CA2814757A1 - Internet based contact list with peer managed contact information - Google Patents
Internet based contact list with peer managed contact information Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- CA2814757A1 CA2814757A1 CA 2814757 CA2814757A CA2814757A1 CA 2814757 A1 CA2814757 A1 CA 2814757A1 CA 2814757 CA2814757 CA 2814757 CA 2814757 A CA2814757 A CA 2814757A CA 2814757 A1 CA2814757 A1 CA 2814757A1
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- contact
- information
- list
- contact list
- access
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Abandoned
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
- G06Q10/10—Office automation; Time management
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L51/00—User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
- H04L51/48—Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Strategic Management (AREA)
- Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
- Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
- Operations Research (AREA)
- Economics (AREA)
- Marketing (AREA)
- Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
- Quality & Reliability (AREA)
- Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)
Abstract
An Internet based Contact List, wherein the contact information is controlled and managed by the Contacts. The Contact List only provides access to the contact information of its contacts.
The contact, who creates and provides this information, is in control of this information including management and setting access privileges for this information to the Contact List. This Peer Managed Contact Information allows privileged access, thereby passing control of contact information to the real owner of this information. This Internet Based Contact List can be synchronized with multiple devices, thus providing up-to-date information about a contact, who manages this information.
The contact, who creates and provides this information, is in control of this information including management and setting access privileges for this information to the Contact List. This Peer Managed Contact Information allows privileged access, thereby passing control of contact information to the real owner of this information. This Internet Based Contact List can be synchronized with multiple devices, thus providing up-to-date information about a contact, who manages this information.
Description
Description Background Computing devices such as desktop computers and mobile computing devices have given us the ability to maintain contact lists that aggregate, store and manage information about our contacts.
This information, which includes phone numbers, email addresses, messenger identifiers, is useful while communicating with our contacts using the computing devices.
Today, contact lists are created and maintained by the person operating the computing devices, such as a mobile phone contact list or personal computer contact list. All information in a contact list is either manually entered by this person or else elements of this information is grabbed while communicating with the contact. For example, incoming phone caller identifier (commonly termed as Phone Caller ID), email address during email communication and instant messenger identifier (ID) during contact establishment. Such information is grabbed to create or update contact information.
Though the contact information about a person like email address and phone number is actually owned and merely provided by the contact for accessibility, after it has been entered into a contact list, it is forever controlled by the owner of this contact list. The contact, who owns this information, now does not have any control over the information stored in this contact list.
Apart from control of information, this information needs to be updated regularly based upon changes to the contact's methods of communication like change in phone number, work email address. Managing such information in contact lists is a daunting task.
Summary This invention is about an Internet based Contact List, where the contact information is created, controlled and managed by the individual contacts themselves rather than the owner of this Contact List. The Contact List only provides access to this information but does not manage any contact's information.
Individuals create a Contact Profile to store their contact information on an interne based database server via an Internet based service. The same internet service provides the ability to create a 'Contact List' where contacts can be searched, added and managed. The contact information, from the Profiles of contacts on this list, is available to the owner of this Contact List for communicating with these contacts.
Access privileges to the elements of information in a Contact Profile, are granted by the contact, who is the owner of this Profile. The Contact List has no control over its contact's information and access privileges. Updates to the contact's information are visible immediately to the Contact list.
The Contact List provides the ability to synchronize with local computing device contact lists, so that this peer maintained, up-to-date information can be available on multiple devices to the users.
This invention changes the way contact lists are created, managed and controlled. The owner of the information, i.e. the contact, owns and is in control of his/her information. The Contact List is merely provided access to this information due to acquaintance or relationship, and gets the privilege to use this information for communication. This privilege can be granted and take away based on the contact's i.e. owner's desire. This brings a fuhdamental change to how we handle contact information in contact lists.
Detailed Description Brief about Today's Contact Lists:
Computing devices, like desktop computers, mobile smart-phones, tablet PC's, laptops have given us the ability to communicate with our friends, family and colleagues using multiple methods of communication like phone, Short Messaging Service (SMS), email and Instant Messengers (IM). This communication has resulted in personal contact lists, wherein all known contacts are listed along with information about communicating with them like their phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses and instant messenger identifiers.
These contact lists can exist on a personal device like PC, mobile phone or can exist with providers of internet services, such as a feature generally termed as Contacts along side internet based email services.
