Patent Grant
10387847
This invention relates to the field of voice and data communications, and in particular to methods and systems for managing volunteers, employees and other individuals associated with a task, shift, or other activity within a planned event.
There are a wide range of instances where a group of individuals are coordinated for an event. Examples of such events can include, but are not limited to, sporting events, convocations, festivals, concerts, business meetings, conferences, charity events, and reunions. Today, in order to set up such events a range of options exist with respect to communication tools including, for example, Simple Messaging Service (SMS), telephone, social media such as Facebook™ messaging services such as Twitter™, email, and web based services such as Google Events.
In the majority of instances these events are based at a particular location (e.g. an office, arena, course, etc.) although in other instances these may be a range of locations (e.g. a charity run requiring volunteers at the start, finish and runner registration) and whilst typically over a generally small geographic area the multiple locations may be over an extended geographic area (e.g. Rio de Janeiro for the Summer Olympics). Accordingly, the number of helpers, volunteers, attendees, support staff, event staff may range from a few to hundreds to thousands.
Within the prior art organizers of such events must factor into their planning missing individuals, commonly known as no-shows. Within the volunteer staffing environment an average of 30% of volunteers do not show up for their assigned shift(s). When this occurs, as indeed can occur within an enterprise with employees being absent, a manager (e.g. an event manager) or a supervisor (e.g. shift supervisor) must scramble to find replacements either for all of the missing individuals or sufficient to ensure execution of the minimum role set for that shift and/or event. Whilst within the prior art the volunteer or staff member may electronically communicate a planned absence to the supervisor/manager, which whilst providing at least a notification at least, does not reduce the requirements to find a replacement. This may be exacerbated by individuals swapping shifts without anyone other than themselves knowing, unforeseen events, and late changes in event logistics.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide supervisors, managers, enterprises, organizers, etc. with the ability to establish communications to individuals or group of individuals rapidly, with low complexity and management overhead, exploiting a software application in execution upon the individual's mobile devices that are connected to wireless networks over varying geographical areas without requiring the supervisors, etc. to have any direct interaction of the individuals. Further, it would be beneficial for the knowledge of the distribution of walkie-talkies etc. as the mobile device is the user's own smartphone or cellphone. Further, it would be beneficial for the supervisors, managers, enterprises, organizers, etc. through the software application of delayed arrival of individual(s) or the incorrect location of individuals.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
It is an object of the present invention to address limitations within the prior art relating to the field of voice and data communications, and in particular to methods and systems for managing volunteers, employees and other individuals associated with a task, shift, or other activity within a planned event.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there are provided a method and a system allowing a user to manage individuals associated with at least one of a role, a location, a venue and a shift for an event and engage replacement individuals upon at least one of an anticipated failure and an actual failure to check in for the role, the location, the venue and the shift of the event.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:
The present invention is directed to the field of voice and data communications, and in particular to methods and systems for managing volunteers, employees and other individuals associated with a task, shift, or other activity within a planned event.
The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an exemplary embodiment. It being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements and that the invention the invention is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalent arrangements without departing from the scope which is as set forth and defined within the appended claims.
A “portable electronic device” (PED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless device used for communications and other applications that requires a battery or other independent form of energy for power. This includes devices, but is not limited to, such as a cellular telephone, smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computer, pager, portable multimedia player, portable gaming console, laptop computer, tablet computer, and an electronic reader.
A “fixed electronic device” (FED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless and /or wired device used for communications and other applications that requires connection to a fixed interface to obtain power. This includes, but is not limited to, a laptop computer, a personal computer, a computer server, a kiosk, a gaming console, a digital set-top box, an analog set-top box, an Internet enabled appliance, an Internet enabled television, and a multimedia player.
An “application” (commonly referred to as an “app”) as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a “software application”, an element of a “software suite”, a computer program designed to allow an individual to perform an activity, a computer program designed to allow an electronic device to perform an activity, and a computer program designed to communicate with local and/or remote electronic devices. An application thus differs from an operating system (which runs a computer), a utility (which performs maintenance or general-purpose chores), and a programming tools (with which computer programs are created). Generally, within the following description with respect to embodiments of the invention an application is generally presented in respect of software permanently and/or temporarily installed upon a PED and/or FED.
