Time Request Queue

Abstract

A group scheduling solution offers an organized and formalized solution to the time management problem in which the desired meeting includes a person who is difficult to schedule. A scheduling system is provided in which a hard-to-schedule attendee takes over responsibility for setting the start time of an event. A workflow is provided, in which the organizer sends a request to the hard-to-schedule person. The request contains the desired duration of the meeting, and possibly a list of attendees, location, and other details. These requests are maintained in a queue for the hard-to-schedule person. The hard-to-schedule person, or their proxy, reviews these requests and selects a suitable time for the meeting, thereby causing an update to be sent back to the organizer and the other attendees, thus indicating the appointed time for the meeting.

1 . A method for scheduling a meeting for a set of attendees, wherein the set of attendees includes a special attendee and at least one additional attendee, the method comprising:
 generating a meeting request to be processed by a special attendee, wherein the meeting request designates the special attendee as a recipient of the meeting request and wherein the meeting request does not specify meeting commencement information, the meeting commencement information comprising at least one of a start time and a date, and further wherein the meeting request is acceptable by the special attendee to place a calendar event on a calendaring application;   obtaining a selection by the special attendee of the meeting commencement information responsive to the meeting request; and   generating an updated meeting request specifying the selected meeting commencement information, wherein the updated meeting request is generated for transmission to the at least one additional attendee and is acceptable by each at least one additional attendee to place a corresponding calendar event on a calendar application,   wherein each of the steps is implemented by group scheduling software executed on a computer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meeting request includes a duration of the meeting. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meeting request includes an identification of the set of attendees designated to attend the meeting. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  further comprising obtaining from the special attendee a modification to the identification of the set of attendees responsive to the meeting request, wherein generating the updated meeting request comprises generating the updated meeting request for distribution to the at least one additional attendee identified in the modified set of attendees and not the special attendee. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising causing the meeting request to be displayed to the special attendee in a meeting request queue on a calendar application on a computer screen display. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the meeting request is to be displayed in the meeting request queue until the meeting commencement information is selected by the special attendee. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising causing at least one calendar view to be displayed to the special attendee adjacent to the meeting request queue on a calendar application on a computer display screen, the at least one calendar view providing a reference to a set of scheduled meetings including at least one of the start time and date of each scheduled meeting. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the selection of the meeting commencement information comprises moving a graphical display object associated with the meeting request from the meeting request queue to another location on the computer display screen associated with the at least one calendar view to assign the meeting request to at least one of a date and a time. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the meeting request includes a meeting agenda. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising obtaining from the special attendee a modification to the meeting agenda responsive to the meeting request, wherein generating the updated meeting request comprises generating the updated meeting request including the modified meeting agenda 
     
     
         11 . In a messaging environment corresponding to a set of attendees, wherein the set of attendees includes a special meeting attendee and at least one additional meeting attendee, the at least one additional meeting attendee including a meeting organizer, a system comprising:
 a computer executing group scheduling software, wherein upon execution of the group scheduling software, the computer is operable to:   cause distribution of a meeting request to be processed by a special attendee, wherein the meeting request designates the special attendee as a recipient of the meeting request and wherein the meeting request does not specify meeting commencement information, the meeting commencement information comprising at least one of a start time and a date, and further wherein the meeting request is acceptable by the special attendee to place a calendar event on a calendaring application;   obtain a selection by the special attendee of the meeting commencement information responsive to the meeting request; and   cause distribution of an updated meeting request to the at least one additional attendee, wherein the updated meeting request specifies the selected meeting commencement information and is acceptable by each at least one additional attendee to place a corresponding calendar event on a calendar application.   
     
     
         12 . system of  claim 11 , wherein the meeting request includes a duration of the meeting. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the meeting request includes an identification of the set of attendees designated to attend the meeting. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the computer is further operable to obtain from the special attendee a modification to the identification of the set of attendees responsive to the meeting request, wherein causing the distribution of the updated meeting request comprises causing the distribution of the updated meeting request to at least one additional attendee identified in the modified set of attendees and not the special attendee. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein causing the distribution of the meeting request comprises causing the meeting request to be displayed to the special attendee in a meeting request queue on a calendar application on a computer screen display. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the meeting request is to be displayed in the meeting request queue until the meeting commencement information is selected by the special attendee. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein causing the distribution of the meeting request further comprises causing at least one calendar display to be provided to the special attendee adjacent to the meeting request queue on a calendar application on a computer display screen, the at least one calendar view providing a reference to at least one of an available start time and an available date associated with the special attendee and the meeting request queue providing a reference to only a set of non-scheduled meeting requests. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the selection of the meeting commencement information comprises movement of a graphical display object associated with the meeting request from the meeting request queue to another location on the single computer display screen associated with the at least one calendar view to assign the meeting request to at least one of a date and a time. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the meeting request includes a meeting agenda. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the computer is further operable to obtain from the special attendee a modification to the meeting agenda responsive to the meeting request, wherein causing the distribution of the updated meeting request comprises causing the distribution of the updated meeting request including the modified meeting agenda. 
     
