Abstract: Social media websites contain posts which may benefit persons affected by an emergency situation or natural disaster. Discovering trustworthy posters of useful information is disclosed such that messages indicating relevant information, and an associated trust value, may be provided to interested parties.

Abstract: An advertisement brokering system for social media-aware advertisement brokering is provided. The advertisement brokering system includes a processor and a memory, wherein the memory comprises a rules database and plurality of modules. The memory further comprises a data mining module for mining data from predetermined resources based upon predefined characteristics and behavioral traits of users. The memory further comprises an analysis module for identifying users based on match of the mined data with the predefined characteristics and/or behavioral traits. The memory further comprises a brokering module for offering advertising services to the identified users. The memory further comprises a feedback module for notifying an advertiser corresponding to change in behavioral activities of the identified users after offering advertising services. The memory further comprises a calibration module for calibrating advertising services based on change noticed in behavioral activities of the identified users.

Abstract: An agent selection system for selecting agents during call routing in a contact center is provided. The agent selection system includes a data mining module to mine agent related data from preconfigured resources e.g., social networking sites. The agent selection system further includes a profile module to build one or more agent profile based on the mined agent related data. The agent selection system further includes a mapping module configured to map a customer profile in a customer work request with the one or more agent profile. The agent selection system further includes a selection module to select an agent for handling the customer work request based on mapping between the customer profile and the one or more agent profile.

Abstract: A training system for providing training to agents of an enterprise is provided. The training system may include a retrieval module for retrieving content from at least one predetermined resource. The training system further may include a topic determining module for determining at least one topic based on the retrieved content. The training system further may include an answer selecting module for selecting an answer for the at least one topic from the retrieved content based upon predefined rules. The training system further may include a reporting module for reporting the at least one topic and answer to one or more agents of the enterprise.

Abstract: An event selection system for computing user migration pattern across social network pages is provided. The event selection system includes a monitor module to monitor predetermined activities of social media users on preconfigured resources. The event selection system further includes a profile module to build a social media user profile based on the monitored activities of the social media users. The event selection system further includes a computing module to compute user migration patterns based on the social media user profiles. The event selection system further includes a display module to display the user migration patterns on a system user terminal. The event selection system further includes a reporting module configured to produce a report based on the monitored social media user activities.

Abstract: A presentation pacing system includes a monitor module for monitoring a time spent by a speaker on one or more slides while presenting a presentation, the presentation having a plurality of slides. The presentation pacing system further includes a compare module for comparing the monitored time with a pre-recorded time associated with the slides. The presentation pacing system further includes a notification module for notifying the speaker for changing pace of the presentation based at least on the comparison. The presentation pacing system further includes a query module for scheduling and presenting queries of audience to the speaker of the presentation during a slide transition.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for controlling an availability of a user in an enterprise environment. If an enterprise user requests to change an availability status on one or more media, a determination is made as to whether to grant the request based on one or more predefined criteria associated with the enterprise. For example, the predefined criteria may comprise resource needs or one or more policies of the enterprise. The predefined criteria may be expressed as one or more rules in a rule base.

Abstract: A server executing a context aware social callback application and method are provided. Posts with action tags made on social media sites or pages that identify a monitoring entity or associated offering are identified. Such posts are analyzed to determine whether they are associated with an identifiable user, and whether they invite interaction. If the identified content is from an identifiable person and if it invites interaction, the application automatically generates a response that is sent to the identified user with a request to engage in further communications. The system can also send the post and/or related information to an agent or other contact center resource for handling.

