MEETINGS COORDINATING SYSTEM AND METHOD
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of calendaring system. More
particularly, the invention relates to a method and system for calendar
management services by synchronizing calendars in a confidential and
anonymous manner.
Background of the invention
In today's world, the social networks are very developed and appreciated,
but, some how the basic function of meeting was left behind. With all
today's technology we find it so hard to set a meeting/ date/appointment,
not mentioning group meetings of multi -participants events (such as
parties, weddings, birthdays, religious ceremonies and the like).
How many times a day did you found yourself with wasted time out of
trying to synchronize your schedule with your work Co-workers / clients /
friends / partner/ children etc.? Canceled meetings which create empty
windows on your schedule and delaying your home arrival time? How
many businessmen do not have secretary services, and even if they do
have that privileged what happens when they are at home disconnected
with their tomorrow's schedule? How many times a day has you heard or
used the sentence "When can we meet?"
As more users are connected to the Internet and conduct their daily
activities electronically, the time asset of each user can become much more
efficient. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a
system which is capable of connecting between users in order to save and
organized user's most expensive asset - time, in a confidential manner.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the
description proceeds.
Summary of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for providing availability
services by coordinating between calendars, comprising the steps of: a)
dividing each calendar into time cubes such that each calendar is
represented as a chronological sequence of uniform time scales (e.g., in a
ribbon-like form); b) defining each cube on each specific calendar according
to one of the following availability states: free, occupied or pending; c)
allowing a user to send data representing an invitation to an event to one
or more contacts for approval, and when an invitation of one or more
contacts has been approved, opening a secure "private room" and
importing to said "private room" the schedule of each approved contact in
a confidential manner, such that each schedule of each contact includes
data representing only their availability states, wherein all approved
contacts including said user are defined as attendees of said event; d) at
said secured "private room", searching all imported schedules
simultaneously to find at least one option of common available matching
time cubes among all attendee that defined as "free" state, or sequence or
other combinations of "free" state time cubes between all attendees, and
considering all terms as given by said attendees and the data of said
event, including time differences between all attendees and approximated
traveling time of each attendee; and e) setting the free matching time
cubes as occupied, either automatically or after being approved by said
attendees, including the proximate traveling time to the meeting / event
for each attendee.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method further
comprises allowing each user to set a level of importance to each event.
Additionally, the method further comprises importing the level of
importance given by the calendar's owner to time cubes that are stated as
occupied. Moreover, the method further comprises allowing prioritizing
events in the calendar according to their level of importance, whenever
there is a time conflict between two or more events, by postponing the less
important event and rescheduling it to other time.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the matching
considering time zone differences and the required travelling time for each
attendee either from the previous event's location or according to location
provided from location services or by the user.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further
comprises providing means to clear the entire day from meetings/events
and optionally have them all reschedule.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further
comprises providing an option for the user to add remark that occurs at a
certain time, but does not affect the user's schedule.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further
comprises providing an option to send task(s) to one or more contacts of
the user, wherein the task can be added (either automatically or upon
approval) to the calendar of said contact(s). For example, creating such a
send task can be posted as a time based remark to the user's calendar. The
method further comprises providing the user with more than one option to
handle his tasks, e.g., such as through his scheduled time for the task on
his calendar, or via a task list on his inbox. These two exemplary options
or any other way to handle the tasks can be simultaneously update each
other, either automatically or upon a user approval.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further
comprises applying with one or more optional meeting time for the event,
wherein the optional time sequences will be displayed on the calendar of
each user such that the optional time cubes will be marked on the
calendar and will allow the user to choose one of the offered matching
options. The method may further provide an "earliest choice" button for
allowing the user to easily select the earliest time sequence that matches
all the information, terms and limitations of the event and its attendees.
For example, the optional event's time may appear as marked on the
user's calendar without sharing any information of the other attendee's
schedule. The user will be able to choose one of the offered optional
meeting time or press the "earliest choice" button to set the earliest option
as the event's time.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further
comprises further comprises allowing to display on the calendar of each
user a location based notification related to a third party entity. For
example, the third party entity can be an advertiser or a commercial
content provider.
