BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Software applications are traditionally built using Software development tools and compilers, such as Visual Basic, C/C++, Java, and the like, the output being the creation of executable programs containing the entire logic of the program, inclusive of the user interfaces. Since the advent of the Internet, additional use of scripting languages such as JavaScript and VBScript have afforded the ability to enhance HTML to provide program-like functionality within web pages, which are now more commonly being linked as front-end user interfaces via methods such as ASP (Active Server Pages), JSP (Java Server Pages) and via tools such as Coldfusion.

One of the many difficulties facing the IT&T industry in the rapid take-up of the Interne and associated e-commerce is the ability to develop and maintain software applications that meet rapidly evolving and forever changing business requirements. There remains a large gap between what a non-IT, non- programmer can achieve with Desktop personal productivity tools and what they can achieve with the packaged and expensive enterprise level/multi-user

systems, and/or custom application development projects.

To address this problem a business must decide whether to initiate and sponsor application development with its associated costs and risks or to source 3rd party applications software that often has either too much functionality and is "overkill"in terms of pricing, training, and other features or has too little functionality, thus restricting potential achievements. Either option usually requires business operating practices to change around the software functionality, rather than the software adapting to the business practices. With either of the above decisions, the cost of changing, upgrading, or modifying software is an expensive and time-consuming process surrounded by associated business risks.

In many instances projects or requirements that fall in the non-essential, but desirable category, do not proceed. Consequently, the best tool available is used at a personal level, which gives rise to programs such as Microsoft Excel being used as, for example, file directory listings, databases, and for correspondence tracking and project management. Such programs are used in such a way because they allow freedom of expression and creativity unconstrained by fixed parameters with the ability to make instant changes when required.

Additionally, the world of core business operations and procedures essentially still evolves around information contained in business documents such as policies and procedures, contracts, service level agreements, operating plans, business plans and the like. Documents are the natural format that business and business people have relied on since the inception of commerce.

Use of electronic communications in daily business life is ubiquitous and email and emerging instant messaging formats have effectively replaced the fax machine and normal mail. The nature of its success has also brought new associated problems such as"inbox overload", where separating work from junk and personal mail and prioritizing emails/messages, has become a daily

challenge for business people.

In electronic communication, a sender has the desire for effective communications and the delivery of the right content and right context limited by "unstructured message writing". This is aided only by the ability to include attachments. However, attachments are often used as virus infection mechanisms, which render them undesirable even in the presence of anti-virus software, which cannot always be relied upon to detect and disarm viruses.

Another drawback is that email in its present form offers little to the sender in the way of controlling ultimate message distribution or providing more precise presentation, collection and aggregation of responses to a sender's messages. Furthermore, from the business owner and organisational management perspective, the impact on effective management and corporate governance are negatively affected as little control is provided in the ability to effectively implement and monitor email policies and procedures.

Additionally, workers using email and Microsoft Excel or the like are increasingly"emailing"documents to other employees, suppliers and customers for the purpose of collecting inputs for a given task such as preparing budgets, sales forecasts, and the like. Currently, distribution of an email with an Excel attachment to 100 parties would result in 100 new email replies (assuming 100% response), requiring the sender to open each email, read the content, open the attachment and perform manual"copy & paste"routines. Given the natural tendencies for people to, often undesirably, edit/change aspects of a message, and to misunderstand instructions, this common style of business process is very inefficient.

The introduction of"collaborative"systems has come part way in addressing these problems. However, these are mostly modelled on the concept of"file-sharing", wherein the sender/initiator posts a master file such as a spreadsheet, document or the like to a shared workspace or web portal and invites people to access the file and provide inputs. A disadvantage of this is

that it does not work well for processes where, for example, restricted access to portions of the master file are required, where results need to be instantly and intuitively collected and/or where results from a broad selection of independent and/or isolated parties must not be communicated between the parties.

A number of systems have been developed that attempt to address the aforementioned deficiencies and these are discussed below.