Abstract: System and method to control access by a user to an online service, the method including: receiving a request from a user to use an application; identifying, via a processor of a computing device, a social networking characteristic of the user; classifying the user based upon the social networking characteristic, to produce a classification of the user; and controlling an access to the online service based upon the classification of the user. The characteristic may be public or private. Controlling access may include permitting, impeding, or facilitating access. Display of a link may be changed, and/or the processing of the link if selected may be changed. Users may be classified at least as preferred, malicious, non-malicious, non-target and generic default.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for establishing a conference based on the presence or preferences (or both) of one or more invitees. The presence of each invitee is evaluated on one or more devices. A media type is selected based on the presence information. User preference information may be evaluated for those invitees who are not currently present on a device. The selected media type for the conference may optionally be required to support the requirements of the conference, such as document sharing or video links. In this manner, the same communication application can trigger conferences of different media types (where the selected media type is most likely to lead to the successful establishment of the conference). In addition, the present invention allows a media type to be selected that will be more likely to lead to the successful establishment of a conference.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for analyzing user activity and for recording such user activity in an entity relationship model. A network is searched for materials associated with a user and content analysis techniques are performed on the associated materials to extract one or more characteristics from the associated materials based on predefined criteria. The extracted information is stored in an entity relationship model that relates the user to the extracted characteristics. The characteristics may include activity information, expertise information and location information. The entity relationship model can thereafter be searched to identify and optionally contact one or more users having desired characteristics.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for collecting presence information about a user from one or more presence sources associated with the user, such as applications, devices and locations. A presence agent is associated with each presence source; and the presence agents provide presence information to one or more presence servers. Typically, the presence agents execute on a processor associated with the corresponding presence source. The presence agent reports one or more of macropresence events and micropresence events. The presence agent optionally prompts the user to update the presence information based on one or more criteria, such as exceeding a time threshold since the last presence event. Continuous presence functions are generated for each presence source that characterize the likelihood of the user to be present on the corresponding presence source at a given time.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing a virtual assistant to at least one party of a communication. The virtual assistant is injected into the communication, for example, by a VXML engine. The operation of the virtual assistant is controlled by one or more software modules that are obtained from a proxy node. The software modules allow commands received from or destined for the party to be interpreted. The virtual assistant may optionally be customized based on a selection of the one or more supported external applications. The proxy node provides at least one method for the party that allows the party to access functionality provided by at least one external application. The proxy node interprets signals from the virtual assistant; converts the signals from the virtual assistant into commands for the external application; and converts one or more of commands, messages and data from the external application into signals understood by the virtual assistant.

Abstract: A customer relationship management system is disclosed for matching a given work item with an agent. The system includes a database to hold customer information, agent information, and system information, and a network contact center server operative to receive the given work item from the customer and route it to the agent based at least in part on the information in the database. The network contact center server is configured to control the conduction of an automated web dialogue with the customer via a separate web server and is further configured to control the conduction of an automated voice dialogue with the customer via an interactive voice response system. The automated web dialogue and the automated voice dialogue are thereby both conductable under the control of the network contact center server.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for developing and processing workflows that include communication tasks. A workflow is generated according to the present invention by inserting at least one communication node in the workflow. The communication node associated is with a communication task having at least one property that is resolved at run time. For example, the media type, recipient list, or timing of a communication may be resolved at run-time. A workflow generation tool is provided that generates a workflow based on (i) a user selection of at least one communication node to insert in a workflow, and (ii) a user specification of one or more properties of the communication task, wherein at least one property of the communication task is resolved at run time. At run-time, a workflow engine parses at least communication node in a workflow associated with a communication task and having at least one property that is resolved at run time.

Abstract: A system and method for permitting an initiator of a communication session request and a recipient of the communication session request to quickly negotiate the beginning of a communication session, such as a phone call, wherein the negotiation is performed based on the expressed current need and the current availability of the recipient.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for executing target application programs with employment of a supervisor that is coupled to the executing target application through a conventional status reporting port of the computer. Events that represent execution errors or unexpected behavior are provided to the reporting port, or discovered through the reporting port, and the supervisor responds to such events by perusing a configuration that is tailored to the executing target application. For each reported event, the supervisor retrieves one or more actions that the configuration file specifies for the reported events and executes the specified actions. The configuration file includes actions that aim to effect a recovery, from reported events, including restart application, or a thread of the application, based on checkpointed data, restart target application as soon as it becomes idle, and suspend a thread when a thread starvation condition exists.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for executing target application programs with employment of a supervisor that is coupled to the executing target application through a conventional status reporting port of the computer. Events that represent execution errors or unexpected behavior are provided to the reporting port, or discovered through the reporting port, and the supervisor responds to such events by perusing a configuration that is tailored to the executing target application. For each reported event, the supervisor retrieves one or more actions that the configuration file specifies for the reported events and executes the specified actions. The configuration file includes actions that aim to effect a recovery, from reported events, including restart application, or a thread of the application, based on checkpointed data, restart target application as soon as it becomes idle, and suspend a thread when a thread starvation condition exists.

Abstract: A fault monitoring, performance monitoring and fault tolerance apparatus and method for target target application programs is realized in an application supervisor by employing a supervisor agent, modified application programming interfaces (APIs), a generic application wrapper and a shell script that operate interactively to detect and automatically resolve reliability and performance problems occurring in executing the target application program. This is realized, in accordance with the invention, without the need to access, modify or have knowledge of the source code of the target application program to be supervised. In a specific embodiment of the invention, Java™ programming language target application programs are supervised. This is realized by employing the supervisor agent that attaches to a Java virtual machine through two virtual machine native interfaces. One interface is the Java Virtual Machine Profiler Interface (JVMPI) and the other is the Java Native Interface (JNI).