JP2002207680A - System/method for supporting desktop conference and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system/method for supporting a desktop conference and a program which facilitate preparation for holding of the desktop conference. SOLUTION: The organizer of the desktop conference operates a terminal 500 to register information on a conference scheduled to be held to a desktop conference host terminal 100. A prescribed period before the start scheduled time of the registered scheduled conference, the terminal 100 transmits an electronic mail for giving notice of holding of the conference to the terminals 500 of scheduled participants. The respective scheduled participants transmits answer to the received holding notice to the terminal 100, which confirms attendants based on the received answers the obtains the IP addresses of the terminals 500 fitted to the answers. The terminal 100 gives notice of the obtained IP addresses to the terminals 500 of the respective participants.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic conference support system, an electronic conference support method, and a program, and more particularly to an electronic conference support system capable of easily preparing for holding a conference in an electronic conference system for interconnecting a plurality of terminals. The present invention relates to a system and a method, and a program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been an electronic conference system in which a plurality of terminals such as a workstation and a personal computer are connected to a host terminal via a communication network such as the Internet to conduct a conference using each terminal. Has been realized.

Further, for example, a CCD (Charge Coupled D)
evice: An electronic conferencing system (video conferencing system) that reproduces the realism of an actual conference by connecting an imaging device such as a camera to the terminal and displaying the moving images of conference participants on the terminal. ) Has also been put to practical use.

[0004] When such an electronic conference system is realized using the Internet, the host terminal obtains an IP (Internet Protocol) address indicating the address of each terminal, thereby interconnecting the terminals.

[0005] When the Internet is connected by a so-called dial-up connection for making an Internet connection using a telephone line, the IP address of each terminal is usually
ISP (Internet Servi) that mediates dial-up connection
(ce Provider: Internet service provider) automatically assigned when connecting. At this time IS
Since P assigns a vacant IP address at the time of the terminal making a connection request, the IP address of each terminal differs for each connection.

[0006] Therefore, when conducting the above-described electronic conference, the participant must notify the host terminal of the IP address assigned by connecting the terminal to be used to the ISP before the conference starts. . Also, in the host terminal, the conference organizer has to notify the IP address of the notified participant to the terminals of the other participants, and preparation work before the start of the conference is complicated.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide an electronic conference support system, method, and program for facilitating preparation work before starting an electronic conference. .

[0008]

To achieve the above object, an electronic conference support system according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a plurality of specific terminals connected via a communication network; And a host terminal that controls transmission and reception of information at the electronic conference support system that provides an electronic conference service by connecting the terminals to each other, wherein the host terminal A scheduled meeting registration unit for registering the scheduled meeting and the identification information of the specific terminals used by the meeting participants in association with each other, and the identification information of the terminal registered in the scheduled meeting registration unit A notification unit for notifying in advance that the conference is to be held, and a response for receiving and replying to the notification of the notification by the notification unit, and acquiring and storing the address of the terminal of the reply source. It comprises an authentication unit, and a meeting portion to hold the electronic conference by connecting each terminal based on the address where the participant authentication unit has acquired, wherein the.

In the above electronic conference support system, the scheduled meeting registration unit registers start time information indicating a start time of each meeting, and the holding notification unit stores the start time information registered in the scheduled meeting registration unit. It is desirable to give advance notice a predetermined time before the indicated start time.

[0010] In the electronic conference support system, the participant authentication unit may obtain a plurality of conferences notified by the event notification unit when receiving a reply from a participant terminal registered in the scheduled conference registration unit. Including the information indicating the address of the terminal, to create start notification information to notify the start of the conference, the conference holding unit transmits the start notification information created by the participant authentication unit to each terminal, each terminal It is preferable that the address information of another terminal included in the start notification information received from the conference holding unit be transmitted to the conference holding unit as a connection request to the terminal.

[0011] In the electronic conference support system, the participant authentication unit may be a terminal that has not responded to the holding notification for the meeting notified by the holding notification unit even if the start time registered in the scheduled meeting registration unit is reached. If there is, it is desirable to transmit comment information urging a reply to the terminal.

[0012] The meeting holding unit may stop holding the meeting if a reply to the holding notice is not transmitted from the transmission destination of the comment information even if a predetermined time has elapsed from the start time.

