SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAMS FOR MONITORING A CONFERENCE AND COMMUNICATING WITH PARTICIPANTS WITHOUT JOINING AS A PARTICIPANT
Various embodiments of systems, methods, and computer programs are disclosed for monitoring a conference and communicating with participants without joining the conference. One embodiment is a method for monitoring an audio conference without joining as a participant. One such method comprises: a client device, which is associated with an individual who has not joined an audio conference, sending a request via a communication network to a conferencing system to be notified of a predetermined event associated with the audio conference; the conferencing system determining the occurrence of the predetermined event; the conferencing system sending a notification to the client device indicating the occurrence of the predetermined event; the client device presenting the notification to the individual; without joining the audio conference, the client device sending an out-of-conference message from the individual to the conferencing system; and the conferencing system presenting the out-of-conference message to one or more participants in the audio conference.
1 . A method for monitoring an audio conference without joining as a participant, the method comprising:
a client device, which is associated with an individual who has not joined an audio conference, sending a request via a communication network to a conferencing system to be notified of a predetermined event associated with the audio conference;
the conferencing system determining the occurrence of the predetermined event;
the conferencing system sending a notification to the client device indicating the occurrence of the predetermined event;
the client device presenting the notification to the individual;
without joining the audio conference, the client device sending an out-of-conference message from the individual to the conferencing system; and
the conferencing system presenting the out-of-conference message to one or more participants in the audio conference.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined event comprises one or more of the participants joining the audio conference.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the conferencing system determining the occurrence of the predetermined event occurs comprises: the conferencing system determining a current number of participants in the audio conference.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the client device sending the request to the conferencing system comprises: the client device polling the conferencing system.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the client device presenting the notification comprises: the client device prompting a host to join the audio conference.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the individual comprises a host associated with the audio conference.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification is presented with a prompt for one or more of the following actions: join the audio conference; and compose the out-of-conference message.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
the conferencing system receiving a reply to the out-of-conference message from one or more of the participants; and
the conferencing system sending the reply to the individual without joining the audio conference.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the client device sending the request to the conferencing system comprises:
initiating a conference notification application on the client device; and
accessing an application program interface associated with the conferencing system.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the conference notification application comprises a desktop notification application associated with an operating system.
11 . A computer system for monitoring an online conference without joining as a participant, the computer system comprising:
a conference platform for providing an online conference to a plurality of participants via a communication network; and
a client device operated by a nonparticipant of the online conference, the client device comprising:
a processor and a memory; and
a conferencing notification application embodied in the memory and executed by the processor, the conferencing notification application comprising:
logic configured to send a request to the conference platform to be notified of a predetermined event associated with the online conference without joining the online conference;
logic configured to receive a notification from the conference platform when the predetermined event occurs; and
logic configured to enable the nonparticipant to send a message to one or more of the participants without joining the online conference.
12 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the predetermined event comprises one or more of the following: one or more of the participants joining an audio conference; a predetermined participant joining the audio conference; a predetermined number of participants joining the audio conference; and an incoming out-of-conference message from one of the participants.
13 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the logic configured to send the request to the conference platform comprises: logic configured to poll the conference platform.
14 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the conference notification application further comprises: logic configured to display the notification to the nonparticipant and prompt the nonparticipant to join an audio conference.
15 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the conference notification application comprises a desktop notification application.
16 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the conference notification application further comprises: logic configured to receive a reply to the message from the conference platform without joining the online conference.
17 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the conference notification application communicates with the conference platform via an application program interface.
18 . A desktop notification computer program embodied in a computer readable medium and executed by a processor for monitoring a conference and providing notifications to a graphical user interface associated with a desktop, the desktop notification computer program comprising:
logic configured to send a request to a conference platform to be notified of an occurrence of an event associated with a conference without a user joining as a participant;
logic configured to receive a notification from the conference platform when the predetermined event occurs; and
logic configured to send an out-of-conference message to one or more participants in the audio conference without joining the conference.
19 . The desktop notification computer program of claim 18 , wherein the logic configured to send the out-of-conference message comprises:
logic configured to receive an identity of at least one of the participants from the conferencing system; and
logic configured to send the out-of-conference message to the at least one of the participants via one of a social networking channel, an instant message, and an email message.
20 . The desktop notification computer program of claim 19 , wherein the out-of-conference message is delivered via the conferencing system and presented via a conference user interface to the participants.
21 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the conference platform is configured to send the notification to the nonparticipant via one of a text message or an email message when the conferencing notification application is not active on the client device.
22 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the conferencing system sending the notification to the client device comprises sending one of a text message or an email message.
23 . A method for monitoring an audio conference without joining as a participant, the method comprising:
a conferencing system establishing an audio conference between a plurality of participants accessing the conferencing system via a computing device;
the conferencing system determining that a conference notification application associated with an individual who has not joined the audio conference is not currently active on a computing device;
the conferencing system determining an occurrence of a predetermined event associated with the audio conference; and
if the conference notification application is not currently active and the individual has not joined the audio conference, the conferencing system sending one of a text message or an email message to the individual indicating the occurrence of the predetermined event.
24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the predetermined event comprises one or more of the following: one or more of the participants joining the audio conference; a predetermined participant joining the audio conference; a predetermined number of participants joining the audio conference; and an incoming out-of-conference message from one of the participants.