SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUPPORTING COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITY

• US 20120131104A1
• Filed: 12/07/2011
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Virtualagility Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Virtualagility Incorporated
• Inventors: Beaven, Douglas F., Ahlgren, Janet, Kelley, Kevin, Rudolph, Stuart E., Beaven, Jan, Palmer, Gurham
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,836 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/9994 Distributed or remote access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99941 Database schema or data structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 : Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99956 : File allocation

Abstract

A system for supporting collaborative activity in a network includes a storage component storing data related to the network and a model of the network; a processor that accesses the stored data and the model to process the data according to the model, where the stored data relates to the collaborative activity including user-defined data created by interaction of a user and the model, and context data related to the user, where the user-defined data and the context data, as metadata, are stored in the storage component; and a user interface, provided by the processor, that presents the user-defined data, the context data, and the model in a form readable by the user, the interface permitting the user to define a set of arbitrary domains, relate the user-defined data to the domains, and view relationships between the user-defined data and the context data, and the domains.

Claims

1. A system for supporting collaborative activity in a network, comprising:

a storage component storing data related to the network and a model of the network;

a processor that accesses the stored data and the model to process the data according to the model, wherein the stored data relates to the collaborative activity including user-defined data created by interaction of a user and the model, and context data related to the user and the user-defined data, wherein the user-defined data and the context data, as metadata, are stored in the storage component; and

a user interface, provided by the processor, that presents the user-defined data, the context data, and the model in a form readable by the user, the interface permitting the user to define a set of arbitrary domains, relate the user-defined data to the domains, and view relationships between the user-defined data and the context data, and the domains.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-defined data include links to entities external to the storage component, and wherein the interface permits the user to associate a link with a domain, to view the link, and to access an entity associated with the link.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the links include links to Web pages.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the links include links to applications.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein accessing an application link causes execution of the application.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the links include links to displays of information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the domains include a first domain and a second domain, and wherein the second domain is accessed from the first domain by a link to the second domain.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein traversal of the link from the first domain to the second domain makes data related to the first domain accessible from the second domain.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein when the first and second domains are linked, a change of the data related to the first domain causes a change of data related to the second domain.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein when the first and second domains are linked, a change of the data related to the second domain causes a change of data related to the first domain.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-defined data includes representations of discussions among users of the network, wherein a first user is associated with a first domain and a second user is associated with a second domain, and wherein a representation of a discussion is reflected in both the first and the second domains.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the representation of the discussion is provided on a first interface viewable by the first user and a second interface viewable by the second user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first and second users access the discussion using the first and second interfaces, respectively.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first user accesses the second interface, and accesses the discussion using the second interface.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the network provides different levels of data access to different users, and wherein a first user can modify user-defined data created by a second user and the second user cannot modify user-defined data created by the first user.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor sends an alert to the second user when the user-defined data created by the second user is modified by the first user.

17. The system of claim 1,

wherein the network comprises a hierarchy of domains, wherein the model is a hierarchical model of the domains, and wherein the hierarchical model of the domains relates the domains to each other;

and

wherein the interface displays the hierarchical model of the domains and the relationships between the domains.

18. A method for implementing collaboration in a network, comprising:

providing a model of the network and data related to the network;

providing each of a plurality of users with access to at least a part of the model and the network using a user interface;

receiving user-defined data and user-specific data;

modifying the data related to the network according to the received user-defined data; and

storing the user-defined data and the modified data related to the network, and storing the user-specific data as metadata.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the user-defined data include links to entities external to the storage component, and wherein the interface permits the user to associate a link with a domain, to view the link, and to access an entity associated with the link.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the links include links to Web pages.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the links include links to applications, and wherein accessing an application link causes execution of the application.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the domains include a first domain and a second domain, and wherein the second domain is accessed from the first domain by a link to the second domain.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein traversal of the link from the first domain to the second domain makes data related to the first domain accessible from the second domain.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein when the first and second domains are linked, a change of the data related to the first domain causes a change of data related to the second domain.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein when the first and second domains are linked, a change of the data related to the second domain causes a change of data related to the first domain.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein the user-defined data includes representations of discussions among users of the network, the method further comprising:

associating a first user with a first domain and a second user with a second domain; and

reflecting a representation of a discussion in both the first and the second domains.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the representation of the discussion is provided on a first interface viewable by the first user and a second interface viewable by the second user.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the first and second users access the discussion using the first and second interfaces, respectively.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the first user accesses the second interface, and accesses the discussion using the second interface.

30. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing different levels of data access to different users;

allowing a first user to modify user-defined data created by a second user;

preventing the second user from modifying user-defined data created by the first user.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising sending an alert to the second user when the user-defined data created by the second user is modified by the first user.

32. The method of claim 18,

wherein the network comprises a hierarchy of domains, wherein the model is a hierarchical model of the domains, and wherein the hierarchical model of the domains relates the domains to each other;

and

wherein the interface displays the hierarchical model of the domains and the relationships between the domains.

33. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing programming that when executed by a processor, causes performance of the following steps:

providing a model of a network and data related to the network;

providing each of a plurality of users with access to at least a part of the model and the network using a user interface;

receiving user-defined data and user-specific data;

modifying the data related to the network according to the received user-defined data; and

storing the user-defined data and the modified data related to the network, and storing the user-specific data as metadata.