According to the above-described configuration, each participant is notified in advance of the scheduled holding of the conference, the participant is confirmed based on the reply to the advance notification, and the participant attached to the reply is Address of the user's terminal (for example, IP
Address) can be obtained and notified to each participant, so that it is not necessary for the participants to notify each other before the conference is held.

Further, for participants who have not replied,
Since a notice urging a reply is given, it is possible to ensure that the prospective participant participates in the conference.

In addition, if it is not possible to confirm the participation of all the prospective participants even at the conference holding time, the conference can be cancelled. It is possible to prevent compelling participants.

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic conference support method according to a second aspect of the present invention provides an electronic conference system in which a plurality of specific terminals connected to a communication network are interconnected to perform an electronic conference. An electronic conference support method applied to a scheduled conference registration step in which at least information indicating a conference start time and an e-mail address of a participant are registered in advance for a scheduled conference. A meeting notification step of sending an e-mail notifying the holding of the meeting to a corresponding e-mail address a predetermined time before the given meeting start time, and sending a reply to the e-mail to participate in the meeting. A participation notification step of notifying, a participant authentication step of acquiring an address of a terminal that has transmitted the participation notification in the participation notification step, Based on the address obtained in the authentication step, characterized in that it comprises a conference step of holding the electronic conference by connecting the terminal.

In the participation notification step, if the participation notification is not made even at the conference start time registered in the scheduled conference registration step, an electronic mail for urging the terminal to transmit the participation notification is sent. It is desirable to further include a prompting step.

[0018] If the terminal to which the e-mail has been transmitted in the participation prompting step does not transmit the participation notification even at the conference start time, the conference holding step may stop the holding of the conference.

In order to achieve the above object, a program according to a third aspect of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to function as a host terminal of an electronic conference system. Scheduled meeting registration means for registering in association with identification information of a plurality of client terminals used by the meeting participant,
On the basis of the information registered in the scheduled meeting registration means, a holding notice means for transmitting a notice of holding a meeting to a participating terminal through a communication network a predetermined time before the meeting start time, A participant authentication unit that receives a reply and obtains and stores the address of the client terminal that sent the reply, and sends a reply to the terminal that has not sent a reply to the event notification even at the meeting start time. A reply prompting means for transmitting comment information for prompting, a meeting canceling means for canceling the holding of the conference if a reply is not received from a destination of the comment information even if a predetermined time has elapsed from the meeting start time, and the participation When the user authentication means receives a reply to the event notification from all participating terminals, it connects each client terminal based on the obtained address and Characterized in that to function as meeting means, to hold.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an electronic conference holding support system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic conference holding support system 1 according to the present embodiment
00, Internet 200, ISP (Internet Servi
ce Provider) 300-1 to 300-n, public line 40
0-1 to 400-n and terminals 500-1 to 500-n.

The electronic conference host terminal 100 is composed of, for example, a workstation or a mainframe, and is used for performing an electronic conference and preparation for holding the electronic conference, which is performed in the present embodiment. The configuration of the electronic conference host terminal 100 will be described later with reference to FIG.

When conducting an electronic conference held by the electronic conference host terminal 100, the Internet 200 connects a terminal 500 (to be described later) used by conference participants and the electronic conference host terminal 100 to an ISP 300 and a public line 400 to be described later. Connect through. In the present embodiment,
The conference participant terminal 500 is connected to the Internet 200 by dial-up connection using the ISP 300 and the public line 400.

ISP (Internet Service Provider) 3
00 is a normal commercial internet provider,
An Internet connection service is provided to the terminal 500 based on a contract with a user (administrator) of the terminal 500. IS
P300 provides a predetermined access point, and the terminal 5
00 is connected to the Internet 200 by dial-up connection to a nearby access point.

The public line 400 is a normal telephone line network, and includes an access point provided by the ISP 300 and a terminal 5.
Connect to 00.

The terminal 500 comprises a general-purpose computer such as a workstation or a personal computer. Note that the participants of the electronic conference implemented in the present embodiment are limited to specific persons, for example, employees of the same company. Therefore, in this case, the terminal 500
Is owned by the company.

Next, a detailed configuration of the electronic conference host terminal 100 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the electronic conference host terminal 100.

