In general, the move to Web 2.0 has focused much more on user-centric computing and has both enabled and highlighted the need for contextual collaboration and the social aspects of collaboration. The common methods for collaboration include email and bulletin boards. However, the current email agents focus on the management of individual messages rather than focusing on the collaboration between parties. For example, email agents tend to order the messages based on the time of arrival or sort them by subject line, but they do not provide for a visualization of conversations in electronic form such that the collaboration between parties becomes the focus of the user.
One embodiment of the invention described here pertains to the visualization of threaded electronic conversations (email) such that a client application can present various information about a particular conversation (or the conjunction of separate conversations) allowing the user to easily see message sequences, conversation participants, time in transit, time in process and other information.
One embodiment is equally applicable to electronic mail, bulletin boards, instant messaging or other forms of conversation and is equally applicable both to traditional desktop based mail agents as well as web 2.0 browser-based applications (such as social networking sites). This disclosure will use the example of email consistently throughout but the invention is applicable to other forms of conversation.
The visualization, with appropriate actions available on the visual elements, allows for even traditional email to become more of a social and collaborative tool than simply a message-oriented and reactive one. One embodiment uses the industry standard Message Sequence Chart (MSC) notation common in software and systems design languages such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML) or Specification and Description Language (SDL).
One embodiment uses the industry standard MSC notation common in software and systems design languages such as the ML or SDL. The following example demonstrates the visualization of a simple email exchange in one embodiment.
The simple exchange depicted in
One embodiment presents visual cues such as the use of hover-over tool tips to display the actual time taken for a message or the email address of a user. In one embodiment, each message transit arrow (e.g., 120) responds to common email operations such as reply-to or forward to allow the user to respond to a particular message.
The flowchart in
In particular, the parsing of messages is important, as those messages that are in user's inbox only represent those sent to the user; however, more messages may include embedded responses as shown in listing 1. In Bulletin Board systems where all messages are public, an embodiment processes all messages discretely to present visualization. In an email systems where an email agent only has access to those messages sent to the particular user, an embodiment parses out these responses to allow for the presentation of more of the conversation even when the entire store of messages is not available to the mail agent. Below is an example listing of an e-mail message:
Listing 1.
While a user may send a message to a group of people (either by selecting multiple To: or Cc: addresses) or by selecting a mailing list, the actual conversations are point-to-point. In one embodiment, upon the user hovering the mouse over individual arrow line within the visualizations, To: or Cc: list are displayed for the message represented by the arrow. One embodiment navigates directly to the corresponding message to display the precise details when the user clicks on the arrow.
An embodiment deals with a scenario depicted in
One embodiment deals with visualization of multiple related threads as well as related messages in a single thread. For example, the user, Steve, before replying to the message from Kevin forwards the message to Jan; however, Steve changes the subject to something more appropriate before sending. This thread goes to Bob (a fifth person in the e-mail thread) who also sends a copy back to Simon. Therefore, an embodiment determines this message as part of a new thread but it also determines that some of the message content is shared and therefore it marks the thread as related. One embodiment superimposes these threads in one visualization by using different colors or other visual cues for messages belonging to different threads.
One embodiment indicates certain message actions such as send, reply, and forward with different visual cues allowing the user to quickly see the dynamic nature of the conversation. For example, as shown in
One embodiment uses additional cues to denote properties of messages such as their being marked as urgent, having attachments, being signed or encrypted. An embodiment visually identifies additional system messages such as “out of office”, or “mail delivery” reports with separate visual cues.
In one embodiment, a mail agent provides additional semantics for messages such as “this message is an addendum to/continuation of the conversation” or “this message contains a new assertion that could serve as a focal point for new replies”. In one embodiment, such tags enable email agents to efficiently identify and process related messages.
One embodiment of the invention turns on or off visual cues per user's setting and specification in order to reduce “clutter” in the visualization. One embodiment filters the messages by type per user's setting or specification. E.g., the embodiment removes all system messages from the display.
One embodiment of the invention is a method for visualization of threaded emails, the method comprising:
A system, apparatus, or device comprising one of the following items is an example of the invention: email, thread, message, user, sequence chart, time, line or arrow representing a message, visual cues, message attributes, context, mail storage, mail agent, mail server, bulletin board, social network, response, embedded response, icon, image, user information, user information store, directory server, any display screen, computer display, views, topic or subject, tag, filter, query result, or any software, applying the method mentioned above, for purpose of invitation or visualization of threaded emails.
Any variations of the above teaching are also intended to be covered by this patent application.
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