SYSTEM FOR MANAGING COMMUNITY PROVIDED IN INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM, AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20070118513A1
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sakamoto, Masaharu, Misono, Kazuhisa, Kamijoh, Koichi, Iwasaki, Hideaki, Miyakawa, Makoto
• Granted Patent: US 8,141,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Provided is a system which manages a user community provided in an information processing system, in which user community information provided by a user is made available to another user for reference. The system includes a storage section which stores an audit policy defining contents of information to be permitted to be registered in each of a plurality of communities, by associating the audit policy with each of the communities; a detection section which detects a community to which information is provided in response to provision of the information by a user; and a registration control section which inhibits registration of information, provided by a user, in a detected user community on condition that the information violates an audit policy corresponding to the user community.

Claims

1. A system managing a user community provided in an information processing system, in which information provided by a user is made available to another user for reference, the system comprising:

a storage section storing an audit policy defining contents of information to be permitted to be registered in the user community, the storage section associating the audit policy with each of a plurality of user communities;

a detection section detecting the user community to which information is provided, in response to provision of the information by the user; and

a registration control section causing the information, provided by the user, not to be registered in the detected user community on condition that the information violates the audit policy corresponding to the detected user community.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an informing section informing the user of the audit policy inhibiting the registration of the information, provided by the user, in the detected user community, on condition that the information violates the audit policy corresponding to the user community.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the storage section further storing an individual policy of each user, the individual policy defines contents of information which the user permits to be registered in the user community, and the registration control section causing the information provided by the user not to be registered in the user community, on condition that the information violates any of the audit policy and the individual policy corresponding to the user.

4. The system according to claim 3, further comprising a browse control section determining, when the information provided by a first user includes a hyperlink to a different piece of information, whether the different piece of information violates the individual policy corresponding to the first user in response to selection of the hyperlink by a second user, and inhibiting the browsing of the different piece of information by the second user on condition that the information violates the individual policy.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein, on condition that an update of the audit policy is detected, the registration control section determines whether each information which has been already registered in the user community corresponding to the updated audit policy violates the audit policy;

and

the system further comprising an informing section informing a user that information violating the audit policy should be modified.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a policy generation section generating the audit policy corresponding to the user community based on attributes of users participating in the user community, and which stores the audit policy in the storage section.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the storage section further stores an individual policy of each user, which individual policy defines contents of information which the user permits to be registered in a user community;

and

the system further comprising a policy generation section which generates the audit policy corresponding to the user community based on each of individual policies respectively corresponding to users participating in the user community.

8. A server device managing a user community provided in an information processing system, in which information provided by a user is made available to another user for reference, the server device comprising:

a storage section storing an audit policy which defines contents of information to be permitted to be registered in the user community, the storage section associating the audit policy with each of a plurality of user communities;

a detection section detecting a user community to which information is provided in response to receiving provision of the information by the user from a terminal device of the user; and

a registration control section causing the information, provided by the user in the detected user community, not to be registered in the detected user community on condition that the provision of the information violates an audit policy corresponding to the user community; and

wherein the detection section and the registration control section are each provided corresponding to the user.

9. The server device according to claim 8, wherein the storage section further stores an individual policy of each user, which individual policy defines contents of information which the user permits to be registered in each user community, the registration control section causes the information not to be registered in the user community on condition that the provision of the information violates any of the audit policy and the individual policy corresponding to the user, and the individual policy stored in the storage section is encrypted with a code, the code can be decrypted by the registration control section provided corresponding to the user corresponding to the individual policy.

10. The server device according to claim 8, further comprising a registration section encrypting the information with a code, on condition that the registration control section permits registration of the information, the information can be decrypted by the user participating in the user community, and the registration section registering the encrypted information such that the encrypted information is made accessible to the user participating in the user community.

11. A client device registering information provided by a user in a server device managing a user community provided in an information processing system, which information is made available to another user for reference, the client device comprising:

an acquisition section acquiring an audit policy defining contents of information to be permitted to be registered in each of a plurality of user communities, by associating the audit policy with each of the user communities;

a detection section detecting the user community to which information is provided in response to receiving provision of the information by the user from a terminal device of the user; and

a registration control section causing the information in the detected user community not to be registered in the detected user community on condition that the provision of the information by the user violates the audit policy corresponding to the user community;

wherein the acquisition section, the detection section and the registration control section are each provided corresponding to the user.

12. A computer program embodied in tangible medium causing an information processing system to function as a system managing a user community provided in the information processing system, in which user community information provided by a user is made available to another user for reference, wherein the information processing system is caused to function as:

a storage section storing an audit policy defining contents of information to be permitted to be registered in the user community, by associating the audit policy with each of a plurality of user communities;

a detection section detecting the user community to which information is provided in response to provision of the information by a user; and

a registration control section causing the information provided by the user not to be registered in the detected user community, on condition that the information violates the audit policy corresponding to the user community.

13. A method of managing a user community provided in an information processing system, in which information provided by a user is made available to another user for reference, the method comprising:

storing an audit policy defining contents of information to be permitted to be registered in the user community by associating the audit policy with each of a plurality of user communities;

detecting the user community to which information is provided in response to provision of the information by a user; and

inhibiting registration of the information, provided by the user, in the detected user community, on condition that the information violates an audit policy corresponding to the user community.