As shown in FIG. 2, the electronic conference host terminal 100 according to the present embodiment includes a web management unit 10, an application management unit 20, a database (DB) management unit 30, a database 40, and a web page file 50. Prepare.

[0030] The web management unit 10 is connected to the Internet 20.
It is for creating and managing files and e-mails to be transmitted / received through the Internet, and includes a communication unit 11, a web page search unit 12, a web page creation unit 13, and a mail server 14.

The communication unit 11 is composed of a communication device such as a router or a terminal adapter (TA), and connects the electronic conference host terminal 100 to the Internet 200, and is necessary for preparation and progress of the electronic conference. Send and receive files, data, e-mail, etc.

The web page search unit 12 appropriately searches and selects a necessary web page from web pages stored in a web page file 50 described later.

[0033] The web page creation unit 13 is, for example, a CG
I (Common Gateway Interface) programs and other web pages required for conducting electronic conferences, such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
Create as appropriate depending on the format.

The mail server 14 uses, for example, a prepared sentence to prepare the terminal 5 at the stage of preparing for holding the electronic conference.
Various electronic mails to be sent to the electronic conference host terminal 100 are appropriately created, and the electronic mails sent from each terminal 500 to the electronic conference host terminal 100 are received and stored.

The application management unit 20 stores and executes a program for each processing required at the stage of preparing for holding an electronic conference. The application management unit 20 includes a processing unit 21, a member management unit 22, a scheduled conference management unit 23, an attendance A user management unit 24 and an unauthenticated person invitation management unit 25 are provided.

The processing section 21 is a program for controlling the member management section 22, the scheduled conference management section 23, the attendee management section 24, and the unattended attendance management section 25.
2. Acquire data necessary for the processing of the scheduled meeting management unit 23, the attendee management unit 24, and the unattended attendance management unit 25, and output the processing result.

The member management section 22 is a program for controlling a member management file 41 described later.

The scheduled meeting management section 23 is a program for controlling a scheduled meeting management file 42 described later.

The attendee management unit 24 is a program that controls a start conference management file 43 described later and registers participants who have been confirmed to attend the conference.

The unattended attendance management unit 25 is a program that refers to the start meeting management file 43 and sends an e-mail to prospective attendees whose attendance has not been confirmed at the start of the scheduled meeting.

The database management unit 30 controls a database 4 described below under the control of the application management unit 20.
0, and passes the information extracted from the database 40 to the application management unit 20.

The database 40 is composed of, for example, a rewritable storage device such as a hard disk device, and includes a member management file 41, a scheduled meeting management file 42, and a start meeting management file 43.

The member management file 41 indicates a person who has a qualification to participate in the electronic conference implemented in this embodiment (hereinafter, referred to as a member).
3) is recorded.
As shown in (a), the member ID, password, name, contact information (mail address), and IP address are recorded.

The scheduled meeting management file 42 records information on the electronic meeting scheduled to be held. As shown in FIG. 3B, the meeting ID, the meeting name, the meeting holding date and time, and the number of participants , The participation member ID and the holding flag are recorded.

The start conference management file 43 is used to record information about the electronic conference that has been held, and as shown in FIG. 3C, the conference ID, the conference date and time, the participating member ID, the authentication Record the flag.

Next, the processing of the entire electronic conference holding support system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the information about the scheduled conference is registered in the scheduled conference management file 42 by the organizer of the electronic conference (hereinafter, referred to as “conference leader”) (step S).
100). This scheduled meeting information registration processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the conference leader operates the terminal 500 to access the electronic conference host terminal 100 via the Internet 200 (step S101: Yes).

The electronic conference host terminal 100 transmits the electronic conference menu page shown in FIG. 6 to the access source terminal 500 (step S102). The electronic conference menu page is created in, for example, an HTML format and stored in the web page file 50 of the electronic conference host terminal 100. Here, the web management unit 10 acquires the electronic conference menu page from the web page file 50 in response to the access from the member, and transmits the electronic conference menu page to the terminal 500 by controlling the communication unit 11.

As shown in FIG. 6, on the electronic conference menu page, a text box for inputting a user ID and a password, an “electronic conference registration” item, and an “electronic conference participation” item are arranged. The “Electronic Conference Registration” item and the “Electronic Conference Participation” item are hypertexts, and are linked to URLs indicating the “Electronic Conference Registration” page and the “Electronic Conference Participation” page, respectively.

