Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02744169 2011-06-23
Attorney Docket: 2837-2
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ARRANGING GROUP ACTIVITIES
FIELD
[0001) The present system and method relate to arranging for group activities.
More
particularly, the present system and method relate to coordinating activity
providers one
or more users of the activity.
BACKGROUND
[0002) Group activities, such as bus travel, typically involve making
arrangements
between the activity provider, such as the bus coach provider, and the people
who pay for
and participate in the group activity, the users.
[0003) There are several traditional ways making these arrangements. The
travel provider
may offer the trip on a scheduled basis and interested users sign up in
advance for an
activity. For example, a bus company may offer trips from A to B leaving every
six hours
and people interested in travelling that route may buy tickets for the bus
leaving at a time
convenient for them, if there are still tickets available. Such a travel
arrangement may be
termed a line run. In this example, the bus provider accepts the risk of an
insufficient
number of people buying tickets. The bus provider may charge different amounts
for each
ticket depending on the supply and demand for tickets on a given trip. For
example, if
tickets for only half a bus have been sold, the bus company may reduce the
price for the
remaining tickets on a bus to encourage more travellers.
[0004) In another model, a group coordinator may contact a travel provider to
provide a
trip for the group. For example, a sports team may need to travel from A to B
and the
team coordinator may contact a bus company to make those arrangements. In this
example, the team coordinator manages the risk of the team not requiring the
services and
collecting the money to pay the bus company for its services. Such an
arrangement is
typically called a charter.
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[00051 In each of these models, the person actually participating in the
activity has little
control over the timing and choice of travel.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[00061 In drawings which illustrate by way of example only a preferred
embodiment of
the invention,
[0007] Figure 1 is a representation of some of the system in an embodiment.
[0008] Figure 2 is a flowchart of steps to set up a new activity in an
embodiment.
[0009] Figure 3 is a display on a user device showing a trip search interface
in an
embodiment.
100101 Figure 4 is a display on a user device showing a user registration
interface in an
embodiment.
[00111 Figure 5 is a flowchart for obtaining activity information.
[00121 Figure 6 is a display on a user device showing an example of activity
information
displayed on an interface in an embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0013] In an embodiment of the system 100, there are several parts that
interact as shown
in Figure 1. A plurality of users 101 interact with the system through a user
device 110. A
user device may be any device that can communicate with a participant
interaction engine
105. Examples of a user device 110 are smart phones, tables, or web browser
software
operating on a personal computer. For example a user device 110 may be an
Apple
iPhone or the Internet Explorer web browser software.
[0014] The user device includes a means for displaying data or information to
the user,
such as a screen or monitor and a means for obtaining input from a user such
as a
keyboard, touch screen, mouse, or other similar devices.
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[00151 The communication link 102 between the user device 110 and the
participant
interaction engine 105 may be any suitable communication means allowing bi-
directional
communications between the user device 110 and the participant interaction
engine such
as the internet, a wireless network, a local Ethernet, or a private network or
a combination
of network types.
[00161 The participant interaction engine 105 communicates with the user
devices 110. It
also communicates with other parts of the system, including the coordinating
engine 115.
In one embodiment, the participant interaction engine 105 may be a web server
communicating over the Internet with web browsers on the user devices 110. Web
server
software that can provide an interactive website may operate as part of the
participant
interaction engine 105 such as the Apache web server.
[00171 The participant interaction engine 105 may provide an API (application
program
interface) that allows interactions with the user devices 110 other than using
the web. In
one embodiment, the participant interaction engine 105 may include means to
communication with software running on smart phone such as an `app' or
application.
For example, the participant interaction engine 105 may communication with an
app
running on an Apple iPhone.
[00181 The participant interaction engine 105, while shown as a single entity,
maybe
composed of a number of components either all the same or different or in any
combination. For example, the participant interaction engine 105 may include
or be part
of a webservice, webserver, an application server or a single server with both
web server
software and application server software, or multiple servers with web server
software
running on some servers and application server software on other of the
servers. As
would be known to a person skilled in the art, the number of servers required
may be
depend on the capacity of the servers and the expected number of users using
user devices
110 to interact with the system 100.
