INTEGRATING PARTICIPANT PROFILE INFORMATION INTO REAL-TIME COLLABORATIONS

• US 20100174780A1
• Filed: 01/05/2009
• Published: 07/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Readshaw, Neil I., Choi, Christopher Y., Hockings, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,108 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An online collaboration system can access data in one or more skills repositories to search for participants with indicated skills and automatically display participants'"'"' skill information during online collaborations. Searching for participants by skill allows individuals most likely to add value to a discussion to be identified and invited to an online collaboration. Displaying skill information can facilitate focused interaction leading to a more productive online collaboration.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a request for potential participants for an online collaboration based on one or more indicated skills;

searching one or more skills repositories for potential participants that have the one or more indicated skills, wherein the searching yields a plurality of potential participants;

selecting one or more of the plurality of potential participants; and

automatically inviting the selected one or more potential participants to participate in the online collaboration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more skills repositories comprise at least one of a database and a directory.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting the one or more potential participants from the plurality of potential participants is based, at least in part, on one or more of manual indication by a moderator of the online collaboration and automatic selection according to one or more preferences.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting the one or more potential participants from the plurality of potential participants further comprises displaying the plurality of potential participants.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying skills of the selected one or more potential participants in one or more of the online collaboration and invitations, wherein said inviting the selected one or more potential participants to participate in the online collaboration comprises electronically sending the invitations to the selected one or more potential participants.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising retrieving skills of the selected one or more potential participants from the one or more skills repositories.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting a request for a user to join the online collaboration;

determining whether the user possesses at least one of the one or more indicated skills; and

allowing the user to join the online collaboration if the user possesses at least one of the one or more indicated skills.

8. A computer implemented method comprising:

detecting start of an online collaboration;

retrieving skills of a plurality of participants of the online collaboration from one or more skills repositories; and

automatically displaying the retrieved skills of a first of the plurality of participants in response to indication of the first participant in a user interface of a collaboration application coordinating the online collaboration.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said retrieving the skills of the plurality of participants of the online collaboration from one or more skills repositories comprises storing the retrieved skills in a store local to the online collaboration application and storing the skills at one or more clients of the plurality of participants.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the indication comprises one of a mouse over event that corresponds to a graphical representation of the first participant, a manual selection of a graphical representation of the first participant, and automatic selection of a graphical representation of the first participant.

11. A computer implemented method comprising:

detecting a request by a user to join an online collaboration;

acquiring skills of the user;

determining that the skills of the user do not satisfy one or more desired skills for the online collaboration;

determining that an attribute of the user is indicated in preferences for joining the online collaboration; and

allowing the user to join the online collaboration.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein acquiring skills of the user further comprises at least one of retrieving the skills of the user from a skills repository and receiving input from the user in response to a prompt.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the attribute is one of an organizational rank of the user, a title of the user and an invitation.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising allowing a participant to join an online collaboration if the participant'"'"'s skills satisfy one or more of the desired skills.

15. A computer program product for integrating participant profile information into real-time collaborations, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to;

detect a request for potential participants for an online collaboration based on one or more indicated skills;

search one or more skills repositories for potential participants that have the one or more indicated skills, wherein the searching yields a plurality of potential participants;

select one or more of the plurality of potential participants; and

automatically invite the selected one or more potential participants to participate in the online collaboration.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the one or more skills repositories comprise at least one of a database and a directory.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the said one or more skills repositories comprise one or more database structures stored on one or more storage devices.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said computer usable program code being configured to select the one or more potential participants from the plurality of potential participants is based, at least in part, on one or more of manual indication by a moderator of the online collaboration and automatic selection according to one or more preferences.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said computer usable program code being configured to select the one or more potential participants from the plurality of potential participants comprises the computer usable code being configured to display the plurality of potential participants.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said computer usable program code is further configured to display skills of the selected one or more potential participants in one or more of the online collaboration and invitations, wherein said computer usable program code is further configured to invite the selected one or more potential participants to participate in the online collaboration comprises the computer usable code being configured to electronically send the invitations to the selected one or more potential participants.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein said computer usable program code is further configured to retrieve skills of the selected one or more potential participants from the one or more skills repositories.

22. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said computer usable program code is further configured to:

detect a request for a user to join the online collaboration;

determine whether the user possesses at least one of the one or more indicated skills; and

allow the user to join the online collaboration if the user possesses at least one of the one or more indicated skills.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a set of one or more processing units;

a network interface;

a skills based collaboration management unit operable to,

detect a request for potential participants for an online collaboration based on one or more indicated skills;

search one or more skills repositories for potential participants that have the one or more indicated skills, wherein the searching yields a plurality of potential participants;

select one or more of the plurality of potential participants; and

automatically invite the selected one or more potential participants to participate in the online collaboration.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the skills based collaboration management unit comprises the one or more machine-readable media.