These contact lists are created and maintained by the owner of this contact list i.e. by the person who operates the PC or the user of the interne service. The owner creates the contact list, then adds his contacts to the list and then types the contact information of the contact. Today, devices such as mobile phones allow its owner to create a contact in its contact list based on an incoming phone Caller ID or update an existing contact information with a new incoming phone ID.
Similarly, an incoming email address can be used to create or update a contact in the contact list on a desktop computer.
The fact relevant over here is that the owner of the contact list is solely creating the contact list and maintaining this contact list with information updates. He/She is the one, who creates a contact, updates phone numbers, email addresses, IM's in this list using tools provided by the computing device or internet service. Hence, every person is creating and maintaining his/her contact list.
Challenges with existing Contact Lists:
The Contact Lists have contacts with ever-changing contact information, for example, change in job email address, moving from one physical address to another, new messengers with ID's. Also new contacts added to the list, need to capture their contact information which include multiples methods of communication. If relationships break, then the information needs to be deleted or updated. The management of contact lists is a cumbersome task.
Also, a more important fact of the matter is that the contact information is actually owned by the contact and is merely available to the owner of the contact list for communication. This ownership of information is of significant today, with the ever-growing need for privacy, security, accessibility and visibility of a person. In today's contact lists, the person who is listed as a contact and who is the real owner of his/her information, does not have any control over this information in the contact list. There is a challenging need to provide control of contact information to its real owner.
Most individuals own multiple computing devices like a desktop PC, a laptop and a mobile phone. Also they subscribe to multiple internet based providers offering emails, messengers, social media accounts. To effectively communicate with all our contacts using multiple devices and multiple providers, we need contact lists accessible on these devices and services. The problem with these contact lists is that they are offered by different providers or computing device operating systems, and hence are not standardized and also do not remain synchronized.
This poses a new challenge of having to maintain multiple contact lists over multiple computing devices and multiple services. There is a need for one, synchronized contact list that can capture all the contact information required for easy, effective communication.
Concepts Behind This Invention:
= The Contact in a Contact List, is the owner of his/her Contact Information.
= The Contact should always stay in full control of his/her Contact Information.
= The Contact Lists should merely provide access to a Contact's information.
= The Contact List should not own, control or manage a Contact's Information i.e. The Contact should manage, update information that is accessible to the Contact List.
= A Contact should be able to grant and revoke access to his/her Contact Information.
= The Contact List should be accessible over multiple computing devices, hence should be internet based = The Contact List should remain synchronized over multiple computing devices.
The Invention Figure 1 illustrates an internet based service and its database server that hold Contact Profiles and Contact Lists.
A new user, is required to register with this internet based service and create a profile that holds his/her contact information like phone numbers, emails, postal addresses, instant messenger Ids.
In Figure 1, John Smith, Jane Doe and Michael S, are registered with this Internet based Service.
Each one of them has created a Contact Profile that holds their information like phone and email.
This is also illustrated in Figure 2.
A user of this service can create a Contact List using the tools provided by this internet service.
In Figure 1, Michael has created a Contact List. This Contact List, once created, will allow the user to search for contacts using this service. To search contacts, the user can provide as input, information such as partial or full name, phone numbers, email addresses.
Based on this search criteria, the internet service will suggest contacts that are available i.e.
already registered. The user can now add these contacts to his Contact List. In Figure 1, Michael has added John and Jane to his Contact List. This is also illustrated is Figure 3.
Once contacts are added, their Contact Information can be immediately accessible to the user or the Internet service can decide to wait for authentication from the contact to allow accessibility to their contact information.
The Contact Information, when accessible, can be viewed in the Contact List.
For example in Figure 1, Michael can view John's Contact Information.
Contact List and Contact Profiles are stored in a database server and are accessible to any computing device that is connected to the internet. The internet service can be accessible to individual users via a web browser or dedicated computing device applications, generally termed as apps that can run on a mobile or desktop computing device.
The Contact List is only allowed to view its contact's information but not control it. The Contact Information is owned, controlled, managed and updated by the Contact himself/herself. In Figure 1, Michael is able to view John's contact information. This information comes from John's Contact Profile. John creates and maintains his contact profile, hence has full ownership and control of his information. Michael's contact list does not have any control over John's contact information, it merely accesses this information. This is a fundamental difference from today's Contact Lists and this invention.
