Abstract:
The present invention is a system, method, and computer program product that provides the capability by which changes in an organization can be automatically reflected in the organization&#39;s mailing lists and access lists. The email messaging system comprises a mailing list generator operable to receive information relating to an organizational hierarchy and generate from the received information a plurality of mailing lists, at least some of the mailing lists relating to a member of the organizational hierarchy to whom at one other member of the organizational hierarchy reports and an archiver/forwarder operable to receive an email message including an address identifying at least one of the plurality of mailing lists, access the mailing list to obtain email addresses for members of the mailing list, and send the email message to the obtained email addresses.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to automatic generation of email mailing lists based on org-charts of organizational hierarchies. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     As electronic mail, or email, has become widespread, more and more organizations are relying on email for the bulk of their intra-organizational communications. As many organizations are organized hierarchically, it is useful to have the capability to send emails not only to individuals in the organizations, but to groups of individuals who make up sub-organizations within the hierarchy. This function may be performed by the use of mailing lists that include the appropriate individuals. Likewise, access to such information may be controlled by the use of access lists. However, information relating to the structure of the hierarchy, including the sub-organizations of the hierarchy and the included individuals, is typically kept in an organizational chart, or org-chart, which is separate from the mailing lists or access lists. When changes are made to the organization, whether changes in the individuals or changes in the structure of the hierarchy, these changes must be made to the org-chart and must also be reflected in the mailing lists and access lists. Currently, this requires manual updates to be made to the mailing lists and access lists. This manual updating is labor-intensive, time consuming, and expensive. A need arises for a technique by which changes in an organization can be automatically reflected in the organization&#39;s mailing lists and access lists. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is a system, method, and computer program product that provides the capability by which changes in an organization can be automatically reflected in the organization&#39;s mailing lists and access lists. 
     In one embodiment, the present invention is a method of email messaging using mailing lists comprising the steps of: receiving information relating to an organizational hierarchy, extracting from the received information at least identifiers of members of the organizational hierarchy, information relating to positions of the members in the organizational hierarchy, and information relating to email addresses of the members, and generating a plurality of mailing lists based on the extracted information. 
     In one aspect of the present invention, at least one of the plurality of mailing lists comprises: an identifier of the mailing list corresponding to a first member of the organizational hierarchy and a plurality of identifiers of members of the organizational hierarchy who report to the first member. The plurality of identifiers of members of the organizational hierarchy who report to the first member may comprise at least one identifier of a second member of the organizational hierarchy to whom at least one other member of the organizational hierarchy reports. The at least one identifier of the second member of the organizational hierarchy may include an indicator that at least one other member of the organizational hierarchy reports to the second member. 
     In one aspect of the present invention, the method further comprises the steps of: receiving an email message including an identifier of one of the plurality of mailing lists, accessing the identified mailing list to obtain at least one email address of at least one member of the mailing list, and sending the email message to the obtained at least one email address. 
     In one aspect of the present invention, the method further comprises the steps of: generating at least one access list defining permissions for at least some of the plurality of mailing lists. The method may further comprise the steps of: receiving an email message including an identifier of one of the plurality of mailing lists, determining that a sender of the email message has permission to send email messages to the identified mailing list using an access list, accessing the identified mailing list to obtain at least one email address of at least one member of the mailing list, and sending the email message to the obtained at least one email address. The method may further comprise the step of: generating a plurality of aliases, each alias identifying one of the plurality of mailing lists. The method may further comprise the steps of: receiving an email message including an alias identifying one of the plurality of mailing lists, determining that a sender of the email message has permission to send email messages to the identified mailing list, accessing the identified mailing list to obtain at least one email address of at least one member of the mailing list, and sending the email message to the obtained at least one email address. 
     In one embodiment, the present invention is an email messaging system comprising a mailing list generator operable to receive information relating to an organizational hierarchy and generate from the received information a plurality of mailing lists, at least some of the mailing lists relating to a member of the organizational hierarchy to whom at least one other member of the organizational hierarchy reports and an archiver/forwarder operable to receive an email message including an address identifying at least one of the plurality of mailing lists, access the mailing list to obtain email addresses for members of the mailing list, and send the email message to the obtained email addresses. 
