HK1181167A - Sharing notes in online meetings - Google Patents

Description

Sharing annotations in online conferences

Technical Field

The invention relates to sharing annotations in online conferences.

Background

Organizing meetings through software applications is a common experience for computer users. For example, a user may employ a meeting organizer software application to schedule a meeting, complete tasks such as inviting meeting attendees, reserving a meeting room, and the like. In another example, the user may be a meeting presenter and may use an online meeting organizer software application to conduct an online meeting by presenting real-time audio and/or video of the meeting online to meeting participants.

An online meeting presenter may distribute annotations prior to the meeting, for example, by emailing the annotations to meeting participants, or emailing links to the annotations at locations accessible to the meeting participants. Online meeting attendees may similarly provide their own draft (contribution) for annotations. However, this can quickly become inconvenient when distributing annotations via email, for example, as the number of drafted meeting participants increases. When the annotations are stored in a location accessible to online meeting participants, they may be accessed by application software that provides multiple simultaneous writings, allowing the online meeting participants to provide their own contribution to the annotations. However, to date, such schemes separate the annotations from the software used to conduct or schedule the online meeting.

Disclosure of Invention

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to specifically identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Embodiments relate to sharing annotations in online conferences. Annotations may be shared with meeting participants through software applications associated with organizing online meetings (e.g., online meeting software, calendaring software, annotation software, etc.). Annotations may be created and/or shared by the meeting organizer(s) before, during, and/or after the meeting. When annotations are shared for a meeting, meeting attendees may be notified. Annotations may be shared using items of a software application associated with organizing online meetings. For example, annotations may be shared with an online meeting in online meeting software. Annotations may be shared between items of different software applications, for example, annotations shared in online meeting software may be automatically shared with calendar items in a calendar software application.

These and other features and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are explanatory and are not restrictive of aspects as claimed.

Drawings

FIG. 1 includes a conceptual diagram illustrating local and networked environments for sharing online meeting annotations in which embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a conceptual illustration of a screen shot of an exemplary user interface element for sharing meeting annotations in conjunction with an online meeting application, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a conceptual illustration of a further screen shot of an exemplary user interface element for sharing meeting annotations in conjunction with a scheduler, according to other embodiments;

FIG. 4A is a conceptual illustration of a further screenshot of an exemplary user interface element for sharing meeting annotations in conjunction with an annotator, according to a further embodiment;

FIG. 4B is a conceptual illustration of a further screen shot of an example user interface element for notifying users of shared annotations.

FIG. 5 is a networked environment, where an annotation sharing system according to embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example computing operating environment for annotation sharing in which embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 7 illustrates a logic flow diagram for a process of annotation sharing according to embodiments; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a further example of operations that may be included in a process of annotation sharing according to embodiments.

Detailed Description

As outlined above, annotations may be shared in an online meeting. Annotations may be shared with online meeting participants through software applications associated with organizing online meetings (e.g., online meeting software, calendaring software, annotation software, etc.). Annotations may also be created and/or shared by the meeting organizer(s) before, during, and/or after the online meeting. When sharing annotations for an online meeting, meeting attendees may be notified.

In the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustrations specific embodiments or examples. These aspects may be combined, other aspects may be utilized, and structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

While the embodiments will be described in the general context of program modules that execute in conjunction with an application program that runs on an operating system on a personal computer, those skilled in the art will recognize that aspects may also be implemented in combination with other program modules.

Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

Embodiments may be implemented as a computer-implemented process (method), a computing system, or as an article of manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readable media. The computer program product may be a computer storage media readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of instructions for causing the computer or computing system to perform an example process. For example, the computer-readable storage medium may be implemented via one or more of a volatile computer memory, a non-volatile memory, a hard drive, a flash drive, a floppy or compact disk, and similar media.

