International Business Machines Corporation

Cora Clerkin

Patrick Joseph O'Sullivan

Sonya Purcell

Gary Denner

Cynthia E Barber-Mingo

Orla Daly

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to instant messaging and persistent chats and provide a method, system and computer program product for controlling active and passive participation among participants in a thread of conversation in an instant messaging session or persistent chat. In one embodiment of the invention, a method for controlling active and passive participation among participants in a thread of conversation can be provided. The method can include creating a thread of conversation in a messaging system, adding participants to the thread, classifying the participants as one of either active or passive, and permitting only those participants classified as active participants to post to the thread while providing merely a view of the thread to the passive participants.

Controlling active and passive participation in a thread of conversation

A method of operating an instant messaging application comprises running an instant messaging dialogue session across a plurality of participant devices. When a user wishes to postpone the session, the application receives a postponement signal from a participant device, determines a future restart time and future participant devices, terminates the current instant messaging dialogue session, and initiates a new instant messaging dialogue session at the restart time for the future participant devices.

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Co. Louth, Ireland

Cora Clerkin