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[00191 The coordinating engine 115 tracks the trips or other activities
managed by the
system 100. The coordinating engine 115 maintains a list or a database of
available trips
or other activities. The coordinating engine 115 may be a separate computer or
server
from the participant interaction engine 105 or may be a separate module on the
same
computer as the participant interaction engine 105 or the functionality of the
coordinating
engine 115 may be integrated with that of the participant interaction engine
105.
[0020] The list or database of available trips or other activities maintained
by the
coordinating engine 115 is prepared in cooperation with the provider 102 of
the trips or
other activities. For example, a bus company may provide bus services within a
certain
geographic area. Details of the geographic area maybe contained within the
coordinating
engine 115. The provider, or bus company in this example, may have a network
connection between their computer system and the system 100 in order to update
or
provide details of the trips or other activities that are available.
[0021) A pricing engine 120 communicates with the coordinating engine 115 and
the
participant interaction engine 105 to provide information on the price of
trips or other
activities. The pricing engine 120 may retain formulas or records for the
available trips or
other activities offered by providers 102. A provider 102 may provide a
schedule of prices
for its offered activities to the system which is retained by the system.
Alternatively, the
provider 102 may provide a formula for calculating the price for its offered
activities
based on variables such as the size of the group, size of the vehicle
required, the distance
of the travel, duration of the trip, number of steps, time of year or other
similar variables.
In a further alternative, the pricing engine 120 may communicate with the
provider 102 to
obtain a price for a given activity.
[0022) The pricing engine 120 may be a separate server, a separate module or
integrated
with other components of the system.
[00231 The participant interaction engine 105, the, coordinating engine 115
and the
pricing engine 120 communicate with each other. They may be connected using a
private
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network such as an Ethernet network, shared memory of on the same computer, or
use
some of means for communications known to a person skilled in the art.
[00241 As would be known to a person skilled in the art, firewalls may be
placed between
components of the system, or outside the system to protect the system from
unauthorized
access of the system. For example, a firewall may be placed between the user
devices 110
and the participant interaction engine 105.
[00251 As part of setting up the system, information about each available
trips or other
group activities, referred to as a group activity profile, are provided to the
system. For
example, the coordinating engine 115 may include a database or a list of the
available
group activities and details about the activities such as availability, group
sizes, provider
and other information required by the system. This information may include the
geographic location or region of available activities. For example, for bus
trips, this may
include the geographic coverage of the providing bus companies. This
information may
be updated during operation of the system, either periodically or as
information changes
from the providers.
[00261 To operate, the system 100 also requires pricing information to be used
by the
pricing engine 120. As discussed earlier, this may be formulas, pricing
schedules or
connection information for obtaining the pricing from a provider as needed, or
some other
means for the pricing engine 120 to obtain a price for the available group
activities.
[00271 In operation, the system 100 receives a request from a user 101 for
service. This is
done through the user device 110, with the user device 110 accessing the
participant
interaction engine 105 over a network, such as the Internet or a wireless
network. The
participant interaction engine 105 will typically have the facilities to
interact with
multiple user devices 110 simultaneously. The following description will focus
on an
interaction between the system 100 and a single user device 110.
100281 With reference to Figure 2, at step 205 the system checks if the user
device 110 is
registered with the system. This maybe done using credentials such as a
username and
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password, a session key, cookies or other mechanism to track user devices 110
and users.
Information about registered users and user devices may be maintained by the
participant
interaction engine 105 or the coordinating engine 115. The information
maintained may
include the user's name, address, payment information, email address, other
electronic
contact information such as social networking identifiers, and information
about previous
interactions with the system, such as previous trips or other activities they
have
participated in.
[0029] The user operating the user device 110 maybe required to enter a
usemame and
password or the user device 110 may store credentials and provide those
credentials
without further user input from the user 101.