Throughout this specification, the term "platform" may be a combination of software and hardware components for sharing annotations for online conferences. Examples of platforms include, but are not limited to, hosted services executing on multiple servers, applications executing on a single computing device, and similar systems. The term "server" generally refers to a computing device executing one or more software programs, typically in a networked environment. However, a server may also be implemented as a virtual server (software program) executing on one or more computing devices viewed as a server on a network. More details regarding these techniques and example operations are provided below. Further, the term "online meeting" refers to any meeting having online components, where audio, video, applications, data, and the like may be shared among participants over one or more networks. Indeed, in some instances, the participants may not need to be online during the actual meeting. If the meeting is scheduled online with annotations, then these annotations may be made available to personnel after the meeting through interaction with the meeting software.

Referring to FIG. 1, conceptual diagrams 100 and 110 illustrate local and networked environments in which embodiments may be implemented. The computing devices and computing environments shown in diagram 100 are for illustration purposes. Embodiments may be implemented in various local computing environments, networked computing environments, and similar computing environments that utilize various computing devices and systems.

Diagram 100 represents a local computing environment in computing device 102, where software application 104 may allow users to share annotations in an online meeting. Computing device 102 may be any computing device including, but not limited to, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a server, a handheld computer, an in-vehicle computer, a smart phone, and the like. Application 104 may be any application available in connection with an online meeting, e.g., software, for: carrying out an online conference; scheduling an online meeting; preparing or presenting annotations or other material for the online meeting; and so on. Shared meeting annotation module 106 can be a stand-alone application or an integrated part of application 104. Application 104 and/or shared meeting annotation module 106 can control the user interface and provide appropriate visual elements for the user to view information associated with available options, make selections, and so forth.

Fig. 110 illustrates a networked annotation sharing environment. In this example environment, the annotation sharing functionality is provided by a host/web application 116 executing on server 114 and its shared meeting annotation module 118. Server 114 may use data store 112 to store and retrieve data associated with the online conference. The user may interact with the host/web application 116 through the user's client application 122A (e.g., a browsing application) executing on the computing device 120A. The master/web application 116 and the shared meeting annotation module 118 may operate as discussed above. The networked environment may include communication between computing device 120 and server 114 over one or more networks, which may include enterprise networks, cloud-based networks, combinations of the two, and the like. Additional client applications may be included, such as 120B, 120C, and 120D, which execute on computing devices 122B, 122C, and 122D, respectively. The master/web application and shared meeting notes module 118 may thus share notes between users of the client applications 120A, 120B, 120C, and 120D. The master/web application 116 may also conduct online conferences, where the users of the client applications 120A, 120B, 120C, and 120D may also be conference participants.

The applications, such as 104 and 116, may be any application available in connection with an online meeting, such as software for conducting an online meeting, organizing an online meeting, preparing materials for an online meeting, and/or presenting materials for an online meeting.

In some examples, applications such as 104 and 116 may be used to prepare or display text or other media for an online meeting, such as a word processing application, a remarking application, a slide presentation application, a spreadsheet application, a web browser application, an image or video application, and so forth. The annotation application may be a dedicated annotation application, e.g.(microsoft corporation of redmond, washington), word processing applications, spreadsheet applications, presentation applications, communication applications such as email applications and text messaging applications, and the like.

In some examples, applications such as 104 and 116 may be used to conduct online conferences, such as conferencing applications, which may be web-based or server-based. A master/web application such as 116 may be configured to communicate with client applications such as 120A, 120B, 120C, and 120D. Thus, in some embodiments, server 114 may be configured to facilitate online conferencing and annotation sharing.

In some embodiments, applications such as 104 and 116 may be used to organize or schedule online meetings, such as a calendar application or email application. The calendar or scheduling function may be part of a software product suite that may combine communications such as online conferencing with a calendar function. For example, organizing online meetings may include one or more of the following: creating calendar items for the meeting, setting times for the meeting, scheduling meeting resources, such as meeting room or online meeting server times, inviting meeting attendees, creating and/or sharing meeting presentation materials, creating and/or sharing meeting notes, and so forth. Sharing meeting annotations is not limited to application 104. The application 104 may allow sharing of meeting annotations using data from another application or device, or control another application or device to share meeting annotations.