A “social network” or “social networking service” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who may, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. This includes, but is not limited to, social networks such as U.S. based services such as Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and Twitter; as well as Nexopia, Badoo, Bebo, VKontakte, Delphi, Hi5, Hyves, iWiW, Nasza-Klasa, Soup, Glocals, Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ, Tagged, Tuenti, XING, Orkut, Mxit, Cyworld, Mixi, renren, weibo and Wretch.
“Social media” or “social media services” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a means of interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. This includes, but is not limited to, social media services relating to magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, social networks, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking as well as those exploiting blogging, picture-sharing, video logs, wall-posting, music-sharing, crowdsourcing and voice over IP, to name a few. Social media services may be classified, for example, as collaborative projects (for example, Wikipedia); blogs and microblogs (for example, Twitter™); content communities (for example, YouTube and DailyMotion); social networking sites (for example, Facebook™); virtual game-worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft™); and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life™)
An “enterprise” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a provider of a service and/or a product to a user, customer, or consumer. This includes, but is not limited to, a retail outlet, a store, a market, an online marketplace, a manufacturer, an online retailer, a charity, a utility, and a service provider. Such enterprises may be directly owned and controlled by a company or may be owned and operated by a franchisee under the direction and management of a franchiser.
A “service provider” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a third party provider of a service and/or a product to an enterprise and/or individual and/or group of individuals and/or a device comprising a microprocessor. This includes, but is not limited to, a retail outlet, a store, a market, an online marketplace, a manufacturer, an online retailer, a utility, an own brand provider, and a service provider wherein the service and/or product is at least one of marketed, sold, offered, and distributed by the enterprise solely or in addition to the service provider.
A ‘third party’ or “third party provider” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a so-called “arm's length” provider of a service and/or a product to an enterprise and/or individual and/or group of individuals and/or a device comprising a microprocessor wherein the consumer and/or customer engages the third party but the actual service and/or product that they are interested in and/or purchase and/or receive is provided through an enterprise and/or service provider.
A “user” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, an individual or group of individuals which includes, but is not limited to, private individuals, employees of organizations and/or enterprises, members of community organizations, members of charity organizations, men, women, children, and teenagers. In its broadest sense the user may further include, but not be limited to, software systems, mechanical systems, vehicle systems, physical assets, robotic systems, android systems, etc. that may be characterised by mobility and location such their location may be an aspect of them which is desired to be known at a particular instant.
An “event” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a planned public or social occasion, happening, proceeding, incident, affair, function, gathering, “bash”, competition, contest, tournament, round, fixture, race, conference, meeting, and appointment.
“Electronic content” (also referred to as “content” or “digital content”) as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, any type of content that exists in the form of digital data as stored, transmitted, received and/or converted wherein one or more of these steps may be analog although generally these steps will be digital. Forms of digital content include, but are not limited to, information that is digitally broadcast, streamed or contained in discrete files. Viewed narrowly, types of digital content include popular media types such as MP3, JPG, AVI, TIFF, AAC, TXT, RTF, HTML, XHTML, PDF, XLS, SVG, WMA, MP4, FLV, and PPT, for example, as well as others, see for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_formats. Within a broader approach digital content mat include any type of digital information, e.g. digitally updated weather forecast, a GPS map, an eBook, a photograph, a video, a Vine™, a blog posting, a Facebook™ posting, a Twitter™ tweet, online TV, etc. The digital content may be any digital data that is at least one of generated, selected, created, modified, and transmitted in response to a user request, said request may be a query, a search, a trigger, an alarm, and a message for example.
The system(s) and/or application(s) described below in respect of embodiments of the invention may be employed in a standalone manner or they may, alternatively, be a feature of or be used as part of a larger system for creating, managing, running and/or coordinating an event. Within the embodiments of the invention described below these are described with respect to event management software applications/platforms (EMSAPs) that support communications between users associated with an event or activity by their roles and assignments to said roles without any prior knowledge of the others users by the user as this is coordinated through supervisory/management roles employing the EMSAPs according to embodiments of the invention.
