Bulletin board management system and computer program

• US 20050265101A1
• Filed: 10/01/2004
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Watanabe, Satomi, Nambu, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,909 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 365/222
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A bulletin board management system includes an information registration portion for an information sender to register bulletin information and designating information including members to be provided with the information, choices of answer and an expiration date, an information changing portion for making a change to contents of the bulletin information registered by the information sender, an information list display portion for extracting bulletin information and displaying a list thereof by a terminal device of a member who logged in, the extracted bulletin information being designated to be provided to the member, a read state monitoring portion for monitoring a read state and an answer state of the bulletin information and members, a reminding portion for sending automatically a notice by electronic mail to a member who has not answered the bulletin information yet in accordance with the answer state of each member obtained by the read state monitoring portion, and an expiration date extension confirmation portion for sending automatically an electronic mail urging the information sender to postpone the expiration date if there is a member who has not answered the bulletin information whose expiration date is coming soon. When a change is made to contents of bulletin information, the information changing portion extracts members who have already read the bulletin information before the change from a result of monitoring by the read state monitoring portion so as to send automatically an electronic mail urging the extracted members to check the change in contents of the bulletin information, and changes statuses of the extracted members indicating “already read” to statuses indicating “required to check the change”.

Claims

1. A bulletin board management system for providing a site for communication and information sharing among members by utilizing a computer network, the system comprising:

an information registration portion for an information sender to register bulletin information and designating information including members to be provided with the information, choices of answer and an expiration date;

an information changing portion for making a change to contents of the bulletin information registered by the information sender;

an information list display portion for extracting bulletin information and displaying a list thereof by a terminal device of a member who logged in, the extracted bulletin information being designated to be provided to the member;

a read state monitoring portion for monitoring a read state and an answer state of the bulletin information and members;

a reminding portion for sending automatically a notice by electronic mail to a member who has not answered the bulletin information yet in accordance with the answer state of each member obtained by the read state monitoring portion; and

an expiration date extension confirmation portion for sending automatically an electronic mail urging the information sender to postpone the expiration date if there is a member who has not answered the bulletin information whose expiration date is coming soon.

2. The bulletin board management system according to claim 1, wherein when a change is made to contents of bulletin information, the information changing portion extracts members who have already read the bulletin information before the change from a result of monitoring by the read state monitoring portion so as to send automatically an electronic mail urging the extracted members to check the change in contents of the bulletin information, and changes statuses of the extracted members indicating “

already read”

to statuses indicating “

required to check the change”

.

3. The bulletin board management system according to claim 1, wherein the information list display portion extracts bulletin information that is designated to be provided to the member who logged in based on an ID of the member and displays a list of a plurality of extracted bulletin information in a predetermined priority order.

4. The bulletin board management system according to claim 3, wherein the information list display portion gives a high priority of the display order and a predetermined mark in the list to bulletin information for which the number of days until the expiration date is smaller than a predetermined value.

5. The bulletin board management system according to claim 3, wherein the information list display portion gives a high priority of the display order and a predetermined mark in the list to bulletin information to which the information changing portion gave a status indicating “

required to check the change”

that means contents of the bulletin information is changed.

6. The bulletin board management system according to claim 1, wherein the read state monitoring portion sends automatically a notice of completion to the information sender by electronic mail when all the members have answered the bulletin information.

7. The bulletin board management system according to claim 1, wherein the designating information registered initially by the information registration portion includes a designation of automatic extension of the expiration date, and the expiration date extension confirmation portion performs a process for automatically postponing the expiration date by a predetermined number of days if there is a member who has not answered the bulletin information on the original expiration date.

8. The bulletin board management system according to claim 1, wherein a display for reading one bulletin information selected from a list of plural bulletin information displayed by the information list display portion includes buttons corresponding to the choices of answer.

9. The bulletin board management system according to claim 1, wherein the information list display portion adds a predetermined mark to bulletin information for the display that is restricted to specific members.

10. The bulletin board management system according to claim 1, wherein a display for reading one bulletin information selected from a list of plural bulletin information displayed by the information list display portion includes a list of members to be provided with the information and answer states of the members if the bulletin information is restricted to specific members.

13. The bulletin board management system according to claim 4, wherein the information list display portion gives a high priority of the display order and a predetermined mark in the list to bulletin information to which the information changing portion gave a status indicating “

required to check the change”

that means contents of the bulletin information is changed.

11. A computer program that is installed in a server connected to a computer network for realizing a bulletin board management system for communication and information sharing among members, the computer program makes the server execute the process comprising the steps of:

registering bulletin information and designating information including members to be provided with the information, choices of answer and an expiration date, by an information sender;

making a change to contents of the bulletin information registered by the information sender;

extracting bulletin information and displaying a list thereof by a terminal device of a member who logged in, the extracted bulletin information being designated to be provided to the member;

monitoring a read state and an answer state of the bulletin information and members;

sending automatically a notice by electronic mail to a member who has not answered the bulletin information yet in accordance with the answer state of each member obtained by monitoring the answer state; and

sending automatically an electronic mail urging the information sender to postpone the expiration date if there is a member who has not answered the bulletin information whose expiration date is coming soon.

12. A computer readable recording medium that stores a computer program that is installed in a server connected to a computer network for realizing a bulletin board management system for communication and information sharing among members, the computer program makes the server execute the process comprising the steps of:

registering bulletin information and designating information including members to be provided with the information, choices of answer and an expiration date, by an information sender;

making a change to contents of the bulletin information registered by the information sender;

extracting bulletin information and displaying a list thereof by a terminal device of a member who logged in, the extracted bulletin information being designated to be provided to the member,

monitoring a read state and an answer state of the bulletin information and members;

sending automatically a notice by electronic mail to a member who has not answered the bulletin information yet in accordance with the answer state of each member obtained by monitoring the answer state; and

sending automatically an electronic mail urging the information sender to postpone the expiration date if there is a member who has not answered the bulletin information whose expiration date is coming soon.