After inputting the user ID and password of the conference leader, the conference leader selects the item “Electronic Conference Registration” by a click operation or the like. According to the selection operation of the “electronic conference registration” item, the input user ID and password and the URL indicating the “electronic conference registration” page are displayed on the terminal 500.
Is transmitted to the electronic conference host terminal 100.

In the electronic conference host terminal 100, the communication unit 1
1 receives the user ID and the password from the terminal 500 (step S103), and the received user ID and password are transferred to the application management unit 20. In the application management unit 20, the processing unit 21 searches the member management file 41 of the database 40 by controlling the member management unit 22, and determines whether there is member information having the same combination as the combination of the received user ID and password. Member authentication is performed by determining whether or not the membership is determined (step S104).

When the member authentication is established, that is, when the received combination of the user ID and the password exists in the member management file 41 (step S104: Yes)
s), the web management unit 10 sends the U
It is determined whether or not the RL indicates the “electronic conference registration” page (step S105).

When the member authentication is not established (step S
104: No) or when the received URL does not indicate the “electronic conference registration” page (step S105:
No), the scheduled meeting information registration process ends.

On the other hand, the received URL is "Electronic conference registration".
If it indicates a page (step S105: Ye
s) The processing unit 21 of the application management unit 20 controls the scheduled meeting management unit 23, and creates an entry frame in the scheduled meeting management file 42 of the database 40 using the user ID received in step S103 as a key (step). S106).

Next, the web management unit 10 acquires a scheduled conference registration page as shown in FIG. 7 from the web page file 50, and transmits it to the terminal 500 via the Internet 200 (step S107).

Upon receiving the scheduled conference registration page at terminal 500, the conference leader operates terminal 500 to input information on the conference to be held. The items input here are, for example, the name of the conference, the date and time of the conference, the number of participants, and the names of the participants.

As shown in FIG. 7, a "register" button and a "cancel" button are arranged on the scheduled conference registration page. When the “register” button is selected, the input information is transmitted to the electronic conference host terminal 100 via the Internet 200.

When the electronic conference host terminal 100 receives the information of the scheduled conference from the terminal 500 (step S108: Y
es), the processing unit 21 of the application management unit 20
The scheduled meeting management unit 23 is controlled, and the scheduled meeting information received in step S108 is registered in the entry frame created in the scheduled meeting management file 42 in step S106 (step S109).

Next, the processing section 21 controls the member management section 22 to acquire from the member management file 41 an e-mail address corresponding to the participating member ID of the entry frame in which the scheduled meeting information is registered in step S109 (step S109). S11
0).

The processing section 21 transfers the e-mail address of the participating member acquired in step S110 to the web management section 10. The web management unit 10 controls the mail server 14 and transmits an e-mail of a meeting invitation notice as shown in FIG. 8 to the e-mail address passed from the processing unit 21 (step S111), and a scheduled meeting information registration process To end.

As shown in FIG. 8, the transmitted meeting invitation notice includes a notice of the scheduled date and time of the meeting, as shown in FIG.
The URL of the electronic conference menu page (to be described later) to be accessed at the time of holding the electronic conference and the electronic mail addresses of other participants are described in a hyperlink format.

Next, details of the conference to be held extraction processing in step S200 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

In the electronic conference host terminal 100, the processing section 21 of the application management section 20 controls the scheduled conference management section 23 at predetermined time intervals (for example, 15 minutes) and accesses the scheduled conference management file 42 (step S20).
1).

Here, the scheduled meeting management section 23 refers to the start time of the meeting registered in the scheduled meeting management file 42, and the start time is within a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes) from the current time. It is searched whether or not there is something (steps S202, S203).

Here, if there is no corresponding conference (step S203: No), the process returns to step S201, and a search is performed at predetermined time intervals.

On the other hand, when the corresponding conference is registered (step S203: Yes), the scheduled conference management unit 23
Acquires the registration information of the conference from the scheduled conference management file 42 (step S204), and passes it to the attendee management unit 24.

Next, the scheduled meeting management section 23 acquires the participating member ID of the acquired registration information and transfers it to the member management section 22. The member management unit 22 acquires the member information from the member management file 41 based on the transferred participating member ID (step S205), and transfers the information to the attendee management unit 24.

