Abstract: A contact center establishes a communication with a user. The communication is placed into a position in a wait queue that has other position(s) with other communication(s) that are waiting to be serviced by contact center agents. An offer is made to the user to change an amount of time to wait in the wait queue before being connected to a contact center agent. The offer can be based on a commodity such as money, frequent flyer miles, willingness to listen to an advertisement while holding, completing a survey, and the like. In response to the user accepting the offer, the position of the communication in the wait queue is changed to a different position. This allows the user to interactively adjust their wait time.

Abstract: The proposed invention provides a user-friendly way for people to turn a traditional in-progress voice-only telephone call into a multi-media call. This may be accomplished using various technologies that can be provided over the Internet or some other multi-media computing/networking platform. The multi-media aspect of the invention may be used to facilitate the sharing of additional information between the call participants as well as dynamically update security aspects (e.g., encryption keys) associated with call.

Abstract: A contact center establishes a communication with a user. The communication is placed into a position in a wait queue that has other position(s) with other communication(s) that are waiting to be serviced by contact center agents. An offer is made to the user to change an amount of time to wait in the wait queue before being connected to a contact center agent. The offer can be based on a commodity such as money, frequent flyer miles, willingness to listen to an advertisement while holding, completing a survey, and the like. In response to the user accepting the offer, the position of the communication in the wait queue is changed to a different position. This allows the user to interactively adjust their wait time.

Abstract: A distributed system of appliances that comprises a centralized energy-use controller to coordinate the use of energy among a plurality of distributed and interconnected appliances is disclosed. For example, the centralized controller directs when each appliance refrains from using energy from its energy-storage device during intervals when the energy-storage device is capable of providing energy to the appliance but the centralized power supply is not, and when each appliance can consume energy from its energy-storage device during intervals when both the energy-storage device and the centralized power supply are capable of providing power to the appliance.

Abstract: The proposed invention provides a user-friendly way for people to turn a traditional in-progress voice-only telephone call into a multi-media call. This may be accomplished using various technologies that can be provided over the Internet or some other multi-media computing/networking platform. The multi-media aspect of the invention may be used to facilitate the sharing of additional information between the call participants as well as dynamically update security aspects (e.g., encryption keys) associated with call.