Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-22
2003-07-15
Wiley, David (Department: 2143)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Accessing a remote server
C709S203000, C709S204000, C709S206000, C709S217000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06594693
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to software for computer network-oriented applications. In particular, it relates to group conversation software using electronic mail features over computer networks.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The predominant software applications that allow users to have ongoing, online conversations or group discussions using electronic mail are typically server-based applications. These applications are generally software packages that enable ongoing conversations or conferences only among participants subscribing to a dedicated network application server. This server is typically owned and operated by a private entity for the purpose of enabling its users or employees to have online discussions or conferences using software running on the server and on client machines.
One commonly used application is known as Lotus Notes™ available from IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y. Lotus Notes is a server-based software application that allows users, also referred to as clients in this context, to conduct meetings or conferences online via electronic messages using an application server running Lotus Notes and Lotus Notes software running on client machines. Generally, Lotus Notes is a file system-based application in which clients are given access to a dedicated Lotus Notes server.
FIG. 1
a
is a schematic diagram showing a generic server-based, online conferencing application running on two networks. Each participating client typically has the proprietary software required to enable it to communicate with an application server to participate in a conference or online discussion. In
FIG. 1
a
clients
100
and
102
on networks
104
and
106
are participating in an online conference using an electronic conferencing application, such as Lotus Notes. When client
102
sends a conference message to client
100
, the message is first routed to an application server
108
, such as a Lotus Notes server, along message path
110
. The message from client
102
is posted on server
108
and will then be replicated onto a second server application server
112
. Similarly, conference participants on another network participating in the same conference as clients
100
and
102
will have their messages posted to their local application server and replicated on other servers. Thus, if participants on different networks using separate servers are participating in the same conference, the servers would have to be frequently synchronized or updated of each other's messages for the discussion to at least appear that it is taking place in real time. However, application servers of this type are generally synchronized and replicated once a day. Thus, a participant in one network typically will see a message posted to a server by a participant on another network the following day. This type of coordination of servers (often there are multiple servers) requires significant network overhead and is ill-suited for conversations in which participants require fairly quick responses, or in which participants are geographically distributed over multiple servers worldwide
Returning to
FIG. 1
a,
once the servers have been synchronized over an inter-network connection
114
, the message is transmitted to client
100
and any other clients on network
104
participating in the same conference.
Another feature of these types of online conferences is that they are not initiated by a conference participant but rather by an application administrator, for example, a Lotus Notes administrator. Thus, in addition to the large overhead required in synchronizing the servers, such applications are restrictive in terms of administration and the ability to initiate a conversation. As alluded to above, online conferencing applications are also restrictive in terms of scope in that the domain of eligible participants is the group of clients who subscribe to the application server and have the application software resident on their computers. These factors, in addition to the time delay from infrequent server replication, are not conducive to having unencumbered, ongoing discussions that require reasonably quick responses and draw in participants from outside a private organization or company. The above is also true of a non-proprietary technology referred to as USENET. USENET, however, is cross-company but suffers from the problem that all conversations are completely public. E-mail list servers allow private, limited membership but still require administration and lack confidentiality.
Another proprietary server-based online conferencing application in the same category as Lotus Notes is Convene™ available from Convene of San Francisco, Calif. Convene is also a server-based application that uses a dial-up frame work that requires participants to subscribe to the Convene service in order to participate in online meetings, analogous to conversations or conferences in Lotus Notes. Like Lotus Notes, Convene is not an Internet e-mail based application. (Lotus Notes allows for sub-conferences that have their own topics to exist within the context of a conference.) Thus, Convene is a service in which a participant must dial up, through a modem for example, or subscribe to the service in order to participate in online meetings between participants on separate networks. All participants in a Convene server-based conversation must be on a single server. Thus, with Convene there is no server-to-server message replication.
Outside the category of proprietary products such as Convene and Lotus Notes, another method of sending messages to a group of participants on a network is through the use of a conventional e-mail alias. An alias, in this context, is essentially a name that identifies a group of recipients. They are commonly used on internal (i.e. within a company or organization) e-mail applications and for e-mail on the Internet. Essentially, before the message is sent, the system interprets the alias and determines all the users and their addresses in that alias. However, once the e-mail is received, the recipients can typically perform one of several actions on that message, such as deleting it or forwarding it to other users (some who may have already been defined in the original sender's alias). Thus, by using e-mail aliases, the sender of the e-mail loses control of the message once it is received by the other users. There is no mechanism to maintain the history and context of a conversation in a form available to all members of the conversation.
With respect to e-mail transmitted over the Internet (i.e. the worldwide public network based on the Internet Protocol), the relationship between a sender and a receiver is typically one-to-one in that the sender transmits an e-mail message to a particular recipient.
FIG. 1
b
is a schematic diagram showing two clients on two separate networks in which one client is sending an Internet e-mail message to the other. A client
116
on a local area computer network
118
sends an e-mail message to a client
120
on local area computer network
122
. The message is sent through a Internet server
124
on network
118
and received by a similar server
126
on network
122
. The e-mail message is transmitted over the Internet
128
over a one-to-one message path
130
. Of course, it is also not uncommon for a sender to transmit a message to several recipients, which can be done using an alias as discussed above.
The opposite of this type of relationship is the USENET system that runs over the Internet in which a sender can transmit or post a message to a USENET server which, in turn, posts it to other USENET servers, thereby making the message available to a mass audience having access to the USENET servers. As with e-mail aliases discussed above, this type of relationship with a wide, undefined recipient pool makes any type of control and structure over a dialogue among Internet users nearly impossible.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a group messaging application that provides structure and per
Avellino Joseph E
Wiley David
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