Patent ID: 8150718

Claim:
A method for appointment scheduling, comprising: at an appointment server system including a processor and memory: receiving appointment preference information from a client system associated with a user, wherein the appointment preference information includes contact details for one or more contacts of the user and scheduling details indicating that the user would like to schedule a plurality of appointments occurring on different dates in accordance with a periodic interval; in response to receiving the appointment preference information from the client automatically, without human intervention, scheduling a plurality of respective proposed appointments on different respective dates selected in accordance with the periodic interval, and for each respective proposed appointment sending a respective electronic message to a respective plurality of participants for the respective proposed appointment, the respective electronic message including an invitation to the respective proposed appointment, wherein the plurality of respective proposed appointments include: a first proposed appointment scheduled by the appointment server system based at least in part on the appointment preference information, wherein the first proposed appointment includes a first location, a first plurality of participants including the user and a first contact of the one or more contacts that was not selected by the user, and a first date that was selected, without human intervention, in accordance with the periodic interval; and a second proposed appointment scheduled by the appointment server system based at least in part on the appointment preference information and the periodic interval, wherein the second proposed appointment includes a second location, a second plurality of participants including the user and a second contact of the one or more contacts that was not selected by the user, and a second date that was selected, without human intervention, in accordance with the periodic interval, wherein the second proposed appointment is not a recurrence of the first proposed appointment.