Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

International Business Machines Corporation

Robert Sean Slapikoff

Ransom Lloyd Richardson

Hugh Francis Pyle

Edward J Fischer

Dana Zircher

Michael Jeffers

Christopher Norman

John Banks-Binici

Steven Robert Beckhardt

Douglas Walter Conmy

Tools and techniques are described for synchronization and collaboration within peer-to-peer and client/server environments. These tools may provide methods that include establishing peer-to-peer relationships between two or more client systems. These relationships enable the client systems to create respective local instances of workspaces, shared between the client systems to allow them to collaborate with one another. The client systems may participate in peer-to-peer synchronization flows with one another, with the synchronization flows representing updates made local to the shared workspaces of the client systems. The methods may also establish establishing a client/server relationship between one of the client systems and a server system. Through this client/server relationship, the client and server systems may participate in client/server synchronization flows, with these flows representing updates made to the local shared workspace at the client system.

Synchronization and collaboration within peer-to-peer and client/server environments

A system for scheduling time intervals for a plurality of users comprises a database associated with one or more server means for storing a profile for each potential invitee of the system. Each invitee profile comprises user profiles that have information regarding available and unavailable times for that user and the electronic mail address for the user and resource profiles having information about the available times for a particular resource such as a room or equipment. A request generator connected over a network to the one or more server generates a request for allocation of a time interval for one or more of the plurality of invitees. The system then provides a busy time determination device that gathers the profiles for the plurality of invitees that were requested by the request generating means and that are available in the databases and determines whether those invitees are available during the time interval requested by the request generating means. For all available invitees, the electronic mail address in the profile is used to send each available requested invitee an invitation to attend at the requested time interval.

Electronic calendar with group scheduling and storage of user and resource profiles

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Chelmsford, MA, United States of America

Robert Sean Slapikoff