The attendee management unit 24 includes the scheduled meeting management unit 23
A record including the meeting information transferred from the member management unit 22 and the member information transferred from the member management unit 22 is created in the start meeting management file 43 (step S206).

Subsequently, the attendee management unit 24 proceeds to step S2
The e-mail address of the participating member is transferred to the web management unit 10 based on the member information transferred in 05. The web management unit 10 creates a conference start notification mail as shown in FIG. 10 by the mail server 14 and sends it to the e-mail address of the participating member via the communication unit 11 (step S207), and ends the processing. I do.

The conference start notification mail transmitted here is:
As shown in FIG. 10, a message indicating that the conference start time has been reached, and the e-mail addresses of other participants are described in a hyperlink format.

Next, the conference participant authentication processing in step S300 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

First, the participating member operates the terminal 500 to access the electronic conference menu page provided by the electronic conference host terminal 100 (step S301: Yes). Here, a menu page transmission is requested by selecting a URL described in a hyperlink format in the meeting invitation notification e-mail (see FIG. 8) transmitted to each participant in step S111.

The electronic conference host terminal 100 transmits the electronic conference menu page shown in FIG. 6 to the terminal 500 that has accessed (step S302).

The participant operates the terminal 500, inputs his / her user ID and password, and selects the item "participation in the electronic conference". Accordingly, the user ID, the password, and the information indicating “participation in the electronic conference” are transmitted to the electronic conference host terminal 100 via the Internet 200.

The electronic conference host terminal 100 performs member authentication by the same processing as in steps S103 and S104 described above (steps S303 and S304). If the authentication is successful (step S304: Yes), “participation in electronic conference” is performed. It is determined whether or not it has been selected (step S30)
5).

If "participation in electronic conference" is selected (step S305: Yes), the application management unit 20
The processing unit 21 accesses the start meeting management file 43 by controlling the attendee management unit 24, and updates the authentication flag of the member from 0 to 1 (step S306).

The web management unit 10 obtains the user ID, the password, and the IP address of the source terminal 500 attached to the information indicating “participation in the electronic conference” received in step S303 (step S307). It is delivered to the member management unit 22 of the management unit 20.

The member management unit 22 accesses the member management file 41, registers the IP address acquired in step S307 in the IP address column of the member record (step S308), and ends the processing.

Next, details of the unauthenticated person invitation process in step S400 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

First, the processing unit 21 of the application management unit 20 controls the unauthenticated person invitation management unit 25, and sets the file pointer (P) of the start conference management file 43 to the initial value 1
(Step S401).

Next, the unauthenticated person invitation management unit 25 sets the pointer (Q) to the initial value 1 for the participating member ID registered in the P-th record (step S40).
2).

The unauthenticated person invitation management unit 25 acquires the Q-th member ID and transfers it to the attendee management unit 24. The attendee management unit 24 accesses the start meeting management file 43 and determines whether or not the authentication flag corresponding to the transferred member ID is 0 (step S403).

Here, when the authentication flag is 0 (step S
403: Yes), that is, when the member has not been authenticated to participate, the member management unit 22 acquires the e-mail address of the member from the member management file 41 (step S404), and sends the e-mail address to the unauthenticated person invitation management unit 25. hand over.

The unauthenticated person invitation management section 25 sends the mail server 14 of the web management section 10 via the processing section 21 to the mail server 14 shown in FIG.
Then, an instruction is given to create a meeting attendance notification mail as shown in (1) and send it to the acquired e-mail address (step S405).

After transmitting the meeting attendance prompt notification mail, or when it is determined in step S403 that the authentication flag is not 0 (step S403: No), that is, when the member has already been authenticated for participation, The convenor management unit 25 repeats the processes of steps S403 to S405 described above for the member ID next to the Pth record (step S406, step S407: Yes).

When the above-mentioned processing is completed for all participating member IDs of the P-th record, the uncertified person invitation management unit 2
5 corresponds to steps S402 to S402 for the next record.
The process of S407 is repeated (Step S408, Step S409: Yes).

When the processing is completed for all records in the start meeting management file 43 (step S409: N
o), the unauthenticated person invitation management unit 25 sets the pointer P to the initial value 1 again, and repeats the above processing.