In some embodiments, a shared meeting annotation module, such as 106 or 118, may provide one or more of the following: a meeting annotation control that enables users to share annotations; detecting activation of a meeting annotation control; providing one or more annotations for selection; detecting a selection of one or more shareable annotations; inserting identifier information associated with the online meeting into the data of the selected shareable annotation; populating a meeting notes page associated with the online meeting with the meeting information and the selected shareable notes; sharing the meeting annotation page with one or more meeting participants during the online meeting to make the selected sharable annotation available to the meeting participants; enabling a user to create new annotations; and/or enable a user to share new annotations with meeting attendees through a meeting annotation page.

In other embodiments, the meeting information may include one or more of the following: a list of intended conference participants, a list of current conference participants, a date and time of the online conference, one or more addresses (physical and/or virtual) of the online conference, a conference title, a list of one or more sharable conference notes, and/or a list of conference content.

In further embodiments, a shared meeting annotation module, such as 106 or 118, may provide for sharing of selected annotations at one or more of the following times: before the online meeting, during the online meeting, and/or after the online meeting. The shared meeting annotation module may further provide meeting annotation control in an online meeting application, an annotation application, a word processing application, a presentation application, a calendar application, a communications application, or a spreadsheet application. The module may also provide a persistent link to the shared meeting annotation through the recording of the online meeting in the online meeting application or calendar application.

In some cases, meeting attendees may be notified when sharable annotations are available with an ongoing online meeting, and the meeting attendees may be enabled to view the shared annotations through a meeting annotation page. The shared annotations may also be viewable through a web browser, a annotating application, a word processing application, a presentation application, a calendar application, a communications application, or a spreadsheet application. The meeting annotation page can be provided through a separate user interface or an integrated user interface associated with the online meeting.

In some embodiments, permission attributes associated with the shared meeting notes may be defined for the meeting attendees, and the meeting attendees are enabled to access the shared meeting notes based on their permission attributes. Further, a shared meeting annotation module, such as 106 or 108, can automatically determine their permission attributes associated with the shared meeting annotation based on the meeting attendee's online meeting role, and enable the meeting attendees to access the shared meeting annotation based on their permission attributes.

The example system of FIG. 1 has been described with reference to particular servers, client devices, applications, modules, and interactions. Embodiments are not limited to systems configured according to these examples. A platform that provides shared meeting annotation functionality may be implemented in configurations that employ fewer or additional components and perform other tasks. Further, particular protocols and/or interfaces may be implemented in a similar manner using the principles described herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example in which a user or meeting participant may join an online meeting using online meeting application software. Within the online meeting application user interface 202, a user may click on a button 204 that displays a meeting notes page 206, the meeting notes page 206 displaying the notes (if any) that are currently shared, and allow the user to click on an "add shared notes" button 208. The user may click on the "add shared comments" button 208 to display a comment selection dialog 210, which may include a list of existing sharable comments 212 that may be shared with the meeting. The annotation selection dialog 210 may also provide the user with an option 214 to create and share new annotations with the meeting. The user may select one or more notes 216 to share with the meeting and click OK. The shared annotations dialog may then display the annotations 216 that are currently shared with the meeting. Data associating the annotation with the meeting can be automatically added to the annotation page 216, and the annotation 216 can be populated with meeting details. The meeting notes page 206 can also include, for example, a button 218 for opening the notes 216 for editing and/or a button 220 for removing the notes from sharing with the meeting.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of sharing annotations from within the online scheduling application 222 for meetings not supported by the online meeting application. When scheduling a meeting in the online scheduling application 222, the meeting organizer can click on the button 204 ' displaying the meeting notes page 206 ', which meeting notes page 206 ' displays the currently shared notes (if any), and allow the organizer to click on the "share notes with meeting" button 226 or "add notes by itself" button 228. The organizer can click on the "share comments with meeting" button 226 to display a comment selection dialog 210, which can include a list of existing sharable comments 212 that can be shared with the meeting. The annotation selection dialog 210 may also provide the user with an option 214 to create and share new annotations with the meeting. The user may select one or more notes 216 to share with the meeting and click OK. The meeting invitation item 230 may then display the comments 216 that are currently shared with the meeting. Data associating the annotation with the meeting can be automatically added to the annotation page 216 and the annotation can be populated with meeting details. The meeting invitation item may be added to calendar 232 as calendar item 234. In addition to the data on the meeting notes page, metadata with information about the notes may be added to the meeting invitation 230 so that the information is saved by the meeting invitation entry 230 and meeting calendar entry 234. In various examples, this information can be used by any data-readable scheduling application. For example, meeting calendar entry 234 may provide data or other meeting information, by displaying the information or by providing a "details" button 236 for a user to click on. The meeting invitation entry 230 and calendar entry 234 may also include respective corresponding "meeting notes" buttons 204' and 204 "that allow a user to access, share, and/or create meeting notes, for example, by activating the dialog 210. Meeting notes may also be disassociated with calendar items.

