Shareability utility

• US 8,380,739 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2005
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Charles S O'Rourke III
• Original Assignee: Charles S O'Rourke III
• Inventors: O'Rourke, Charles S. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Cheryl
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoffler, Raheem
• Application Number:
  US11/235,958
• Publication Number:
  US 20060069701A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,702 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/771
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536

Abstract

A shareable utility that provides quality information to users in a given subject area. The utility maintains a quality database of information on the subject area on a local computing device. The quality database has links to objects of interest residing on the Internet and on the local device. All of the information in the quality database has been recommended for inclusion by an expert in the field. The present utility provides for dual searching of the local computing device and the Internet. A primary screen with multiple secondary windows is used as the starting point. The primary screen is designed to provide structure and direction to the search, but may also be customized to include a user/predefined template representing a broad level of interest. Subsequent display screens are used to display more detailed levels of interest in the given subject area. The present utility is well suited for applications in education, and knowledge transfer applications (e.g. specific code routines, best practices, lessons learned, etc.). The present utility architecture is highly adaptable, reusable and supports searches of all kinds (e.g. financial statements 2004, branch info, etc.). By aggregating expert knowledge (of “where” to look), other vendors search capabilities and the digitized resources available, one can leverage this utility to maximum advantage.

Claims

1. A computer program being executed on a local computing device, the computer program comprising:

at least one quality database devoted to a particular subject matter residing on the local computing device that includes information provided by a user who is an expert in a field, said information comprising the expert'"'"'s own suggestions, publications and related website addresses, text files, HTML documents and any mime code, and said information being organized in a way that allows cross-type searching by keyword regardless of data structure;

a communications module that allows remote users to search and access information on the local quality database;

a graphical user interface that provides a primary screen and multiple secondary screens to the user, wherein the primary screen presents at least two types of links, internal and external, to the user that provide structure and direction for an initial search in the subject area, and a first secondary screen that presents hits to the user based on a selection made by the user in the primary screen, wherein internal links provide paths to sources on the local computing device and external links provide paths to sources on the other quality databases;

wherein a pre-defined secondary screens previously viewed by users in the group;

wherein the multiple secondary screens are capable of accepting input from the user and performing a further in-depth search, wherein in response to the selection made by the user in the primary screen, the interface module causes a dual search of the local computing device and the other quality databases via the network to be performed; and

wherein each database that is remote to the user is stored on a local computer and is populated and organized with quality information that has been recommended as relevant to the database'"'"'s subject matter by a user who is an expert in the field; and

an operating system that controls communications between the graphical user interface module, the communications module and the quality database, wherein the operating system facilitates sharing of information between the user of the quality database and the other users of the other quality databases.

2. The program of claim 1, wherein the primary screen includes multiple windows, and wherein a first window displays one or more internal links and a second window displays one or more external links to the user.

3. The program of claim 2, further comprising a registration process for all users, wherein all information is designated as shared, not-shared or semi-shared during the registration process, and wherein approval from an authoring user is required in order to access semi-shared information.

4. The program of claim 1, further comprising the ability to search while not connected to the network, wherein the user interface displays results from the quality databases for the user'"'"'s selection.

5. The program of claim 1, wherein the operating system is an open standards operating system, and wherein the network is a LAN, an intranet or the internet.

6. The program of claim 1, wherein when the user clicks on a link to a website, the website is displayed in a secondary screen, and all functions of the website are available to the user just as if the user had accessed the website directly from a traditional browser program.

7. The program of claim 1, wherein the primary and secondary screens include traditional browser programs, comprising controls for screen size, scroll bars and at least one menu bar with multiple functions.

8. The program of claim 1, wherein the database includes a source field for recording a source of the provided information.

9. The program of claim 1, wherein the local computing device is connected to a network and the program is accessed and executed on a remote digital device including, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a palm computer and a cellular telephone.

10. The program of claim 1, wherein the program is stored on a server and executed on a remote digital device including, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a palm computer and a cellular telephone.

11. The program of claim 1, wherein secondary screens that are presented to the user subsequent to the first secondary screen provide even more detailed levels of interest on the selected subject area.

12. The program of claim 1, wherein the selected subject area of the template is a subject area that is of interest to each user in the group, including a common project.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein non-expert users may access the subject matter databases described in claim 1 using a graphical user interface.

14. A computer-implemented method for searching information, the method comprising:

enabling an expert in a specific field of study (“

Field A”

) to compile a local database devoted to information related to Field A, said information comprising the expert'"'"'s own suggestions, publications and related website addresses, text files, HTML documents and any mime code, and organize it in a way that allows ranking of the information by the expert, regardless of the information'"'"'s data structure, and containing only information that the expert deems to be relevant to Field A;

enabling one or more other experts in other fields of study (“

Fields B &

C”

) to compile their own similar local databases and having those other experts organize their databases in a similar manner to the database for Field A, but the databases being instead devoted to Fields B &

C;

allowing each of the experts to search both their local database using a graphical user interface as well as the remote databases being maintained by the other experts;

systematically networking a potentially unlimited number of experts and leveraging each of their expertise to organize and rank information into subject matter databases capable of being searched using a graphical user interface by other users of the network; and

wherein the graphical user interface includes a pre-defined template that is associated with a group of users, and each user in the group having access to secondary screens previously viewed by users in the group.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code for performing a method, said method comprising:

enabling a subject matter expert, upon reviewing a relevant piece of information, said information comprising the expert'"'"'s own suggestions, publications and related website addresses, text files, HTML documents and any mime code, to rank the item for relevance and importance to a particular field of study;

allowing the compilation of a subject matter specific database based on the a ranking or tag given by the expert through the computer program product;

allowing the database to be searched locally by the expert user using a graphical user interface;

allowing other remote databases created, using the same computer program product, by other experts in differing fields to be searched using a graphical user interface; and

allowing remote users of the same computer program product to search any of the databases using a graphical user interface; and

wherein the graphical user interface includes a pre-defined template that is associated with a group of users, each user in the group having access to secondary screens previously viewed by users in the group.

16. The program of claim 15, wherein a first window displays one or more internal links and a second window displays one or more external links to the user.

17. The program of claim 15, further comprising the ability to search while not connected to the network, wherein the user interface displays results from the quality databases for the user'"'"'s selection.

18. The program of claim 15, wherein the local computing device is connected to a network and the program is accessed and executed on a remote digital device.