United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2001/0027459 A1 (Royal) discloses a method and apparatus for electronic document exchange between a plurality of parties. The exchange occurs within the context of relationships determined by organizations. When the organizations decide on those relationships, they exchange the capability to exchange documents through the establishment of a security protocol model and document type definitions (DTD) for the exchanged documents.

The drawback of this system is the requirement of the creation of a relationship model and the installation of data communication processors or servers at each respective party. This system does not enable users to overcome the aforementioned problems without first embarking on an extensive protocol set-up.

United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2001/0031454 A1 (Mintz) discloses a multi-functional communication and aggregation platform system and method for conducting opinion surveys using email as the transport mechanism. A multi-media enhanced email message is created using an authoring tool in conjunction with a web command launcher. The enhanced email message is distributed to a select set of recipients using a communications engine and the recipients individually review and respond to the questions and issues posed in the enhanced email message. The responses are collected automatically, filtered and stored in one or more databases using a proprietary aggregation engine. The stored responses are then analysed using an analysis engine to generate one or more reports.

Mintz focuses on the presentation of question & answer type surveys and has a set of disparate engines focused on aggregating and analysing the results, which can be output to databases and/or office applications such as spreadsheets. Mintz includes the presentation of binary files on an Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) method.

Although Mintz addresses some of the aforementioned problems, such as the limitations of only having email attachments as an input collection medium, many of the aforementioned problems remain.

United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2001/0025300 A1 (Miller et al.) discloses methods and systems to manage and track the states of electronic media in a communications network. The system, known as a "Zaplet", describes a messaging system layout that presents media inside the body of an email in a fixed format approach. It describes a layout showing a HTML message containing a"Command"that is used to engage communication with a centralised Database driven Server via HTTP. The layout also shows a Dynamic Image Region for showing graphs etc. The layout further comprises a Static HTML Region for showing content and a HTML Form for user interaction.

The layout further shows an"Iframe/llayer"region to"pipe"a separate web page into the area every time the message is viewed.

Zaplet utilises a combination of a centralised database and web server technology to present data inside the body of the email. Zaplet is not a peer-to- peer implementation and does not provide solutions to all of the above problems nor the desired flexibility or functionality.

Ideally, a new type of application is required that allows business workers and professionals, backed by their inherent knowledge of the project or process at hand, to author their own business processes and communication applications in a document-centric manner to which they are accustomed and that can easily interoperate with people and computers across communication networks.

In view of the aforementioned proliferation of electronic communication, a

system/method that is capable of efficiently doing this and which is easy to use, particularly by those who would be classified as non-IT individuals, would be highly desirable.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect, although it need not be the only or indeed the broadest aspect, the invention resides in a method of creating an electronic, self- contained, portable work file, the method including the steps of: converting at least one electronic communication in a first format into a data structure using an interpretive kernel ; converting the at least one electronic communication in the first format into a representation of characteristics of the electronic communication using the interpretive kernel ; and displaying the work file according to the representation of the electronic communication.

The step of converting the at least one electronic communication in a first format into a data structure may further include creating an intermediate data structure.

The method may further include the step of converting the at least one electronic communication in the first format into an aggregator using the interpretive kernel.

The method may further include the step of organizing a structure of the work file into logical groupings. The logical groupings may be determined by contents of the at least one electronic communication in the first format and/or by recipients of the work file or a portion thereof.

Preferably, the data structure is in a scripting language such as XML format.

Preferably, the representation and the aggregator are both in XSLT format.

Suitably, the data structure supports multiple representations.

According to another aspect, the invention resides in an electronic, self- contained, portable work file comprising: a data structure converted from at least one electronic communication in a first format using an interpretive kernel ; a representation of characteristics of the at least one electronic communication in the first format generated by the interpretive kernel from the at least one electronic communication; and content comprising data and associated logic for viewing the data.

Preferably, the electronic, self-contained, portable work file further comprises an aggregator generated by the interpretive kernel from the at least one electronic communication.

The electronic, self-contained, portable work file may further comprise one or more regions of restricted access that a recipient of the work file is not permitted to edit.

Suitably, the electronic, self-contained, portable work file is either software or firmware.