If a Contact updates his/her Contact Profile, say for example, a work email address, then this change is immediately visible to all Contact Lists that have access to the Contact Profile. Here, the Contact is updating information for a Contact List, hence this is termed as a Peer Managed Contact List. This reduces the burden on the owner of the Contact List. He/She does not have to keep-up with ever-changing contact information of contacts. These changes are always available and information is up-to-date because the person who owns this contact information is updating it for the contact lists. For example, if John moves from one job to another, he will update his work email address in his contact list. This change is immediately available to Michael, because his Contact List is always accessing current information of John. Also, John can decide to remove his cell phone from his Contact Profile. That way, none of his contacts will have his cell phone visible in their Contact List.
Now the Contact can modify his/her contact information and has full control over how his information is viewed by Contact Lists. For example, in Figures 2, John has decided not to share his phone number with Michael. Hence it is not visible in Michael's Contact List in Figure 3. If at any time, John wants to share his phone number, but revoke access to his email address to Michael, this can be done using the tools available in the internet service.
The ability to grant or revoke accessibility to one's contact information is at the core of this invention.
Relationships between contacts can break and hence the Contact Profiles provide an ability to revoke access to certain information. Also the Contact List allows its owner to Block or Delete a particular contact. Hence in this case, Contact Profile owners can control access to their information and also the Contact List owners can manage the list of contacts.
For example, in Figure 1, Michael can decide to temporarily block or permanently delete Jane from his Contact List. Then Jane's contact information will not be visible to Michael.
Similarly, Jane can block access to her contact information and then Michael will not be able to access any of her information.
The access privileges are important for control, privacy and security of contact information. For example, a person might not want to give a phone number to a new contact, but still might want to communicate with the person using email or instant messenger. Also, at a later date, this person might want to revoke access to his/her email to the new contact. That way, the new contact person's contact list will not be able to access the email address anymore. This gives full control over contact information to the real owner, unlike today's contact lists.
Multiple computing devices like, Desktop PC's, Mobile phones can be used to access this internet based service. One's Contact Profile and its management, Contact List and its management will be at the core of this service. Since almost all computing devices provide a local device contact list, this internet service can provide the ability via tools to synchronize its internet based Contact List with the local device's Contact List. Figure 4 illustrates how multiple device contact lists can synchronize with the internet based contact list. In this case, the local device contact list, will be periodically synchronized with the Internet based Contact List. This will be a useful feature, because many people use their local device's contact lists to communicate with their contacts. So if the Internet Service based Contact List can be synchronized with the local device contact list, then the transition to this internet contact list will be easier for users.
Also, the ability to synchronize with local contact lists, now will keep multiple devices in-sync with each other i.e. every contact list will have the same, updated information.
These synchronized, local device contact lists can be useful, if the device goes offline from the internet for a period. The local contact information can still be visible and accessible on the device.
This synchronization could also take care of the access privileges and control over information.
For example, if John decides to revoke access to his phone number, then Michael's Contact List will not be able to access John's phone number. Now, when Michael's phone contact list synchronizes with his Internet based Contact List, it will also not be able to see John's phone number. If John's phone number was previously recorded in Michael's phone contact list, then the synchronization process has the ability to delete the phone number from the local device contact list. This ability to grant and revoke access will be useful for privacy and security concerns over contact information.
The method and means of synchronization will depend on the computing device's ability to provide an interface to synchronize. The individual methods of synchronization to local devices are not in the scope of this invention.
A registered user to the internet service can create one or more contact lists based on his needs.
For example, one user can have a work contact list with only his colleagues and a family contact list with only his family members. The internet service is able to handle multiple contact lists for a given user.
Also, it is possible that a user can have multiple contact profiles, but it would be recommended to have only one contact profile so that it is easy to find and add contacts in contact lists.
The internet service mentioned in this invention, can be accessible to any computing device connected to the internet via a web browser or a software application (usually termed as app).
The app or web browser, provides the tools to:
= Register with the interne service as a user.
= Create a Contact Profile.
= Add, Modify, Delete elements of contact Information to this Contact Profile.
= Allow other users to access to all or some of the elements via their Contact Lists.
= Create a Contact List as a user.
= Add, Block, Delete contacts from this Contact List.
= View accessible contact information of contacts listed in their Contact Lists.
= Synchronize the Contact List with local computing device's contact list.
= Allow offline access to local device contact list, if previously synchronized to this device.