[0030] If the user device 110 is not registered, as indicated at step 210, the
participant
interaction engine 105 provides prompts to the user device 110 to obtain user
information
from the user via the user device 110. Shown in Fig. 4 is an example of an
interface for
obtaining registration information. Various user information fields 405 may be
filled in
by the user using the user device 110 and, when the field are filled in, a
button 410 may
be used to submit the information to the participation interaction engine 105.
Using the
information provided by the user, the participant interaction engine 105
registers the user.
Registering the user by the participant interaction engine 105 may involve
providing the
user information to the coordinating engine 115 and/or storing the
information.
[0031] Once registered, the user interacts with the system to obtain
information about
trips or other activities, and registers for activities of interest. At step
215, the participant
interaction engine 105 obtains an activity request from a user device 110.
This process
may be facilitated by the participant interaction engine 105, perhaps in
conjunction with
the coordinating engine 115, providing a list of available trips or other
activities or
providing search functionality so that a user, using their user device 110,
can enter search
criteria for an activity of interest.
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[00321 For example, for providing travel services, a user may define a trip by
identifying
the starting location, the ending location, the departure time, whether it is
a round trip or a
one way trip, the expected number of participants. The start and end locations
may be
identified by allowing the user to type the name or address of the location or
indicate the
location on a map. The user may elect multiple pick up locations and drop off
locations.
The user that defines a trip or other group activity in the manner will be
termed the
`captain' of the trip or activity.
[00331 In one embodiment, a map may indicate the coverage area for the trip
providers.
For example, bus companies may only be licensed to pick up passengers in a
certain
geographic area. Depending on the type of travel selected, there may be
distance
restrictions based on the number of hours it will take to drive to the
destination. The
vehicle may not carry sufficient fuel or the driver may be restricted on how
many hours
they can operate the vehicle without a break. The number of pickup and drop-
off
locations may affect the distance limitations. By restricting the coverage
area or
indicating distance limitations, trips configured though the system are
possible but still
allow the user the flexibility to choose their own start, end and time
preferences.
[00341 In another embodiment, a user may search for an existing trip by date,
starting
location, ending location or other attributes of the trip. In this embodiment,
the
participation interaction engine 105 may provide a search screen on the user
device 110
allowing the user to enter a start location and an end location. This maybe
done by
allowing the user to type the name or address of the location or indicate the
location on a
map. Since the trips located by the search feature are already configured,
they will be
captained by another user of the system and the user can select to be a
participant on the
trip.
[00351 Figure 3 is a representation of a display on a user device 110 showing
an
embodiment of a trip searching interface. The display includes a search
interface 305, a
search button for initiating a search 315 and some sample search results 310.
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[0036] When the user has identified to the participant interaction engine 105,
using their
user device 110, a group activity they are interested in, by, for example
selecting an
activity from a list or searching for an available activity, the participant
interaction engine
105 obtains more information about the activity, such as the group activity
profile, from
the coordinating engine 115 and the pricing engine 120. This further
information may
include the price of the activity by providing a quote as indicated at 220.
[0037] With the quote from the pricing engine, the user, via the user device
110 is
prompted whether or not they would like to sign up for the activity. As
indicated at 225, if
the user does not accept the quote, the user may request details, including
another quote,
about a different group activity.
[0038] For example, in a group trip example, a captain may request details and
quote for
a shorter trip, or a trip using a different vehicle if the quoted price is
higher than their
preference for their requested trip.
[0039] If a user indicates, via their user device 110, an acceptance of the
activity details
and the user is the captain of the trip, then the participant interaction
engine 105 may
provide further activity configuration options to the user device 110 for
consideration by
the user as indicated at 230.
[0040] Group activity configuration options may include group options. Since a
group
activity has multiple participants, the group options may include a variety of
ways of
including other participants in the group activity. In response to the
activity configuration
and pricing options, the user, via the user device 110 selects their options
as shown at
235.
