System and method for determining founders of an information aggregate

• US 20040088303A1
• Filed: 10/31/2002
• Published: 05/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Elder, Michael D., Rokosz, Vaughn T., Schultz, Matthew, Jho, Jason Y.
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,594 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A knowledge Management (KM) tool that allows persons in an organization to more rapidly locate the people and information they need to answer their questions. Identification and visualization of information aggregate founders, including category creators, helps in locating expertise, and additionally helps to reveal and magnify hidden knowledge dynamics within the organization.

Claims

1. Method for evaluating an information aggregate, comprising:

collecting a plurality of documents having non-unique values on a shared attribute into an information aggregate; and

identifying and visualizing founders of said information aggregate.

2. The method of claim 1, said identifying step identifying as founders first authors of documents comprising said information aggregate.

3. The method of claim 1, said identifying step identifying as founders first persons associated with said information aggregate.

4. The method of claim 1, said first authors being authors of documents comprising said information aggregate created within a predetermined time following a first document.

5. The method of claim 4, said first authors being selectively determined or ranked in accordance with a founder'"'"'s rating.

6. The method of claim 1, said founders being identified as meme or category creators.

7. System for evaluating an information aggregate, comprising:

means for collecting a plurality of documents having non-unique values on a shared attribute into an information aggregate; and

means for identifying and visualizing founders of said information aggregate.

8. System for evaluating an information aggregate, comprising:

a metrics database for storing document indicia including document attributes and associated persons;

a query engine responsive to a user request and said metrics database for aggregating documents having same, unique attributes in an information aggregate;

said query engine further for determining founders from among said associated persons; and

a visualization engine for visualizing said founders at a client display.

9. The system of claim 8, said founders further including category creators.

10. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for evaluating an information aggregate, said method comprising:

collecting a plurality of documents having non-unique values on a shared attribute into an information aggregate; and

identifying and visualizing founders of said information aggregate.

11. The program storage device of claim 10, said founders including category creators.

12. A computer program product for evaluating an information aggregate according to the method comprising:

collecting a plurality of documents having non-unique values on a shared attribute into an information aggregate; and

identifying and visualizing category creators as founders of said information aggregate.