Next, the conference start processing in step S500 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

The scheduled conference management section 23 of the application management section 20 accesses the start conference management file 43,
The pointer (P) of the registered record is set to the initial value 1 (step S501).

The scheduled meeting management section 23 refers to the meeting start time registered in the P-th record and determines whether or not the start time has come (step S502).

When the start time of the conference registered in the P-th record has come (step S502: Yes),
It is determined whether the authentication flags of all the participants registered in the record are 1 (step S503).

If all the authentication flags are not 1 (step S503: No), the unauthenticated person invitation process of step S400 is executed again.

On the other hand, when all the authentication flags are 1 (step S503: Yes), that is, when all the participants of the conference have been authenticated, the scheduled conference management unit 23 is registered in the record. Participant member ID
To the member management unit 22.

The member management section 22 stores the member management file 41
, And obtains an IP address corresponding to the participant member ID passed from the scheduled meeting management unit 23, and passes it to the web management unit 10.

The web management section 10 controls the web page creation section 13 to create a conference start page in which the transferred IP addresses other than the organizer are described in a hypertext format. The organizer's terminal 50
0 (step S504).

The web page creation unit 13 further creates a conference start page in which the IP addresses of all participants are described in a hypertext format, and, under the control of the web management unit 10, via the communication unit 11, a participant other than the organizer participates Terminal 50
0 (step S505).

When the transmission of the conference start page to each participant is completed, the scheduled conference management unit 23 starts the start conference management file 4.
3, the record of the meeting is deleted, and the holding flag corresponding to the record of the meeting registered in the scheduled meeting management file 42 is updated to 1 indicating that the meeting is held (step S506). S50
7).

If there is a next record, the scheduled meeting management section 23 repeats the processing of the above-described steps S502 to S507 (steps S508 and S509: Yes), and if there is no next record, resets the pointer (P) to the initial value again. 1 and the above processing is repeated (steps S508, S509:
No).

Each participant determines in steps S504 and S5
By selecting the IP address of another participant described in the conference start page transmitted in 05, desired participants are connected to each other, and an electronic conference is realized.

At the end of the conference, for example, when the organizer notifies the electronic conference host terminal 100 of the end, the record of the conference is deleted from the scheduled conference management file 42.

In the above embodiment, the participant authentication is performed by transmitting information from the electronic conference menu page which is a web page. However, this may be performed by a reply mail to the conference notification mail shown in FIG. Good. In this case, since the sender's IP address is added to the header of the e-mail, by acquiring this, the IP address of the participant can be automatically acquired as in the above-described embodiment. .

In addition, even if the unauthenticated person inviting process according to the above-described embodiment is performed, if there is a prospective participant whose participation is not authenticated, the conference may be stopped. In this case, an e-mail describing the cancellation of the conference may be created and each participant may be notified.

In the above embodiment, the programs have been described as being stored in advance in the application management unit 20. However, these programs are stored in a computer-readable recording medium (for example, a floppy (registered trademark)).
Disc, CD-ROM (compact disc read only mem
ory) or a DVD (digital versatile disc). Further, the program may be superimposed on a carrier wave and distributed to a computer via a communication line or the like.

[0105]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The participant is confirmed by notifying each participant in advance of the scheduled electronic conference and returning the participant to this notice. At the same time, the IP address attached to the reply is automatically obtained, so that the connection between the terminals of the participants can be facilitated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an electronic conference holding support system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the electronic conference host terminal shown in FIG.

3A and 3B are diagrams showing the configuration of the database shown in FIG. 2, wherein FIG. 3A shows the contents of a member management file, FIG. 3B shows the contents of a scheduled meeting management file, and FIG. Is shown.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the electronic conference holding support system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a scheduled meeting information registration process shown in FIG. 4;

6 is a diagram showing a display example of an electronic conference menu transmitted in the scheduled conference information registration processing shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display example of a scheduled meeting registration page transmitted in the scheduled meeting information registration processing shown in FIG. 5;

8 is a diagram showing a display example of a meeting notification mail transmitted in the scheduled meeting information registration process shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining a conference to be held extraction process shown in FIG. 4;

10 is a diagram showing a display example of a conference start notification mail transmitted in the conference to be held extraction process shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining a conference participant authentication process shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining an unauthenticated person invitation process shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a display example of a meeting attendance reminder mail transmitted in the unauthenticated person invitation process shown in FIG.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart for explaining a conference start process shown in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Electronic conference holding support system, 100 ... Electronic conference host terminal, 200 ... Internet, 500 ... Terminal

