Dynamic Invites with Auto-Cleanup for Group Communication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing group communication methods, such as push-to-talk and email, can be disruptive and inefficient due to the difficulty in managing presence information and the asynchronous nature of responses, leading to unnecessary messages and redundant responses.
Innovation Solution
A collaboration tool that allows users to solicit responses from multiple devices by sending invitation messages, evaluating responses, and automatically cleaning up displays when requests are fulfilled, with features like preferred response modes and follow-up requests to ensure accurate and efficient information gathering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If group communications are sent to multiple users, then the request can be communicated to more users, but it causes disruption and unnecessary messages
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different communication approaches to different recipients based on their response status. Active participants receive targeted follow-up requests while inactive participants receive cancellation messages, creating localized quality in communication delivery that reduces unnecessary disruptions.
Solution Approach 2:
The communication system dynamically adjusts its behavior based on real-time response status. The server monitors responses and automatically transitions from sending invitation messages to sending cancellation messages to specific devices, making the system adaptive rather than static.
2Reliability
If presence information is used for group communications, then user availability can be tracked, but it is difficult to keep current and performs poorly
Solution Approach 1:
The system eliminates the need for separate presence information management by using response status as the proxy for availability. Users automatically indicate their state through their response behavior (responding, not responding, or requesting cancellation), making the system self-updating without additional complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The server acts as an intermediary that manages communication state without requiring direct presence information from devices. It uses invitation and cancellation messages to coordinate between users, eliminating the need for complex presence tracking mechanisms.
3Productivity
If invitation messages are sent to multiple devices, then more users can respond, but it results in redundant responses and garbage clean-up
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback loops where the server monitors responses from multiple devices and uses this information to send targeted cancellation messages. This feedback mechanism prevents redundant responses by automatically notifying inactive participants to stop waiting for responses.
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards redundant communication attempts by sending cancellation messages to devices that have not responded. This eliminates the need for garbage collection of redundant responses, as the system proactively prevents them from occurring in the first place.
4Ease of operation
If asynchronous communication format is used, then users can respond at their convenience, but it leads to redundant responses
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts the communication flow based on response timing. While maintaining asynchronous operation for flexibility, it actively monitors the state and sends cancellation messages to prevent redundant responses, making the system both flexible and efficient.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, devices, systems, and non-transitory processor-readable storage media for providing a collaboration tool for soliciting responses from users, including operations for receiving at a computing device a request from a user, transmitting to a plurality of computing devices an invitation message that causes the plurality of computing devices to render a display that solicits a response to the request, receiving a response message related to the request from at least one of the plurality of computing devices, evaluating the received response message to determine whether the received response message fulfills the request, and transmitting to the plurality of computing devices a cancellation message in response to determining that the received response message fulfills the request, the cancellation message configured to cause the plurality of computing devices to perform operations to automatically clean-up the display that solicits the response to the request.