Patent ID: 7757176

Claim:
A confluence calendar system for use in a network of systems comprising: at least one user platform comprising a user calendaring tool and a user network application, wherein the user calendaring tool comprises a plurality of user calendar events and preference information, said plurality of user calendar events including personal calendar data comprising time information associated with the user calendar events, location information associated with the user calendar events, and event detail information associated with the user calendar events; said preference information comprising at least a user default location, and a serendipity server comprising a serendipitous event generator; wherein the user network application is operatively connected to the serendipity server; wherein the serendipity server is adapted to receive a plurality of third party calendar events from at least one third party calendar source, said third party calendar events including third party calendar data comprising time information associated with the third party calendar events, location information associated with the third party calendar events, and event detail information associated with the third party calendar events; wherein the serendipity server receives at least a portion of the plurality of user calendar events; wherein the serendipitous event generator is adapted to search for at least one serendipitous event by comparing at least the time information, location information, and at least a portion of the preference information of the user calendar data with at least the time information and location information of the third party calendar data, wherein the time information of the user calendar data is future time information and the time information of the third party calendar data is future time information wherein the serendipity server further comprises a preference and feedback processor wherein the preference and feedback processor is adapted to receive feedback data from the user platform, and wherein the serendipitous event generator is further adapted to generate serendipitous events based on the feedback data, wherein said feedback data is selected from the group comprising data indicating a user's selection of a previously presented serendipitous event, and data indicating a user's rating of a previously presented serendipitous event by degree of interest to the user; wherein the serendipity server receiving and parsing the plurality of user calendar events and the plurality of third party calendar events, wherein matching and harvesting said third party calendar events comprise flattening the plurality of user calendar events and the plurality of third party calendar events, said flattening comprising assigning non-overlapping time information for the plurality of user calendar events and the plurality of third party calendar events.