Web-Based Meeting Facility for Local Interest Groups
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current Internet-based social networking tools are inadequate for organizing real-world gatherings around common interests, as they lack centralized support for in-person meetings and fail to facilitate self-organization of groups without pre-existing connections or designated leaders.
Innovation Solution
A computer-assisted system that automates the organization, scheduling, and venue selection for in-person gatherings by allowing participants to vote on preferred venues, ensuring a minimum number of attendees, and canceling events if insufficient interest is shown, thus enabling leaderless or organizer-led group meetings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If existing Internet communication tools (email, chat rooms, message boards) are used, then geographically distributed communication is enabled, but they cannot facilitate in-person meetings or self-organization of local groups
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple existing Internet communication tools (search engines, message boards, email systems, calendar applications) into a single integrated social networking platform. This consolidation allows the system to provide both online communication and in-person meeting facilitation through unified functionality, resolving the contradiction by combining versatile communication capabilities without requiring separate complex systems for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The social networking platform is designed with multi-functionality to serve both geographically distributed communication and local in-person meeting organization. The system can facilitate topic-based groups, location-based groups, and event coordination simultaneously, enabling a single system to address diverse communication needs including in-person gathering coordination that previous single-function tools could not achieve.
2Adaptability or versatility
If Internet dating and introduction services are used, then one-to-one introductions are provided, but they cannot support group settings or recurring topic-related gatherings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service functionality where users can independently create topic-based groups, define meeting parameters, and organize recurring events without requiring manual intervention from system administrators. Users can set up groups around specific topics of interest, automatically find members with similar interests, and manage meeting schedules, thereby enabling ease of operation for self-organization while supporting versatile group gathering capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the social networking functionality into distinct group types (topic-based groups, location-based groups, event groups) and allows users to selectively engage with different segmentation categories. This segmentation enables the system to handle diverse group gathering scenarios while maintaining ease of operation through intuitive category-based navigation and self-service group creation tools.
3Productivity
If automated systems are used to organize meetings, then scheduling and venue selection are streamlined, but the system must manage complex parameters including minimum attendance thresholds and venue voting
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where users can vote on preferred venues, indicate attendance interest, and provide real-time information about meeting participation. The automated system processes this feedback to dynamically adjust schedules, confirm or cancel events based on minimum attendance thresholds, and optimize venue selections. This feedback-driven automation streamlines meeting organization while managing complexity through intuitive user input interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing minimum attendance thresholds, pre-identifying suitable venues, and pre-configuring voting mechanisms before meetings are scheduled. Users can pre-indicate their attendance interest and venue preferences in advance, allowing the automated system to process this information beforehand and make informed scheduling decisions, thereby improving productivity while managing automation complexity through structured pre-processing.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer program product helps organize an in-person gathering of users of topic-related interest to help maintain ongoing local interest groups by providing meeting management resources through a web-based meeting facility, where the meeting management resources may enable a meeting group organizer to manage a meeting group. The meeting facility may receive meeting group criteria from a user, and may provide to the user an indication of at least one meeting group of a plurality of meeting groups based on the user's received meeting group criteria, wherein the meeting groups may have respective members. The meeting facility may receive from the user a selection of a meeting group to join, and the organizer may be enabled to accept the user as a new member to the meeting group and to manage meeting group user resources available to the user through a web-based graphical interface provided by the meeting facility.