-[0041] In one scenario, the captain may already know who will be
participating in the
event. For example, a sports team organizer may know that the entire team will
be
participating in the activity. The organizer may pay for the group activity
without
requiring any involvement with the team in the registration process. In this
scenario, as
indicated at 240, the captain, via the user device will select the payment
option for the
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activity making full payment for the activity. In one embodiment, the user
pays the entire
amount for the activity and in a different embodiment, the user pays a portion
of the
amount, such as a deposit, with the reminder due later. The deposit may be
equal to the
maximum per-person amount for the trip. The deposit may be refunded or
returned to the
captain as participants register and pay for the activity.
[0042] In another scenario, the captain may think that their friends will
participate in the
event but does not know which friends will be able to attend. After
configuring the trip,
captain may ask their friends to each contribute to the trip. In this
scenario, the user, via
the user device 110 may select a payment option for the activity where each
user pays a
portion of the cost. The group options may include the minimum number of
people that
must register for the event before the event will proceed, the maximum cost of
the event
to each person and the deadline for registering users.
[0043] The captain of a trip or other group activity maybe required to provide
a deposit
for the trip 240. The deposit may be refunded if an insufficient number of
people register
for the trip. As indicated previously, the deposit may be returned to the
captain as
participants register and/or pay for the trip.
[0044] In this way, a group activity can be organized and have a user's
network of friends
and acquaintances participate and sharing the cost.
[0045] Continuing the trip example discussed earlier, a captain may select a
trip from A
to B that costs $1000. The captain may select the option where each
participant pays a
portion of the costs and set the minimum number of participants at 10. In this
example,
the maximum cost for each participant would be $100. The captain may require
that
people register by a certain deadline, for example one week in advance of the
trip. If 16
people register for the trip, then the cost for each participant would be only
$62.50. In this
way, the participants of the trip benefit if more people sign up for the trip.
The captain
also benefits by having his or her portion of the trip cost be reduced.
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[0046] In this example, the captain may be required to pay a deposit such as
$100, the
maximum amount per person, or $1000, the total amount, or some other amount.
The
captain's deposit will be returned in an amount so that the captain pays the
same amount
as the other passengers, in this example, $62.50.
[0047] Payment details may be provided to the participant interaction engine
105 by the
user via the user device 110. In one embodiment, the payment details are
processed by a
payment processor such as PayPal. The payment processor may process credit
card or
other transactions on behalf of the system 100 and deposit funds from the user
into bank
accounts associated with the system provider. Suitable receipts and/or
confirmations
would be provided to the user and maintained by the system. In other
embodiments, the
participant may be prompted to enter their enter banking or credit card by the
participant
interaction engine 105 via the user device 110 which is used by the system to
obtain
payment for the trip or other activity.
[0048] As indicated at 245, once the activity has been configured, a
confirmation number
may be provided to the user. This may be used by the user to trace the
activity registration
and to identify the activity.
[0049] The participant interaction engine 105 may also provide sharing
options. The
sharing options may allow the user 105 to provide details of the activity or
registration
options to their friends and acquaintances. In the sports team example
mentioned above,
the organizer may send details of the activity to the team members so they
know when
and where to meet for the trip. In another example, the trip organizer may
forward an
invitation to his or her friends asking them to join in the trip and share the
cost. The trip
or other activity details may be shared further to by those friends to their
friends - ie
friends of the friends of the captain - or even further.
[0050] The sharing of activity information may be done through a variety of
mechanisms
so that friends and acquaintances can obtain information about the activity.
For example,
the activity details and registration information may be sent by email to
people in the
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user's contact list. Such an email may include a link, directing the
recipients to the
participant interaction engine 105, such as by providing a URL, so that email
recipients
may obtain details of the activity from the participant interaction engine 105
and register
for the activity. Similarly, the activity details may be sent by text message,
instant
message or other messaging services.
[0051] The activity details may be shared by the user using social networking
websites
with which he or she has an account, such as Facebooktm, Twitter or Linkedln .
Activity information may be posted to these websites and made accessible to
the user's
friends, acquaintances and connections. The participant interaction engine 105
or
coordinating engine 115 may maintain credentials for these websites to allow
posting of
activity information easier for the user.