Preferably, the data structure is in a scripting language such as XML.

Preferably, the representation and the aggregator are both in XSLT format.

Suitably, the data structure supports multiple representations In a further aspect, the invention resides in a method of collaborative communication structuring between a sender and at least one recipient, the method including the steps of: creating an electronic, self-contained, portable work file using an interpretive kernel by: converting at least one electronic communication in a first format into a data structure; converting the at least one electronic communication in the first

format into a representation of characteristics of the communication; and converting the at least one electronic communication in the first format into an aggregator; sending the work file from the sender to the at least one recipient over a communication network; displaying at least part of the work file to the at least one recipient; sending at least one response from the at least one recipient to the sender; and automatically aggregating contents of the at least one response in the work file of the sender.

Preferably, the work file is sent to the at least one recipient as an email.

Preferably, the at least part of the work file is displayed to the at least one recipient within a body of an email according to the representation of the electronic communication.

Prior to displaying at least part of the work file, the at least one recipient may have to demonstrate their authority to view the at least part of the work file.

Prior to sending at least one response, the at least one recipient may edit the at least part of the work file depending on permissions in the work file assigned to the at least one recipient by the sender.

Contents of the work file received by the at least one recipient may be determined by the sender.

The method may further comprise the step of conducting a discussion between the sender and the at least one recipient via electronic messaging within the work file.

Further features of the invention will become apparent from the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS To assist in understanding the invention and in enabling a person skilled

in the art to put the invention into practical effect preferred embodiments of the invention will be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG 1 is a schematic representation of the creation of an application document from a master document using an interpretive kernel (engine); FIG 2 is a schematic representation of the interpretive kernel and a structure of the application document; FIG 3 schematically shows transportation of application documents and portions thereof to recipients with and without the interpretive kernel ; FIG 4 is a schematic representation of a master document comprising sub-documents; FIG 5 schematically shows structured document-to-document communication; FIG 6 shows a flowchart outlining the steps involved from master document creation to aggregation of responses from recipients; FIG 7 shows a screenshot of the creation of a master document; FIG 8 shows a screenshot of the conversion of the master document of FIG 7 into an XML/XSL data structure; FIG 9 shows a screenshot of regions of the master document in which recipients are permitted to enter data; FIG 10 shows a screenshot of a recipients instruction list ; FIG 11 shows a screenshot of the distribution of the interactive document to recipients; FIG 12 shows a screenshot depicting the receipt of an email by a recipient ; FIG 13 shows a screenshot of an example of a task to be completed by a recipient; and FIG 14 shows a screenshot representing the collating/aggregation of recipients'responses within the sender's binder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, a user can create an application or business process by authoring and/or editing one or more communications, such as business documents, and then assembling these communications together into a logical working container for a given objective, application or procedure. An interpretive kernel or engine can reside on either a"peer client" device or"server"environment and can be either a software version or a firmware version embedded in hardware devices. Upon activation (by an external trigger or a user event), the interpretive kernel interprets the communications and proceeds to process the instructions in accordance with the logic contained within the communications.

Additionally, communication processes can be invoked to enable the transport of the entire working container or portions thereof so that on receipt by the receiving party, another interpretive kernel can interpret the communications and self-generate the instructed behaviour, logic and user interface described in the communication or the portions thereof provided.

The logic contained within, for example, the template document, is based on common scripting languages such as VBScript and JavaScript, but could also be other scripts such as PERL or Python. Scripting is used for the invention due to its interpretive nature. However, the invention could embrace the concept of supporting executable class language support such as Basic, or C/C++.

Additionally, the method supports the use of XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language & Transformation) embedded into the template XML file. It should be appreciated that conventionally XSLT is referenced as a separate file, whereas the present invention supports multiple XSLT files contained within a single XML file.

Referring to FIG 1, a master document 2 is created from an electronic communication, such as, but not limited to a conventional word document,

spreadsheet, or image, in accordance with the method of the invention, the method deriving an instruction set from the electronic communication. The instruction set contains macros based on common scripting languages, such as VBScript, JavaScript, or the like. Additionally, any pre-determined resources such as a user interface, data elements and the like are described in the document. In one embodiment, the master document is in XML format.