     In one aspect of the present invention, the information relating to the organizational hierarchy comprises identifiers of members of the organizational hierarchy, information relating to positions of the members in the organizational hierarchy, and information relating to email addresses of the members. At least one of the plurality of mailing lists may comprise an identifier of the mailing list corresponding to a first member of the organizational hierarchy and a plurality of identifiers of members of the organizational hierarchy who report to the first member. The plurality of identifiers of members of the organizational hierarchy who report to the first member may comprise at least one identifier of a second member of the organizational hierarchy to whom at least one other member of the organizational hierarchy reports. The at least one identifier of the second member of the organizational hierarchy may include an indicator that at least one other member of the organizational hierarchy reports to the second member. 
     In one aspect of the present invention, the mailing list generator is further operable to generate at least one access list defining permissions for at least some of the plurality of mailing lists. The archiver/forwarder may be further operable to determine that a sender of the email message has permission to send email messages to the identified mailing list using an access list The mailing list generator may be further operable to generate a plurality of aliases, each alias identifying one of the plurality of mailing lists. The archiver/forwarder may be further operable to receive an email message including an alias identifying one of the plurality of mailing lists, determine that a sender of the email message has permission to send email messages to the identified mailing list, and access the identified mailing list to obtain at least one email address of at least one member of the mailing list. 
     In one aspect of the present invention, at least one of the plurality of mailing lists comprises an identifier of the mailing list corresponding to a first member of the organizational hierarchy and at least one identifier of a member of the organizational hierarchy who reports to the first member. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The details of exemplary embodiments of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood by referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers and designations refer to like elements. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing an overview of an exemplary embodiment of automated generation of mailing and access lists from hierarchical org-charts. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary list processing system, which may be used to implement an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a flow diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a list generation process that may be performed by the list generation system shown in  FIG. 2 . 
         FIG. 4  is a flow diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an email transmission process. 
         FIG. 5  is a data flow diagram including the exemplary embodiment of the list generation process shown in  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 6  is an exemplary org-chart showing an organizational hierarchy of a type that may be processed by the present invention. 
     
    
    
     An exemplary people table generated from an org-chart shown in  FIG. 6  by the process shown in  FIG. 3  is shown in  FIG. 7   a.    
     An exemplary lists table is shown in  FIG. 7   b.    
     An exemplary members table is shown in  FIG. 7   c.    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     An overview of an exemplary embodiment of automated generation of mailing and access lists from hierarchical org-charts is shown in  FIG. 1 . In the example shown in  FIG. 1 , org-charts are stored in an org-chart database  102 . The org-charts may be stored in any suitable format, but typically include information such as the names of individual employees, the names of managers of employees, the names of sub-organizations, departments, groups, etc., to which employees belong, email addresses, telephone numbers, and office locations of employees, etc. Org-chart database may be stored in any type of database, such as a flat database, a hierarchical database, or a relational database, etc. 
     Updates  104  may be made to the information stored in org-chart database  102 . Typically, updates  104  are performed manually, on an as needed basis, but the present invention contemplates any method or means for performing updates  104  to org-chart database  102 . For example, updates  104  may be performed automatically, or periodically, etc. 
     The necessary information is extracted from org-chart database  102  and mailing and access lists are generated  106  from the extracted information. The mailing and access lists are stored in a form that allows their use by email system  108 . 
     A block diagram of an exemplary list processing system  200 , which may be used to implement an embodiment of the present invention, is shown in  FIG. 2 . List processing system  200  is typically a programmed general-purpose computer system, such as a personal computer, workstation, server system, and minicomputer or mainframe computer. List processing system  200  includes processor (CPU)  202 , input/output circuitry  204 , network adapter  206 , and memory  208 . CPU  202  executes program instructions in order to carry out the functions of the present invention. Typically, CPU  202  is a microprocessor, such as an INTEL PENTIUM® processor, but may also be a minicomputer or mainframe computer processor. Input/output circuitry  204  provides the capability to input data to, or output data from, computer system  200 . For example, input/output circuitry may include input devices, such as keyboards, mice, touchpads, trackballs, scanners, etc., output devices, such as video adapters, monitors, printers, etc., and input/output devices, such as, modems, etc. Network adapter  206  interfaces list processing system  200  with network  210 . Network  210  may be any standard local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), such as Ethernet, Token Ring, the Internet, or a private or proprietary LAN/WAN. 