Further. the Contact Profile, can also provide elements such as 'Current Location' or 'Current Timezone' that can be regularly updated by users who change location, for example: traveling or temporary move. This current location or timezone can be made accessible to Contact Lists, who can use this information to remain up-to-date with the contacts location. This is particularly useful when the contact travels frequently and has to inform people he/she knows of his current location. This feature will reduce the burden of sending information updates to contacts. Just updating the Contact Profile can provide this current information to the Contact Lists.
This information, which includes phone numbers, email addresses, messenger identifiers, is useful while communicating with our contacts using the computing devices.
Today, contact lists are created and maintained by the person operating the computing devices, such as a mobile phone contact list or personal computer contact list. All information in a contact list is either manually entered by this person or else elements of this information is grabbed while communicating with the contact. For example, incoming phone caller identifier (commonly termed as Phone Caller ID), email address during email communication and instant messenger identifier (ID) during contact establishment. Such information is grabbed to create or update contact information.
Though the contact information about a person like email address and phone number is actually owned and merely provided by the contact for accessibility, after it has been entered into a contact list, it is forever controlled by the owner of this contact list. The contact, who owns this information, now does not have any control over the information stored in this contact list.
Apart from control of information, this information needs to be updated regularly based upon changes to the contact's methods of communication like change in phone number, work email address. Managing such information in contact lists is a daunting task.
Summary This invention is about an Internet based Contact List, where the contact information is created, controlled and managed by the individual contacts themselves rather than the owner of this Contact List. The Contact List only provides access to this information but does not manage any contact's information.
Individuals create a Contact Profile to store their contact information on an interne based database server via an Internet based service. The same internet service provides the ability to create a 'Contact List' where contacts can be searched, added and managed. The contact information, from the Profiles of contacts on this list, is available to the owner of this Contact List for communicating with these contacts.
Access privileges to the elements of information in a Contact Profile, are granted by the contact, who is the owner of this Profile. The Contact List has no control over its contact's information and access privileges. Updates to the contact's information are visible immediately to the Contact list.
The Contact List provides the ability to synchronize with local computing device contact lists, so that this peer maintained, up-to-date information can be available on multiple devices to the users.
This invention changes the way contact lists are created, managed and controlled. The owner of the information, i.e. the contact, owns and is in control of his/her information. The Contact List is merely provided access to this information due to acquaintance or relationship, and gets the privilege to use this information for communication. This privilege can be granted and take away based on the contact's i.e. owner's desire. This brings a fuhdamental change to how we handle contact information in contact lists.
Detailed Description Brief about Today's Contact Lists:
Computing devices, like desktop computers, mobile smart-phones, tablet PC's, laptops have given us the ability to communicate with our friends, family and colleagues using multiple methods of communication like phone, Short Messaging Service (SMS), email and Instant Messengers (IM). This communication has resulted in personal contact lists, wherein all known contacts are listed along with information about communicating with them like their phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses and instant messenger identifiers.
These contact lists can exist on a personal device like PC, mobile phone or can exist with providers of internet services, such as a feature generally termed as Contacts along side internet based email services.
These contact lists are created and maintained by the owner of this contact list i.e. by the person who operates the PC or the user of the interne service. The owner creates the contact list, then adds his contacts to the list and then types the contact information of the contact. Today, devices such as mobile phones allow its owner to create a contact in its contact list based on an incoming phone Caller ID or update an existing contact information with a new incoming phone ID.
Similarly, an incoming email address can be used to create or update a contact in the contact list on a desktop computer.
The fact relevant over here is that the owner of the contact list is solely creating the contact list and maintaining this contact list with information updates. He/She is the one, who creates a contact, updates phone numbers, email addresses, IM's in this list using tools provided by the computing device or internet service. Hence, every person is creating and maintaining his/her contact list.
Challenges with existing Contact Lists:
The Contact Lists have contacts with ever-changing contact information, for example, change in job email address, moving from one physical address to another, new messengers with ID's. Also new contacts added to the list, need to capture their contact information which include multiples methods of communication. If relationships break, then the information needs to be deleted or updated. The management of contact lists is a cumbersome task.
Also, a more important fact of the matter is that the contact information is actually owned by the contact and is merely available to the owner of the contact list for communication. This ownership of information is of significant today, with the ever-growing need for privacy, security, accessibility and visibility of a person. In today's contact lists, the person who is listed as a contact and who is the real owner of his/her information, does not have any control over this information in the contact list. There is a challenging need to provide control of contact information to its real owner.