However, in alternative embodiments, the master document could be in other purpose-built document formats.

An interpretive kernel 4 reads the master document, interprets the instruction set and generates a work file in the form of an application document 6. Further iterations 8 of the application document may be cycled through by the interpretive kernel 4 to execute instructions in a manner that can continually extend the depth and capability of the resulting application document. The interpretive kernel 4 may be in the form of software or firmware and in one embodiment, the interpretive kernel 4 is a dynamic link library (DLL). The interpretive kernel may be incorporated into virtually any type of electronic device capable of at least document or document-like manipulation. The interpretive kernel may therefore be present in a conventional PC, a laptop, a server, a personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld computer or other communication device.

A representation of the portable work file in the form of application document 6 is shown in FIG 2, which comprises the system logic instruction set, business logic, a user interface and content. The composition of the application document 6 is described in detail hereinafter.

The master document 2 created from the original communication contains the minimum"starting information"to create a portable application document 6.

In order to maintain integrity from the master document 2 the application document 6 is generated as a separate document from the master document.

FIG 3 shows the application document production process as shown in

FIG 1 and described above. FIG 3 also represents the generation of portable processing instructions (PPI) via the transport of a portion 10 of the application document 6 to a recipient device 7. The recipient device 7 may contain an interpretive kernel 4, in which case, receipt of the application document portion 10 by the recipient's interpretive kernel 4 will cause the recipient's interpretive kernel 4 to interpret the instructions contained within the portion 10 of the application document 6. This may include presenting the User Interface to the recipient and other application document specific behaviours, which may, for example, initiate a response document that may ultimately be sent back to the sender.

A further example of application document based communication is real- time instant messaging between the recipient (s) and the sender. A record of the messaging will be contained within the application document thus keeping the sender/recipient (s) up to date with, for example, developments relating to the application document content. The instant messaging feature may identify the author of the messages; allow recipients of the messages to be selected/deselected ; and comprise all the features usually associated with an instant messaging system. For example, with reference to FIG 5 which is described in detail hereinafter, if recipient 2 has a question to be put to the sender when working on, for example, document 108, recipient 2 can invoke a "discuss now"function and a message is communicated to the sender who is then directed in context to document 108 residing in the master document. A bi- directional discussion thread may then occur until the discussion is complete on this topic. At the end of the discussion, a discussion transcript document is saved with date and time stamping to the contextual section of the master document for record and audit purposes. This process can continue between all recipients and the sender in a contextual manner, the communications having originated and occurred within the context of the working document. Hence, discussions may be engaged in using recipients'standard email addresses

without recourse to an Instant Messaging subscription vendor. The communication methods employed may be one of, but not limited to asynchronous discussion thread style, instant messaging, short message service (SMS) or standard email based correspondence.

In FIG 3, document 12 represents an application document portion that has been transported to a recipient that does not have an interpretive kernel 4 installed in their device. In this case, the sender's interpretive kernel 4, or one configured at an Internet portal, processes the instructions of the application document portion 12 as if the interpretive kernel is local to the recipient. The application document or portion thereof requires access to the interpretive kernel in order to execute it's embedded functionality. Where an external interpretive kernel is utilized, such as one configured at an Internet portal, this may be in the form of a Visual Basic application or an alternative language based application.

In FIG 3, document 14 represents the full portable processing instruction set document sent to a recipient whose device comprises an interpretive kernel 4.

FIG 4 shows that the master document 2 and application document 6 outlined in FIGS 1-3 are document containers comprising multiple sub- documents, the sub-documents providing support for the logic and behaviour of the master document 2 and subsequent application documents 6. Sub- document 14 contains the macro instruction set that provides the functional processing logic of the target application. Sub-document 16 describes the Rights Management document that contains information for control over licensing, user identities and permissions, security, data encryption and the like.

Sub-document 18 describes the document concept of WebXstationery (WXS).

