Apparatus for collecting information and managing access rights

• US 7,500,180 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2002
• Issued: 03/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nishimura, Jun, Kawaguchi, Daisuke, Gondo, Hisahito, Hoshino, Yukihiro, Aoki, Noriko, Idei, Manabu
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ludwig; Matthew J
• Application Number:
  US10/244,221
• Publication Number:
  US 20030079186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,360 Days
• Field of Search: 715/511, 715/512, 715/229, 715/230, 715/741, 715/744, 715/775, 707/3, 707/4, 726/27
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

An information collecting/providing system provides information in a manner that allows information to be easily registered, viewed, developed, and reused, even when a large amount of various kinds of information is collected and dealt with. The information collecting/providing system includes one or more terminal devices, an information collection/management apparatus connectable to the one or more terminal devices via a communication network, and an collected-information database connected to the information collection/management apparatus. The information collection/management apparatus receives collected information from the one or more terminal devices and stores the received information into the collected-information database. If the information collection/management apparatus receives a request from a terminal device, the information collection/management apparatus transmits, to the terminal device, collected information allowed for a user of the terminal device to read.

Claims

1. An information collection/management apparatus, comprising:

information registration means for, in response to an information registration request from a terminal device, generating an interface for use in registering new collected information depending on information type/category, transmitting the resultant interface to the terminal device, classifying the new collected information by business category, storing, into predetermined storage means, the new collected information transmitted from the terminal device in response to the transmission of the interface, depending on the business category, storing information identifying any previously registered collected information that the new collected information is related to, and transmitting a message to the terminal device, the message comprising information notifying that the new collected information has been registered;

notification transmission means for receiving information identifying an information registrant from the information registration means, acquiring a relevant mail address corresponding to the information registrant, automatically generating an electronic mail addressed to the relevant mail address, and storing the relevant mail address;

view request response means for generating at-a-glance information in response to a collected-information view request from a terminal device, transmitting the generated at-a-glance information to the terminal device, acquiring collected information indicated by information identifying collected information returned by the terminal device in response to the transmission of the at-a-glance information, and transmitting the acquired collected information to the terminal device;

access right management means for supplying, to the view request response means, information indicating which piece of collected information is allowed to be viewed by a user of a terminal device, according to a predetermined right of access;

score information providing means for, in response to a score information view request from a terminal device, retrieving a score that reflects usefulness of information for each piece of new collected information registered by at least one of business departments, sections, or personnel, calculating a total score by summing up all the scores, and providing the total score; and

analysis means for receiving the total score from the score information providing means, adding the total score to a user total score of the information registrant of the new collected information, and determining if the information registrant registers useful information based on the user total score.

2. The information collection/management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising notification transmission means for, if the new collected information received from a terminal device includes information specifying a mail receiver, acquiring information regarding the specified mail receiver from the information registration means and automatically generating an electronic mail addressed to the specified mail receiver.

3. The information collection/management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein all the scores are from a viewpoint specified by the score information request.

4. A computer readable media storing a program for causing a computer to perform a method for providing a total score for collected information, the method comprising:

generating, in response to an information registration request from a terminal device, an interface for use in registering new collected information;

transmitting the resultant interface to the terminal device;

classifying the collected information by business category;

storing, into predetermined storage means, the new collected information transmitted from the terminal device in response to the transmission of the interface, depending on the business category;

storing information identifying any previously registered collected information that the new collected information is related to;

transmitting a message to the terminal device, the message comprising information notifying that the new collected information has been registered;

receiving information identifying an information registrant at the terminal device;

acquiring a relevant mail address corresponding to the information registrant;

automatically generating an electronic mail addressed to the relevant mail address;

storing the relevant mail address;

generating at-a-glance information in response to a collected-information view request from a terminal device;

transmitting the generated at-a-glance information to the terminal device;

acquiring collected information indicated by information identifying collected information returned by the terminal device in response to the transmission of the at-a-glance information;

determining if a user of the terminal device is allowed to view the new collected information based on a predetermined right of access;

transmitting the new collected information to the terminal device if the determination is positive;

calculating the total score for the new collected information, in response to a score information view request from a terminal device, by retrieving a score that reflects usefulness of information for each piece of the collected information registered by at least one of business departments, sections, or personnel, and summing up all the scores;

providing the total score;

adding the total score to a user total score of the information registrant of the new collected information; and

determining if the information registrant registers useful information based on the user total score.

5. The computer readable media according to claim 4, wherein the method further comprises

acquiring information regarding the specified mail receiver from the information registration means and automatically generating an electronic mail addressed to the specified mail receiver if the new collected information received from the terminal device comprises information specifying a mail receiver.

6. The computer readable media according to claim 4, wherein all the scores are from a viewpoint specified by the score information request.