Most individuals own multiple computing devices like a desktop PC, a laptop and a mobile phone. Also they subscribe to multiple internet based providers offering emails, messengers, social media accounts. To effectively communicate with all our contacts using multiple devices and multiple providers, we need contact lists accessible on these devices and services. The problem with these contact lists is that they are offered by different providers or computing device operating systems, and hence are not standardized and also do not remain synchronized.
This poses a new challenge of having to maintain multiple contact lists over multiple computing devices and multiple services. There is a need for one, synchronized contact list that can capture all the contact information required for easy, effective communication.
Concepts Behind This Invention:
= The Contact in a Contact List, is the owner of his/her Contact Information.
= The Contact should always stay in full control of his/her Contact Information.
= The Contact Lists should merely provide access to a Contact's information.
= The Contact List should not own, control or manage a Contact's Information i.e. The Contact should manage, update information that is accessible to the Contact List.
= A Contact should be able to grant and revoke access to his/her Contact Information.
= The Contact List should be accessible over multiple computing devices, hence should be internet based = The Contact List should remain synchronized over multiple computing devices.
The Invention Figure 1 illustrates an internet based service and its database server that hold Contact Profiles and Contact Lists.
A new user, is required to register with this internet based service and create a profile that holds his/her contact information like phone numbers, emails, postal addresses, instant messenger Ids.
In Figure 1, John Smith, Jane Doe and Michael S, are registered with this Internet based Service.
Each one of them has created a Contact Profile that holds their information like phone and email.
This is also illustrated in Figure 2.
A user of this service can create a Contact List using the tools provided by this internet service.
In Figure 1, Michael has created a Contact List. This Contact List, once created, will allow the user to search for contacts using this service. To search contacts, the user can provide as input, information such as partial or full name, phone numbers, email addresses.
Based on this search criteria, the internet service will suggest contacts that are available i.e.
already registered. The user can now add these contacts to his Contact List. In Figure 1, Michael has added John and Jane to his Contact List. This is also illustrated is Figure 3.
Once contacts are added, their Contact Information can be immediately accessible to the user or the Internet service can decide to wait for authentication from the contact to allow accessibility to their contact information.
The Contact Information, when accessible, can be viewed in the Contact List.
For example in Figure 1, Michael can view John's Contact Information.
Contact List and Contact Profiles are stored in a database server and are accessible to any computing device that is connected to the internet. The internet service can be accessible to individual users via a web browser or dedicated computing device applications, generally termed as apps that can run on a mobile or desktop computing device.
The Contact List is only allowed to view its contact's information but not control it. The Contact Information is owned, controlled, managed and updated by the Contact himself/herself. In Figure 1, Michael is able to view John's contact information. This information comes from John's Contact Profile. John creates and maintains his contact profile, hence has full ownership and control of his information. Michael's contact list does not have any control over John's contact information, it merely accesses this information. This is a fundamental difference from today's Contact Lists and this invention.
If a Contact updates his/her Contact Profile, say for example, a work email address, then this change is immediately visible to all Contact Lists that have access to the Contact Profile. Here, the Contact is updating information for a Contact List, hence this is termed as a Peer Managed Contact List. This reduces the burden on the owner of the Contact List. He/She does not have to keep-up with ever-changing contact information of contacts. These changes are always available and information is up-to-date because the person who owns this contact information is updating it for the contact lists. For example, if John moves from one job to another, he will update his work email address in his contact list. This change is immediately available to Michael, because his Contact List is always accessing current information of John. Also, John can decide to remove his cell phone from his Contact Profile. That way, none of his contacts will have his cell phone visible in their Contact List.
Now the Contact can modify his/her contact information and has full control over how his information is viewed by Contact Lists. For example, in Figures 2, John has decided not to share his phone number with Michael. Hence it is not visible in Michael's Contact List in Figure 3. If at any time, John wants to share his phone number, but revoke access to his email address to Michael, this can be done using the tools available in the internet service.
The ability to grant or revoke accessibility to one's contact information is at the core of this invention.
Relationships between contacts can break and hence the Contact Profiles provide an ability to revoke access to certain information. Also the Contact List allows its owner to Block or Delete a particular contact. Hence in this case, Contact Profile owners can control access to their information and also the Contact List owners can manage the list of contacts.
For example, in Figure 1, Michael can decide to temporarily block or permanently delete Jane from his Contact List. Then Jane's contact information will not be visible to Michael.
Similarly, Jane can block access to her contact information and then Michael will not be able to access any of her information.