WXS is based primarily around XSLT and provides discrete document items, each with its own behaviour and objective use. Each WXS item enables the docking and/or linking together of elements to form an overall application environment. Sub-document 20 comprises objects such as, but not limited to

common office documents, engineering drawings, image files, acrobat files and jpeg files, which may be binary files, in XML/XSL format or other XML document formats such as XBRL or WSDL. Sub-document 22 comprises folders for the structuring of different contextual sections within the binder document.

The overall representation of the logical structure or schema of the master document 2 will vary depending on the particular application, but in its basic form consists of the portable instruction set (macros) and content (data and associated logic).

FIG 5 shows a master document 102 that has been authored by a sender.

The master document 102 is structured into two sub-folders, but is not limited to this configuration. For example, recursive continuation could be employed to suit particular application requirements. Once the master document 102 is assembled with the required structure and content in a work file in the form of an application document, the sender initiates communication with one or more recipients using, for example, the conventional SMTP message transport capability. Alternatively, HTTP, XMLHTTP, FTP, WINHTTP, SOAP or other transport protocols could be used.

The sender has the ability to allocate access rights to one or more portions of the master document 102 and to discrete sub-documents within the master document. This may be in the sense of a recipient receiving a shared document, only a portion of which they may be permitted to edit, even though the whole of the shared document may be sent and be visible to the recipient.

Alternatively, only the portion that may be edited by the recipient may be sent and be visible to them. A further alternative is that any part of the master document not intended for the recipient is simply not transmitted to the recipient.

In the example shown in FIG 5, recipient 1 receives an application document 104 which may only comprise a unique document 106, intended for recipient 1 only, along with a shared document 108. Within application document 110, recipient 2 may only receive unique document 112 and the

shared document 108. Recipient 1 does not receive nor has access to document 112. Similarly, recipient 2 does not receive nor has access to document 106.

When any recipient responds to the sender, the unique response is inserted into the sender's master document 102 in an appropriate response section. This creates a structured and controlled mechanism for managing all responses.

The sender can continue to structure the master document 102 into logical sections, as shown in sub-folder 2 in FIG 5. Further sub-folders may contain content suitable for a different set of user attributes.

In a manufacturing procurement application of the present invention, sub- folder 1 may be titled"Electronics"with associated content and users, whereas sub-folder 2 might be titled"Mechanics"with associated content and users.

However, both sub-folders logically belong to the master document representing a main project file, which might be titled"Manufacture of new Robot". This means that, for the first time, users can assemble logical, project orientated electronic binders and then orchestrate the communications from within each binder and sub-division thereof.

In a financial application of the present invention, sub-folders may be divided according to different budget sectors with different individuals or departments being responsible for collating budget data pertaining to their operations. A chief financial officer, for example, would then need to collate such departmental data and the present invention enables them to do this efficiently and confidentially where necessary. For example, spreadsheets requiring the entry of budget information may be sent to each department, but a particular department may only complete fields relevant to that department. Other fields within the global spreadsheet requiring completion by other departments can be restricted if desired. The dissemination to recipients of any sensitive information can be appropriately restricted.

The present invention is not limited to only text applications. The present invention may also, or alternatively, be utilised with technical and/or graphical information, such as graphs and drawings. For example, in an engineering drawing application, different layers or components of a whole design may be completed by different draughtsmen. As each layer or component of the whole design is completed, they may be returned to a notional sender or central repository for aggregation in accordance with the master document method described above.

Indeed, it should be appreciated that the present invention is applicable to any segmentable or divisible project or entity, where aspects or segments of the whole are to be worked upon, in whatever manner, by separate entities.

FIG 6 shows a flowchart outlining the steps from creation of the master document, in this example a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, to aggregation of the responses from recipients in accordance with the present invention. It will be appreciated however, that the master document may be of any type such as text, a graphic such as a drawing or graph or the like, or a combination thereof.

In step 50, the user creates, for example, a spreadsheet document using a suitable conventional application such as, in this case, Microsoft Excel. An example is shown in the screenshot in FIG 7. As shown in step 52 and represented in FIG 8, by virtue of a single click operation, the conventional document is converted into an XML/XSL data structure comprising formulae <BR> <BR> matching those in the original spreadsheet document, i. e. , the formulae appearing in the original spreadsheet are converted into the scripting language.