Fig. 4A illustrates an example of sharing annotations from within the annotation application 238. For example, a user may use online conferencing software 200 in FIG. 2 to join an online conference. Referring now to FIG. 4A, a user may click on the "share conference notes" command 204' "from the annotation application 238 to share the current note 240. The user may be presented with a "share with meeting" dialog 242, which may display a list of meetings 224 the user is currently joining and/or an option 246 to join or start a new meeting. The user may select, for example, an online meeting 242 and click OK, thereby sharing the current annotation 240 with the meeting 242. Data associating the annotation with the meeting can be added to the annotation page, the annotation can be populated with meeting details, and the annotation can be shared with the online meeting.

In various examples, meeting attendees may be notified when shared meeting notes are available for the meeting. Fig. 4B illustrates various methods of notification, e.g., when annotations are made available for sharing with a meeting using, for example, one of the methods described in fig. 2, fig. 3, or fig. 4A, other meeting attendees may be notified: the meeting has shared annotations available. This notification of shared annotations may take any suitable form depending on the type of conferencing software involved.

For example, FIG. 4B illustrates that when an annotation can be shared with an online meeting hosted using online conferencing software 200, a notification user interface 248 can appear within application 200 indicating, for example, "existing annotation is shared with the meeting". The participant may disregard this notification or may open the note directly using the button 250 from the location.

In another example, FIG. 4B illustrates that when an annotation is shareable with a meeting via the online conferencing software 200, the indicator 252 within the user interface can change to show that the annotation has been shared with the meeting. In various examples, indicator 252 may be persistent. In some examples, indicator 252 may indicate how many shared annotations are available.

FIG. 4B also illustrates that when a comment has been shared with a scheduled meeting via calendar software application 232, an indicator 254 may be displayed to inform the user that the shared comment has been associated with the meeting. In some examples, indicator 254 may indicate how many shared annotations are available. In other embodiments, the online meeting may be an ad hoc meeting without prior scheduling, but annotations may be added during the meeting and subsequently tracked in the calendar view of the meeting application.

In other examples, a user or meeting participant may easily access and open a shared annotation associated with the meeting. The methods described herein provide conference participants with the ability to access shared conference annotations in the context of a corresponding conference without having to leave the conference environment.

