Knowledge management for recursively virtualized teams

• US 8,137,107 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2003
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bantz, David F., Chaar, Jarir K., Pickover, Clifford A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Xuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Utama, Robert J
• Application Number:
  US10/732,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20050131827A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,023 Days
• Field of Search: 434/219, 705 9- 11
• US Class Current: 434/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program for interacting with team members of a virtual team. Persistent storage is configured to store collective qualifications of the virtual team based on the individual qualifications of the team members, while a team broker is configured to present the collective qualifications to third parties. Thus, the broker provides a dynamic representation of the collective knowledge, skills and experience of a virtual team. The broker further enables an entity, such as a team employer or teacher, to interact with the virtual team as if that team were a single entity, rather than a collection of individual members.

Claims

1. A system for interacting with team members of a virtual team, the system comprising:

a computer processor coupled to computer readable memory, the computer readable memory configured to store collective qualifications of the virtual team based on the individual qualifications of the team members, the virtual team including a first team member having a first qualification and a second team member having a second qualification, the collective qualifications include the first qualification and the second qualification; and

a team broker configured to present the collective qualifications to third parties; and

wherein the collective qualifications include certification from an education service provider that the virtual team has collectively completed one or more educational objectives even if no individual team member has completed the one or more educational objectives.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the collective qualifications includes experience information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the third parties include a team employer.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein team broker is further configured to:

receive an inquiry about the virtual team from a third party;

retrieve team information from the computer readable memory; and

send an inquiry response to the third party, the inquiry response including the team information.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the team broker is further configured to select candidate virtual teams satisfying specifications in a team selection criteria received from the third party.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the candidate virtual teams are ordered according to a criteria score.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein team broker is further configured to:

receive qualification notification from at least one team member that the team member'"'"'s qualifications have changed; and

update the collective qualifications of the virtual team to reflect the change in the team member'"'"'s qualifications.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the team broker is further configured to bill the third parties based on access to the collective qualifications.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the team broker is further configured to bill the team members based on access to the collective qualifications.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual team is comprised of a group of team members with a common objective.

10. A computer program product embodied in a tangible media comprising:

computer readable program codes coupled to the tangible media for interacting with team members of a virtual team, the computer readable program codes configured to cause the program to;

present collective qualifications of the virtual team based on stored information about individual team members of the virtual team from a centralized database, the virtual team including a first team member having a first qualification and a second team member having a second qualification, the collective qualifications include the first qualification and the second qualification;

receive certification from an education service provider that the virtual team has collectively completed one or more educational objectives even if no individual team member has completed the one or more educational objectives;

update the collective qualifications of the virtual team to include the completed one or more educational objectives by the virtual team;

receive an inquiry about the virtual team from a third party;

retrieve team information about the virtual team from a centralized database; and

send an inquiry response to the third party, the inquiry response including at least some of the team information from the centralized database.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising program code configured to:

determine that specific information from at least one team member is required in the inquiry response; and

request the specific information from the at least one team member.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising program code configured to receive specific information responses from the team members in response to requests for specific information.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising program code configured to aggregate the specific information responses from the team members, such that duplicate responses from multiple team members are eliminated.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the team information includes knowledge data about the team members.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the team information includes skill data about the team members.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the third party is a team employer.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising program code configured to:

receive qualification notification from at least one team member that the team member'"'"'s qualifications have changed; and

update the team information to reflect the change in the team member'"'"'s qualifications.

19. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the virtual team is comprised of a group of team members with a common objective.