An XSLT/HTML representation of the layout, colours, highlighting and other features is also generated. A matching XSLT aggregator is also created, which will automatically collate responses to the message from recipients to whom the message will be sent. The XSLT aggregator will be in WebXstationery (WXS) form and have the functionality as described above.

The user is now ready to create and organize a so-called binder for the

spreadsheet document. Each binder is essentially an intelligent, portable workflow package and may be created from scratch by the user. Alternatively, the user may select a suitable binder template from a library of binder templates.

Organisation of a binder may comprise selecting a layout style, setting properties of the binder, setting system behaviour, event logging and security options.

Structuring of the folder may also be determined by the user as described above and as exemplified in FIG 5. The structured content of the binder may comprise single or multiple levels as desired. FIG 9 shows an example in which the cells that recipients are permitted to enter data are specified.

With reference to FIG 10, instructions lists for use by recipients may be attached to any section of the binder content. The instructions enable a user to clearly present the actions required of the recipients and the present invention enables a user to ensure that the response (s) of the recipient (s) are in the desired format.

Content such as files and resources can be inserted into the binder.

These may take the format of binary documents and files such as Word, Excel, CAD, Video, PDF and the like and/or may be XML/XSLT documents such as industry initiatives HR-XML, XBRL, ebXML and/or custom XML documents.

Resource links such as websites and emerging web services may also be included. Preferably, documents and the like are linked behind the recipients' instructions to facilitate user navigation.

It is not essential to the present invention that the aforementioned conversion of the spreadsheet document, or whatever type of document or file is being used, takes place prior to arrangement of the binder (s). The XML and XSLT forms may be created after binder configuration has commenced.

However, it is necessary that conversion takes place prior to sending of the message to the recipient (s).

Once all aspects of the binder have been completed, which may be facilitated by a conventional"wizard"approach, a user can review all of the

instructions, links and content prior to distribution. With reference to step 54 in FIG 6, once the message to the recipient has been prepared and the relevant HTML compliant email address (es) of the recipient (s) entered, the binder containing the XML/XSLT interactive spreadsheet is sent to the recipient (s), as represented by step 56 and FIG 11.

With reference to step 58 and FIG 12, recipients receive an email or an alternative notification, the content of which may be protected by a cover. Upon validation by a recipient, they can open and view the content via an email, via a web browser link, via the interpretive kernel or via an application configured to read the binder. However, the recipients only see the content they are authorized to see by the sender. Alternatively, all of the content may be viewed, but only part of it may be edited or added to, as determined by the sender and as described above.

When a recipient opens the binder and views documents, this takes place within the body of the email. The body of the email is therefore rendered to improve user efficiency and presentation concepts.

Once a recipient has completed the tasks specified by the sender, such as entering data in a particular format as shown in the example in FIG 13, the recipient can submit their response to the sender. Upon receipt, the received data is collated/aggregated within the sender's binder, as represented by step 60 and FIG 14. The aggregated responses my be viewed within the binder as represented by step 62 and/or stored in the binder or exported, as represented by step 64.

The present invention, in its various aspects, both constitutes and results in a self-contained, portable work file, which is both network and application independent. It may be distributed by email or called from a website. It comprises flexible business logic and supports emerging as well as current standards and data integration.

The present invention addresses many of the problems of the

aforementioned prior art, particularly in the way that conventional applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, support the invention and in the way that no major protocol set-up is required in advance. In this respect, a new tool does not have to be learned and the invention does not require specialist IT or programmer knowledge. The invention may be used with single or multiple recipients and in the latter application, not only is conformity of responses achieved, but also the responses can be efficiently and automatically aggregated. Communications are secure and the sender may easily set access permissions for recipients.

Throughout the specification the aim has been to describe the invention without limiting the invention to any one embodiment or specific collection of features. Persons skilled in the relevant art may realize variations from the specific embodiments that will nonetheless fall within the scope of the invention.