VIRTUAL UNIVERSE SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT ASSISTANCE

• US 20100070883A1
• Filed: 09/12/2008
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Harrison, Steven M., Hamilton, Rick A. II, O'Connell, Brian M., Walker, Keith R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,127,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/757
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition

Abstract

Methods, devices and systems are provided for enabling virtual universe users to find and engage subject matter experts within a virtual universe by defining a virtual universe subject matter expert conduit within the virtual universe. A virtual universe user avatar engages the conduit and a user indicates a subject matter expert search term. A data storage is searched for a tag relevant to the search term, and an expert-avatar is identified and located through the relevant tag. The user is enabled to directly communicate with the identified expert-avatar through a conduit communication medium entirely within the virtual universe, without requiring the user to engage a resource outside of the virtual universe or without requiring the user to engage an interface outside of the virtual universe.

Claims

1. A method for enabling virtual universe users to find and engage subject matter experts within a virtual universe, comprising:

defining a subject matter expert conduit within a virtual universe, the conduit comprising a communication medium;

an avatar of a user engaging the conduit, the engaging indicating a subject matter expert search term;

the conduit searching a data storage in communication with the conduit for a tag relevant to the search term;

the conduit identifying and locating an expert-avatar tagged with the relevant tag; and

the conduit enabling the user to directly communicate with the identified and located expert-avatar through the conduit communication medium entirely within the virtual universe without the user directly engaging a resource outside of the virtual universe or without requiring the user to engage in a communication interface outside of the virtual universe.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising the conduit identifying the expert-avatar as a function of a tagging of the identified expert-avatar as an expert by at least one of:

a plurality of unique virtual universe users;

a confirming virtual universe user; and

an authoritative virtual universe user having an authority status relative to the identified expert-avatar as a function of a hierarchical organizational relationship of the authoritative virtual universe user with respect to the identified expert-avatar.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising the conduit tagging the identified expert-avatar as an expert as a function of at least one of:

crawling through an on-line organizational directory and parsing information in the directory;

analyzing an agent inventory of the identified expert-avatar; and

identifying an association of the identified expert-avatar with a group of other avatars, the group of other avatars comprising a threshold percentage of tagged expert avatars.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the virtual universe subject matter expert conduit comprises defining a texture within a graphic environment of the virtual universe, and wherein the user avatar engaging the conduit comprises the user avatar physically contacting the texture or moving within a proximity distance of the texture.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the conduit comprises defining a conduit avatar enabled to engage the user avatar;

and

wherein the conduit enabling the user to directly communicate with the identified expert-avatar comprises populating the conduit avatar with the identified expert-avatar.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the engaging the conduit automatically invokes the conduit searching.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the conduit enabling the user to directly communicate with the identified expert-avatar comprises automatically teleporting a one of the user avatar and the identified expert-avatar to an other of the user avatar and the identified expert-avatar.

8. The method of claim 1, the identifying the expert-avatar comprising requiring multiple or confirming tagging of the expert-avatar by a plurality of tagging avatars.

9. The method of claim 8, the identifying the expert-avatar comprising requiring multiple types of tagging by the plurality of tagging avatars.

10. A service for enabling virtual universe users to find and engage subject matter experts within a virtual universe, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure configured to;

define a subject matter expert conduit within the virtual universe, the conduit configured to receive a subject matter expert search term from an engagement of the conduit by an avatar of a user;

search a data storage in communication with the conduit for a tag relevant to the search term;

identify and locate an expert-avatar tagged with the relevant tag; and

enable the user to directly communicate with the identified and located expert-avatar through a conduit avatar communication medium entirely within the virtual universe without the user directly engaging a resource outside of the virtual universe or without requiring the user to engage in an interface outside of the virtual universe.

11. The service of claim 10, wherein the computer infrastructure is configured to identify the expert-avatar as an expert as a function of a tagging of the identified expert-avatar by at least one of:

a plurality of unique virtual universe users;

a confirming virtual universe user; and

an authoritative virtual universe user having an authority status relative to the identified expert-avatar as a function of a hierarchical organizational relationship of the authoritative virtual universe user with respect to the identified expert-avatar.

12. The service of claim 10, wherein the computer infrastructure conduit is configured to tag the identified expert-avatar as an expert as a function of at least one of:

crawling through an on-line organizational directory and parsing information in the directory;

analyzing an agent inventory of the identified expert-avatar; and

identifying an association of the identified expert-avatar with a group of other avatars, the group of other avatars comprising a threshold percentage of tagged expert avatars.