Claims (9)

[Claims] A plurality of terminals connected via a communication network; and a host terminal for controlling transmission and reception of information between the plurality of terminals. The host terminal mutually connects the terminals. An electronic conference support system that provides an electronic conference service by connecting, wherein the host terminal associates a conference scheduled to be held with identification information of the specific plurality of terminals used by the conference participants. A scheduled meeting registration unit to be registered with the scheduled meeting registration unit; a holding notification unit that notifies the holding of the meeting in advance based on the identification information of the terminal registered in the scheduled meeting registration unit; A participant authentication unit that receives a reply and obtains and stores the address of the terminal that sent the reply, and an electronic conference by connecting each terminal based on the address obtained by the participant authentication unit. Comprising a conference unit held for the electronic conference support system, characterized in that. 2. The scheduled conference registration unit registers start time information indicating a start time of each conference, and the holding notification unit registers a start time indicated by the start time information registered in the scheduled conference registration unit. The electronic conference support system according to claim 1, wherein advance notification is performed a predetermined time before. 3. The participant authentication unit indicates the addresses of a plurality of terminals acquired when a reply is received from a participant terminal registered in the scheduled conference registration unit for the conference notified by the holding notification unit. Including information,
Create start notification information notifying the start of the conference, the conference holding unit transmits the start notification information created by the participant authentication unit to each terminal, each terminal, the start notification received from the conference holding unit The electronic conference support system according to claim 1, wherein address information of another terminal included in the information is transmitted to the conference holding unit as a connection request to the terminal. 4. The participant authentication unit, when there is a terminal that has not responded to the event notification even at the start time registered in the scheduled meeting registration unit, for the conference notified by the event notification unit, The electronic conference support system according to claim 3, wherein comment information for urging a reply is transmitted to the terminal. 5. The conference holding unit, when a reply to the holding notification is not transmitted from a destination of the comment information even after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start time,
The electronic conference support system according to claim 4, wherein holding of the conference is stopped. 6. An electronic conference supporting method applied to an electronic conference system for performing an electronic conference by mutually connecting a plurality of specific terminals connected to a communication network, wherein at least a conference to be held is A scheduled meeting registration step of pre-registering information indicating a start time and a mail address of a participant; holding a meeting to a corresponding mail address a predetermined time before the meeting start time registered in the scheduled meeting registration step An e-mail notifying that the e-mail is transmitted, a participation notification step of notifying participation in the conference by transmitting a reply of the e-mail, and an address of a terminal that has transmitted the participation notification in the participation notification step By connecting the terminal based on the address obtained in the participant authentication step. Electronic conference support method characterized by and a meeting step to hold the child conference. 7. In the participation notification step, if a participation notification is not made even at the meeting start time registered in the scheduled conference registration step, an e-mail for prompting the terminal to transmit the participation notification is sent to the terminal. The electronic conference support method according to claim 6, further comprising a participation prompting step. 8. If the terminal to which the e-mail has been sent in the participation prompting step does not transmit the participation notification even at the meeting start time, the meeting holding step stops the holding of the meeting. The electronic conference support method according to claim 7, wherein: 9. A program for causing a computer to function as a host terminal of an electronic conference system, the computer comprising: a computer configured to transmit a conference scheduled to be held and identification information of a plurality of client terminals used by the conference participants; Scheduled meeting registration means for registering in association with each other, based on the information registered in the scheduled meeting registration means, a holding notifying means for transmitting a notice of holding a meeting to a participating terminal via a communication network a predetermined time before a meeting start time. A participant authentication unit that receives a reply to the event notification by the event notification unit, acquires and stores the address of the client terminal that sent the response, and transmits a reply to the event notification even at the meeting start time. Reply prompting means for transmitting comment information for prompting the transmission of a reply to a terminal that has not been sent, a predetermined time from the meeting start time Even if it passes, if a reply is not made from the transmission destination of the comment information, a conference canceling means for canceling the holding of the conference, if the participant authentication means receives a reply to the holding notice from all the participating terminals, A program to function as a conference holding means for holding an electronic conference by connecting each client terminal based on the obtained address.