In another aspect the invention relates to a system for coordinating
between users' calendars, comprising: a) a meeting coordinating server
adapted for synchronizing between users' calendars in a confidential and
anonymous manner via a secure "private room" without using any
calendaring content except the availability status of each user, whether it
free, occupied or pending; and b) a dedicated application adapted for
running/executing on a user's terminal unit in order to communicate and
synchronize with said meeting coordinating server.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the system further
comprises an advertising server for allowing one or more third party
entities to provide location based content with respect to the user's
calendar and current/future scheduled location(s), wherein whenever such
location based content exist a notification will be displayed on the user's
calendar as an icon or other relevant symbol which only represents or
indicates the sector or type of the content.
Brief Description of the Drawings
In the drawings:
- Fig. 1 schematically illustrates meetings coordinator system,
according to an embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 2 schematically illustrates an exemplary representation in a
ribbon-like form of a calendar divided into time cubes, according to
an embodiment of the present invention;
- Fig. 3 schematically illustrates the matching between available
time cubes of several attendees considering time differences and
proximate traveling time to the location;
Fig. 4 schematically illustrates the registration of the meeting's /
event's time and the traveling time as occupied on each of the
attendee's calendar; and
- Figs. 5-9 schematically illustrate exemplary screen layouts of the
meeting coordinator system, according to some embodiments of the
present invention.
Detailed Description of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods, systems
and computer products for retrieving real time availability data (free/
occupied/pending data) in a confidential and anonymous manner via an
availability service for use by a requesting calendaring application's
and/or a dedicated website for scheduling meetings and/or asset use with
one or more meeting attendees and/or assets. Throughout this description
the term "contacts" is used to indicate entities that are able to interact
with the availability service of the present invention. The entities can be
private users, third parties, reservation service providers, businesses,
professional users, etc. For example, a private user may interact with
other contacts whether they appear in his/her own contacts list or not.
Reference will now be made to several embodiments of the present
invention(s), examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying
figures. Wherever practicable similar or like reference numbers may be
used in the figures and may indicate similar or like functionality. The
figures depict embodiments of the present invention for purposes of
illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the
following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and
methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the
principles of the invention described herein.
The terms, "for example", "e.g.", "optionally", as used herein, are intended
to be used to introduce non-limiting examples. While certain references
are made to certain example system components or services, other
components and services can be used as well and/or the example
components can be combined into fewer components and/or divided into
further components.
Fig. 1 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general
description of a suitable computing environment in which the invention
may be implemented. While the invention will be described in the general
context of program modules that execute in conjunction with a dedicated
application program that runs on a mobile device (e.g., a smart phone) and
can be companied by a dedicated website, those skilled in the art will
recognize that the invention may also be implemented in combination with
other program modules. Similarly, while certain examples may refer to a
smart phone, other mobile devices or computer based electronic systems
can be used as well, such as, without limitation, a tablet, a networkenabled
personal digital assistant (PDA), a Personal Computer (PC)
system and so on.
Unless otherwise indicated, the functions described herein may be
performed by program modules that include executable code and
instructions, which are stored in computer readable medium and running
on one or more processor-based systems. However, state machines, and/or
hardwired electronic circuits can also be utilized. Further, with respect to
the example processes described herein, not all the process states need to
be reached, nor do the states have to be performed in the illustrated order.
Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data
structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or
implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the
art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with other
computer system configurations, including hand-held devices,
multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer
electronics, minicomputers, and the like. The invention may also be
practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are
performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a
communications network. In a distributed computing environment,
program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage
devices.
In addition, while certain user inputs or gestures are described as being
provided via phone key presses, data entry via a keyboard, or by clicking a
computer mouse, optionally, user inputs can be provided using other
techniques, such as by voice or otherwise. The example screen layouts,
appearance, and terminology as depicted and described herein, are
intended to be illustrative and exemplary, and in no way limit the scope of
the invention as claimed.