Within the following description and reference to
Within the following description and reference to
Embodiments of the invention provide a system for easily reporting to a staff manager/shift supervisor etc. when a specific role or roles at a specific time and/or location does not have enough individuals to meet the requirements for the role/shift to be effectively performed. Roles for the event are created by the event planner. Whereas the aforementioned patent applications describe a way of routing communications based on a connection (policy chain) to get to the right organization, then mission, then role within a mission, the embodiments of the invention uses the same structure to determine a specific group of people at a specific time, which then exploit one or more rule and/or criteria to determine if there are sufficient individuals to meet the requirements for the role/shift to be effectively performed and accordingly, communicate the lack of resources to the staff manger. Further, through accessing location information of individuals associated with a shift an anticipated shortfall in individuals for the shift may be established thereby triggering a notification to a staff manager/shift supervisor.
The people in a role or venue can change based on shift time and staff can sign in and out of shifts for breaks. The staff manager needs to be able to know in real time when a staffing problem exists, and be able to fix it immediately.
Referring to
Referring to
Each participant 156 may also have one or more statuses associated, such as reported, in shift, out of shift (break), checked in, checked out, etc. The event participant 156 also points to a user 112, 113 in the database 103.
Now referring to
If the user selects the second indicator 220 in exemplary supervisor screenshot 200 of
Optionally, the user may be able to select and query the non-checked-in individual within seventh element 350, i.e. “Marcus Tenney”, using a method such as described and depicted within PCT/A2014/000,442 filed by the inventor May 20, 2014 entitled “System for Quickly Finding the Whereabouts of Friends.” Selection of the individual “Marcus Tenney” within seventh element 350 triggers presentation of third exemplary screenshot 300C wherein third header 355 denotes that the user is viewing a contact profile for the non-checked-in individual. Eighth element 360 denotes that they are viewing the contact profile of “Marcus Tenney”, whilst ninth element 365 provides the user with communication options which may be extended to include a “Where Are You” feature such as described and depicted in respect of PCT/A2014/000,442. Tenth element 370 depicts the individual's assigned shifts/roles, in this instance for “Marcus Tenney” who has not checked in. Accordingly, the supervisor/manager (user) may using the button within eighth element 360 remove the individual from the event completely or they may through the button options next to each shift remove the individual from that specific shift or may remove the individual from all remaining shifts on that day, etc. Other variations would be evident to one of skill in the art.
It would be evident therefore that the user may remove the individual from that current shift, seek to contact them, and then subsequently in the absence of any other information proceed to remove and replace them from other shifts, the event and potentially from all events as each event may be part of a larger event. Within embodiments of the invention the removal of an individual from a shift, multiple shifts, event etc. may be stored and accumulated such that if the individual has a history of not appearing for all shifts on a day then that may be indicated to the user so that they can factor that into their decision of what action(s) to take. Similarly, where an individual has a history of checking in late to an event then this may be similarly flagged/presented to the user so that they may for example be presented next to “Marcus Tenney” with the information “Typically 15 minutes late checking in” so that the user may delay a decision to replace on the expectation that the individual will check in albeit slightly late. Alternatively, this factor may be integrated into shift allocation(s) such that the individual is scheduled to start ahead of the actual shift or within the allocation of individuals to shifts. For example, the individual may be typically late for an early morning shift but never late for a mid-morning or afternoon shift. Similarly, an individual's acceptance/refusal history of shifts may be integrated to the allocation of individuals as if the individual never accepts an evening shift then they should be removed from consideration of this time in future shift/event allocations.
