Systems and methods to manage a queue of people requesting real time communication connections
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatuses to provide services to people who wish to make connections for real time communication, such as live telephone conversation, chat, video conferencing, etc. In one embodiment, a method includes: presenting to a communicatee a plurality of requests for real time communication connections to the communicatee, the requests being received from a plurality of communicators; prioritizing the requests according to an input from the communicatee; and establishing a real time communication connection to the communicatee according to the prioritizing of the requests.
1. A method, comprising:
processing transmissions received by a server system and corresponding to a plurality of requests for a real-time communication connection to a communicatee, each request from the plurality of requests from a respective communicator of a plurality of communicators;
based at least in part on the processing, retrieving by the server system information stored about one or more communicators of the plurality of communicators from a data store of the server system, and designating each communicator of the plurality of communicators with respective status information based at least in part on the retrieved information, wherein for at least one communicator of the plurality of communicators the respective status information corresponds to a respective status assigned to the respective communicator based at least in part on one or more previous requests from the respective communicator;
ranking by the server system each request of the plurality of requests based at least in part on the respective status information, wherein the ranking results in a first order and comprises computing one or more degrees of social separation between at least one of the communicators and the communicatee based on social network information retrieved by the server system;
preparing by the server system queue information based at least in part on the ranking and transmitting the queue information to a computing device associated with the communicatee, to facilitate a user interface display that indicates the plurality of requests for real time communication connections to the communicatee according to the first order, wherein the indicating the plurality of requests comprises indicating for at least one request of the plurality of requests:
an identifier for the respective communicator;
a status indicator associated with the respective communicator that defines a rank of the respective communicator among the plurality of communicators based on the first order;
an identification of a social distance between the respective communicator and the communicator based at least in part on the computed one or more degrees of social separation;
a call back window requested by the respective communicator; and
a comment received from the respective communicator;
processing by the server system an indication of a selection of a user-selectable option facilitated by the user interface display, the selection corresponding to input from the communicatee, and prioritizing the plurality of requests into a prioritized list of requests according to a second order based at least in part on the selection, wherein the prioritizing results in a first request of the plurality of requests designated as highest ranked according to the second order; and
establishing a real time communication connection to a communication device associated with the communicatee by selection of the first request designated as highest ranked from the prioritized list of requests.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface display indicates the respective requests of the plurality of requests without revealing respective communication references of the respective communicators.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the requests for real time communication connections each comprise a request for a telephone connection; and
each respective communication reference comprises a telephone number of the respective communicator.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the real time communication connection to the communicatee is established via a telephonic call to a telephone number of the communicatee; and
each request of the plurality of requests is made without the telephone number of the communicatee.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the establishing the real time communication connection comprises:
calling back the communicator corresponding to the first request; and
calling a telephone number of the communicatee.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the comment comprises a self-introduction.
7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
converting content, from a text format to an audio format or from the audio format to the text format, to generate the comment for presentation with the request.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving at least the first request of the plurality of requests via a first real time communication connection to a communicatee server of the server system, wherein a self-introduction is generated by a communicator corresponding to the first request;
wherein the establishing the real time communication connection comprises the communicatee server connecting the first real time communication connection to the communication device associated with the communicatee.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the real time communication connection is a telephonic connection.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface display indicates each request of the plurality of requests as having a respective time period within which the respective request is valid.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface display is facilitated at least in part by transmission from the server system via a connection that is separate from the real time communication connection used to connect the communication device associated with the communicatee and a second communication device corresponding to the first request.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
receiving by the server system a voice comment along with a respective request of the plurality of requests; and
performing by the server system speech recognition to generate a text form of the voice comment;
wherein the indicating the comment received from the respective communicator comprises presenting the text form of the voice comment with the respective request of the plurality of requests.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicating the plurality of requests comprises indicating for the at least one request of the plurality of requests a bid of the respective communicator for priority.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifier for the respective communicator does not reveal the respective communicator's real name.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface display comprises one or more icons for increasing and decreasing a request's priority in the prioritized list of requests.
