Claims
- 1. A method comprising
generating an electronic offer to participate in a voice communication session with a destination party, said offer being contingent upon the satisfaction of a set of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions governing establishment of the voice communication session; receiving an indication from an offeree via a data network indicating acceptance of said offer; and establishing the voice communication session between the offeree and the destination party in conformance with at least a subset of the one or more offeror-stipulated conditions.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating is performed by a web server.
- 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising said web server transmitting said offer to said offeree on behalf of said offeror.
- 4. The method of claim 2, further comprising said web server transmitting said offer to said offeror to be forwarded to said offeree.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said offer is associated with a graphical icon.
- 6. The method of claim 5 wherein said offeree manifests said indication by activating said graphical icon.
- 7. The method of claim of 1, further comprising determining if said subset of the one or more offeror-stipulated conditions have been satisfied.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein said offeree determines if said subset of the one or more offeror-stipulated conditions have been satisfied.
- 9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:
notifying a bridge server regarding said offeree's acceptance of said offer.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said bridge server establishes the voice communication session between the offeree and the destination party in conformance with at least a subset of the one or more offeror-stipulated conditions.
- 11. A computer system comprising:
a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions to implement a set of communication services on the computer system, said services including:
services for generating on behalf of an offeror client, a conditional electronic offer to participate in a voice call with a destination party, said conditional offer being contingent upon the satisfaction of a set of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions governing establishment of the voice call, services for receiving on behalf of the offeror client, through a data network link, a notification from the offeree indicating the offeree's acceptance of the conditional offer; services for causing a voice communication session to be established between the offeree and the destination party in response to the offeree's acceptance of the offer and at least a subset of the set of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions being satisfied; and an execution unit coupled to the storage medium for executing the plurality of programming instructions.
- 12. The system of claim 11, further comprising services to transmit said electronic offer to said offeree.
- 13. The system of claim 11, further comprising services to transmit said electronic offer to said offeror to be forwarded to said offeree.
- 14. The system of claim 11, further comprising services to determine if the set of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions governing establishment of the voice call have been satisfied.
- 15. The system of claim 11, wherein services for causing a voice communication session to be established between the offeree and the destination party further comprise:
initiating a first PSTN call to the offeree; initiating a second PSTN call to the destination party; and bridging the first and second PSTN calls.
- 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the destination party is the offeror.
- 17. The system of claim 11, wherein said conditions comprise a valid time range according to which said voice communication session may be established.
- 18. The system of claim 11, wherein said conditions comprise a valid date range according to which said voice communication session may be established.
- 19. A computer system comprising:
a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions to implement a set of communication services on the computer system, said services including:
services for generating on behalf of an offeror client, a conditional electronic offer to facilitate a bridge server in establishing a voice communication session between an offeree and a destination party, said conditional offer being contingent upon the satisfaction of a set of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions governing establishment of the voice call, services for transmitting said conditional offer to at least one of said offeror and said offeree; and an execution unit coupled to the storage medium for executing the plurality of programming instructions.
- 20. The system of claim 19, wherein said services for transmitting said conditional offer to at least one of said offeror and said offeree comprises services for transmitting said conditional offer to said offeror for subsequent forwarding by said offeror to said offeree.
- 21. The system of claim 19, wherein said conditional offer is transmitted to at least one of said offeror and said offeree via SMTP.
- 22. The system of claim 19, wherein said conditional offer is transmitted to at least one of said offeror and said offeree via HTTP.
- 23. A computer system comprising:
a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions to implement a set of communication services on the computer system, said services including:
services for receiving, a conditional electronic offer to participate in a voice call with a destination party, said conditional offer being contingent upon the satisfaction of a set of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions governing establishment of the voice call, services for determining whether at least a subset of the set of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions have been satisfied, services for receiving an indication from an offeree signifying the offeree's acceptance of the offer, services for transmitting a notification to a bridge server to at least partly cause the bridge server to establish a voice communication session between the offeree and the destination party, said notification indicating the offeree's acceptance of the offer and the satisfaction of at least the subset of one or more offeror-stipulated conditions, and an execution unit coupled to the storage medium for executing the plurality of programming instructions.
- 24. The system of claim 23, wherein said conditions comprise a valid time range according to which said voice communication session may be established.
- 25. The system of claim 23, wherein said conditions comprise a valid date range according to which said voice communication session may be established.
- 26. The system of claim 23, wherein costs associated with the voice communication session are charged to the offeror.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present invention is a continuation-in-part of copending application Ser. No. 09/694,657 entitled “Method And Apparatus For Establishing A Voice Call By Way Of An Electronic Mail Message” filed on Oct. 23, 2000 by Jeffrey B. Sponaugle, et al. and commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09694657 |
Oct 2000 |
US |
Child |
09910682 |
Jul 2001 |
US |