METHOD AND COLLABORATION SYSTEM

• US 20130254298A1
• Filed: 11/29/2011
• Published: 09/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dvdperplay SA
• Original Assignee: Dvdperplay SA
• Inventors: Lorphelin, Vincent
• Granted Patent: US 9,723,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A method and collaboration system for determining the usefulness value of different contributions to the creation of a collective work produced by different contributors in a collaborative work platform is described. The value of each contribution is determined according to usefulness indicators that respectively characterize the contribution itself, the specific data that it provides to the collective work, the work thus produced and the contributor, and, according to valuation parameters (set of numeric constants, mathematical functions and algorithms) mutually defined by a manager of the system and the contributors. These usefulness indicators are collected periodically during the development and life of the work, and their variation over time may cause the usefulness value of contributions to vary. The determination of the usefulness value of each contribution is intended to calculate the individual compensation for contributors in the production of the work.

Claims

1. A method for valuating at least one contribution to a collective work, the at least one contribution being performed by one or more contributors on a contributor computer system connected via a network to a collaboration platform computer architecture, the method comprising steps of:

defining, by the collaboration platform computer architecture, a list of at least one usefulness indicators among a set of usefulness indicators stored on storage means of the collaboration platform computer architecture, each usefulness indicator being a measurable quantity that quantifies a usefulness of the at least one contribution;

collecting, at the collaboration platform computer architecture, usefulness indicators from the list of at least one usefulness indicators for each contribution of the at least one contribution to the collective work, the usefulness indicators being received from the contributor computer system;

calculating by processing means of the collaboration platform computer architecture the usefulness value for each contribution of the at least one contribution to the collective work according to the at least one usefulness indicators collected for each contribution and storing the usefulness values in the storage means of the collaboration platform computer architecture;

associating, by the collaboration platform computer architecture, with each contribution of the at least one contribution to the collective work a compensation value according to the usefulness value of each contribution and storing the compensation value in the storage means of the collaboration platform computer architecture.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each usefulness indicator of the at least one usefulness indicators is determined in relation to a feature of the at least one contribution, a specific data of the at least one contribution, the collective work, or the one or more contributors of the at least one contribution.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the list is performed through a parameterization interface of the collaboration platform computer architecture by selecting or not selecting each usefulness indicator of the set of usefulness indicators.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein calculating the usefulness value for each contribution is performed by inputting to a calculation, only a sublist of the list of the usefulness indicators which are collected, the sublist being defined according to a vote by the one or more contributors received by the collaboration platform computer architecture from the contributor computer system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the compensation value associated with each contribution is a function of a standardized usefulness value, the standardized usefulness value being computed by the collaboration platform computer architecture as being a computed usefulness value of each contribution divided by a total sum of the computed usefulness values of each contributions of the at least one contribution to the collective work.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a global compensation for the collective work is computed by the collaboration platform computer architecture, each compensation value being a part of the global compensation proportionally to the standardized usefulness value associated with each contribution.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the list of at least one usefulness indicators among a set of usefulness indicators further comprises defining a list of at least one valuation parameter, the step of calculating a usefulness value being performed according to the at least one valuation parameters defined in the list of at least one valuation parameter and stored in the storage means of the collaboration platform computer architecture.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the usefulness indicators are collected by the collaboration platform computer architecture periodically and/or each time a contribution is performed.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, on a display module, stored usefulness values by the collective work, the at least one contribution, and/or the one or more contributors.

10. A collaboration system for enabling a plurality of contributors having contributor computer systems connected to a collaboration platform computer architecture via a network to achieve at least one collective work by performing at least one contribution and transmitting said at least one contribution from a respective contributor computer system to comprising the collaboration platform computer architecture, the collaboration platform computer architecture comprises modules implementing the method for valuating the at least one contribution to the collective work according to claim 1.

11. The collaboration system of claim 10, further comprising a personal interface hosted in each contributor computer system and enabling each contributor to perform contributions through the network after authentication.

12. The collaboration system of claim 11, wherein the personal interface comprises interface elements enabling each contributor of the one or more contributors to define a skill profile.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the personal interface comprises interface elements enabling each contributor of the one or more contributors to display its contributions to the collaboration platform computer architecture and/or its compensation values.