With reference to Fig. 1, one exemplary system for implementing the
invention includes a meeting coordinator server 1 and plurality of
terminal units capable of communicating with meeting coordinator server
1. The terminal units can be any computer based device such as smart
phones 2, a Personal Computer (PC) and the like. The communicating
with server 1 can be done via a dedicated application or via a dedicated
website (or web interface). In a basic configuration, the server 1 includes
at least one processing unit and system memory (not shown). The system
memory includes one or more dedicated software applications and may
include also program data for providing calendar management services by
synchronizing between users' calendars in a confidential and anonymous
manner. Optionally, the system may further incorporate with terminal
unit(s) of third party services 5 to be discussed in greater details below.
The server 1 and the terminal units communicate via a communication
network 3, such as the Internet.
According to an embodiment of the invention, each user of the system has
its own private calendar that can be managed locally by the dedicated
application either on a mobile device such as the smart-phone 2 or
simultaneously and in synchronized manner via another computer system
4, such as a PC or a tablet. The server 1 and the dedicated application
(e.g., via the user's terminal unit 2) can update each other periodically
(e.g., every 15 minutes).
According to an embodiment of the invention, the dedicated application
allows each user to set one or more terms in order to automatically
manage the user's schedule, such as working hours, location (e.g. in order
to take into account traveling time due to different city location and even
different time zones between the attendees that are invited to the same
event), reminders (e.g., to take a medicine, live sporting event, formal
dress code, etc.), and the like. Once the event is scheduled, all the
attendees will be defined as a meeting group of that specific event, which
provides them with the ability to handle communication between all
attendees with the reference of that specific event ( e.g., massages, sharing
file / image, voice massage, conference call, send tasks, etc.).
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the dedicated
application allows the user to set the level of importance for each
scheduled event (i.e., occupied time period in the user's calendar). For
example, there can be at least two level of importance, such as "not
important" and "very important". Therefore, in case there are two or more
event that are scheduled at the same time period, the system will alert the
user, and either by the user approval or automatically the system will
reschedule the less important event.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the meetings coordinating
process within the server 1 involve the following steps:
dividing each calendar into a plurality of time cubes (e.g., each time
cube may represent a time period of 15 minutes) thereby providing
calendars in form of a chronological sequence of uniform time scales
(e.g., similar to a running ribbon as indicated by numeral 10 in Fig.
2);
allowing to define each time cube according to one of the following
statuses: free (i.e., available, as indicated by numeral 11 in Fig. 2,
e.g., can be represented by a green color), occupied (i.e., busy, as
indicated by numeral 12 in Fig. 2, e.g., can be represented by a red
color) or pending (as indicated by numeral 13 in Fig. 2, e.g., can be
represented by a yellow color). For example, by default all time
cubes can be set as "free", unless otherwise defined;
When an invitation to a specific event is approved by one or more
users, opening a secure "private room" that will be used only by the
system (and it will be not shared with any user). The system will
import to this secure "private room" the schedule of each approved
user (i.e., attendee) while the only information on each imported
schedule will be the status of each time cube (e.g., as represented by
the relevant color: green, red or yellow and as shown with respect to
Figs. 3 and Fig 4). Optionally, it will also import the level of
importance given by each attendee to time cubes that are defied as
occupied;
Then at this secured "private room", running and searching all
schedules simultaneously (considering time zone differences, if
relevant) to find the first or other options of available and common
time cubes (or sequence or other combinations of common "free"
time cubes) between all attendees and considering all terms given
by attendees and the invitation/event data (e.g., the terms can be
time and time differences, location, travelling time (in case of
different time zone for different attendees, etc.). For example, the
first available sequence of "free" time cubes for all attendees is
indicated by the time cubes within the dotted line 14 in Fig. 3 with
respect to the exemplary ribbon like form of the relevant calendar
portion of three attendees (as indicated by the attendees: User 1,
User 2 and User 3). For example, in case the travelling time of User
3 to the scheduled event with User 1 and User 2 may take several
hours (e.g., due to the distance between the previous event's
location of user 3 and the location of the new schedule event. In this
case, while the system synchronizes the available sequence of
common "free" time cubes between all attendees, it takes into