13. The service of claim 10, the computer infrastructure configured to identify the expert-avatar tagged by requiring multiple or confirming tagging of the expert-avatar as an expert by a plurality of tagging virtual universe users.

14. The service of claim 13, the computer infrastructure configured to identify the expert-avatar by requiring multiple types of tagging by the plurality of tagging virtual universe users.

15. A method for enabling virtual universe users to find and engage subject matter experts within a virtual universe, comprising:

producing computer executable program code;

storing the code on a computer readable medium; and

providing the program code to be deployed and executed on a computer system, the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, cause the computer system to;

define a virtual universe subject matter expert conduit within the virtual universe, the conduit configured to receive a subject matter expert search term from an engagement of the conduit by an avatar of a user;

search a data storage in communication with the conduit for a tag relevant to the search term;

identify and locate an expert-avatar tagged with the relevant tag; and

enable the user to directly communicate with the identified and located expert-avatar through a conduit avatar communication medium entirely within the virtual universe without the user directly engaging a resource outside of the virtual universe or without requiring the user to engage in an interface outside of the virtual universe.

16. The method of claim 15, the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, causes the defined computer system conduit to identify the expert-avatar as an expert as a function of a tagging of the identified expert-avatar by at least one of:

a plurality of unique virtual universe users;

a confirming virtual universe user; and

an authoritative virtual universe user having an authority status relative to the identified expert-avatar as a function of a hierarchical organizational relationship of the authoritative virtual universe user with respect to the identified expert-avatar.

17. The method of claim 15, the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, causes the computer system to tag the identified expert-avatar as an expert as a function of at least one of:

crawling through an on-line organizational directory and parsing information in the directory;

analyzing an agent inventory of the identified expert-avatar;

or

identifying an association of the identified expert-avatar with a group of other avatars, the group of other avatars comprising a threshold percentage of tagged expert avatars.

18. The method of claim 15, the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, causes the defined computer system conduit to identify the identified expert-avatar as an expert by requiring multiple or confirming tagging of the identified expert-avatar by a plurality of tagging virtual universe users.

19. The method of claim 18, the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, causes the computer system to identify the identified expert-avatar as an expert by requiring multiple types of tagging by the plurality of tagging virtual universe users.

20. A programmable device comprising:

a processing means;

a memory in communication with the processing means comprising a subject matter expert identifier logic component, a subject matter expert locator logic component, a subject matter expert communication system logic component and a subject matter expert datastore logic component; and

a network interface in communication with the processing means and the memory;

wherein the processing means is configured to define a subject matter expert conduit within the virtual universe;

wherein the subject matter expert locator component is configured to receive a subject matter expert search term from an engagement of the conduit by an avatar of a virtual universe user and search a data storage means in communication with the network interface for a tag relevant to the search term;

wherein the subject matter expert locator component is configured to identify and locate an expert-avatar tagged with the relevant tag; and

wherein the subject matter expert communication system component is configured to enable the user avatar to directly communicate with the identified expert-avatar through a conduit avatar communication medium entirely within the virtual universe without the user directly engaging a resource outside of the virtual universe or without requiring the user to engage in an interface outside of the virtual universe.

21. The programmable device of claim 20, wherein processing means is configured to tag the identified expert-avatar as an expert by at least one of:

crawling through an on-line organizational directory and parsing information in the directory;

analyzing an agent inventory of the expert-avatar; and

identifying an association of the identified expert-avatar with a group of other avatars, the group of other avatars comprising a threshold percentage of tagged expert avatars.

22. The programmable device of claim 20, wherein the processing means is configured to define the conduit as a texture within a graphic environment of the virtual universe, the texture configured to engage the user avatar as a function of the user avatar physically contacting the texture or moving within a proximity distance of the texture.

23. The programmable device of claim 20, wherein the processing means is configured to enable the virtual universe user to directly communicate with the identified expert-avatar by populating a conduit avatar with the identified expert-avatar.

24. The programmable device of claim 20, wherein the processing means is configured to automatically invoke the conduit searching in response to the user avatar engaging the conduit.

25. The programmable device of claim 20 wherein the processing means is configured to enable the user avatar to directly engage the identified expert-avatar by automatically teleporting a one of the user avatar and the identified expert-avatar to an other of the user avatar and the identified expert-avatar.