Creating virtual areas for realtime communications

Abstract

Examples that are described herein provide systems and methods for creating virtual areas for realtime communications. Some examples provide a quick and easy process for creating a virtual area for a set of communicants and provisioning those communicants for realtime communications in the virtual area. Some examples provide a quick and easy way for a user to wrap a realtime communications framework around a network service. Through seamless integration of realtime communications (e.g., realtime audio, video, chat, screen sharing, and file transfer) in persistent virtual areas, these examples are able to enhance and improve communicants' experiences with a network service relative to traditional browser based methods of collaborating on network service based projects.

1 - 31 . (canceled) 
     
     
         32 . A method, comprising
 by apparatus of a virtual area creation service that provides services enabling realtime synchronous conferencing communications between client network nodes:
 from a client network node, receiving a virtual area creation request and a list of communicants; 
 responsive to the request, automatically creating a new virtual area, wherein the creating comprises associating the new virtual area with attributes that designate the communicants in the list as members of the virtual area and that define a shared context for realtime communications between copresent ones of the designated communicants in the virtual area; and 
 administering realtime communications of the designated communicants the virtual area. 
   
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein:
 the creating comprises, based on the list of communicants,
 determining a number of zones corresponding to respective rooms in the virtual area and 
 assigning each of one or more of the designated communicants as an owner of a respective one of the zones who can control access to the respective zone by other non-owner communicants; and 
   each zone is associated with a respective visualization and a respective set of one or more rules defining communication capabilities between communicants in the zone.   
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein: the receiving comprises receiving a uniform resource identifier (URI) of a network resource; the creating comprises associating the new virtual area with the URI; and the administering comprises integrating a shared view of a network resource referenced by the URI with the realtime communications between copresent ones of the designated communicants the virtual area. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising maintaining the association between the virtual area and the URI across communication sessions in the virtual area. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the administering comprises enabling a designated communicant to access the network resource immediately upon entry in the virtual area. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the associating comprises associating the URI with an object in the virtual area that facilitates screen sharing between copresent ones of the communicants in the virtual area. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 37 , wherein the object has a configurable URI property; and further comprising reconfiguring the object with a different URI in response to a request from a designated communicant in the virtual area. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the administering comprises maintaining persistent records of interactions of communicants in the virtual area, and transmitting a view on the persistent records to a client network node of a designated communicant in the virtual area. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the administering comprises providing to a client network node of a designated communicant in the virtual area interface data for displaying in an interface the shared view of a network resource, the realtime communications between copresent ones of the designated communicants the virtual area, and the transmitted view on the persistent records. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the transmitted view comprises a history of text chat communications between respective ones of the designated communicants in the virtual area. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the transmitted view comprises a listing of current and prior events associated with the virtual area. 
     
     
         43 . A method, comprising
 by apparatus of a virtual area creation service that provides services enabling realtime synchronous conferencing communications between client network nodes:
 from a client network node, receiving a virtual area creation request and a uniform resource identifier (URI) of a network resource; 
 responsive to the request, automatically creating a new virtual area, wherein the creating comprises associating the new virtual area with the URI and attributes that define a shared context for realtime communications between copresent communicants in the virtual area; and 
 administering realtime communications of communicants the virtual area, wherein the administering comprises integrating a shared view of a network resource referenced by the URI with the realtime communications between copresent communicants the virtual area. 
   
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 43 , further comprising maintaining the association between the virtual area and the URI across communication sessions in the virtual area. 
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 44 , wherein the administering comprises enabling a communicant to access the network resource immediately upon entry in the virtual area. 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein the associating comprises associating the URI with an object in the virtual area that facilitates screen sharing between copresent ones of the communicants in the virtual area. 
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 46 , wherein the object has a configurable URI property; and further comprising reconfiguring the object with a different URI in response to a request from a communicant in the virtual area. 
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 47 , wherein the administering comprises maintaining persistent records of interactions of communicants in the virtual area, and transmitting a view on the persistent records to a client network node of a communicant in the virtual area. 
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein the administering comprises providing to a client network node of a communicant in the virtual area interface data for displaying in an interface the shared view of a network resource, the realtime communications between copresent communicants the virtual area, and the transmitted view on the persistent records. 
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein the transmitted view comprises a history of text chat communications between respective communicants in the virtual area. 
     
     
         51 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein the transmitted view comprises a listing of current and prior events associated with the virtual area.