The access privileges are important for control, privacy and security of contact information. For example, a person might not want to give a phone number to a new contact, but still might want to communicate with the person using email or instant messenger. Also, at a later date, this person might want to revoke access to his/her email to the new contact. That way, the new contact person's contact list will not be able to access the email address anymore. This gives full control over contact information to the real owner, unlike today's contact lists.
Multiple computing devices like, Desktop PC's, Mobile phones can be used to access this internet based service. One's Contact Profile and its management, Contact List and its management will be at the core of this service. Since almost all computing devices provide a local device contact list, this internet service can provide the ability via tools to synchronize its internet based Contact List with the local device's Contact List. Figure 4 illustrates how multiple device contact lists can synchronize with the internet based contact list. In this case, the local device contact list, will be periodically synchronized with the Internet based Contact List. This will be a useful feature, because many people use their local device's contact lists to communicate with their contacts. So if the Internet Service based Contact List can be synchronized with the local device contact list, then the transition to this internet contact list will be easier for users.
Also, the ability to synchronize with local contact lists, now will keep multiple devices in-sync with each other i.e. every contact list will have the same, updated information.
These synchronized, local device contact lists can be useful, if the device goes offline from the internet for a period. The local contact information can still be visible and accessible on the device.
This synchronization could also take care of the access privileges and control over information.
For example, if John decides to revoke access to his phone number, then Michael's Contact List will not be able to access John's phone number. Now, when Michael's phone contact list synchronizes with his Internet based Contact List, it will also not be able to see John's phone number. If John's phone number was previously recorded in Michael's phone contact list, then the synchronization process has the ability to delete the phone number from the local device contact list. This ability to grant and revoke access will be useful for privacy and security concerns over contact information.
The method and means of synchronization will depend on the computing device's ability to provide an interface to synchronize. The individual methods of synchronization to local devices are not in the scope of this invention.
A registered user to the internet service can create one or more contact lists based on his needs.
For example, one user can have a work contact list with only his colleagues and a family contact list with only his family members. The internet service is able to handle multiple contact lists for a given user.
Also, it is possible that a user can have multiple contact profiles, but it would be recommended to have only one contact profile so that it is easy to find and add contacts in contact lists.
The internet service mentioned in this invention, can be accessible to any computing device connected to the internet via a web browser or a software application (usually termed as app).
The app or web browser, provides the tools to:
= Register with the interne service as a user.
= Create a Contact Profile.
= Add, Modify, Delete elements of contact Information to this Contact Profile.
= Allow other users to access to all or some of the elements via their Contact Lists.
= Create a Contact List as a user.
= Add, Block, Delete contacts from this Contact List.
= View accessible contact information of contacts listed in their Contact Lists.
= Synchronize the Contact List with local computing device's contact list.
= Allow offline access to local device contact list, if previously synchronized to this device.
Further. the Contact Profile, can also provide elements such as 'Current Location' or 'Current Timezone' that can be regularly updated by users who change location, for example: traveling or temporary move. This current location or timezone can be made accessible to Contact Lists, who can use this information to remain up-to-date with the contacts location. This is particularly useful when the contact travels frequently and has to inform people he/she knows of his current location. This feature will reduce the burden of sending information updates to contacts. Just updating the Contact Profile can provide this current information to the Contact Lists.
