Knowledge management for recursively virtualized teams

• US 20050131827A1
• Filed: 12/10/2003
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pickover, Clifford A., Chaar, Jarir K., Bantz, David F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,137,107 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program for interacting with team members of a virtual team. Persistent storage is configured to store collective qualifications of the virtual team based on the individual qualifications of the team members, while a team broker is configured to present the collective qualifications to third parties. Thus, the broker provides a dynamic representation of the collective knowledge, skills and experience of a virtual team. The broker further enables an entity, such as a team employer or teacher, to interact with the virtual team as if that team were a single entity, rather than a collection of individual members.

Claims

1. A method for interacting with team members of a virtual team, the method comprising:

presenting collective qualifications of the virtual team based on individual qualifications of the team members;

receiving an inquiry about the virtual team from a third party;

retrieving team information about the virtual team from a centralized database;

sending an inquiry response to the third party, the inquiry response including at least some of the team information from the centralized database.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that specific information from at least one team member is required in the inquiry response; and

requesting the specific information from the at least one team member.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving specific information responses from the team members in response to requests for specific information.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising aggregating the specific information responses from the team members.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the team information includes knowledge data about the team members.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the team information includes skill data about the team members.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party is an education service provider.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party is a team employer.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving qualification notification from at least one team member that the team member'"'"'s qualifications have changed; and

updating the team information to reflect the change in the team member'"'"'s qualifications.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising billing the third party based on access to the team information.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising billing the team members based on access to the team information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting collective qualifications of the virtual team includes presenting at least one of a duration of the virtual team'"'"'s activity, a rate of team member flux, an aggregate education level of the team members, a success rate of the virtual team, the number of team members.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the team members include at least one of an individual, a listening device, a recording device, a computer agent, a company, and a government agency.

14. A system for interacting with team members of a virtual team, the system comprising:

persistent storage configured to store collective qualifications of the virtual team based on the individual qualifications of the team members; and

a team broker configured to present the collective qualifications to third parties.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the collective qualifications includes education information.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the collective qualifications includes experience information.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the third parties include a team employer.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the third parties include an education service provider.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein team broker is further configured to:

receive an inquiry about the virtual team from a third party;

retrieve team information from the persistent storage; and

send an inquiry response to the third party, the inquiry response including the team information.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the team broker is further configured to select candidate virtual teams satisfying specifications in a team selection criteria received from the third party.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the candidate virtual teams are ordered according to a criteria score.

22. The system of claim 14, wherein team broker is further configured to:

receive qualification notification from at least one team member that the team member'"'"'s qualifications have changed; and

update the collective qualifications of the virtual team to reflect the change in the team member'"'"'s qualifications.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the team broker is further configured to bill the third parties based on access to the collective qualifications.

24. The system of claim 14, wherein the team broker is further configured to bill the team members based on access to the collective qualifications.

25. A computer program product embodied in a tangible media comprising:

computer readable program codes coupled to the tangible media for interacting with team members of a virtual team, the computer readable program codes configured to cause the program to;

present collective qualifications of the virtual team based on individual qualifications of the team members;

receive an inquiry about the virtual team from a third party;

retrieve team information about the virtual team from a centralized database;

send an inquiry response to the third party, the inquiry response including at least some of the team information from the centralized database.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, further comprising program code configured to:

determine that specific information from at least one team member is required in the inquiry response; and

request the specific information from the at least one team member.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, further comprising program code configured to receive specific information responses from the team members in response to requests for specific information.

28. The computer program product of claim 27, further comprising program code configured to aggregate the specific information responses from the team members.

29. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the team information includes knowledge data about the team members.

30. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the team information includes skill data about the team members.

31. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the third party is an education service provider.

32. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the third party is a team employer.

33. The computer program product of claim 25, further comprising program code configured to:

receive qualification notification from at least one team member that the team member'"'"'s qualifications have changed; and

update the team information to reflect the change in the team member'"'"'s qualifications.