Lucent Technologies Inc.

Viswanath Kadambari

Narain H Gehani

Vinod Anupam

Computer users may utilize different web browsers to access a server system on the World Wide Web (WWW) to create or join a collaborative session. One or more controllers connect the users or collaborators in a session in the server system. This is realized by establishing a so-called &ldquo;shared Web-top&rdquo;, i.e., a work space, in which different in-document applications can be run and can be interactively, collaboratively shared by a plurality of users. Specifically, this is realized by employing a surrogate that includes a polling loop which periodically checks a shared document structure for changes in prescribed properties, and transmits the detected changes to surrogates of other users, i.e., at least one other collaborator, via a communication channel. To this end, a prospective user of the shared Web-top accesses a system, which transmits mobile code to the user's computer to create a surrogate thereon. The surrogates created for the users of the shared Web-top are connected by at least one controller in the system and individually serve as an interface between the controller and the respective browsers on the users computers. Advantageously, through our unique use of the polling loop in the surrogate, functionality is realized in which, as one user inputs data into a shared document, for example, into one or more forms in a document, the same data appears in the other user's browser, via the detected changes in prescribed properties of the one or more forms being transmitted over the communication channel to the users' computers and, therein, to their surrogates.

Apparatus and method for sharing information in simultaneously viewed documents on a communication system

Computer users may utilize different web browsers to access a server system on the World Wide Web (WWW) to create or join a collaborative browsing session. One or more controllers connect the users or collaborators in a session in the server system. This is realized by establishing a so-called &ldquo;shared Web-top&rdquo;, i.e., a work space, in which different in-document applications can be run and can be interactively, collaboratively shared by a plurality of users. Specifically, this is realized in one embodiment by employing event handlers in the WEB documents that are activated whenever there is a change in the values of prescribed properties of a document. The event handlers notify a so-called surrogate of the changes in the prescribed properties of the document, i.e., that values in elements of a form have changed, and transmit the detected changes to surrogates of other users, i.e., at least one other collaborator, via a communication channel. To this end, a prospective user of the shared Web-top accesses a system that transmits mobile code to the user's computer to create a surrogate thereon. The surrogates created for the users of the shared Web-top are connected by at least one controller in the system and individually serve as an interface between the controller and the respective browsers on the users computers. Alternatively, the surrogate can insert event handlers into the document that communicate with the surrogate, identifying which form elements they apply to and transmit the changed value(s) to other users. The surrogates of the other users then appropriately update the corresponding form elements to reflect the changes.

An arrangement for realizing asymmetric collaboration utilizes a &ldquo;shared Web-top&rdquo;, i.e., a work space, in which different in-document applications can run and be shared. Specifically, in one embodiment of the invention employed in asymmetric collaboration, documents to be collaborated on at different users' terminals are logically identical but structurally different. Indeed, one of the collaborators, for example, a customer service agent, may have access to information that should not be made available to others of the collaborators. This asymmetric collaboration is realized by assigning a unique logical name to each information entity. Then, changes in the entity captured by some detection technique, for example, the use of document polling or event handlers, are propagated along with the name of the entity to the collaborators, where they are processed only if the relevant named entity exists. If the entity exists the logical name of the entity is mapped into its physical name which, therefore, allows asymmetric collaboration. Consequently, the name-based technique allows the collaborators, e.g., customer and agent, to share changes in the logically common portions of documents, which are structurally different.

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Herndon, VA, United States of America

Viswanath Kadambari