Social Context Aggregation for Calendar Event Preparation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online address book users face challenges in managing professional interactions with contacts, as existing systems lack a cohesive presentation of contact information and event details, requiring users to search through historical communications to gather context for upcoming meetings.
Innovation Solution
The system aggregates and presents connection information, including recent communications, common interests, and engagement details, using a combination of modules such as a context module, communication template module, and relevance module to determine the appropriate communication channel and template, thereby facilitating concise and timely preparation for meetings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If users search through historical communications and calendar pages to gather context for meetings, then they can obtain complete information about contacts, but it requires considerable time and effort
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-aggregates connection information including recent communications, calendar events, and contact details into a unified context view before the user needs it. This preliminary organization eliminates the need for users to manually search through historical communications and calendar pages, providing complete contact context instantly when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple separate information sources (contact information, recent communications, calendar events, and connection context) into a single integrated view. This merging presents a cohesive picture of professional interactions without requiring users to switch between different threads of information, thereby reducing time while maintaining completeness.
2Loss of information
If the system presents detailed connection information and recent communications, then users gain comprehensive context, but the interface complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The connection information is segmented into distinct, organized sections including contact information, recent communications, calendar events, and common interests. This segmentation allows comprehensive information presentation while maintaining interface clarity through structured organization, preventing overwhelming complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified context view serves multiple functions simultaneously: displaying contact details, summarizing recent communications, showing upcoming calendar events, and highlighting common interests. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate interfaces into a single comprehensive view, reducing overall system complexity.
3Loss of information
If users manually assemble complete pictures of connections, then they can understand recent interactions, but productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically performs the information gathering and assembly tasks that would otherwise require manual user effort. It self-service aggregates connection information, summarizes communications, and organizes context without user intervention, enabling users to understand recent interactions instantly and significantly improving meeting preparation efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary aggregation and organization of all connection-related information before users need it for meeting preparation. This advance preparation eliminates the time-consuming manual assembly process, maintaining complete understanding of interactions while dramatically improving productivity.
Data Source
AI summary
A daily connection facility is available to the user either through a webpage or by e-mail in the form of a synopsis of connection identifiers between the user and their contacts. The web-based version presents connection information in the form of an agenda view, an engage view, and a reminder view. Each view type is selectable by corresponding tab on the webpage. The daily connected e-mail presents an agenda of meetings and events by location, title, and time. The daily connected e-mail also presents interesting profile and connection information about the attendees such as their communications in blogs and postings, recent communications with user, including messages and meetings, as well as contact information and a list of other contacts in common.