Method and system for sharing bookmarks amongst a community of academic system users

• US 20080086471A1
• Filed: 10/06/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blackboard Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Blackboard Incorporated
• Inventors: Ritter, Greg, Chintaluri, Sundara, Gage, Karen
• Application Number:
  US11/544,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20080086471A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management

Abstract

A system of hardware and software provides a community of academic institution-related users with a central repository for storing, searching, and retrieving bookmarks from amongst the users. The bookmarks are tagged with user-specified labels as well as academic institution related metadata such as a course identifier and/or discipline identifier. As a result, other users can search through the bookmarks using a variety of criteria to locate relevant bookmarks and other information.

Claims

1. A method for collecting a plurality of bookmarks comprising the steps of:

authenticating a user of an academic system;

receiving a bookmark from the user;

receiving a tag related to the bookmark; and

storing the tag and the bookmark in a community bookmark repository.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag includes at least one label indicative of the bookmark.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the tag further includes the steps of:

presenting to the user a plurality of course names;

receiving from the user an identity of a particular course name; and

assigning the particular course name to the tag.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of course names includes current courses in which the user can access via the academic system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the tag further includes the steps of:

presenting to the user a plurality of academic disciplines;

receiving from the user an identity of a particular academic discipline; and

assigning the particular academic discipline to the tag.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of academic disciplines include a hierarchically arranged list of disciplines.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of academic disciplines include a selected subset of available disciplines identified by the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the tag is received from the academic system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the tag is received from the user.

10. A community bookmark system, comprising:

an authentication module configured to authenticate a user of an academic system in communication with the community bookmark system;

a receiver configured to receive from the user a bookmark;

the receiver further configured to receive from the user a tag related to the bookmark; and

a data repository configured to store the bookmark and the tag.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the tag includes at least one label indicative of the bookmark.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the receiver is further configured to receive from the academic system a plurality of course names and to receive from the user an identity of a particular course name from among the plurality of course names such that the particular course name is assigned to the tag.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of course names includes current courses in which the user can access via the academic system.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the receiver is further configured to receive from the user an identity of a particular academic disciplines from among a plurality of academic disciplines such that the particular academic discipline is assigned to the tag.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of academic disciplines are received from the academic system.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of academic disciplines include a hierarchically arranged list of disciplines store within the data repository.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the tag is received from the academic system.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the tag is received from the user.

20. A method for providing bookmarks from a community bookmark repository, comprising the steps of:

authenticating a user of an academic system in communication with the community bookmark repository;

presenting a query interface to the user;

receiving a search query from the user;

locating one or more bookmarks in the community bookmark repository matching the search query; and

presenting the located one or more bookmarks to the user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the search query relates to a tag assigned to respective bookmarks within the community bookmark repository.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the search query relates to a course name associated with respective bookmarks within the community bookmark repository.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the search query relates to an academic discipline associated with respective bookmarks within the community bookmark repository.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the search query relates to an attribute of an owner associated with respective bookmarks within the community bookmark repository.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the search query relates to an academic institution of an owner associated with respective bookmarks within the community bookmark repository.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the search query relates to a course name associated with respective bookmarks within the community bookmark repository.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of:

saving a stream related to the search query

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the steps

embedding the stream in a web page presented to the user;

and

dynamically executing the search query when the web page is rendered to the user.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising the steps of:

receiving from the user an identity of a web page in which to embed the stream; and

embedding the stream in the identified web page.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the identified web page is presented by the academic system.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the identified web page is one of:

a course content page, a course page, the user'"'"'s home page, and the academic system'"'"'s main page.