16. A non-transitory machine readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a server system, cause the server system to:
process transmissions received by the server system and corresponding to a plurality of requests for a real-time communication connection to a communicatee, each request from the plurality of requests from a respective communicator of a plurality of communicators;
based at least in part on the processing, retrieve information stored about one or more communicators of the plurality of communicators from a data store of the server system, and designate each communicator of the plurality of communicators with respective status information based at least in part on the retrieved information, wherein for at least one communicator of the plurality of communicators the respective status information corresponds to a respective status assigned to the respective communicator based at least in part on one or more previous requests from the respective communicator;
rank each request of the plurality of requests based at least in part on the respective status information, wherein the ranking results in a first order and comprises computing one or more degrees of social separation between at least one of the communicators and the communicatee based on social network information retrieved by the server system;
prepare queue information based at least in part on the ranking and transmitting the queue information to a computing device associated with the communicatee to facilitate a user interface display that indicates the plurality of requests real time communication connections to the communicatee according to the first order, wherein the indicating the plurality of requests comprises indicating for at least one request of the plurality of requests:
an identifier for the respective communicator;
a status indicator associated with the respective communicator that defines a rank of the respective communicator among the plurality of communicators based on the first order;
an identification of a social distance between the respective communicator and the communicator based at least in part on the computed one or more degrees of social separation;
a call back window requested by the respective communicator; and
a comment received from the respective communicator;
process an indication of a selection of a user-selectable option facilitated by the user interface display, the selection corresponding to input from the communicatee, and prioritize the plurality of requests into a prioritized list of requests according to a second order based at least in part on the selection, wherein the prioritizing results in a first request of the plurality of requests designated as highest ranked according to the second order; and
establish a real time communication connection to a communication device associated with the communicatee by selection of the first request from the designated as highest ranked prioritized list of requests.
17. The non-transitory machine readable media of claim 16 , wherein the establishing the real time communication connection comprises:
calling back the communicator corresponding to the first request; and
calling a telephone number of the communicatee.
18. The non-transitory machine readable media of claim 16 , wherein the real time communication connection is a telephonic connection.
19. A data processing system, comprising:
a server system comprising memory a processor; and memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by one or more servers of the server system, cause the server system to:
process transmissions received by the server system and corresponding to a plurality of requests for a real-time communication connection to a communicatee, each request from the plurality of requests from a respective communicator of a plurality of communicators;
based at least in part on the processing, retrieve information stored about one or more communicators of the plurality of communicators from a data store of the server system, and designate each communicator of the plurality of communicators with respective status information based at least in part on the retrieved information, wherein for at least one communicator of the plurality of communicators the respective status information corresponds to a respective status assigned to the respective communicator based at least in part on one or more previous requests from the respective communicator;
rank each request of the plurality of requests based at least in part on the respective status information, wherein the ranking results in a first order and comprises computing one or more degrees of social separation between at least one of the communicators and the communicatee based on social network information retrieved by the server system;
prepare queue information based at least in part on the ranking and transmitting the queue information to a computing device associated with the a communicatee to facilitate a user interface display that indicates the plurality of requests for real time communication connections to the communicatee according to the first order, wherein the indicating the plurality of requests comprises indicating for at least one request of the plurality of requests:
an identifier for the respective communicator;
a status indicator associated with the respective communicator that defines a rank of the respective communicator among the plurality of communicators based on the first order;
an identification of a social distance between the respective communicator and the communicator based at least in part on the computed one or more degrees of social separation;
a call back window requested by the respective communicator; and
a comment received from the respective communicator;
process an indication of a selection of a user-selectable option facilitated by the user interface display, the selection corresponding to input from the communicatee, and prioritize the plurality of requests into a prioritized list of requests according to a second order based at least in part on the selection, wherein the prioritizing results in a first request of the plurality of requests designated as highest ranked according to the second order; and
establish a real time communication connection to a communication device associated with the communicatee by selection of the first request designated as highest ranked from the prioritized list of requests.
20. The data processing system of claim 19 , wherein the establishing the real time communication connection comprises:
calling back the communicator corresponding to the first request; and
calling a telephone number of the communicatee.