Managing information and content sharing in a virtual collaboration session

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9398059-B2
Application number	US-201314088080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 22, 2013
Priority date	Nov 22, 2013
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing information and content sharing in a virtual collaboration session. In some embodiments, a method may include creating a virtual collaboration workspace for a plurality of participants, where each of the participants operates a device configured to access the workspace, the workspace including a public portion and a plurality of private portions, the public portion accessible to each of the participants and each of the plurality of private portions accessible to a corresponding participant to the exclusion of at least another participant. The method may also include providing, to a given one of the participants, a representation of the public portion and a representation of the given participant's corresponding private portion, where the representation of the public portion and the representation of the given participant's corresponding private portion are renderable concurrently in a single window of a graphical user interface displayable by the given participant's device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An Information Handling System (IHS), comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the processor, cause the IHS to:
create a virtual collaboration workspace for a plurality of participants, wherein each of the plurality of participants operates a respective device configured to access the virtual collaboration workspace, the virtual collaboration workspace including a public portion and a plurality of private portions, the public portion accessible to each of the plurality of participants and each of the plurality of private portions accessible to a corresponding one of the plurality of participants to the exclusion of at least another one of the plurality of participants;
provide, to a given one of the plurality of participants, a representation of the public portion and a representation of the given participant's corresponding private portion, wherein the representation of the public portion and the representation of the given participant's corresponding private portion are renderable concurrently in a single window of a graphical user interface displayable by the given participant's respective device;
provide a list of participants having access to the virtual collaboration workspace to each of the plurality of participants, wherein the list of participants is renderable concurrently with the representation of the public portion and with the representation of the given participant's corresponding private portion in the single window of the graphical user interface displayable by the given participant's respective device;
receive an indication that the given participant has dragged and dropped a selected participant of the list of participants from the public portion to the given participant's corresponding private portion; and
create or modify an entry on an access control list corresponding to a piece of content associated with the given participant's corresponding private portion, the entry indicating that the piece of content is accessible to the selected participant.

2. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the IHS includes a projector, and wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to host a virtual collaboration session among the plurality of participants using the virtual collaboration workspace.

3. The IHS of claim 2 , wherein the projector is configured to create a rendering of the public portion, the rendering viewable in person by at least a subset of the plurality of participants independently of whether the public portion is being displayed by the subset of participants' respective devices.

4. The IHS of claim 2 , wherein the virtual collaboration workspace includes a virtual whiteboard, and wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to store one or more aspects of the virtual collaboration workspace for reproduction after termination of the virtual collaboration session.

5. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to maintain an access control list for a piece of content stored in a folder associated with the virtual collaboration workspace.

6. The IHS of claim 5 , wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:
receive an indication that the given participant has added a piece of content to the public portion of the virtual collaboration workspace; and
create or modify an entry on the access control list corresponding to the piece of content, the entry indicating that the piece of content is accessible to any of the plurality of participants.

7. The IHS of claim 6 , wherein the piece of content is created by the given participant in a whiteboard section of the given participant's corresponding private portion using the given participant's respective device, and wherein prior to adding the piece of content, an entry on the access control list corresponding to the piece of content indicates that the piece of content is accessible to a private group associated with the given participant, the private group excluding one or more of the plurality of participants.

8. The IHS of claim 7 , wherein the given participant adds the piece of content by visually dragging a graphical representation of the piece of content from the given participant's corresponding private portion onto the public portion.

9. The IHS of claim 5 , wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:
receive an indication that the given participant has added a piece of content to the given participant's corresponding private portion of the virtual collaboration workspace; and
create an entry on the access control list corresponding to the piece of content, the entry indicating that the piece of content is accessible to a private group associated with the given participant, the private group excluding one or more of the plurality of participants.

10. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the processor, further cause the IHS to:
receive an indication that the given participant has dragged and dropped a selected participant of the list of participants from the given participant's corresponding private portion to the public portion; and
create or modify an entry on the access control list corresponding to a piece of content associated with the given participant's corresponding private portion, the entry indicating that the piece of content is not accessible to the selected participant.

11. A method, comprising:
establishing, via an Information Handling System (IHS) operated by a given one of a plurality of participants of a virtual collaboration session, communications with a virtual collaboration host device, the virtual collaboration host device configured to host a virtual collaboration workspace having a public portion and a plurality of private portions, wherein the public portion is accessible to the plurality of participants and each of the plurality of private portions is accessible to a corresponding one of the plurality of participants to the exclusion of at least another one of the plurality of participants;
rendering, in a single window of a graphical user interface displayable by the IHS, a representation of the public portion and a representation of the given participant's corresponding private portion;
receiving, at the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a list of participants having access to the virtual collaboration workspace;
rendering the list of participants, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, concurrently with the representation of the public portion and the representation of the given participant's corresponding private portion in the single window of the graphical user interface;
identifying, via the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, a dragging gesture configured to move content to a first selected participant from the list of participants;
transmitting, by the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, an instruction that the first selected participant be given moderator control over the content during the virtual collaboration session; and
at least one of:
identifying, via the IHS operated by the given one of the plurality of participants, another dragging gesture configured to move a second selected participant from the list of participants to content displayed in the single window of the graphical user interface and transmitting, by the IHS operated by the given one of the

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Shepherd Jason A
• Gatson Michael S
• Swierk Todd
• Barker Clifton J
• Lo Yuan-Chang

Classifications

• H04L65/403 Primary

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04L51/56

  Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM] · CPC title

• H04L12/1822

  Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission · CPC title