1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer-based communication, and more particularly to a method, system and program for switching communication techniques during the course of a communications session.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following descriptions and examples are not admitted to be prior art by virtue of their inclusion within this section.
The continuing proliferation of powerful, convenient computational devices has been accompanied by an increase in the use of networks connecting these devices. Computational devices include computers and other, often portable, devices such as wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), automobile-based computers and appliance-based computers. Such computational devices are also sometimes termed “pervasive devices.” “Computer,” as used herein, may refer to any of such computational devices. The networks connecting computational devices may be “wired” networks, formed using “land lines” such as copper wire or fiber optic cable, wireless networks employing earth and/or satellite-based wireless transmission links, or combinations of wired and wireless network portions. Networked computational devices are increasingly configured with the ability to interact and communicate with one another. For example, electronic mail may currently be sent to some wireless telephones and pagers, and PDA's may be used to access some Internet and World Wide Web (or “web”) sites.
The many available techniques for computer-based communication exhibit a range of values for criteria such as immediacy of communication, security, and bandwidth required. Email, for example, is analogous to a letter or memo, with a low degree of immediacy, relatively low bandwidth requirement, and potentially high security. AnIP (Internet Protocol) conference, or meeting held over the Internet using cameras, by contrast, has high immediacy, high bandwidth requirements, and potentially lower security (since encryption measures may detract from the ability to provide real-time communication). Other computer-based communication techniques (also referred to herein as “communications applications”), such as instant messaging, message boards, internet chat, and IP telephone, can be described using similar criteria.
This wide array of communication options can cause inconvenience and difficulty for user's in some cases. For example, it may be difficult to determine the best communications application to use for initiating communications with a particular person. This may occur when the availability of that person using various communications applications is not known. “Availability” as used herein may refer to the availability of a person (e.g., is the person logged onto his computer), the availability of equipment (such as a web camera), and/or the availability of needed software. In other words, availability may encompass numerous circumstances that might limit the ability to contact a person by a particular communications technique. Furthermore, the identifier of the person within a desired communications application, commonly called a “user id”, may not be known by the person wishing to initiate communication. Before a communication session can be initiated, therefore, a “pre-conversation” by telephone or some other method may be needed in order to ascertain availability and/or obtain the person's identifier. Such additional conversations can greatly increase the time and effort expended in carrying out computer-based communication, particularly when more that two people are involved in the communication.
Even when a communications session is initiated using a desired communications application, it may be realized during the course of the conversation that another form of communication would be more convenient. This could happen if the nature of the conversation changes, or if it simply becomes clear that the best communications application wasn't used from the beginning. Changing to another communications application can be rather inconvenient, however. Each participant may have to open up another application program, and efforts as described above to verify availability and obtain participant identifiers may need to be carried out. These steps necessitate enough disruption to a flow of conversation that typically changing to another communications application is avoided. Instead, participants may continue to “stretch” the capabilities of a given application. For example, participants may continue to send repeated short email messages back and forth, even though many “mouse clicks” could be saved if a messaging or chat application were used instead.
It would therefore be desirable to develop a way to make it convenient for participants in computer-based communications to select the most appropriate communications application.