Connecting to experts in a discussion board

• US 8,326,925 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Santos, Richard A., Meyers, Paul A., Pisolkar, Ashish
• Primary Examiner(s): Bengzon, Greg C
• Application Number:
  US11/047,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20060174340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,864 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 715/789, 706/50, 707/104
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

One embodiment of the invention relates to a method for processing a post to a discussion board comprising placing the post on the discussion board; performing an entitlement check to determine whether access to an expert should be provided to the user, wherein the entitlement check is associated with at least one of a characteristic of the user and a characteristic of the post; and based on the entitlement check providing access to the expert in the form of a control.

Claims

1. A method for processing a post to a discussion board comprising:

placing the post on the discussion board from a user;

performing an entitlement check to determine whether access to an expert should be provided to the user, wherein the entitlement check is associated with at least one of a characteristic of the user and a characteristic of the post; and

based on the entitlement check providing access to the expert in the form of a graphical control.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing a response to the post from the expert.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

performing an availability check to determine whether to perform the providing if the user is entitled to access to the expert.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the control, by the user, thereby initiating access to the expert; and

collaborating between the user and the expert regarding the post.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the collaborating comprises:

cooperating, between the user and the expert, in a real time session involving at least one of;

a computer chat session, a teleconference, a window sharing session, or a remote access session.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

placing a result of the collaboration on the discussion board.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

purchasing, by the user, a desired level of entitlement;

wherein the performing determines whether the desired level is sufficient to provide the access to the expert.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user and the expert are members of a community which is associated with the discussion board, and the method further comprises:

earning, by the user, a desired level of entitlement through participation in the discussion board;

wherein the performing determines whether the desired level is sufficient to provide the access to the expert.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing a response to the post on the discussion board by an expert;

wherein placing the response occurs prior to the performing, and the response does not satisfy the query of the user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the user with a feedback interface to provide an indication of their satisfaction of the response responding to the query.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing another entitlement check to determine whether access the expert should be provided to the user, wherein the another entitlement check is associated with at least one of a characteristic of the user and a characteristic of the post.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing another entitlement check is operative if the expert is not available.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing another entitlement check is operative if the user is not entitled to access to the expert.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing comprises:

determining whether the user has a desired entitlement level that is sufficient to provide the access to the expert.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the entitlement level is based on at least one of a warrantee possessed by the user, points accumulated by the user, points earned by the user, points purchased by the user, a level of service purchased by the user, role of the user in the electronic bulletin board, a length of time the query has been posted, and availability of an expert.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the control is a graphical control.

17. The method of claim 1, comprising:

prior to placing the post, concealing the control to deny the user access to the expert.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing comprises:

providing an interface to a GUI of the user to initiate access with the expert.

19. A computer system for processing an information query of a user that has been posted on a discussion board, the computer system including software stored on a computer readable storage device and performing a method comprising:

providing a graphical user interface (GUI) to the user;

performing an entitlement check to determine whether access to an expert should be provided to the user, wherein the entitlement check is associated with at least one of a characteristic of the user and a characteristic of the query;

modifying the GUI to include a feature to allow access with the expert based on the entitlement check.

20. The computer system of claim 19, further comprising:

facilitating a collaboration between the user and the expert regarding the query.

21. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the performing comprises:

determining whether the user has a desired entitlement level that is sufficient to provide the access to the expert based on at least one of a warrantee possessed by the user, points accumulated by the user, points earned by the user, points purchased by the user, a level of service purchased by the user, role of the user in the electronic bulletin board, a length of time the query has been posted, and availability of an expert.