     Memory  208  stores program instructions that are executed by, and data that are used and processed by, CPU  202  to perform the functions of the present invention. Memory  208  may include electronic memory devices, such as random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, etc., and electro-mechanical memory, such as magnetic disk drives, tape drives, optical disk drives, etc., which may use an integrated drive electronics (IDE) interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as enhanced IDE (EIDE) or ultra direct memory access (UDMA), or a small computer system interface (SCSI) based interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as fast-SCSI, wide-SCSI, fast and wide-SCSI, etc, or a fiber channel-arbitrated loop (FC-AL) interface. 
     Memory  208  includes a plurality of blocks of data, such as received org-chart database  212  and organizational table  214 , and a plurality of blocks of program instructions, such as clean up routines  216 , processing routines  218  and operating system  220 . Org-chart database  212  includes information relating to an organizational hierarchy made up of groups and sub-groups of members of the hierarchy. Org-chart database  212  includes information such as the names of individual employees, the names of managers of employees, the names of sub-organizations, departments, groups, etc., to which employees belong, email addresses, telephone numbers, and office locations of employees, etc. Org-chart database  212  may be stored in any type of database, such as a flat database, a hierarchical database, or a relational database, etc. Although in the example shown in  FIG. 2 , org-chart database  212  is included in list processing system  200 , org-chart database  212  may instead be stored in a separate database system, from which the necessary information, up to and including the entire org-chart database, may be extracted or copied. 
     Organizational table  214  includes information extracted from org-chart database  212 , which is necessary for use in generating the mailing and access lists. Clean up routines  216  process the information contained in org-chart database  212  in order to generate organizational table  214 . List and alias generation routines  218  process organizational table  216  in order to generate the mailing and access lists and the associated aliases. Operating system  220  provides overall system functionality. 
     A flow diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a list generation process  300  that may be performed by list generation system  200 , shown in  FIG. 2 , is shown in  FIG. 3 .  FIG. 3  is best viewed in conjunction with  FIG. 5 , which is a data flow diagram including the exemplary embodiment of the list generation process shown in  FIG. 3 . Process  300  begins with optional step  302 , in which mailing list system  502  makes a copy  504  of org-chart database  506 . In those embodiments in which org-chart database  506  is remotely located, accessible through a relatively slow connection, very large, etc., so that the processing time and access overhead of directly processing org-chart database  506  would be large, it may be preferable to make a copy  504  of org-chart database  506  to use for processing. In other embodiments, in which org-chart database  506  is stored in mailing list system  502 , accessible through a fast connection, small, etc., so that processing time and access overhead of directly processing org-chart database  506  are not large, it may be preferable to directly process org-chart database  506 , rather than make copy  504 . 
     In step  304 , org-chart database  506  or copy  504  of the org-chart database is processed by org-chart database clean up process  508 , which removes unnecessary information. The necessary information in org-chart database  506  or copy  504  of the org-chart database is extracted and processed to form organizational table  510 . In particular, information identifying each individual, information relating to the position in the organizational hierarchy of each identified individual, and information identifying an email address of each identified individual is extracted and processed. Organizational table  510  includes the extracted information in a form that is conveniently usable to generated mailing and access lists. 
     In step  306 , mailing and access lists and aliases are generated by list/alias generation process  512 . A mailing list includes identifiers of individuals included in the list, along with identifiers of subgroups that are included in the list. Only individuals are end nodes in the hierarchy; any subgroup may include individuals and subgroups. Subgroups are defined based on the hierarchical reporting structure of the organization. A manager is defined as any individual who has someone reporting to them. Direct reports are defined as individuals who report directly to a manager. A manager may have as direct reports either individuals who are managers, individuals who are not managers, or both. A mailing list for a manager&#39;s organization would include identifiers of that managers direct reports, along with identifiers of subgroups that include the organizations of any managers who are direct reports. 