Within third exemplary screenshot 400C at a point later in time “Charles Besnee” is shown as checked-in within seventh element 440. Initially, third exemplary screenshot 400C may depict the replacement individual with a symbol indicating that they are a replacement if not checked in yet so the user remembers this when coming back to the issue again if they have forgotten what action(s) they performed. In some instances, the replacement individual may be checked in immediately as they are being re-allocated from another shift/role within the event overlapping in time. Whilst not explicitly depicted within the exemplary screenshots within
Once the user schedules an individual, e.g. “Charles Besnèe”, then the individual receives a notification within the EMSAP in execution upon their electronic device, e.g. a PED, as indicated with first element 510 in exemplary screenshot 500 in
Now referring to
Accordingly, in first sub-flow 600D the user is presented with the number of problems and associated summary data such as described and depicted in respect of
In third sub-flow 600F the user identifies and establishes a replacement individual with respect to a specific problem and as such reflects elements of the steps presented within the exemplary screenshots presented within
Now referring to
Within the cell associated with first AP 710A the first group of users 700A may employ a variety of PEDs including for example, laptop computer 755, portable gaming console 735, tablet computer 740, smartphone 750, cellular telephone 745 as well as portable multimedia player 730. Within the cell associated with second AP 710B are the second group of users 700B which may employ a variety of FEDs including for example gaming console 725, personal computer 715 and wireless/Internet enabled television 720 as well as cable modem 705. First and second cellular APs 795A and 795B respectively provide, for example, cellular GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) telephony services as well as 3G and 4G evolved services with enhanced data transport support. Second cellular AP 795B provides coverage in the exemplary embodiment to first and second user groups 700A and 700B. Alternatively the first and second user groups 700A and 700B may be geographically disparate and access the network 700 through multiple APs, not shown for clarity, distributed geographically by the network operator or operators. First cellular AP 795A as show provides coverage to first user group 700A and environment 770, which comprises second user group 700B as well as first user group 700A. Accordingly, the first and second user groups 700A and 700B may according to their particular communications interfaces communicate to the network 700 through one or more wireless communications standards such as, for example, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, and IMT-1000. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that many portable and fixed electronic devices may support multiple wireless protocols simultaneously, such that for example a user may employ GSM services such as telephony and SMS and Wi-Fi/WiMAX data transmission, VOIP and Internet access. Accordingly, portable electronic devices within first user group 700A may form associations either through standards such as IEEE 802.15 and Bluetooth as well in an ad-hoc manner.
Also connected to the network 700 are Social Networks (SOCNETS) 765, first and second personnel providers 770A and 770B respectively, e.g. Manpower™ and Adecco™ catering service provider 770C, e.g. Daniel & Daniel (Toronto, Canada), and first to second partner enterprises 775A and 775B respectively, e.g. Scotiabank™ and Running Room™, as well as first and second servers 790A and 790B which together with others, not shown for clarity. First and second servers 790A and 790B may host according to embodiments of the inventions multiple services associated with a provider of WKWTAPs; a provider of a SOCNET or Social Media (SOME) exploiting WKWTAP features; a provider of a SOCNET and/or SOME not exploiting WKWTAP features; a provider of services to PEDS and/or FEDS; a provider of one or more aspects of wired and/or wireless communications; an Enterprise 760 exploiting WKWTAP features; license databases; content databases; event databases; registration databases; customer databases; contact databases; websites; and software applications for download to or access by FEDs and/or PEDs exploiting and/or hosting WKWTAP features. First and second primary content servers 790A and 790B may also host for example other Internet services such as a search engine, financial services, third party applications and other Internet based services.
Accordingly, an enterprise user or individual user (ENUINU) may exploit a PED and/or FED within an Enterprise 760, for example, and access one of the first or second primary content servers 790A and 790B respectively to perform an operation such as accessing/downloading an application which provides WKWTAP features according to embodiments of the invention; execute an application already installed providing WKWTAP features; execute a web based application providing WKWTAP features; or exploit WKWTAP features within another application. Similarly, an ENUINU may undertake such actions or others exploiting embodiments of the invention exploiting a PED or FED within first and second user groups 700A and 700B respectively via one of first and second cellular APs 795A and 795B respectively and first Wi-Fi nodes 710A.
Now referring to
The electronic device 804 includes one or more processors 810 and a memory 812 coupled to processor(s) 810. AP 806 also includes one or more processors 811 and a memory 813 coupled to processor(s) 810. A non-exhaustive list of examples for any of processors 810 and 811 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a reduced instruction set computer (RISC), a complex instruction set computer (CISC) and the like. Furthermore, any of processors 810 and 811 may be part of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or may be a part of application specific standard products (ASSPs). A non-exhaustive list of examples for memories 812 and 813 includes any combination of the following semiconductor devices such as registers, latches, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory devices, non-volatile random access memory devices (NVRAM), SDRAM, DRAM, double data rate (DDR) memory devices, SRAM, universal serial bus (USB) removable memory, and the like.