[0052] The system may provide incentives to the user to encourage others to
register for
the activity. This would encourage the user to spread information about their
activities,
and likely increase the number of people using the system to organize and
register their
activities. Such incentives may include financial rewards such as refunds and
discounts
for participating in an activity. The incentives may be non-financial such as
points which
may be applied to future activities.
[0053] As mentioned previously, since the cost for the trip or other activity
is divided
between the participants, all the existing participants have an incentive to
invite other
people to join the trip and reducing their costs.
[0054] When a user confirms a new group activity, the coordinating engine 115
notifies
or alerts the group activity provider. This may be done by any suitable
electronic means
such as email.
[0055] For example, if a user confirms a bus trip from A to B, the bus company
providing
the bus, may be notified of the trip so that they can arrange to have the bus
ready for the
trip at the specified time. The coordinating engine 115 may limit the
activities that can be
registered so that sufficient time is provided to the activity provider to
arrange for the
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activity, such as a trip. For example, the coordinating engine 115 may not
allow trips to
be booked less than 48 hours in advance of the departure time.
[0056] Once an activity has been confirmed by a user, the captain may check on
the status
of the trip. In one embodiment, this process is shown in Figure 5. A
previously registered
user using a user device 110 communicates with the participant interaction
engine 105 to
log in as described earlier, perhaps by providing the username and password,
as shown at
505. Users who are not registered may be asked to register before accessing
the system as
described earlier, step 510.
[00571 At 515, the coordinating engine 115 and the participant interaction
engine 105
retrieve trips or other activities associated with the registered user. The
list of associated
activities may be displayed on the user device 110 and the user may interact
with the
device to select a particular activity. Alternatively, the user may enter or
provide, via the
user device 110, an activity confirmation number provided during the
registration, at 245.
[00581 At 520, once an activity has been identified, details about the
activity are
communicated to the user device 110 by the participant interaction engine 105.
Details
about the activity may include the time and location of the trip, the number
of other users
registered for the activity, the cancellation policy, the cost of the activity
and the cost per
participant. Captains may obtain further information about the activity such
as the names
and contact information of the users participating in the activity. Depending
on the
implementation and regulations, names and contact information may be kept
secure by
the coordinating engine to preserve the privacy of the users.
[00591 Figure 6 is a representation of one embodiment showing activity details
for a trip
605, including a list of registered users 620. Other trips 610 associated with
the user may
also be displayed for ease of reference. The number of other users
participating 615, in
this case passengers on a bus trip, may be displayed. Other users may be
invited by the
user to participate in the trip, such as by clicking on the `invite' button
625.
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[0060] By inviting other users to participating in an activity, the per-use
cost of the
activity may decrease providing benefits of lower cost to the captain and to
the other
participants. The group activity provider may also benefit from increase
business from
more people being able to organize group activities.
[0061] Other incentives may be provided to users of the system. Businesses at
the
destination for trips may offer benefits to group participants on those trips.
A business
may subsidize some or all of the costs associated with the trip if the trip
ends at their
location. For example, an amusement park may subsidize all trips that end at
the park by
50%. A trip that is configured by a captain to end at the park may cost less
to the
participants than a similar trip that does not end at the park. In this way,
participants are
encouraged to arrange group trips to the amusement park. This type of discount
may be
calculated by the pricing engine 120.
[0062] A business may buy advertising that appears or is offered to group
participants or
group captains if a trip end in geographic locations. For example, a
restaurant may offer a
discount on dinner to group participants that finish a bus trip on the same
block as the
restaurant. The system 100 may be able to obtain advertising money from the
business
buying such advertising because the advertising would be directed to users in
the same
geographic area as the business.
[0063] If insufficient people sign up for an activity, the captain for the
activity may
cancel the activity. Money paid by the captain and/or registered users may be
refunded by
the activity provider if the trip is cancelled.
[0064] Various embodiments of the present invention having been thus described
in
detail by way of example, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that
variations and
modifications may be made without departing from the invention. The invention
includes
all such variations and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended
claims.
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