In other examples, users of an online meeting may have one or more roles, such as a presenter, organizer, contributor, participant, and so forth. Referring to FIG. 1, according to some embodiments, a user of a client application 120A may organize and present a meeting, and may deliver material such as presentation slides and annotations to an online meeting. In this example, the users of the client applications 120B, 120C, and 120D may be meeting attendees. In some examples, these multiple roles may be extended based on permissions managed by the annotation sharing module, which may be controlled by the meeting organizer or meeting presenter. For example, the user may be given permission to view shared meeting annotations, create or modify shared meeting annotations, share meeting annotations, and so forth. However, during a meeting, multiple annotations may be created or edited, each shared with a potentially different and potentially overlapping set of participants. The sharing for each annotations collection may be user-by-user or role-by-role, and per annotations collection.

The shared meeting notes may also be accessed before, during, or after the meeting. For example, referring to FIG. 4B, when an annotation can be shared with an online meeting hosted using online conferencing software 200, a notification user interface 248 can appear within application 200 indicating, for example, "existing annotation is shared with the meeting". The meeting attendees can open comments directly from this notification via button 250. In another example, referring to FIG. 2, the online conferencing software 200 may be assigned a persistent link 216 in the "meeting notes" page 206 to find and open any notes that have been shared with the meeting. In yet another example, referring to FIG. 3, when a meeting that has been scheduled for a day via calendaring software 222 shares annotations, link 216 to the meeting annotation may be automatically placed in invitation 230. In various examples, access to shared meeting annotations at any time may be linked to the various user roles described and may be controlled by the permissions described. For example, to facilitate management of annotations shared during a busy meeting with many meeting participants, while each meeting participant may be given permission to create meeting annotations for sharing during the meeting, the permission to share annotations during the meeting may be controlled or moderated by a user, such as a meeting organizer.

In some embodiments, the owner of the meeting may issue an invitation to add a shared annotation. In other embodiments, any invitee may be enabled to add annotations. In the latter case, the owner may be enabled to approve the addition of those annotations. Some meetings may be open and anyone may be allowed to add any comments they want. The invitee added comments may be notified through a communication or scheduling application similar to the owner added comments. For example, the service may maintain a lookup table that any invitees may write to. When a participant wants to add a note, the meeting identifier can be looked up and a new entry added for the meeting's note. Further embodiments may provide a user experience for the conference owner to see what the participants are attempting to add and approve or reject them. In some examples, the comments added by the invitee may be automatically approved, and the meeting invitation may be updated to reflect the addition(s).

The examples of fig. 2, 3, 4A, and 4B have been described with specific user interface elements, configurations, and presentations. Embodiments are not limited to systems or methods configured according to these examples. Sharing of meeting annotations may be accomplished in a similar manner using other types of user interface elements, presentations, and configurations, in a manner similar to the principles described herein.

For example, when the online scheduling application 222 is employed in conjunction with the online conferencing application 200, the elements of fig. 2 and 3 may be combined. In such an example, when scheduling a meeting as described for FIG. 3, the meeting organizer can share annotations from the online scheduling application 222. As also described for FIG. 3, meeting organizers and/or meeting attendees may share comments through a "meeting invitation entry" 230 created by the scheduling application 222, for example, before, during, or after the meeting. As further described for FIG. 3, meeting organizers and/or meeting attendees can share annotations before, during, or after a meeting, for example, by calendar application 232 using "meeting annotation" button 204 "in meeting calendar entry 232. As also described for FIG. 2, meeting organizers and/or meeting attendees can share annotations during an online meeting by online meeting application 200 using" meeting annotation "button 204.

FIG. 5 is an example networked environment, where embodiments may be implemented. The system for sharing online meeting annotations may be implemented via software executing on one or more servers 514, such as a hosted service. The system may employ a peer-to-peer, web-based, or other configuration. The platform may communicate with client applications on individual computing devices, such as a smart phone 513, a laptop 512, or a desktop 511 ('client devices') through a network 510.

Client applications executing on either client device 511 and 513 may facilitate communication through applications executed by the respective servers 514 or executed on the individual servers 516. An application module executed on one of the servers may facilitate sharing of online meeting annotations. The application module may provide information associated with the currently shared annotations, annotations that may be shared but are not currently shared, options to create and/or share new annotations, and other examples as described herein. The annotation sharing module may retrieve relevant data from the data store(s) 519 directly or through the database server 518 and provide the requested service (e.g., document editing) to the user(s) through the client device 511 and 513.