     An access list includes information specifying the access permissions for the mailing lists. For example, access permissions may allow members of a mailing list to send email to members of that list, to members of the organizations of any managers who are members of the list, to members of organizations of managers at specified lower levels, etc. Access permissions are preferably configurable. 
     Aliases are generated in order to implement the described functionality into existing email systems. For example, many popular email systems utilize the UNIX® operating system, and  FIG. 5  exemplifies an implementation that uses that operating system. As shown in  FIG. 5 , a file  514 , identified as “/etc/aliases”, is defined to store aliases that may be used by the email system. An alias is an alternative name, or pointer, to an object. Appropriate aliases are generated in step  306  for use by the email system and, in step  308 , these aliases are stored in the appropriate subdirectory. It is important to recognize that aliases are used only because certain email systems require their use in order to integrate the described functionality. The present invention contemplates email systems that do not require aliases for such functional integration, as well as those that do. 
     In step  310 , the mailing and access lists generated in step  306  are stored in mailing list data tables  516 . Mailing list data tables  516  include the information in the generated mailing and access lists arranged in a format that facilitates access to particular portions of that information. 
     A flow diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an email transmission process  400  is shown in  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  is best viewed in conjunction with  FIG. 5 , which is a data flow diagram including the exemplary embodiment of the list generation process shown in  FIG. 4 . The process begins with step  402 , in which an email message  518  addressed to one or more members of a mailing list maintained by mailing list system  502 , is received at mailing list system  502 . Typically, email message  518  is addressed to one or more members of a mailing list by including in an address field of the email message  518  one or more alias addresses that identify the desired recipients of the message. Email message  518  is received by a sendmail process  520 , or an equivalent process, which is a standard component of an email system for handling the transmission of email messages. In a typical exemplary implementation, such as an implementation that uses the UNIX® operating system, sendmail process  520  accesses file  514  and obtains identifiers or destinations to which the aliases that the email messages address refer. 
     In order to implement automatically generated mailing and access lists, the alias addresses included in file “/etc/aliases”  514  all point to archiver/forwarder  522 . Thus, in step  404 , email message  518  is sent to archiver forwarder  522 . For each alias address included in email message  518 , sendmail process  520  accesses file  514 , locates the alias address, obtains an identifier or destination to which the alias refers, which is archiver/forwarder  522 , and sends email message  518  to archiver/forwarder  522 . In step  406 , archiver/forwarder  522  receives email message  518  and checks the permissions and addresses included in the message. For each address included in email message  518 , archiver/forwarder  522  accesses mailing list data tables  516  and accesses the identifiers and access permissions associated with the address. In particular, archiver/forwarder  520  determines whether the sender of the message has permission to send messages to the address included in the message. For example, access permissions may allow members of a mailing list to send email to members of that list, to members of the organizations of any managers who are members of the list, to members of organizations of managers at specified lower levels, etc. If the sender does have permission to send messages to the address included in the message, archiver/forwarder  522  then generates the actual email addresses that correspond to the address included in the message. If the address included in the message is an individual email address, that individual email address is generated. If the address included in the message specifies an organization, the mailing list for that organization is accessed to obtain the included addresses. The included individual addresses are generated and the included sub-organizations are accessed to obtain the included addresses. This process is continued recursively until only individual addresses remain, or until permissions regarding access to lower levels, or specifications of lower levels to be accessed, are exceeded. 
     Once all email addresses are generated, in step  408 , archiver/forwarder  522  transmits the email message including the generated email addresses. In step  410 , archiver/forwarder  522  archives the transmitted email message in email archives  524 . Depending upon the implementation, email archives  524  may include the actual transmitted email messages, along with information to facilitate accessing the email messages, or email archives  524  may only include information to facilitate accessing the email messages, which may be stored elsewhere. 
     An additional feature of mailing list system  502  is the capability for users of the system to view the mailing lists and email archives. A user of the system may typically view the mailing lists and email archives using a browser program  526  running on a computer system or other device. Browser  526 , the computer system, and any associated network hardware and software (not shown), provide a connection to portal  528 , which provides access to mailing list system  502 . Portal  528  typically authenticates users desiring access, for example, by allowing such users to login. Once a user gains access, the user may view mailing lists to which the user belongs and view archived email messages. In addition, users having the proper access permission may configure or modify the permissions of other users, and, in some cases, modify the mailing lists themselves. The capability to directly modify mailing lists may be useful in situations in which there is significant latency between changes in an organization and updating of the org-chart database. 
