Patent ID: 8645468

Claim:
A method for collaborative arbitration of polling results in a collaborative environment, the method comprising: providing a user interface configured to create a message for placing a poll within the message for use within a calendaring and scheduling (C&S) server providing calendaring and scheduling functionality for communicatively coupled collaborative clients over a computer communications network, the user interface displaying an identity field designating a recipient for the message, a moderator field indicating a moderator for the poll encapsulated within the message, a poll limitation field configured to limit a duration of the poll, a polling data area configured to receive poll results, and an aggregated results area configured to provide an aggregation of poll results; sending the message over the computer communications network to respective ones of the collaborative clients for a select group of collaborators in the collaborative environment; receiving poll results in the C&S server from a collaborator in the select group of collaborators in a reply to the message; extracting the poll results from the reply and placing the poll within a new message along with the extracted poll results; sending the new message to the select group of collaborators over the computer communications network; receiving additional poll results from another collaborator in the select group in a reply to the new message; extracting the additional poll results from the reply to the new message; aggregating the additional poll results with existing poll results for the poll to produce an aggregated set of poll results; placing the poll within an even newer message along with the aggregated set of poll results; and, sending the even newer message to the select group.