System for supporting collaborative activity

• US 8,082,301 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2007
• Issued: 12/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Virtualagility Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Virtualagility Incorporated
• Inventors: Ahlgren, Janet, Rudolph, Stuart, Chang, Andy, Kelley, Kevin, Moran, Gideon, Palmer, Gorham, Phan, Hung, Phan, Nhat, Torchon, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Jean, Frantz B
• Application Number:
  US11/939,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20090320035A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,498 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 709/217, 709/218, 705/9, 715/753, 370/260
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/468 Specific access rights for resources, e.g. using capability register
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A system includes a processor which has access to a representation of model of activity, which includes workspaces. Each workspace includes domain hierarchies for representing an organizational structure of the collaborating users using the system, and initiatives hierarchies representing process structures for accomplishing goals. An interface permits users to view and modify the workspaces for which the user has access. Each user can have different access permissions in different workspaces. The domain and initiative hierarchies provide two views of the workspace objects without duplicating resources. A resource is a collection of shared elements defined by the users that give users associated with the workspace access to information sources. Users can define knowledge boards for creating reports based on information fields of the resources. The knowledge board is associated with a resource template from which the resource is created.

Claims

1. A system for supporting collaboration among users in performing an arbitrary activity, the system comprising:

a processor which has access to

a representation of a model of the arbitrary activity, the model comprising one or more workspaces, each workspace including a plurality of workspace objects, the workspace objects including structural objects which structure the collaboration, resource objects which make resources available for the collaboration, and a resource template that defines a class of resource objects, the resource template defining types of information associated with the resource objects belonging to the class defined by the resource template by defining a number and types of elements associated with the resource template, and the workspace objects further comprising a knowledge board for providing the users access to the elements of one or more resource objects selected from the elements specified in the resource template and

a representation of access permissions which specifies each user'"'"'s access permissions for each workspace; and

an interface to the system for the users, the interface being provided by the processor and the interface permitting each user to view and modify the workspace objects in a workspace as determined by the user'"'"'s access permissions to the workspace.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each user can have different access permissions in different workspaces.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the workspace objects comprise:

a domain hierarchy representing the organizational structure of the users using the system; and

an initiatives hierarchy representing the process structures for accomplishing goals.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each resource object is associated with one or more domains in the domain hierarchy, wherein the resource object is further associated with one or more initiatives in the initiatives hierarchy without a need to duplicate the resource object in the initiatives hierarchy.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the domain hierarchy and the initiatives hierarchy provide the users two views of the resource objects without a need to duplicate the resource objects in the initiatives hierarchy.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each resource object further comprises a collection of elements defined by the users that give the users associated with the workspace access to information sources.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the information sources comprise at least one of the following:

a document local to a user to be uploaded into the system;

a text file created by the user using a text editor of the system;

links to access information or tools;

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) fees; and

discussion topics.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each link can be an external link to an information source outside of the system or an internal link to a resource that is within the system but is not a workspace object of a current workspace.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the discussion topics comprise asynchronous chat boards where the users can exchange comments.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource objects are organized into a resource hierarchy.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein a user creates a resource object by beginning with the resource template and providing values for the elements.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource template is a global object defined by a system administrator.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource template is used to locate resource objects belonging to the class defined by the resource template.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein a user selects the elements in the resource template for the knowledge board.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the user further specifies filters for one or more of the selected elements.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the model further comprises resource template categories for the resource templates.

17. A non-transitory computer storage medium characterized in that the computer storage medium contains a program which, when executed, implements the system set forth in claim 1.