Community-based collaborative knowledge system, and message subscription type setting method and reply message processing method in that system

• US 20020174179A1
• Filed: 02/27/2002
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Toyota, Mayo, Iwata, Masaaki, Tanigawa, Hitoshi, Shimakawa, Kazunori
• Granted Patent: US 7,539,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A community server categorizes and accumulates messages exchanged by users on a virtual community for respective topics. The community server includes a subscription type setting unit, which provides, to each user and predetermined administrator, a mechanism for selecting a subscription type indicating the way each user subscribes to messages posted to the virtual community. For this purpose, the subscription type setting unit manages the subscription types of respective users for each community using a subscription type table of community management information, and changes the subscription type in the subscription table in accordance with a request from each user and administrator.

Claims

1. A community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

access control means for making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

community processing means for managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission by said access control means, for respective topics, said community processing means including;

message subscription type setting means for setting a subscription type indicating the way a user subscribes to the categorized and accumulated messages in accordance with an instruction from that user.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said message subscription type setting means sets a subscription type of each user for each individual virtual community.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the subscription type includes at least delivery via mail, and browsing via a browser.

2. A community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

access control means for making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

community processing means for managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission by said access control means, for respective topics, said community processing means including;

message subscription type setting means for setting a subscription type indicating the way a user subscribes to the categorized and accumulated messages in accordance with an instruction from a predetermined administrator.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the administrator is determined for each individual virtual community.

6. A community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

access control means for making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

community processing means for managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission by said access control means, for respective topics, said community processing means including;

reply message processing means for, when a reply mail message used to post a reply message is sent back from the client terminal in response to a mail message used to deliver the categorized and accumulated message to a subscriber, automatically determining a virtual community to which the reply message should belong by analyzing a message header of the reply mail message, and categorizing and accumulating the reply message.

8. A system according to claim 6, wherein said reply message processing means further automatically determines a topic to which the reply message should belong.

7. A community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

access control means for making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

community processing means for managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission by said access control means, for respective topics, said community processing means including;

reply message processing means for, when a reply mail message used to post a reply message is sent back from the client terminal in response to a mail message used to deliver the categorized and accumulated message to a subscriber, automatically determining a virtual community to which the reply message should belong by analyzing a subject of the reply mail message, and categorizing and accumulating the reply message.

9. A message subscription type setting method in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the message subscription type setting step of setting a subscription type indicating the way a user subscribes to the categorized and accumulated messages in accordance with an instruction from that user.

12. A method according to claim 9, wherein the message subscription type setting step includes the step of setting a subscription type of each user for each individual virtual community.

13. A method according to claim 9, wherein the subscription type includes at least delivery via mail, and browsing via a browser.

10. A message subscription type setting method in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the message subscription type setting step of setting a subscription type indicating the way a user subscribes to the categorized and accumulated messages in accordance with an instruction from a predetermined administrator.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the administrator is determined for each individual virtual community.

16. A method according to claim 14, wherein the reply message processing means includes the step of further automatically determining a topic to which the reply message should belong.

14. A reply message processing method in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the reply message processing step of automatically determining, when a reply mail message used to post a reply message is sent back from the client terminal in response to a mail message used to deliver the categorized and accumulated message to a subscriber, a virtual community to which the reply message should belong by analyzing a message header of the reply mail message, and categorizing and accumulating the reply message.

15. A reply message processing method in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, comprising:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the reply message processing step of automatically determining, when a reply mail message used to post a reply message is sent back from the client terminal in response to a mail message used to deliver the categorized and accumulated message to a subscriber, a virtual community to which the reply message should belong by analyzing a subject of the reply mail message, and categorizing and accumulating the reply message.

17. A program used in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, said program making a computer execute:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the message subscription type setting step of setting a subscription type indicating the way a user subscribes to the categorized and accumulated messages in accordance with an instruction from that user.

18. A program used in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, said program making a computer execute:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the message subscription type setting step of setting a subscription type indicating the way a user subscribes to the categorized and accumulated messages in accordance with an instruction from a predetermined administrator.

19. A program used in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, said program making a computer execute:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the reply message processing step of automatically determining, when a reply mail message used to post a reply message is sent back from the client terminal in response to a mail message used to deliver the categorized and accumulated message to a subscriber, a virtual community to which the reply message should belong by analyzing a message header of the reply mail message, and categorizing and accumulating the reply message.

20. A program used in a community-based collaborative knowledge system which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and supports knowledge accumulation by categorizing and accumulating messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, said program making a computer execute:

the access control step of making user authentication of a client terminal as an access request source so as to permit the client terminal to post a message; and

the community processing step of managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, and categorizing and accumulating messages posted, to the virtual community, from the client terminals, which are granted access permission in the access control step, for respective topics, the community processing step including;

the reply message processing step of automatically determining, when a reply mail message used to post a reply message is sent back from the client terminal in response to a mail message used to deliver the categorized and accumulated message to a subscriber, a virtual community to which the reply message should belong by analyzing a subject of the reply mail message, and categorizing and accumulating the reply message.