consideration the proximate traveling time needed for each
attendee to arrive at the location of the new schedule event. The
location information can be obtained as one of the scheduling terms
either from previous event of each attendee calendar (if such event
was scheduled) or based on location information provided by the
user or by location services provided by the user's mobile device,
e.g., GPS, cellular, and the like (e.g., as indicated by the three "free"
time cubes within the dotted line 15 in Fig. 3). The three "free" time
cubes within dotted line 15 represent the proximate traveling time
of the attendee (e.g., User 3) to the meeting's location from his
previous event's location and
Setting the matching time cubes as occupied (as indicated by the
time cubes within the dotted line 14 in Fig. 4), either automatically
or after being approved by all the relevant attendees, including
setting the time period of the travelling time in the calendar of User
3 as occupied (as indicated by the time cubes within the dotted line
15 in Fig. 4)
According to some embodiments of the invention, the system further
comprises software means for providing one or more optional meeting time
for an event, wherein the optional time sequences will be displayed on the
calendar of each user such that the optional time cubes will be marked on
the calendar and will allow the user to choose one of the offered matching
options. Optionally, the system may further comprise software means for
providing an "earliest choice" button for allowing the user to easily select
the earliest time sequence that match all the information, terms and
limitations of the event and it's attendees.
As will be appreciated by the skilled person the meetings coordinating
process described hereinabove results in an availability services for
synchronizing calendars in a confidential and anonymous manner. The
synchronization is made through secured private room, not allowing
anyone (not even the calendar's owners) to see the schedule of the other(s)
attendee(s).
The suggested system can be used as a smart secretary that provides
secretarial and personal management services to the user. As will be
appreciated by the skilled person, the system is able to automatically
manage the user's schedule based on the user's working hours and habits.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system
further comprises additional features and services. The more information
and data the user will share and set with the system the better secretarial
service he will gain. The system may offer meeting location according to
users' requests and even can provide additional information and on-line
reservations from a third party entity such as flights, hotel, car rental,
restaurant reservation service or any other booking and prepayment
services if needed, e.g., as shown by the third party services 5 in Fig. 1.
For example, this can be obtained by using and cooperating with local /
global matching search engines and PayPal / credit cards payment service
via a secure payment channel.
All the above will be better understood through the following illustrative
and non-limitative examples.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the system allows a user to
define selected contacts as special roll contacts, and optionally also to
mark them in a unique visual manner with respect to the other contacts in
the list (as indicated by numerals 52 and 53 in Fig. 8). In general, the
special roll contact may represent people that have specific task with
respect to someone's private or professional life, such as a babysitter, a
driver, a language translator, a dog walker, etc. This enables the user to set a
specific roll for the contact to be used when setting an event. For example, a
user can define a specific contact with a special roll such as a babysitter.
Accordingly, whenever the user wishes to go to a specific event (e.g., a
concert), the user can use the dedicated application to sync with the
babysitter's schedule (or alternatively with babysitting services) to order
babysitting services in accordance with the desired event (e.g., the
concert).
According to some embodiments of the invention, in some events, the user
can use the dedicated application to send the relevant meeting/event's
attendees special information/request/question regarding the event (e.g.,
dressing code, "bring a cake" or "would you be needed a vegetarian dish?",
and the like). Once the event is scheduled, all the attendees will be defined
as a meeting group of that specific event. This provides them with the
ability to handle communication between all attendees with the reference
of that specific event (e.g., massages, sharing file / image, voice massage,
conference call send tasks etc.).
According to an embodiment of the invention, the system allows the user
to set limitations to a contact, such as meet intervals (e.g., meeting every
two weeks), enable/disable different properties, etc. Those limitations will
be taken under consideration when using the auto mechanism to set up
meetings. For example, such enable/disable properties may include:
- Allow send task - will allow the specific contact to send a task to
the user's calendar;
- Contact priority - this is a way to know in case there are two
meetings at the same time, which to accept, which to reschedule;
and
- Meeting gap - this is a roll to set in case the user wants to meet a
person in gaps and not every time he wants to.
