METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SELECTIVE INFORMATION SHARING ACROSS TEAM SPACES

• US 20070283278A1
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: K.Mizra LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wilcox, Eric M., Cheng, Li-Te, Patterson, John, Hupfer, Susanne, Ross, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 9,350,560 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference

Abstract

A publication-and-subscription mechanism for team rooms, referred to as team room “channels”, through which teams are able to selectively share resources from their team rooms with non-members, and that allows selective contributions, modifications, and discussions from non-members. The team room channels operate as bidirectional information pipelines to other team rooms. The team room channels may either be broadcast to all known teams, or be published selectively to one or more designated “target” teams. The receiving team rooms may then subscribe to specific published channels as appropriate. Information items from a team'"'"'s team room, such as documents, tasks, representations of team members, and/or other resources, may be added to one or more of a team'"'"'s published channels. Teams can associate specific permissions with each channel, including Read, Contribute, Modify, and/or Discuss. These permissions apply to all items associated with the channel. Teams can subscribe to those channels published to them, to receive synchronous notifications of changes to the channel items.

Claims

1. A method for selective sharing of information across team spaces, comprising:

enabling a member of a source team room to define a channel for said source team room;

enabling said member of said source team room to select at least one selected information item from resources contained in said source team room, wherein said at least one selected information item is a subset of all resources contained in said source team room;

enabling said member of said source team room to associate said selected information item with said channel;

enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to at least one target team room;

enabling a member of said target team room to subscribe said target team room to said channel;

providing a synchronous notification through said channel to said target team room in the event that said selected information item is modified; and

enabling said member of said target team room to modify said selected information item through said channel.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a synchronous notification through said channel to said target team room in the event that another information item is associated with said channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to said at least one target team room further comprises broadcasting availability of said channel to all other known team rooms.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling said member of said source team to select said at least one target team room; and

wherein said enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to said at least one target team room comprises publishing said channel to only said at least one target team room selected by said member of said source team.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said enabling said member of said source team room to associate said selected information item with said channel comprises creating a link to an original copy of said selected information item contained in the source team room.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a member of said source team room to select at least one channel permission from the set of permissions consisting of a read permission, a contribute permission, a modify permission, and a discuss permission;

enabling said member of said source team room to associate said channel permission with said channel;

wherein said read permission allows all members of said target team room to read all information items associated with said channel;

wherein said contribute permission allows all members of said target team room to associate new information items with said channel;

wherein said modify permission allows all members of said target team room to modify all information items associated with the channel;

wherein said discuss permission allows all members of said target team room to contribute to online discussions regarding information items associated with the channel; and

wherein said selected permission is applied to all information items associated with said channel.

7. A system including a computer readable medium, said computer readable medium having program code stored thereon for selectively sharing information across team spaces, said program code comprising:

program code for enabling a member of a source team room to define a channel for said source team room;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to select at least one selected information item from resources contained in said source team room, wherein said at least one selected information item is a subset of all resources contained in said source team room;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to associate said selected information item with said channel;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to at least one target team room;

program code for enabling a member of said target team room to subscribe said target team room to said channel;

program code for providing a synchronous notification through said channel to said target team room in the event that said selected information item is modified; and

program code for enabling said member of said target team room to modify said selected information item through said channel.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said program code further comprises program code for providing a synchronous notification through said channel to said target team room in the event that another information item is associated with said channel.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein said program code for enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to said at least one target team room further comprises program code for broadcasting availability of said channel to all other known team rooms.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein said program code further comprises:

program code for enabling said member of said source team to select said at least one target team room; and

wherein said program code for enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to said at least one target team room comprises program code for publishing said channel to only said at least one target team room selected by said member of said source team.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein said program code for enabling said member of said source team room to associate said selected information item with said channel comprises program code for creating a link to an original copy of said selected information item contained in the source team room.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein said program code further comprises:

program code for enabling a member of said source team room to select at least one channel permission from the set of permissions consisting of a read permission, a contribute permission, a modify permission, and a discuss permission;

program code enabling said member of said source team room to associate said channel permission with said channel;

wherein said read permission allows all members of said target team room to read all information items associated with said channel;

wherein said contribute permission allows all members of said target team room to associate new information items with said channel;

wherein said modify permission allows all members of said target team room to modify all information items associated with the channel;

wherein said discuss permission allows all members of said target team room to contribute to online discussions regarding information items associated with the channel; and

wherein said selected permission is applied to all information items associated with said channel.

13. A computer program product including a computer readable medium, said computer readable medium having program code stored thereon for selectively sharing information across team spaces, said program code comprising:

program code for enabling a member of a source team room to define a channel for said source team room;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to select at least one selected information item from resources contained in said source team room, wherein said at least one selected information item is a subset of all resources contained in said source team room;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to associate said selected information item with said channel;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to at least one target team room;

program code for enabling a member of said target team room to subscribe said target team room to said channel;

program code for providing a synchronous notification through said channel to said target team room in the event that said selected information item is modified; and

program code for enabling said member of said target team room to modify said selected information item through said channel.

14. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, said computer data signal having program code stored thereon for selectively sharing information across team spaces, said program code comprising:

program code for enabling a member of a source team room to define a channel for said source team room;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to select at least one selected information item from resources contained in said source team room, wherein said at least one selected information item is a subset of all resources contained in said source team room;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to associate said selected information item with said channel;

program code for enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to at least one target team room;

program code for enabling a member of said target team room to subscribe said target team room to said channel;

program code for providing a synchronous notification through said channel to said target team room in the event that said selected information item is modified; and

program code for enabling said member of said target team room to modify said selected information item through said channel.

15. A system for selectively sharing information across team spaces, comprising:

means for enabling a member of a source team room to define a channel for said source team room;

means for enabling said member of said source team room to select at least one selected information item from resources contained in said source team room, wherein said at least one selected information item is a subset of all resources contained in said source team room;

means for enabling said member of said source team room to associate said selected information item with said channel;

means for enabling said member of said source team room to publish said channel to at least one target team room;

means for enabling a member of said target team room to subscribe said target team room to said channel;

means for providing a synchronous notification through said channel to said target team room in the event that said selected information item is modified; and

means for enabling said member of said target team room to modify said selected information item through said channel.