System and Method of Role-based Calendaring

• US 20090048893A1
• Filed: 05/14/2008
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yu, Hai Bo, Wang, Feng Li, Wang, Li, Turek, John
• Application Number:
  US12/120,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20090048893A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups

Abstract

A method for calendaring an activity based on roles, including the steps of acquiring a request for calendaring the activity for a plurality of roles invited to attend the activity; acquiring data on existing activities which have been calendared for all the specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity; and determining the time interval for holding the activity based on the data on existing activities which have been calendared for all the specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity and the request for calendaring the activity.

Claims

1. A method for calendaring, comprising the steps of:

acquiring a request for calendaring an activity for a plurality of roles invited to attend the activity;

acquiring data on existing activities which have been calendared for a group of specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity; and

determining a time interval for holding the activity based on the acquired data on existing activities which have been calendared for the group of specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity and based on the acquired request for calendaring the activity.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of acquiring a request for calendaring the activity comprises:

acquiring roles invited to attend the activity;

weight of each role relative to the activity, wherein the weight corresponds to an importance of the role for the activity; and

a plurality of selectable time intervals for holding the activity.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining a time interval for holding the activity comprises:

judging availability of each role invited to attend the activity based on the acquired data on the existing activities that have been calendared for the group of specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity;

summing weights of all the roles available to the activity for each one of the plurality of selectable time intervals; and

selecting the time interval for holding the activity corresponding to a maximum of the summed weights.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining a time interval for holding the activity comprises:

judging availability of each role invited to attend the activity based on the acquired data on the existing activities that have been calendared for the group of specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity;

summing weights of all the roles available to the activity for each one of the plurality of selectable time intervals;

calculating differences between a maximum of all the summed weights and each individual summed weight;

selecting a summed weight, from a group of summed weights whose difference from the maximum of all the summed weights is less than a predetermined threshold, which has the most number of roles available to the activity; and

determining a selectable time interval corresponding to the selected summed weight as the time interval for holding the activity.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of determining a time interval for holding the activity comprises:

judging availability of each role invited to attend the activity based on the acquired data on the existing activities that have been calendared for the group of specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity;

calculating respective products of weights, of each available role invited to attend the activity relative to the activity, and priority levels, set by each of the group of specific individuals who constitute corresponding available roles invited to attend the activity;

summing the calculated products for each of the plurality of the selectable time intervals; and

determining a selectable time interval corresponding to a greatest of the calculated products as the lime interval for holding the activity.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of judging availability of each role invited to attend the activity comprises judging availability of each of the group of specific individuals who constitute the corresponding roles invited to attend the activity.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of judging availability of each role invited to attend the activity comprises:

judging whether there are roles necessary for the activity in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity; and

terminating the calendaring of the activity if the roles necessary for the activity are also necessary for the existing activities, which have been calendared to be held during the plurality of selectable time intervals for the roles necessary for the activity.

8. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of judging availability of each role invited to attend the activity comprises:

judging whether there are roles necessary for the activity in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity; and

determining that the roles necessary for the activity are available to the activity during one or more of the plurality of selectable time intervals, if the roles necessary for the activity are not necessary for the existing activities that have been calendared to be held during the respective one or more selectable time intervals for the roles necessary for the activity.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising informing the group of specific individuals, in the available roles invited to attend the activity, of results of calendaring the activity.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

modeling data from the results of calendaring the activity; and

storing the modeled data.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of modeling data comprises modeling the data from the results of calendaring the activity in a form through applying a Time-Activity-Role model.

12. A system for calendaring, comprising:

an inputting section for inputting a request for calendaring an activity for a plurality of roles invited to attend the activity;

a data collection section for collecting and storing data relevant to the calendaring; and

a calendaring section for acquiring the request from the inputting section, for acquiring data from the data collection section on existing activities that have been calendared for a group of specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity, and for determining the time interval for holding the activity based on the data on the existing activities.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the calendaring section further comprises a Time-Activity-Role (TAR) modelization section for receiving the request for calendaring the activity inputted from the inputting section and for modeling the request for calendaring the activity.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the calendaring section further comprises a solution optimization section, through which an optimization process of calendaring can be performed and a substantially optimized calendaring result can be outputted.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the calendaring section further comprises an algorithm library for storing multiple optimization algorithms, and for calling an optimization algorithm from the algorithm library in response to the request, wherein the called optimization algorithm is adapted for;

acquiring a request for calendaring the activity for a plurality of roles invited to attend the activity;

acquiring data on existing activities which have been calendared for all the specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity; and

determining a time interval for holding the activity based on the data on existing activities which have been calendared for all the specific individuals in the plurality of roles invited to attend the activity and the request for calendaring the activity.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein that the algorithm library comprises an algorithm of maximizing a plurality of summed weights, an algorithm of maximizing the number of roles based on maximization of the summed weights, and an algorithm based on summed weights and preferences of the roles.

17. The system according to claim 12, further comprising a plurality of private calendar systems and one public calendaring system.

18. The system according to claim 17, further comprising an access control section that controls the rights of the group of specific individuals for accessing and updating the system and for upgrading a private activity to a public activity.