Clear My Day (CMD)
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user can use the
dedicated application to clear the entire day from meetings/events and
have them all reschedule by the system automatically (e.g., in case of
emergency).
Clear my day will function as an emergency button, to provide immediate
assistance by clearing the entire day from meetings and tasks and will
inform all the scheduled meeting's attendees (and tasks senders) about the
need to cancel or reschedule the events of that day. The system will apply
the user to choose between a default of a general message or a freehanded
personal message he can apply.
Clear my day option is clearing the day and deleting all the meetings.
Preferably, all the users that are participants in meetings during that day
will get a message of canceled meetings. For example, CMD may load an
alert with 3 options:
Clear my day and reschedule - using the auto mechanism of the
private secretary to reschedule all meetings and send messages to
all relevant participants.
- Clear my Day - will send a message of cancelation to all
participants.
Cancel - close the alert and do nothing.
The dedicated application may send reminders for the user's events/
meetings with all remarks mentioned to the reference.
An additional advantage provided by the invention is that the dedicated
application in accordance with meeting coordinator server help the user to
organize multi participants events, schedule with all attendees, giving the
user number of precipitance how approved and scheduled your event in
their calendar. For example, the user can use the dedicated application to
receive main dish preference etc.
According to an embodiment of the invention, through the dedicated
application a user could choose to send designed invitations (e.g.,
interactive, multimedia, 3D designed invitations, etc.) to selected events
and even to add music (e.g. ringtone/ songs/ video clip/ remix music/ play
list, etc.) as background music to the invitation. Figs. 7A and 7B
schematically illustrate exemplary screen layouts of such an invitation. In
this example, the invitation includes a textured/designed background (e.g.,
an image file type such as JPG, GIF or any other suitable image file type),
text, schedule and operation button(s) for the invited user such as "accept"
/ "deny" and the option to view the event's time sequence on the user's
schedule before accepting or denying the invitation. Once the invited user
accepts the invitation, the system will set the invitation and the
scheduling to the user's calendar and, optionally, those operation buttons
will be removed from the invitation. Fig. 7A shows an example of the
invitation creation screen where the user may select the preferred
background, fonts, etc. Fig. 7B shows the invitation as received by an
invited contact of that user.
According to an embodiment of the invention, through the dedicated
application a user could choose to hide a meeting's data from the calendar,
and the time of the event will appear as busy, but only by applying a
password the meeting's data will be exposed.
According to some embodiments of the invention, the system allows the
user to choose a specific background color to each contact person or a
group of contacts (e.g., different color for each private group). This color
can be used as the background color of all the events related to that
contact person / group on the user's calendar.
The dedicated application will help the user to follow open invitation he
had sent preapproved, incoming invitations he had received, update or
cancel meetings/ events. Moreover, through the dedicated application the
user will be able to organize or join a group (e.g., for walking the dog
shifts, purchases, school shuttle, book reading, etc.), but with the user's
contacts or with other system's users having relevant attributes, e.g., such
as users who live in the same city or have other common attributes.
Groups
According to an embodiment of the invention, there are at least two types
of main groups: i) private groups that the user creates like family, friends,
colleagues; and ii) meeting groups that are created automatically when a
meeting or event is set.
Fig. 5 schematically illustrates an exemplary screen layout of private
groups, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the center
screen layout there is a dialer 50 that enables the user to navigate
between all groups. In this embodiment, turning the dialer 50 left or right
enables to navigate between the different groups. For example, tapping on
the center of the dial will provide information regarding the currently
selected group screen such as the created date of the group, the number of
contacts in this group, the last post sent in this group, etc.
Fig. 6 schematically illustrates an exemplary screen layout of meeting
groups, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The meeting
groups are created automatically when a meeting is set. In this
embodiment, the navigation between these groups is done in a dialer 50
like form, but with a schedule range selection 51 where the user can select
the desired date range, such as day, week, month, etc.
Time Based Remark (TBR)
TBR is an option for the user to write down something that occurs at a
certain time, but does not affect his scheduled. For example: Mom went to
a vacation. According to an embodiment of the invention, the TBRs will
appear in the calendar but will show that time as available and will be
taken under consideration as available when using the auto meeting set
up mechanism.