Network 510 may include any topology of servers, clients, internet service providers, and communication media. Systems according to embodiments may have a static or dynamic topology. Network 510 may include a secure network, such as an enterprise network, an unsecure network, such as a wireless open network, or the internet. Network 510 may also coordinate communications through other networks, such as a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or a cellular network. Further, the network 510 may include a short-range wireless network such as a bluetooth or similar network. Network 510 provides communication between the nodes described herein. By way of example, and not limitation, network(s) 510 may include wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

Many other configurations of computing devices, applications, data sources, and data distribution systems may be employed to implement a platform that provides shared online meeting annotations. Moreover, the networked environments discussed in FIG. 5 are for illustration purposes only. Embodiments are not limited to the example applications, modules, or processes.

FIG. 6 and the associated discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which embodiments may be implemented. Referring to FIG. 6, a block diagram of an example computing operating environment for an application (such as computing device 600) is shown, in accordance with embodiments. In a basic configuration, computing device 600 may be any computing device executing an application capable of sharing online meeting annotations according to embodiments and include at least one processing unit 602 and system memory 604. Computing device 600 may also include multiple processing units that cooperate in executing programs. Depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device, system memory 604 may be volatile (such as RAM), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or some combination of the two. System memory 604 typically includes an operating system 605 suitable for controlling platform operations, such as from Microsoft corporation of Redmond, WashingtonAnd (4) operating the system. System memory 604 may also include one or more software applicationsPrograms such as program module 606, application 622, and shared meeting notes module 624.

Through a user interface controlled by shared meeting notes module 624, application 622 may display information associated with shared meeting notes, enable users to share meeting notes, or create meeting notes for sharing, and so on. The application 622 and shared meeting annotation module 624 may be separate applications or integrated modules hosting a service. This basic configuration is illustrated in fig. 6 by those components within dashed line 608.

Application 622 may be any application available in connection with an online meeting, such as applications 104 and/or 116 in FIG. 1, for example, software for conducting an online meeting, organizing an online meeting, preparing materials for an online meeting, and/or presenting materials for an online meeting. In some examples, application 622 may be used to prepare or display text or other media for an online meeting, such as a word processing application, a remarking application, a slide presentation application, a spreadsheet application, a web browser application, an image or video application, and so forth. In some examples, the application 622 may be used to conduct an online meeting, such as a conferencing application, which may be web-based or server-based. In some embodiments, application 622 may be used to organize or schedule online meetings, such as a calendar application or an email application. Sharing meeting annotations is not limited to application 622. Application 622 may allow sharing of meeting annotations using data from another application or device, or control another application or device to share meeting annotations.

Computing device 600 may have additional features or functionality. For example, computing device 600 may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG. 6 by removable storage 609 and non-removable storage 610. Computer-readable storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. System memory 604, removable storage 609 and non-removable storage 610 are all examples of computer readable storage media. Computer-readable storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computing device 600. Any such computer-readable storage media may be part of computing device 600. Computing device 600 may also have input device(s) 612 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, and the like. Output device(s) 614 such as a display, speakers, printer, and other types of output devices may also be included. These devices are well known in the art and need not be discussed at length here.

Computing device 600 may also contain communication connections 616 that allow the device to communicate with other devices 618, such as over a wired or wireless network in a distributed computing environment, a satellite link, a cellular link, a short-range network, and similar mechanisms. Other devices 618 may include computer devices, web servers, and similar devices that execute communication applications. One or more communication connections 616 are one example of communication media. Communication media may include computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data therein. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

Example embodiments also include various methods. These methods may be implemented in any number of ways, including the structures described herein. One such way is by machine operation of an apparatus of the type described herein.