Electronic device 804 may include an audio input element 814, for example a microphone, and an audio output element 816, for example, a speaker, coupled to any of processors 810. Electronic device 804 may include a video input element 818, for example, a video camera or camera, and a video output element 820, for example an LCD display, coupled to any of processors 810. Electronic device 804 also includes a keyboard 815 and touchpad 817 which may for example be a physical keyboard and touchpad allowing the user to enter content or select functions within one of more applications 822. Alternatively, the keyboard 815 and touchpad 817 may be predetermined regions of a touch sensitive element forming part of the display within the electronic device 804. The one or more applications 822 that are typically stored in memory 812 and are executable by any combination of processors 810. Electronic device 804 also includes accelerometer 860 providing three-dimensional motion input to the process 810 and GPS 862 which provides geographical location information to processor 810.
Electronic device 804 includes a protocol stack 824 and AP 806 includes a communication stack 825. Within system 800 protocol stack 824 is shown as IEEE 802.11 protocol stack but alternatively may exploit other protocol stacks such as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) multimedia protocol stack for example. Likewise, AP stack 825 exploits a protocol stack but is not expanded for clarity. Elements of protocol stack 824 and AP stack 825 may be implemented in any combination of software, firmware and/or hardware. Protocol stack 824 includes an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module 826 that is coupled to one or more Front-End Tx/Rx & Antenna 828, an IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC module 830 coupled to an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module 832. Protocol stack 824 includes a network layer IP module 834, a transport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module 836 and a transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) module 838.
Protocol stack 824 also includes a session layer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) module 840, a Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) module 842, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module 844 and a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) module 846. Protocol stack 824 includes a presentation layer media negotiation module 848, a call control module 850, one or more audio codecs 852 and one or more video codecs 854. Applications 822 may be able to create maintain and/or terminate communication sessions with any of devices 807 by way of AP 806. Typically, applications 822 may activate any of the SAP, SIP, RTSP, media negotiation and call control modules for that purpose. Typically, information may propagate from the SAP, SIP, RTSP, media negotiation and call control modules to PHY module 826 through TCP module 838, IP module 834, LLC module 832 and MAC module 830.
It would be apparent to one skilled in the art that elements of the electronic device 804 may also be implemented within the AP 806 including but not limited to one or more elements of the protocol stack 824, including for example an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module, an IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC module, and an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module 832. The AP 806 may additionally include a network layer IP module, a transport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module and a transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) module as well as a session layer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) module, a Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) module, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module and a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) module, media negotiation module, and a call control module. Portable and fixed electronic devices represented by electronic device 804 may include one or more additional wireless or wired interfaces in addition to the depicted IEEE 802.11 interface which may be selected from the group comprising IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, IMT-1000, DSL, Dial-Up, DOCSIS, Ethernet, G.hn, ISDN, MoCA, PON, and Power line communication (PLC).
Whilst the above description and examples have been primarily presented with respect to communications for personnel within events such as sports events, festivals, etc. it would be evident to one of skill in the art that the concepts may be applied to a variety of other environments including, for example, workplace communications, sports team communications, etc.
Whilst the above description and examples have been primarily presented with respect to users employing their own PEDs it would be evident that embodiments of the invention may be supported by other devices.
Within the embodiments of the invention the establishment of a replacement and/or replacements has been implied and/or described as being performed on an individual by individual basis as the examples of personnel requirements per shift/role have been only a couple of individuals. However, in other embodiments of the invention a shift/role may be associated with a large number of individuals, e.g. volunteers, such that the number of individuals for whom replacements are needed is ten, tens, a hundred or more. Embodiments of the invention may where the number of individuals exceeds a predetermined threshold and/or at user selection send requests for invitations to all individuals meeting the shift/role/location criteria wherein the message indicates that it is a “flood” or “broadcast” request and that either the first individuals replying up to the number required and/or all individuals are then scheduled to the shift. Such “flood” or “broadcast” requests may also be associated with unplanned—unscheduled requirements in order to find employees/volunteers etc. to support this unplanned—unscheduled need.
