Patent Application
20090216595
This application claims priority to European Patent Application No. 07301711.3, filed 20 Dec. 2007, and all the benefits accruing therefrom under 35 U.S.C. §119, the contents of which in its entirety are herein incorporated by reference.
IBM® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y., U.S.A. Other names used herein may be registered trademarks, trademarks or product names of International Business Machines Corporation or other companies.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing in general, and in particular to electronic calendar applications that are capable of scheduling meetings. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method for managing individual meetings for all person of a team.
2. Description of Background
Today many people are using electronic calendar applications in data processing systems to schedule meetings. An electronic calendar application allows a person to coordinate individual daily schedules and to schedule meetings among other people also having their own individual electronic calendar applications. In order to schedule a meeting, a user may input desired meeting information such as a requester and any attendee with whom the requester wishes to meet. The user may also input one or more proposed dates, times and durations for the intended meeting. The electronic calendar application then accesses the electronic calendars of the requester and all the potential attendees, and determines whether or not they will be available to attend the intended meeting on the proposed dates, times and durations. If a common proposed date, time and duration have been found for all potential attendees, the electronic calendar application of each potential attendee then places the meeting schedule on the potential attendee's individual electronic calendar.
Existing methods of exploding a meeting into several apply only to periodic meeting (i.e., to criteria based on date), all other information are in common, including invited people. Currently, to perform individual scheduling within a team a chairman must manually determine the meeting time based on the attendees' schedules and therefore the most consuming time solution.
Exemplary embodiments include a method for managing individual meetings for all attendees of a team, the method including storing individual times slots for each attendee, determining a maximum number of time slots, for each available attendee saving a time slot count, for each time slot saving an eligible attendee count, allocating slots in which one attendee has a free time, setting remaining time slots as busy, decrementing an eligible attendee count and determining if the maximum number of time slots has been reached.
System and computer program products corresponding to the above-summarized methods are also described and claimed herein.
Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed invention. For a better understanding of the invention with advantages and features, refer to the description and to the drawings.
As a result of the summarized invention, technically we have achieved a solution which provides systems, methods and computer program products that allow a chair to schedule meetings by obtaining an available time range from the chair calendar if the date and time range have not been specified, obtaining individual free times from the calendars of all of the attendees and finally allocating individual time slots.
The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.
In exemplary embodiments, a meeting chair schedules separate meetings by specifying: a list of attendees; a meeting duration; a date and time range (optionally); a subject, location and the like. In exemplary embodiments, the process includes obtaining an available time range from the chair calendar if the date and time range have not been specified. Next, the process includes obtaining individual free times from the calendars of all of the attendees. Finally, the embodiments of the systems, methods and computer program products described herein allocate individual time slots.
In exemplary embodiments, in terms of hardware architecture, as shown in
The processor 105 is a hardware device for executing software, particularly that stored in memory 110. The processor 105 can be any custom made or commercially available processor, a central processing unit (CPU), an auxiliary processor among several processors associated with the computer 101, a semiconductor based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chip set), a macroprocessor, or generally any device for executing software instructions.
The memory 110 can include any one or combination of volatile memory elements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), electronically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), programmable read only memory (PROM), tape, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), disk, diskette, cartridge, cassette or the like, etc.). Moreover, the memory 110 may incorporate electronic, magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. Note that the memory 110 can have a distributed architecture, where various components are situated remote from one another, but can be accessed by the processor 105.
The software in memory 110 may include one or more separate programs, each of which comprises an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions. In the example of
The meeting management methods described herein may be in the form of a source program, executable program (object code), script, or any other entity comprising a set of instructions to be performed. When a source program, then the program needs to be translated via a compiler, assembler, interpreter, or the like, which may or may not be included within the memory 110, so as to operate properly in connection with the O/S 111. Furthermore, the meeting management methods can be written as an object oriented programming language, which has classes of data and methods, or a procedure programming language, which has routines, subroutines, and/or functions.
In exemplary embodiments, a conventional keyboard 150 and mouse 155 can be coupled to the input/output controller 135. Other output devices such as the I/O devices 140, 145 may include input devices, for example but not limited to a printer, a scanner, microphone, and the like. Finally, the I/O devices 140, 145 may further include devices that communicate both inputs and outputs, for instance but not limited to, a NIC or modulator/demodulator (for accessing other files, devices, systems, or a network), a radio frequency (RF) or other transceiver, a telephonic interface, a bridge, a router, and the like. The system 100 can further include a display controller 125 coupled to a display 130. In exemplary embodiments, the system 100 can further include a network interface 160 for coupling to a network 165. The network 165 can be an IP-based network for communication between the computer 101 and any external server, client and the like via a broadband connection. The network 165 transmits and receives data between the computer 101 and external systems. In exemplary embodiments, network 165 can be a managed IP network administered by a service provider. The network 165 may be implemented in a wireless fashion, e.g., using wireless protocols and technologies, such as WiFi, WiMax, etc. The network 165 can also be a packet-switched network such as a local area network, wide area network, metropolitan area network, Internet network, or other similar type of network environment. The network 165 may be a fixed wireless network, a wireless local area network (LAN), a wireless wide area network (WAN) a personal area network (PAN), a virtual private network (VPN), intranet or other suitable network system and includes equipment for receiving and transmitting signals.
If the computer 101 is a PC, workstation, intelligent device or the like, the software in the memory 110 may further include a basic input output system (BIOS) (omitted for simplicity). The BIOS is a set of essential software routines that initialize and test hardware at startup, start the OS 111, and support the transfer of data among the hardware devices. The BIOS is stored in ROM so that the BIOS can be executed when the computer 101 is activated.
When the computer 101 is in operation, the processor 105 is configured to execute software stored within the memory 110, to communicate data to and from the memory 110, and to generally control operations of the computer 101 pursuant to the software. The meeting management methods described herein and the OS 111, in whole or in part, but typically the latter, are read by the processor 105, perhaps buffered within the processor 105, and then executed.
When the systems and methods described herein are implemented in software, as is shown in
In exemplary embodiments, where the meeting management methods are implemented in hardware, the meeting management methods described herein can implemented with any or a combination of the following technologies, which are each well known in the art: a discrete logic circuit(s) having logic gates for implementing logic functions upon data signals, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) having appropriate combinational logic gates, a programmable gate array(s) (PGA), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.
The capabilities of the present invention can be implemented in software, firmware, hardware or some combination thereof.
As one example, one or more aspects of the present invention can be included in an article of manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance, computer usable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance, computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating the capabilities of the present invention. The article of manufacture can be included as a part of a computer system or sold separately.
Additionally, at least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided.
The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered a part of the claimed invention.
While the preferred embodiment to the invention has been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.