     
         21 . method of  claim 1 , wherein generating an updated meeting request comprises automatically generating an updated meeting request in response to obtaining selection of the meeting commencement information by the special attendee. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the computer is operable to cause distribution of the updated meeting request automatically in response to obtaining selection of the meeting commencement information by the special attendee. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the software allows only the special attendee or a proxy of the special attendee to make a modification to the commencement information originally selected by the special attendee, and wherein a meeting organizer responsible for generating the meeting request cannot make the modification. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising causing distribution of the updated meeting request to only the at least one additional attendee and not the special attendee. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the at least one additional attendee comprises a meeting organizer from which the meeting request originated. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the at least one additional attendee comprises a meeting organizer from which the meeting request originated and at least one further additional attendee. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising causing the display of the updated meeting request in at least one schedule view on a calendar application on a computer display screen for each of the at least one additional attendee automatically upon selection of the meeting commencement information by the special attendee. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein causing distribution of the updated meeting request comprises:
 causing display of the updated meeting request in at least one schedule view on a calendar application on a computer display screen for each of the at least one further additional attendees automatically upon selection of the meeting commencement information by the special attendee.   
     
     
         29 . A method for scheduling a meeting for a set of attendees, wherein the set of attendees includes a special attendee and at least one additional attendee, the method comprising:
 generating a meeting request from a meeting organizer to be processed only by the special attendee or a proxy of the special attendee, wherein the meeting request includes an identification of the at least one additional attendee and wherein the meeting request does not specify meeting commencement information, the meeting commencement information corresponding to at least one of a start time and a date, and further wherein the meeting request is acceptable by the special attendee to place a calendar event on a calendaring application;   obtaining a selection from the special attendee or the proxy of the special attendee of the meeting commencement information responsive to the meeting request; and   in response to obtaining the selection of the meeting commencement information, automatically causing distribution of an updated meeting request only to the at least one additional attendee, wherein the updated meeting request specifies the selected meeting commencement information and wherein the updated meeting request is acceptable by each at least one additional attendee to place a corresponding calendar event on a calendar application,   wherein each of the steps is implemented by group scheduling software executed on a computer.   
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the updated meeting request is automatically generated in response to obtaining the modification from the special attendee. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the special attendee is the only recipient of the meeting request. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising causing display of the updated meeting request in at least one schedule view on a calendar application on a computer display screen for each of the at least one additional attendee automatically upon selection of the meeting commencement information by the special attendee. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein causing the display of the updated meeting request occurs automatically in response to movement of the graphical display object associated with the meeting request from the meeting request queue to another location on the single computer display screen associated with the at least one calendar view to assign the meeting request to at least one of a date and a time. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein causing distribution of the updated meeting request comprises automatically causing distribution of the updated meeting in response to obtaining the modification from the special attendee. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the special attendee is the only recipient of the meeting request. 
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein causing distribution of the updated meeting request comprises causing display of the updated meeting request in at least one schedule view on a computer display screen for each of the at least one additional attendee automatically upon selection of the meeting commencement information by the special attendee. 
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 36 , wherein causing the display of the updated meeting request occurs automatically in response to movement of the graphical display object associated with the meeting request from the meeting request queue to another location on the single computer display screen associated with the at least one calendar view to assign the meeting request to at least one of a date and a time. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the meeting request to be processed by the special attendee is generated in response to a request from a meeting organizer and wherein the updated meeting request is automatically generated without further interaction from the meeting organizer. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the updated meeting request is automatically caused to be distributed to the at least one additional attendee without further interaction from the meeting organizer. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the updated meeting request is automatically caused to be distributed without further interaction from the meeting organizer. 
     
     
         41 . A method for scheduling a meeting for a set of attendees, wherein the set of attendees includes a special attendee and at least one additional attendee, the method comprising:
 generating, by a meeting organizer, an initial meeting request to be placed as a calendar event in a calendar event queue on a calendaring application and to be processed only by a special attendee or a proxy of the special attendee, wherein the initial meeting request does not specify meeting commencement information, the meeting commencement information comprising at least one of a start time and a date;   obtaining a selection by the special attendee of the meeting commencement information responsive to the initial meeting request, wherein the selected meeting commencement information is modifiable only by the special attendee or a proxy of the special attendee and wherein the meeting organizer cannot make the modification; and   in response to the obtained selection of meeting commencement information, automatically generating, without further interaction from the meeting organizer, an updated meeting request specifying the selected commencement information, wherein the updated meeting request is generated for transmission to the at least one additional attendee and is acceptable by each at least one additional attendee to place a corresponding calendar event on a calendar application;   wherein each of the steps is implemented by group scheduling software executed on a computer.