Within embodiments of the invention an EMSAP may access location information of individuals associated with a shift in order to ascertain whether an anticipated shortfall in individuals for the shift may be established thereby triggering a notification to a staff manager/shift supervisor. Optionally, this may be an automatic notification triggered by the EMSAP wherein the trigger is set a predetermined period of time prior to the shift start, for example, or alternatively when a predetermined portion of the shift have checked-in and/or based upon historical performance data of the individuals and/or event/shift/role etc. In embodiments of the invention the user may have pre-authorised the EMSAP to provide their location information in respect of each shift/role/event they have accepted or alternatively no authorisation is given and each request is addressed uniquely by the individual within the EMSAP.
It would be evident that communications within embodiments of the invention may be encrypted and that, for example, security personnel at an event may exploit encryption whilst other communications are open or increased security may be associated with a portion of the event defined by a geo-fence such that users can only communicate in their role/shift etc. when within the geo-fence and that such communications may be optionally encrypted. Optionally, different geofenced regions may be associated with different encryption keys so that communications within security personnel are defined further by geolocation/geofencing specific encryption keys that are only valid for a specific shift and/or role.
Geolocation/geofencing may exploit a system within the user's PED such as GPS, for example, or it may alternatively exploit one or more other techniques as known within the art such as transmitter identity, transmitter triangulation, received signal strengths from transmitters, localized beacons, etc. A venue may be a “zoned” into a number of micro-venues defined by one or more geo-location/geo-fencing aspects. Further beacons may be established such that a geo-fence is defined by the one or more beacons currently accessible to the user's PED.
The EMSAPs as described and depicted have been primarily presented from the user's viewpoint as a software application in execution upon their PED, for example. However, in other embodiments of the invention the EMSAP may be accessed and/or configured through web pages or web browsers. Such web pages may be accessed on the user's PED or they may alternatively be accessed upon a FED. Accordingly, for example, ticket office personnel may have a browser window open providing them with EMSAP content whilst their screen also provides the ticket sales management application.
Specific details are given in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.
Implementation of the techniques, blocks, steps and means described above may be done in various ways. For example, these techniques, blocks, steps and means may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing units may be implemented within one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described above and/or a combination thereof.
Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.
Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages and/or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, scripting language and/or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium, such as a storage medium. A code segment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures and/or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters and/or memory content. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.
For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing the methodologies described herein. For example, software codes may be stored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor and may vary in implementation where the memory is employed in storing software codes for subsequent execution to that when the memory is employed in executing the software codes. As used herein the term “memory” refers to any type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or other storage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.
Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may represent one or more devices for storing data, including read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/or other machine readable mediums for storing information. The term “machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and/or various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.
The methodologies described herein are, in one or more embodiments, performable by a machine which includes one or more processors that accept code segments containing instructions. For any of the methods described herein, when the instructions are executed by the machine, the machine performs the method. Any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine are included. Thus, a typical machine may be exemplified by a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. Each processor may include one or more of a CPU, a graphics-processing unit, and a programmable DSP unit. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM. A bus subsystem may be included for communicating between the components. If the processing system requires a display, such a display may be included, e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD). If manual data entry is required, the processing system also includes an input device such as one or more of an alphanumeric input unit such as a keyboard, a pointing control device such as a mouse, and so forth.
The memory includes machine-readable code segments (e.g. software or software code) including instructions for performing, when executed by the processing system, one of more of the methods described herein. The software may reside entirely in the memory, or may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the RAM and/or within the processor during execution thereof by the computer system. Thus, the memory and the processor also constitute a system comprising machine-readable code.
In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other machines, in a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. The machine may be, for example, a computer, a server, a cluster of servers, a cluster of computers, a web appliance, a distributed computing environment, a cloud computing environment, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. The term “machine” may also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.
Further, in describing representative embodiments of the present invention, the specification may have presented the method and/or process of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth in the specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of the present invention should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/108,232 filed Jan. 27, 2015 entitled “Managing No Shows”, the entire contents of which are included herein by reference.
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