Another optional way is to perform one or more operations of the method in conjunction with one or more human operators performing some of the individual operations of the method. These human operators need not be co-located with each other, but rather each may be co-located with only a machine that executes a portion of the program.

FIG. 7 illustrates a logic flow diagram for a process 700 for sharing online meeting annotations. Process 700 may be implemented on a server or other computing device.

Process 700 may begin at operation 710, which includes detecting activation of a meeting annotation control. In various examples, such meeting annotation controls may be provided in an online meeting application, a remarking application, a word processing application, a presentation application, a calendar application, a communications application, or a spreadsheet application. See, for example, application 104, 116, or 622 described for fig. 1 and 6. In some examples, the online meeting application may also provide a link to the shared meeting annotation through an invitation for an online meeting.

At operation 720, one or more annotations may be provided to the user for selection. The annotations for selection may include, for example, existing shared annotations, existing currently unshared annotations, an option to modify existing annotations, an option to create new annotations, an option to remove existing annotations, search annotations for sharing, and so forth. Operation 730 may include detecting a selection of one or more sharable annotations, e.g., by a user. Operation 740 may include inserting identifier information associated with the online meeting into data associated with the selected shareable annotation. Such identifier information may include a unique identifier number, code, name, and the like.

At operation 750, a meeting comments page associated with the online meeting can be populated with meeting information and the selected sharable comments. Such meeting information may include, for example, a list of expected meeting participants, a list of current meeting participants, a date and time of the online meeting, one or more addresses and/or servers of the online meeting, a meeting title, a list of one or more sharable meeting notes, and/or a list of meeting content. Such meeting information may also include meeting identifier information, information about individual users and their roles and permissions; and so on. At operation 760, the meeting annotation page can be shared with one or more meeting participants during the meeting to make the selected sharable annotation available to the meeting participants. The selected annotations may be shared before, during, or after the online meeting.

FIG. 8 illustrates a further example of operations that may be included in a process of annotation sharing according to embodiments. In some examples, process 800 may include operation 810, where a user is enabled to create a new annotation. At operation 820, the user may be enabled to share the new annotation with the meeting attendee via the meeting annotation page. At operation 830, the system may present a summary view of the shared annotations to the meeting attendees via the meeting annotation page. In some examples, a persistent link to the shared meeting annotation may be provided at operation 840 through the recording of the online meeting. At operation 850, a notification may be provided to the meeting attendee when sharable annotations are available with the ongoing online meeting.

The operations included within processes 700 and 800 are for illustration purposes only. Sharing of online meeting annotations may be accomplished by similar processes with fewer or additional steps, as well as in different order of operations using the principles described herein.

The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the embodiments. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims and embodiments.

Claims (15)

1. A method executed at least in part in a computing device for facilitating annotation sharing in an online meeting, the method comprising:

upon detecting activation of a meeting annotation control (710), providing one or more annotations for selection (720);

detecting a selection of one or more shareable annotations (730);

inserting identifier information associated with the online meeting into data associated with the selected shareable annotation (740);

populating a meeting notes page (750) associated with the online meeting with meeting information and the selected sharable notes; and

the meeting comments page is shared with one or more meeting participants during a meeting to make the selected sharable comments available to the meeting participants (760).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing creation of new annotations (810); and

allowing the new annotation to be shared with the meeting attendee via the meeting annotation page (830).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing the meeting annotation control (204) in one of the following applications: an online meeting application, a remarking application, a word processing application, a presentation application, a calendar application, a communications application, and a spreadsheet application.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising one or more of:

providing a persistent link to the shared meeting annotation through a recording of the online meeting in one of the online meeting application and the calendar application (240);

providing a notification (248) to the meeting attendee when shareable annotations are available for the currently ongoing online meeting; and

enabling the meeting attendees to view the shared annotations through the meeting annotation page (830).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling an invitee of the online meeting to add an annotation to be shared (208); and

enabling an owner of the online meeting to approve at least a portion of the added annotations to be shared.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

enabling the invitee-added annotation to be automatically approved; and

the meeting invitation is updated (230) to reflect the comments added by the invitee.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling the meeting attendees to view the shared annotations (240) through one of the following applications: a web browser, a remarking application, a word processing application, a presentation application, a calendar application, a communications application, and a spreadsheet application, wherein the meeting annotation page is presented through a separate user interface or an integrated user interface associated with the online meeting.

