Patent ID: 8180663
Filing Date: 2012-05-15
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for assisting in the scheduling of a meeting, the method comprising: an act of receiving one or more meeting parameters from a computer user; an act of automatically evaluating a plurality of possible meeting times using the received user-provided meeting parameters against a predetermined set of suitability criteria including the following: each attendee's raw free-busy data, the number of required attendees who have a conflict at a particular time, an indication of whether the conflict is due to a tentative appointment, a busy entry, or an out of office entry, an indication of whether the conflict is only a partial conflict where the conflict is only during a portion of the particular time, the number of rooms available, an indication of whether one or more requested resources are available, the number of optional attendees having a conflict, an indication of whether the particular time begins on the hour or at another point before or after the hour mark and an indication of whether the particular time is partially or totally out of normal working hours; an act of automatically identifying a plurality of suitable, suggested meeting times based on the evaluation of the suitability criteria, wherein each of the suitable, suggested meeting times is determined to be suitable based on at least one of the suitability criteria; an act of computer calculating a desirability rating only for those meeting times determined to be suitable based on at least one of the suitability criteria, the desirability rating comprising a further calculation that is determined based on each meeting time's overall level of compliance with each of the suitability criteria, wherein the identified suitable suggested meeting times have varying levels of desirability based on the further desirability rating calculation, such that meetings are capable of being determined to be suitable but not desirable, wherein the desirability rating is evaluated using a calculated sum of weighted conflicts corresponding to each desired meeting attendee, wherein the sum is generated by adding the combined weighting of those meeting attendees that are required to attend the meeting and the required attendee conflict is weighted according to the duration of the overlap of the attendee's conflict; an act of outputting to the same application window both the raw busy-free data for each attendee including an indication of suggested meeting times, which rooms are available at each time and how many desired attendees are available at each time based on a set of input criteria for each of at least some of the suggested meeting times, and, in the same application window and in addition to the raw busy-free data, a separate suggestion quality graphical indicator for each of the displayed suggested meeting times, the suggestion quality indicator comprising one of a plurality of different graphical indicators, each graphical indicator corresponding to the evaluated desirability rating for each suggested meeting time, the suggestion quality visual indicators being combined into a calendar month view configured to show a plurality of different indicators, wherein each indicator is associated with a corresponding day of the month; an act of receiving a subsequent input indicating from a computer user indicating one or more changes that are to be made to the meeting parameters; and an act of updating the display output such that the display output reflects the received changes to the meeting parameters as well as one or more updated suggested possible meeting times and corresponding updated desirability rating for each of the suggested meeting times.