Solution for managing multiple related discussion threads in an online collaboration environment

• US 7,904,515 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2007
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ambati, Anilkumar, Bou-Ghannam, Akram A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaroenchonwanit; Bunjob
• Application Number:
  US11/869,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20090094329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,246 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

The present invention discloses a server-side collaboration system that includes a set of discussion threads, a server-side software component, and a server-side data store. The discussion threads can be managed by a collaboration session leader. The collaboration session leader can be a user authorized to define the topic, to create the plurality of discussion threads for the topic, and to assign a set of participants to each created discussion thread. The server-side software component can permit remotely located clients to post and view content by discussion thread during a real-time collaboration, which includes a text exchange capability. Client using participants can be restricted to posting content to discussion threads as authorized by the collaboration session leader. The server-side data store can maintain a viewable history of posted content organized by discussion thread.

Claims

1. A server-side collaboration system comprising:

a plurality of discussion threads that are software defined items configured to be established for a topic and configured to be managed by a collaboration session leader, wherein said collaboration session leader is a user authorized to define the topic, to create the plurality of discussion threads for the topic, and to assign a set of participants to each created discussion thread, wherein the topic is related to a topic model, wherein said topic model is a hierarchical organization of the plurality of discussion threads, wherein each of the discussion threads represent a distinct logical grouping of data related to a central subject of the topic, and wherein at least a portion of the discussion threads are for a time bound event, wherein said collaborative session leader is able to assign different permissions for access to the portion of discussion threads granted to the participants for a time before the time bound event, for a time during the time bound event, and for a time after the time bound event;

a server-side software component configured to permit remotely located clients to post and view content by discussion thread during a real-time collaboration, which includes a text exchange capability, wherein client using participants are only permitted to post content to discussion threads as authorized by the collaboration session leader; and

a server side data store configured to maintain a viewable history of posted content organized by discussion thread, wherein said software defined items and said server-side software components are specified by a set of programmatic instructions stored within a machine readable media configured to be read and acted upon by a server-side computing device, which is used for online collaborations.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said collaboration session leader is able to establish a time for said real-time collaboration and is able to establish permissions assigned to participants for posting and viewing content before said time, wherein said established permissions are granted on a per-discussion thread basis, wherein posted content is available to all participants relating to an associated thread at the established time and for at least the duration of the real-time collaboration.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said collaboration session leader is able to establish a time for said real-time collaboration and is able to establish permissions assigned to participants for posting and viewing content after said time, wherein said established permissions are granted on a per-discussion thread basis.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein clients of the server-side collaboration system comprise a topic interface, which is able to simultaneously present content at least one of real-time and near-real time that has been posted to a plurality of different discussion threads associated with a common topic during the real-time collaboration, wherein said topic interface is further able to post content to discussion threads to which a participant using the topic interface has been authorized by the collaboration session leader.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the topic model is defined by code written in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) based language.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the topic model is defined by code written in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) PATH (XPATH) based language.

7. A system for managing multiple related discussion threads in an online collaboration environment comprising:

a topic model that defines a plurality of discussion threads for an online collaboration event, wherein each of the discussion threads are configured to be established for a topic and to be managed by a collaboration session leader, wherein the topic is related to a topic model, wherein said topic model is a hierarchical organization of the plurality of discussion threads, wherein each of the discussion threads represent a distinct logical grouping of data related to a central subject of the topic, and wherein at least a portion of the discussion threads are for a time bound event, wherein said collaborative session leader is able to assign different permissions for access to the portion of discussion threads granted to a plurality of participants for a time before the time bound event, for a time during the time bound event, and for a time after the time bound event;

a plurality of collaboration interfaces for clients, each configured to present at least one of discussion threads of the topic model in an online collaboration environment, wherein the collaboration interface segregates exchanged communications related to the collaboration event by discussion thread; and

a server-side data store configured to store the topic model, data associated with the plurality of discussion threads, and registration data associated with the plurality of participants for the online collaboration event, wherein the registration data includes a subset of the plurality of discussion threads, wherein the subset defines which of the plurality of discussion threads a participant has access to, and an information access designation for each participant.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the information access designation is at least one of an information consumer, an information producer, and both an information consumer and producer, wherein said information access designation defines actions allowed by the participant prior to a real-time collaboration session defined as part of the online collaboration event.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein an information access designation of information producer allows the participant to add data to a discussion thread within the subset of the information producer, and wherein an information access designation of information consumer limits the participant to viewing the data added by information producers to a discussion thread that is within the subset of the information consumer.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the discussion thread data includes a viewable historical log for each discussion thread of the plurality of discussion threads, wherein the historical log comprises a plurality of content items from the plurality of different participants.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the online collaboration event utilizes a plurality of standardized communication protocols, wherein the plurality of standardized communication protocols is capable of a plurality of data transmission modes to include one or more of an instant messaging session, an Internet bulletin board system (BBS), a WIKI, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) session, a file sharing session, a video streaming session, and an audio streaming session.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of collaboration interfaces identifiably segregates each discussion thread by presenting each discussion thread within one of a plurality of different partitioned areas of a single window wherein each of the different partitioned areas is for a corresponding topic.

13. A method for managing multiple related discussion threads for a topic in an online collaboration environment comprising:

defining a topic model for an online collaboration event, wherein the topic model is a hierarchical organization of a plurality of discussion threads, and wherein the plurality of discussion threads represent heretically organized information nodes of the topic model, wherein each of the discussion threads represent a distinct logical grouping of data related to a central subject of a topic, and wherein at least a portion of the discussion threads are for a time bound event;

registering one or more participants for the online collaboration event, wherein each participant is assigned a subset of the plurality of discussion threads, and wherein the collaboration event comprises a real-time collaboration session in which content including text organized by specific discussion threads is exchanged among the registered participants;

assigning different permissions for access to a portion of discussion threads granted to one or more participants for a time before the time bound event, for a time during the time bound event, and for a time after the time bound event;

during the real-time collaboration session presenting the one or more registered participants with their subset of discussion threads and the topic model within an online collaboration interface, wherein the online collaboration interface identifiably segregates each discussion thread within the subset; and

upon conclusion of the real-time collaboration session, archiving session content in a manner organized by the plurality of discussion threads defined in the topic model, wherein the defining, registering, assigning, presenting, and archiving are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program stored in a computer readable media, said computer programming having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the topic model is configured to be managed by a collaboration session leader, wherein said collaboration session leader is a user authorized to define the topic for the topic model, to create the plurality of discussion threads for the topic, and to assign a set of participants to each created discussion thread, wherein participants are restricted to posting information to only those discussion threads that the collaboration session leader has granted authorization.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the registering step further comprises:

assigning an information access designation to a participant is at least one of an information consumer, an information producer, and both an information consumer and producer, wherein said information access designation defines actions allowed by the participant prior to the start of the real-time collaboration session, wherein posted content related to the online collaboration event provided before the start of the real-time collaboration session is available to participants on a discussion thread-by-thread basis.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the online collaboration interfaces identifiably segregate each discussion thread within the subset using at least one of color-coding each discussion thread by topic.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the topic model is a hierarchically organized by topic and subtopics, wherein at least a portion of the discussion threads are organized under at least one subtopic, wherein topic and subtopics of the topic model are organizational placeholders for organizing threads, wherein the topic model is written in extensible markup language (XML).