a centralized server function, a variety of sessions were installed or created, which is shown as session list 2 for a first user a in the display of COL_APP 1. For each additional user, a corresponding view is generated by COL_APP 1, i.e., a view in which a session list 2 is displayed with all sessions 3 running on the COL_APP 1. A predetermined number of users who form a user group participate in each session 3, for example, to work together on a given topic or specific task. Furthermore, it shows how a session 3 selected by user a, with a gray background in the display and outlined by a dashed marking, is shown for the selected session on meta-level 4. Here the display of the selected information relevant to session 3 can be selected, including, among others
In the middle portion of the display for COL_APP 1, thread 5 for the session 3 selected by user a is displayed. Here, all posts by the individual users of a user group participating in the selected session 3 are shown as information segments 6 (INFORMATION_SEGMENT), which are presented in chronological order with regard to the time when the posts or information segments 6 were posted.
In the event that the first user a wants to monitor whether a specific second user b, who also belongs to the user group for this selected session 3, reads a specific post or a specific information segment 6 of thread 5, he can now select the information segment 6 of interest (identified here by the dashed outline of information segment 6) and supplied or labeled with a tag. The tag includes a predetermined character string, which identifies second user b. The second user b can then be identified by COL_APP 1 accessing a database that is assigned to COL_APP 1 (not shown). The first user a creates the tag identifying user b by adding ‘@<user-name>’, where “user-name” is replaced by the name of the second user b. The request made by the first user a for a read receipt of the predetermined information segment 3 by the second user b is then processed by a metadata engine 11 (see
The metadata are used to arrange the read receipt request (READ_NOTIFICATION) of the first user a in the temporal sequence of the workflow for the selected session 3. The respectively identified individual metadata information of a session is then integrated by metadata engine 11, depending on the selection of the first user 1, at the respective meta-level (conversation 7-1 or information ACK 7-2) into the session presentation 6 or at aggregation level 10 (information ACK 7-2).
In the right column of COL_APP 1 shown in
The second user b, on the other hand, is a participant in all sessions I, II, III running on the metadata engine 11. On the screen or in the display 9 of COL_APP 1 for the first user a, session I is viewed, which is indicated by the dashed outline of the designation SESSION I and the participating users a, b, c, who form the user group for this session. For example, if the first user a has tagged an information segment 6 for a read receipt by the second user b as described in relation to
Furthermore, the third user c has requested a read receipt for an information segment 6 selected by him from the first user a, who, however, has not yet acknowledged receipt of the corresponding notification or the reading of the selected information segment 6, which is evident due to the lack of underlining of the tag.
It is also possible to make the meta-information visible that is associated with the time stamp information of the read receipt, for example, via a so-called “mouse-over function” for the user a on the display 9.
On the left side of
Each user of a session 3 (or here: users a, b and c of session I) is provided with an identical view of all aggregated metadata. In the embodiment presented here, the metadata view is stored in a timestamp-based flow for read receipt requests (READ_NOTIFICATION) and read receipts (ACKnowledge notifications). Based on statistics for the metadata, which are created or available in a COL_APP aggregation engine (see
As already mentioned above, “TEXT” in the figure represents a placeholder for the respective representation of an information segment 6, which is composed of a TEXT header (subject line) and the contents of the information segment 6. The contents of the information segment 6, for example, may include text or information on other media (e.g., files, images, videos, etc.).
In this case, data is aggregated for the users of the COL_APP 1 on a session basis, thus for a respective session 3, so that a user in a session can create an individual request for a read receipt for each information segment of this session 3 or of the thread 5 running in the session 3 for one or more predetermined users of the session 3. Each user of the session 3, i.e., a predetermined user group, has identical access to the metadata of the session 3. To enable this, the metadata engine 11 generates a separate status instance or user status instance 12 individually for each session 3 for each appropriately tagged information segment 6. The statistical data of the status instance 12 thus generated is displayed in the meta-level view of the session 3 (Information ACK, see
The workflow and tasks of the COL_APP 1 during aggregation of the metadata from the perspective of the user requesting the read receipt (e.g., the first user a) and from the perspective of the user issuing the read receipt (e.g., the second user b) are explained in the tables below, which assume that the corresponding session of the participating users has already been defined and created in the COL_APP 1.
b is underlined
While certain present preferred embodiments of a communication apparatus, communication system, communication device, communication terminal, non-transitory computer readable medium, and embodiments of methods for making and using the same have been shown and described above, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102017119183.6 | Aug 2017 | DE | national |
The present application is the U.S. national stage application of International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2018/072442, filed on Aug. 20, 2018, which claims priority to German Patent Application No. 10 2017 119 183.6, filed Aug. 22, 2017.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2018/072442 | 8/20/2018 | WO | 00 |