8. A server (114) for facilitating an online conference with annotation sharing, the server comprising:

a memory (604);

a processor (602) coupled to the memory, the processor executing an online conferencing application (622), wherein the online conferencing application is configured to:

providing a meeting annotation control that allows sharing of annotations;

upon detecting activation of the meeting annotation control (710), allowing one of: selecting among the available annotations for sharing, and creating new annotations for sharing (720);

inserting identifier information associated with the online meeting into data associated with the annotation for sharing (740);

populating a meeting notes page (750) associated with the online meeting with the notes for sharing and meeting information, the meeting information including at least one from the set of: a list of intended conference participants, a list of current conference participants, a date and time of the online conference, one or more addresses of the online conference, a conference title, a list of selected or created annotations, and a list of conference content; and

the meeting comments page is shared with one or more meeting participants during the meeting to make the comments for sharing available to the meeting participants (760).

9. The server of claim 8, wherein the online application 622 is further configured to allow selection among available annotations for sharing and creation of new annotations for sharing by one of: a user interface associated with the online meeting application, a scheduling application, a remarking application, a word processing application, a presentation application, a communication application, and a spreadsheet application.

10. The server of claim 8, wherein the online conferencing application is further configured to:

providing a link to the shared meeting annotation by an invitation (230) for the online meeting;

updating or removing the link in response to one of selecting and creating additional annotations during the online meeting; and

maintaining the link through a recording of the online meeting in one of an online meeting application and a scheduling application such that the shared meeting annotation (240) is available to the meeting attendee after the online meeting.

11. The server of claim 8, wherein the online conferencing application is further configured to:

allowing definition of permission attributes associated with the shared meeting annotation for the meeting attendees; and

the meeting attendees are enabled to access the shared meeting annotation (240) based on their permission attributes.

12. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon for sharing annotations in an online conference, the instructions comprising:

allowing creation of one or more annotations for sharing in the online meeting (810);

allowing selection among available annotations for sharing in the online meeting through a meeting annotation control in a user interface associated with one of the following applications: scheduling applications, annotating applications, word processing applications, presentation applications, communication applications, and spreadsheet applications;

detecting activation of the meeting annotation control and selection of one or more annotations for sharing in the online meeting (710);

inserting identifier information associated with the online meeting into data associated with the annotation to be shared (740);

populating a meeting notes page (750) associated with the online meeting with the notes to be shared and meeting information, the meeting information including at least one from the set of: a list of intended conference participants, a list of current conference participants, a date and time of the online conference, one or more addresses of the online conference, a conference title, a list of comments to be shared, and a list of conference content; and

the meeting comments page is shared with one or more meeting participants during the meeting to make comments to be shared available to the meeting participants (760).

13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the instructions further comprise:

presenting a summary view of the shared annotations (240) to the meeting attendees through the meeting annotation page; and

enabling the meeting attendees to refer to the shared annotations (240) through a user interface associated with one of the following applications: scheduling applications, annotating applications, word processing applications, presentation applications, communication applications, and spreadsheet applications.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the instructions further comprise:

automatically determining permission attributes for the meeting attendees associated with the shared annotations (240) based on roles of online meetings of the meeting attendees; and

enabling the meeting attendees to edit the shared annotations based on their permission attributes.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the instructions further comprise:

detecting at least one presenter and at least one viewer associated with the online meeting;

enabling the at least one presenter to edit the shared annotation (240); and

enabling the at least one viewer to view the shared annotations (240).