Patent Application
20070013944
The invention is based on a priority application EP 05 290 029.7 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention is directed to a method for operating a computer system, in particular in a personal computer system, providing user personal managing information data. The invention is further directed to a related computer system, in particular in a personal computer system, and to a related computer program product.
The use of personal information management software packages is widespread in the workplace. These so-called personal information managers typically run on personal computers and include electronic mail capability, an appointment calendar, and a contact list of frequent contacts. Personal information managers can greatly facilitate the organization of a person's interactions with other parties. Personal information management software allows the sending, receiving and sorting of e-mail messages, the planning of appointments, and the maintenance and organization of e.g. telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.
Usually, computer system users such as workers have a lot of personal managing information like contact lists, calendars, profiles, etc. scattered over various applications running on the computer system and over various devices, such as the computer system provided in the workplace, mobile computer systems, or PDA's.
In 2001, Microsoft announced a set of enabling services—codenamed “HailStorm”, named “.NET MyServices”—that allowed the user to centralize his personal managing information and to make it accessible from everywhere at any time. The most recent operating system from Microsoft code-named Longhorn “build 4074” has a built-in address book or contact list that is accessible via the task bar. The address book (alias contact list) is now available as a part of the (Longhorn) operating system. Accordingly, the applications running on this operating system can make use of this single address book. Microsoft tried to persuade the user to organize his contact, calendar, location, presence, profile and other personal managing information in a central place. This initiative failed among others because the average user does not want to be bothered with this administration. With the new operating system from Microsoft, the user gets only a single address book for all his applications running on the same device or operating system, which diminishes the administrative overhead significantly.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a method for operating a computer system providing user personal managing information data, and a related computer system which allow the user to synchronize widespread personal managing information data over all of the applications running on the computer system.
The objective is solved by a method for operating a computer system, in particular in a personal computer system, according to claim 1, and by a related computer system, in particular in a personal computer system, according to claim 9. Moreover, the invention is directed to a related computer program product according to claim 8.
The method for operating a computer system according to the invention comprises the steps of providing an operating system, which provides a communication platform and an interface between hardware, software, and at least one user of the computer system, and providing at least one application or service running on the operating system. Moreover, the method comprises the step of generating and storing personal managing information which gives information about the user's availability, the user's temporal management, and/or the user's spatial management on the computer system. The operating system receives the personal managing information and administrates the personal managing information and makes it available to the at least one application or service, respectively, running on the operating system.
In the related computer system according to the invention, the operating system is adapted to run at least one application or service. The computer system comprises means for generating and storing personal managing information which gives information about the user's availability, the user's temporal management, and/or the user's spatial management on the computer system. The operating system is further adapted to receive the personal managing information, to administrate the personal managing information and to make it available from the storing means to the at least one application or service, respectively, running on the operating system. The personal managing information can be updated by the user. Moreover, the personal managing information administered by the operating system can be updated not only by the user but also autonomously by one or more (optionally pre-configured) service(s) or application(s) running on that computer system.
According to the invention, the administration of personal managing information is not located on application level of a computer system, but is rather a part of the operating system which provides a communication platform and an interface between hardware, software, and at least one user of the computer system. The main benefit of the invention is that not only personal managing information or social information like the address book or contact list is extracted from the application level to become part of the operating system. Rather, widespread personal managing information such as temporal, spatial, presence and other social information like respective calendars, location, availability and profile become part of the administration of the operating system of the computer system. Thus, the management of personal managing information does not represent a burden for the average user and may be reduced to a minimum. By providing support for all personal managing information, such as temporal, spatial and presence information, at the level of the operating system, all applications running on that operating system and making access to that personal managing information can be synchronized automatically. This removes part of the administrative burden for the user and additionally simplifies the applications making use of this built-in functionality. Moreover, application development for any application running on that operating system may be simplified.