Send Task
According to some embodiments of the invention, the system comprises an
option to send assignment(s) to one or more contacts of the user. The task
can be added (either automatically or upon approval) to the calendar of
that contact. Creating such a send task can be posted as a TBR to the
user's own calendar. The method further comprises providing the user
with two or more options to handle his tasks, e.g., through his scheduled
time for the task on his calendar or via the task list on his inbox. Both
options will simultaneously update each other.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the system comprises a
virtual billboard. The virtual billboard may include several
categories/topics, such as places, attractions and business nearby, career
opportunities, lost and found, community news, yard sale, group gathering
and the like as schematically illustrated in Fig. 9. The billboard content
can be either location based information (e.g., by GPS or according to
scheduled meeting's locations) or non-location based information. For
example, through the dedicated application each category may showcase
top/selected messages (e.g., 3-5 messages on each category on each screen).
Optionally, the messages can be scrolled sideways to provide unlimited
ads. In selected mobile devices, there will be an option to tap and see all in
order to view all messages in the specific board. Tap on a message will
enlarge the message to full screen view.
Location Based Advertisement
According to an embodiment of the invention, the system comprises a
location based content module (e.g., an advertising server), or
alternatively, means to communicate with a third party commercial
content server, for allowing one or more third party entities to provide
location based content with respect to the user's calendar and its
current/future scheduled location(s).
For example, whenever such location based content exist a notification
will be displayed on the user's calendar as an icon or other relevant
symbol which indicates or represents only the sector or type of the content,
such as gastronomy sector (e.g., an icon in form of a cup of coffee that may
indicate of a food related benefit such as a happy hour at a local pub or a
discount at a specific restaurant), truism sector (e.g., an icon in form of the
letter "i" that may represent a discount at a specific nearby hotel), culture
and entertainment (e.g., an icon in form of a smiling face that may
represent a discount for a sport event, a theater nearby, or movie),
purchase culture (e.g., an icon in form of a shopping cart that may
represent malls and shopping center nearby), transportation (e.g., an icon
in form of a private car that may represent flight deals, available parking
lot, car rent), etc. Fig. 10 schematically illustrates an icon 55 in form of a
cup of coffee that represents the gastronomy sector as presented in the
user's calendar 56.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the advertising are
implemented in a manner and placements not just to avoid interference to
the users working environment but even to bring the advertising to the
users benefit as well to the advertiser. This is done through the concept
that the system's application is an innovative way of connecting between
users by considering them not only as private, social or professional
individuals but all at once. Combined with the function of secretarial and
private management services, the system provides with calendar
management services. Through this ability, the system will offer a unique
match between the advertiser to the users in the aspect of their device
location detection and future event locations of the user, in a unique
approach:
In this perspective, the system offers a new kind of advertisement which
will, without any doubt, make the users curious and thus, increase their
click probability on the ads. No more need to relate to usual terms from
the advertising world such as impressions, clicks, conversions, CTR (click
through rate: the relation between impressions and clicks). Showing the
users geo-located thematic icons all along their way or future scheduled
locations, without them to know what advertiser is hiding behind, will
make stronger their will to discover what the icon is. And will create a
curiosity by the user in the aspect of a "lottery ticket". For example, by
clicking on these "icon" ads, a small and user friendly pop-up will open up
and give the user the possibility to win and save a free gift/benefit, a
coupon and the like at a nearby located business.
The user gains a benefit with that relates to his current/future scheduled
locations. The advertiser gains: a) a target audience per to the location
near his business; b) creating curiosity through the ads that will increase
the clicking frequencies and by that attract more users to view their ads;
c) advertising at the suggested venue screen will be the closest advertising
to "close deal". For example, if a user will choose to click on the business's
ad as his meeting venue, that business will appear on the user's invitation
and will be shown at all event's attendees' schedule.
The system of the present invention allows users to received / send an
invitation with all meeting/ event's data, and to easily and efficiently
schedule and synchronized with the user's meetings attendees in a
secured manner knowing that anyone can't see the other's schedule.
