Dynamic collaborative techniques
View Patent ↗Techniques for dynamic collaboration are provided. A main collaboration session having multiple interacting parties proceeds in a sequential and linear fashion. An element of the main collaboration session, where the element is not a last or most recent element of the main collaboration session, is acted upon and a sub communication session is initiated. The main collaboration session and the sub communication session proceed independent of one another but remained linked and can be later re-integrated with one another.
1. A processor-implemented method implemented as instructions residing in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and to execute on a processor, the method, comprising:
maintaining, by the processor, a communication session occurring in a time-based and sequential order;
identifying, by the processor, a selection of an element within the communication session, the selected element occurring before a most recent element for the communication session provided in the sequential order and the selection made in a non-linear fashion within the communication session; and
generating, by the processor, a sub communication session that begins with the selected element and is maintained independent of the communication session, the sub communication session linked back to the communication session, the selected element identified by a unique address for the selected element that includes a top-level identifier for the communication session, a serial number for the selected element, and a version number for the selected element, the unique address represented as a uniform resource locator or uniform resource identifier link and the unique address accessible outside the communication session and the sub communication session, and
the selected element representing a new communication session maintained while the communication session is ongoing, the selected element becoming its own main session from which another set of sub-sessions are established from, and
the sub communication session eventually requests that the communication session be updated based on direction of a particular sub session participant, and the sub communication session is itself a set of hierarchical communication sessions.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein maintaining further includes managing the communication session as one of the following: an online chat session, an interactive online meeting session with multiple parties, and an interactive editing session for editing a document with the multiple parties performing edits to the document.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein maintaining further includes providing a visual depiction of the communication session and management operations for the communication session via a Graphical User Interface (GUI).
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying further includes detecting the selected element when a party in the communication session performs an operation on the element.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting further includes recognizing the selected element as one of the following: a chat message, an online whiteboard, and a document.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein recognizing further includes identifying the operation as: a reply to the chat message when the element is the chat message; a lock request when the element is the online whiteboard; and a comment, a modification, or a tag insertion when the element is a portion of the document.
7. A machine-implemented system, comprising:
one or more processors,
a resource residing in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and
accessed by one or more processors on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium; and
a collaboration session manager implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and executed by the one or more processors;
wherein the resource is to be selected during a collaboration session by a participant, and the resource accessible via a unique address that is accessible outside of a and independent of the collaboration session, and
wherein the resource is one of: a chat message, a portion of a document, a portion of an online whiteboard, and a grouping of chat messages, and
wherein the collaboration session manager, in response to an action taken by the participant on the selected resource during a main communication session, starts a sub session independent of but still linked to the main communication session, the sub session is a nonlinear portion of the main session and the sub session represents a new communication session maintained while the main session is ongoing, the sub session becoming its own main session from which another set of sub-sessions are established from, and
wherein the main communication session and the sub session are collaboration sessions having the participant and multiple other participants interacting via the one or more processors over a network and the sub session is processed concurrently and in parallel with the main communication session and uses a different hierarchy from that which is associated with the main communication session, and
the main communication session subsequently updated based on a request made by the sub session from evaluation of a particular policy and the sub session is itself a set of hierarchical communication sessions.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the resource is the chat message and the chat message occurs in a middle of a chat dialogue associated with the main communication session.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the resource is a component of a hierarchy associated with the main communication session and also concurrently is a part of another hierarchy associated with the sub session.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the session manager re-integrates and updates a modified version of the resource back into the main communication session from the sub session in response to an event or a policy.