Claims
- 1. A method for providing emergent and flexible workflow management to a first user, the first user communicating with other users, the first user using a first message-based system having embedded information management resources, the first message-based system having a viewer, the method comprising the operations of:
(a) generating a message at the first message-based system, the message having metadata; (b) updating metadata of the message, the metadata including at least one of the group of a deadline, a reminder, a deferral and an obligation, using the embedded information management resources; (c) sending the message to the other users; (d) displaying some of the metadata of the message on the viewer of the first message-based system; and (e) tracking some of the metadata of the message at the first message-based system.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first user communicates with a second user, the second user using a second message-based system having embedded information management resources, the second message-based system having a viewer, the method further comprising the operations of:
(f) receiving the message at the second user system; (g) generating a reply message having metadata at the second message-based system; (h) updating metadata of the reply message, the metadata including at least one of a second deadline and a second obligation, using the embedded information management resources; (i) sending the reply message to the first message-based system; (j) displaying some of metadata of the reply message on the viewer of the second message-based system; and (k) tracking some of the metadata of the reply message at the second message-based system.
- 3. A system for managing and tracking information items within a first message-based system, the first message-based system being one of a set of message-based systems within a workgroup, the first message-based system having a viewer, the system comprising:
(a) a thrask generating module generating a plurality of thrasks, each of the thrasks including at least one information item having a set of metadata, the metadata including at least one of the group of a deadline, a reminder, a deferral and an obligation; (b) a sorting module sorting a new information item into one of the thrasks in accordance with at least one criterion; (c) a display module displaying some of the thrasks and at least one of the metadata of each of the information items in each of the displayed thrasks in the viewer; and (d) an updating module updating the thrasks and at least one of the metadata.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the first message-based system has different capabilities than some in the set of message-based systems.
- 5. A method for managing and tracking information items within a first message-based system, the first message-based system being one of a set of message-based systems within a shared workgroup, the message-based systems being synchronized periodically with a shared workgroup component on a server, the first message-based system having a viewer, the method comprising the operations of:
(a) generating a plurality of thrasks, each of the thrasks including at least one information item having a set of metadata; (b) sorting a new information item into one of the thrasks in accordance with at least one criterion; (c) displaying some of the thrasks and at least one of the metadata of one of the information items in one of the displayed thrasks in the viewer; and (d) providing a shared view of some of the thrasks to a subset of the message-based systems within the shared workgroup in response to a user selection of an option.
- 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the operation of:
(e) updating at least one of the metadata of one of the information items in one of the thrasks.
- 7. A system for managing and tracking information items within a first message-based system, the first message-based system being one of a set of message-based systems within a shared workgroup, the message-based systems being synchronized periodically with a shared workgroup component on a server, the first message-based system having a viewer, the system comprising:
(a) a thrask generating module generating a plurality of thrasks, each of the thrasks including at least one information item having a set of metadata; (b) a sorting module sorting a new information item into one of the thrasks in accordance with at least one criterion; (c) a display module displaying some of the thrasks and at least one of the metadata of one of the information items in one of the displayed thrasks in the viewer; and (d) a sharing module providing a shared view of some of the thrasks to a subset of the message-based systems within the shared workgroup in response to a user selection of an option.
- 8. The system of claim 7 further comprising:
(e) an updating module updating at least one of the metadata of one of the information items in one of the thrasks.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is related to the following co-pending applications: Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. D/A1490) entitled “Message-based System Having Embedded Information Management Capabilities”, and Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. D/A1490Q1) entitled “User Interface for a Message-based System Having Embedded Information Management Capabilities”, both filed ______ on the same date as the present application and commonly assigned to the present assignee.