Moreover, a user can determine weather to accept the invitation, accept it
but through day / dates / hour limitations (without letting other attendees
knowing of such) or decline in a gentle way.
All the above description and examples have been given for the purpose of
illustration and are not intended to limit the invention in any way. Many
different mechanisms, methods of analysis, electronic and logical elements
can be employed, all without exceeding the scope of the invention.

CLAIMS
1. A method for coordinating between calendars, comprising the steps
of:
a . dividing each calendar into time cubes such that each
calendar is represented as a chronological sequence of
uniform time scales;
b. defining each cube on each specific calendar according to one
of the following availability states: free, occupied or pending;
c. allowing a user to send data representing an invitation to an
event to one or more contacts for approval, and when an
invitation of one or more contacts has been approved, opening
a secure "private room" and importing to said "private room"
the schedule of each approved contact in a confidential
manner, such that each schedule of each contact includes
data representing only their availability states, wherein all
approved contacts including said user are defined as
attendees of said event;
d. at said secured "private room", searching all imported
schedules simultaneously to find at least one option of
common available matching time cubes among all attendee
that defined as "free" state, or sequence or other
combinations of "free" state time cubes between all attendees,
and considering all terms as given by said attendees and the
data of said event, including time differences between all
attendees and approximated traveling time of each attendee;
and
e. setting the free matching time cubes as occupied, either
automatically or after being approved by said attendees,
including the proximate traveling time to the meeting / event
for each attendee.
2. A method according to claim 1, further comprises allowing each
user to set a level of importance to each event.
3. A method according to claim 2, further comprises importing the
level of importance given by the calendar's owner to time cubes that
are stated as occupied.
4. A method according to claim 2, further comprises allowing to
prioritize events in the calendar according to their level of
importance, whenever there is a time conflict between two or more
events, by postponing the less important event and rescheduling it
to other time.
5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the matching considering
time zone differences and the required travelling time for each
attendee either from the previous event's location or according to
location provided from location services or by the user.
6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising providing means
to clear the entire day from meetings/events and optionally have
them all reschedule.
7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising providing an
option for the user to add remark that occurs at a certain time, but
does not affect the user's schedule.
8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising providing an
option to send task(s) to one or more contacts of the user, wherein
the task can be added (either automatically or upon approval) to the
calendar of said contact(s).
9. A method according to claim 8, wherein creating such a send task
can be posted as a time based remark to the user's calendar.
10. A method according to claim 1, further comprises applying with one
or more optional meeting time for the event, wherein the optional
time sequences will be displayed on the calendar of each user such
that the optional time cubes will be marked on the calendar and
will allow the user to choose one of the offered matching options.
11. A method according to claim 10, further comprises providing an
"earliest choice" button for allowing the user to easily select the
earliest time sequence that match all the information, terms and
limitations of the event and it's attendees.
12. A method according to claim 1, further comprises allowing to
display on the calendar of each user a location based notification
related to a third party entity.
13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the third party entity is
an advertiser or a commercial content provider.
14. A method according to claim 1, further comprises offering meeting
location according to a user's request.
15. A method according to claim 14, further comprises providing
additional information and on-line reservations from a third party.
16.A method according to claim 1, further comprises allowing defining
selected contacts as special roll contacts, and optionally marking
said special roll contacts in a unique visual manner with respect to
the other user's contacts.
17. A system for coordinating between users' calendars, comprising:
a) a meeting coordinating server adapted for synchronizing
between users' calendars in a secure and anonymous manner via
a secure "private room" without using any calendaring content
except the availability status of each user, whether it free,
occupied or pending; and
b) a dedicated application adapted for running/executing on a
user's terminal unit in order to communicate and synchronize
with said meeting coordinating server.
18. A system according to claim 17, further comprises an advertising
server for allowing one or more third party entities to provide
location based content with respect to the user's calendar and
current/future scheduled location(s), wherein whenever such
location based content exist a notification will be displayed on the
user's calendar as an icon or other relevant symbol which only
represents or indicates the sector or type of the content.