     The capability to directly modify mailing lists may also be useful in situations in which there is significant latency between changes to the org-chart database and updating of the mailing list data tables. However, preferably the process shown in  FIG. 3  will be performed on a periodic basis with a short enough period to reduce this latency to the point that direct modification of mailing lists is unnecessary. 
     An exemplary org-chart  600  is shown in  FIG. 6 . Org-chart  600  includes a plurality of members, including a plurality of managers, such as members  602 ,  604 ,  606 ,  608 , and  610 , and a plurality of individuals, such as members  612 ,  614 ,  616 ,  618 ,  620 , and  622 . For example, member  602  is a manager. Members  604  and  606  are managers who report to member  602 . Member  612  is an individual who reports to member  604 . Members  608  and  610  are managers who report to member  606 , while member  622  is an individual who reports to member  606 . Members  614  and  616  are individuals who report to member  608  and members  618  and  620  are individuals who report to member  610 . 
     Examples of tables used by the process shown in  FIG. 3  are shown in  FIGS. 7   a,    7   b,  and  7   c.  An example of a people table  700  generated from org-chart  600  by the process shown in  FIG. 3  is shown in  FIG. 7   a.  People table  700  associates individuals with email addresses. For example, people table  700  includes a plurality of columns, such as personID column  702  and email address column  704 . PersonID column  702  includes a plurality of personIDs, which identify individuals, while email address column  704  contains email addresses corresponding to each personID. The actual values of the personID is generated automatically, and are not necessarily based on the name of the person that they identify. 
     An example of a lists table  710  is shown in  FIG. 7   b.  Lists table  710  associates individuals who own mailing lists with the mailing lists that they own. For example, lists table  710  includes a plurality of columns, such as list_ID column  712 , list_Name column  714 , and owner column  716 . List_ID column  712  includes a plurality of list_IDs, which identify mailing lists. List_Name column  714  includes a plurality of list_Names, which are names that are used to specify a mailing list. Owner column  716  includes a plurality of personIDs, which identify the individual or individuals who own each mailing list. 
     An example of a members table  720  is shown in  FIG. 7   c.  Members table  720  associates mailing lists with the members of those mailing lists. For example, members table  720  includes a plurality of columns, such as list_ID column  722 , member column  724 , and sublist column  726 . List_ID column  712  includes a plurality of list_IDs, which identify mailing lists. Member column  724  includes a plurality of personIDs, each of which identifies an individual who is a member of the associated mailing list. Sublist column  724  includes a plurality of list_IDs, each of which identifies a sublist that is included in the associated mailing list. Sublist column  724  allows members table  720  to provide hierarchical nesting of sub mailing lists under the parent mailing lists. In addition, all list owners are members of the mailing lists that they own. 
     For example, expanding a list, such as the list identified as  606 _org in  FIG. 7   b,  would involve:
         Look up list_name  606 _org in the LISTS TABLE       

     This yields a list_id of LID 606 
         Expand list_id LID 606  into a list of members
           First get and expand the individual (leaf node) members   
               

     This yields PID 606  and PID 622 
                 Get the email address for each member from the PEOPLE TABLE               

     This yields NAME 606 @ORG.COM and NAME 622 @ORG.COM
             Then get and expand sublists           

     This yields LID 608  and LID 610 
             Recursively expand each of these sublists           

     This process is simply one example of a list expansion process. This implementation assumes a relational database as the data store. Other types of data stores would use different expansion processes. Any and all such processes based on any and all implementations are within the scope of the present invention. 
     It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of a computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include recordable-type media such as floppy disc, a hard disk drive, RAM, and CD-ROM&#39;s, as well as transmission-type media, such as digital and analog communications links. 
     Although specific embodiments of the present invention have been described, it will be understood by those of skill in the art that there are other embodiments that are equivalent to the described embodiments. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited by the specific illustrated embodiments, but only by the scope of the appended claims.