The invention is preferably used within a personal computer system which is the typical working machine of a worker in a business environment. However, the invention is also applicable in connection with other computer systems, such as computing devices like STB's, PDA's, portables, mobiles, etc. With all such computer systems, any synchronization mechanism between different applications running on an operating system is made superfluous, independent of whether the synchronizations are performed manually by the user or automatically by the different applications. In this context, the invention can be implemented within a computer system running e.g. with a SQL-based file system, or any other storage mechanism. In addition, the implementation according to the invention may be made accessible via an API interface, which is often procedure- or object-oriented, or a (web) service interface, which is service-oriented. In all such implementations according to the invention, updates can be added seamlessly from any application running on an operating system according to the invention.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the personal managing information is updated in the operating process of the computer system. Advantageously, all personal managing information is automatically updated when the user logs-on and/or logs-off in the operating system. Thus, the user may set his presence status at log-on time. While logged-on, the user can revert to the log-on screen to change his presence status. At log-off time, the user's presence status may be updated automatically. The user can thus use any application running on the operating system to e.g. communicate with another party, whereas his presence status and other personal managing information are managed by the operating system. Such presence status may include an availability status referring to the state in which the user resides. Examples of such state can be found in IM applications and are, e.g., “Away”, “Extended away”, “Do not disturb”, etc. Such states may be announced by the user on top of the basic presence status, which indicates whether a user is either present or not.
According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the operating system is adapted to perform synchronization between multiple applications or services running on the operating system and which make access to the personal managing information of the computer system. This removes advantageously another part of the administrative burden for the user and, furthermore, simplifies applications that need not to be designed for synchronization among other applications.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, at least two operating systems are provided, wherein each of them is adapted to run at least one application or service. Each of the operating systems is further adapted to administrate the personal managing information and to make it available to at least one application or service. At least one of the operating systems is further adapted to synchronize with the respective other of the operating systems to align the personal managing information with all of the operating systems provided. Thus, the user working on a computer system running multiple operating systems e.g. in a time sequential manner, or working on different devices each having its own operating system is relieved from keeping personal managing information synchronized over different applications or services. In this concern, the concept of a single address book is already available on devices like e.g. the GSM.
Further advantageous features, aspects and details of the invention are evident from the dependent claims.
The invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Via the keyboard 202, and/or the pointing device 203, which are examples of multiple existent interface means, the user generates personal managing information 350 which gives information about the user's availability, the user's temporal management, and/or the user's spatial management on the computer system. An availability status refers to the state in which a user resides, as already outlined above. The temporal management information may include an appointment calendar for timely planning of appointments. The spatial management information may include information about the location where the user actually resides. Such information may also include information about the profile of the user.
The generated personal managing information 350 is stored, e.g., in the hard drive 101 and the RAM 102. The operating system 320 is adapted to receive the generated and stored personal managing information and to administrate the same. The operating system is further adapted to make the personal managing information available from the described storing means to the application 340 running on the operating system 320.
According to the invention, the administration of such personal managing information is not to be performed on application level, but is rather advantageously a part of the operating system, so that all applications running on that operating system can make use of that personal managing information and may be synchronized via the operating system automatically. This removes part of the administrative burden for the external user and additionally simplifies the applications which make use of this built-in functionality.
In addition to the application 340 according to
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the personal managing information provided to one or more operating systems as described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4 is automatically updated when the user logs-on and/or logs-off in the operating system. Moreover, the user may set e.g. his availability status at log-on time. On a Windows machine where [ctrl] [alt] [del] gives opportunity to log-on, additional fields or icons could be displayed that could allow the user to set his availability status. While logged-on, the user can revert to the log-on screen to change his availability or presence status. On a Windows machine, [ctrl] [alt] [del] gives opportunity to change the user's availability or presence status. At log-off time, the user's availability status is updated automatically. The user can thus use any application to, e.g., “chat” with another person wherein his availability status is managed by the operating system.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05 290 029.7 | Jan 2005 | EP | regional |