Claims (4)
1. A Contact List with Peer Managed Contact Information, comprising:
internet based service that enables users to create their contact profile consisting of their information that is useful for others to communicate with them;
internet based service that enables a user to create one or more contact lists consisting of the above users listed as contacts;
contact list that is able to view a listed contact's information based on privileged access provided by the contact;
contact information, that is accessible in the contact list, is controlled, managed, updated or removed by the contact who created and owns the contact profile contact list that is not able to control, add, modify, remove or update the contact's information;
internet based service that enables users to create their contact profile consisting of their information that is useful for others to communicate with them;
internet based service that enables a user to create one or more contact lists consisting of the above users listed as contacts;
contact list that is able to view a listed contact's information based on privileged access provided by the contact;
contact information, that is accessible in the contact list, is controlled, managed, updated or removed by the contact who created and owns the contact profile contact list that is not able to control, add, modify, remove or update the contact's information;
2. A Contact List with Peer Managed Contact Information of Claim 1, further comprising:
access privileges that guard access to any or all elements of the contact information in the contact profile, which can be granted or revoked to other users based on the desire of the contact profile's owner;
contact list that is allowed to only view those elements of the contact information for which the contact's profile has granted access;
contact list that does not have access to those elements of the contact information for which the contact's profile has not granted access;
contact list that loses access to those elements of the contact information for which the contact profile's owner has not revoked access;
access privileges that guard access to any or all elements of the contact information in the contact profile, which can be granted or revoked to other users based on the desire of the contact profile's owner;
contact list that is allowed to only view those elements of the contact information for which the contact's profile has granted access;
contact list that does not have access to those elements of the contact information for which the contact's profile has not granted access;
contact list that loses access to those elements of the contact information for which the contact profile's owner has not revoked access;
3. A Contact List with Peer Managed Contact Information of Claim 1, further comprising:
internet service that provides users with the ability to add, block or delete contacts in their contact list;
internet service that provides users with the ability to authenticate other users, so that they can be added to a contact list and their contact information is available to that contact list;
internet service that provides users with the ability to add, block or delete contacts in their contact list;
internet service that provides users with the ability to authenticate other users, so that they can be added to a contact list and their contact information is available to that contact list;
4. A Contact List with Peer Managed Contact Information of Claim 1, further comprising:
internet based contact list that provides the ability to periodically synchronize with a local computing device's contact list;
internet based contact list that provides the ability to add, modify, update or remove contacts and their contact information from the local device upon synchronization;
internet based contact list that provides the ability to periodically synchronize with a local computing device's contact list;
internet based contact list that provides the ability to add, modify, update or remove contacts and their contact information from the local device upon synchronization;
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2814757 CA2814757A1 (en) | 2013-04-30 | 2013-04-30 | Internet based contact list with peer managed contact information |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2814757 CA2814757A1 (en) | 2013-04-30 | 2013-04-30 | Internet based contact list with peer managed contact information |
Related Child Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA2818815A Division CA2818815A1 (en) | 2013-04-30 | 2013-04-30 | Visibility of personal information over the internet based upon the distance of a relationship |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2814757A1 true CA2814757A1 (en) | 2014-10-30 |
Family
ID=51831039
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2814757 Abandoned CA2814757A1 (en) | 2013-04-30 | 2013-04-30 | Internet based contact list with peer managed contact information |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA2814757A1 (en) |
-
2013
- 2013-04-30 CA CA 2814757 patent/CA2814757A1/en not_active Abandoned
Similar Documents
| Publication | Publication Date | Title |
|---|---|---|
| US12056106B2 (en) | Data storage architecture for an enterprise communication system | |
| US9720915B2 (en) | Presenting metadata from multiple perimeters | |
| US10237276B2 (en) | Managing access rights to a group directory | |
| Toch et al. | Locaccino: a privacy-centric location sharing application | |
| US20170118165A1 (en) | System and method for controlled sharing and synchronizing information across a plurality of mobile client application computers | |
| US9654288B1 (en) | Securing group communications | |
| US10728308B2 (en) | Systems for content recommendation based on a meeting invite | |
| GB2504402A (en) | Limiting the devices with which a user can synchronise data in a cloud storage account to those on a list of devices | |
| US20230319001A1 (en) | Snippet(s) of content associated with a communication platform | |
| KR101064735B1 (en) | Unidentified recipients message exchange service providing method | |
| JPWO2014068792A1 (en) | Access control method and access control system | |
| CN104679812A (en) | Method and system for filtering application content | |
| KR101998378B1 (en) | Method for providing messenger service multiple profile and designated groupchatting call | |
| US11924361B1 (en) | Secure time-to-live | |
| WO2012151944A1 (en) | Method and device for realizing community federation | |
| CN104363163A (en) | Method for establishing instant messaging APP (application) capable of automatically generating tree-type communication directory | |
| CN117957827A (en) | Establishing a new connection in a communication platform | |
| WO2016180159A1 (en) | Application management method and apparatus | |
| JP2014014065A (en) | Information processing apparatus, conference system, and program | |
| US9877188B1 (en) | Wireless network access credential sharing using a network based credential storage service | |
| JP2012168630A (en) | Data management device, data management method, and program | |
| US20150242501A1 (en) | Social network address book | |
| JP2014223188A (en) | Communication terminal, program, control method for communication terminal, and communication system | |
| WO2013163535A2 (en) | Social connections migration | |
| CA2814757A1 (en) | Internet based contact list with peer managed contact information |
Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| FZDE | Discontinued |
Effective date: 20160502 |