Ability to scope awareness to your current task

• US 8,799,785 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2003
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Galvin, James Patrick Jr., Kogan, Sandra L., Mewherter, Duncan L., Pontrich, Ronald E. Jr., Solie, Kevin, Travis, Amy D.
• Primary Examiner(s): MADAMBA, GLENFORD J
• Application Number:
  US10/738,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20050138108A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,884 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201
• US Class Current: 715/747
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A method and system for an awareness service is provided. One or more collaborative contexts can be set for a first user within a set of users using the awareness service. One or more subsets of users can be defined within the set of users corresponding to the one or more collaborative contexts, respectively. Furthermore, a level of availability can be defined for the first user with respect to each of the subset of users. Next, an online status can be published on the awareness service for the first user. The online status can display an availability message to a second user. And, the availability message can have the highest level of availability selected from a group consisting of every level of availability defined for the first user with respect to every subset of users that includes the second user.

Claims

1. A method for scoping awareness to a collaborative task, the method comprising:

establishing different collaborative contexts in a collaborative computing system, each of the collaborative contexts comprising a subset of users in the collaborative computing system and an arrangement of tasks to be performed amongst the subset of users;

setting different availability messages for each of the different collaborative contexts, one of the different availability messages defines a first level of availability, and another of the different availability messages defines a second level of availability, the first level of availability being higher than the second level of availability;

determining whether a user is assigned to multiple, different subsets of users and if so, identifying, based upon the different availability messages, a highest availability level online status assigned to one of the multiple, different subsets of users to which the user is determined to have been assigned; and

,

publishing the identified highest availability level online status for the user amongst the users to others of the users if it is determined that the user is assigned to multiple, different subsets of users, but otherwise, publishing an online status for the user amongst the users to others of the users for the user determined not to be assigned to multiple, different subsets of users, the online status varying for each of the other users depending upon a membership of each other of the users in a particular one of the collaborative contexts.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting a second collaborative context for a first user within a set of users, the second collaborative context defining a second subset of users within the set of users; and

,

publishing a second online status for the first user, the second online status displaying an availability message to any user within both the second subset of users and the first subset of users, and displaying a different availability message to any user within the second subset of users but not within the first subset of users.

3. A system for scoping awareness to a collaborative task, comprising:

a server including memory; and

,

an awareness processor executing in the memory of the server, the awareness processor enabled to

establish different collaborative contexts in a collaborative computing system, each of the collaborative contexts comprising a subset of users in the collaborative computing system and an arrangement of tasks to be performed amongst the subset of users,

set different availability messages for each of the different collaborative contexts, one of the different availability messages defines a first level of availability, and another of the different availability messages defines a second level of availability, the first level of availability being higher than the second level of availability,

determine whether a user is assigned to multiple, different subsets of users and if so, identifying, based upon the different availability messages, a highest availability level online status assigned to one of the multiple, different subsets of users to which the user is determined to have been assigned, and

publish the identified highest availability level online status for the user amongst the users to others of the users if it is determined that the user is assigned to multiple, different subsets of users, but otherwise, publishing an online status for the user amongst the users to others of the users for the user determined not to be assigned to multiple, different subsets of users, the online status varying for each of the other users depending upon a membership of each other of the users in a particular one of the collaborative contexts.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the awareness processor is further enabled to:

set a second collaborative context for a first user within a set of users, the second collaborative context defining a second subset of users within the set of users; and

,

publish a second online status for the first user, the second online status displaying an availability message to any user within both the second subset of users and the first subset of users, and displaying a different availability message to any user within the second subset of users but not within the first subset of users.

5. A computer program product for scoping awareness to a collaborative task, the computer program product comprising:

a machine readable storage device having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code for establishing different collaborative contexts in a collaborative computing system, each of the collaborative contexts comprising a subset of users in the collaborative computing system and an arrangement of tasks to be performed amongst the subset of users;

computer readable program code for setting different availability messages for each of the different collaborative contexts, one of the different availability messages defines a first level of availability, and another of the different availability messages defines a second level of availability, the first level of availability being higher than the second level of availability;

computer readable program code for determining whether a user is assigned to multiple, different subsets of users and if so, identifying, based upon the different availability messages, a highest availability level online status assigned to one of the multiple, different subsets of users to which the user is determined to have been assigned; and

,

computer readable program code for publishing the identified highest availability level online status for the user amongst the users to others of the users if it is determined that the user is assigned to multiple, different subsets of users, but otherwise, publishing an online status for the user amongst the users to others of the users for the user determined not to be assigned to multiple, different subsets of users, the online status varying for each of the other users depending upon a membership of each other of the users in a particular one of the collaborative contexts.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the computer readable program code further comprises:

computer readable program code for setting a second collaborative context for a first user within a set of users, the second collaborative context defining a second subset of users within the set of users; and

,

computer readable program code for publishing a second online status for the first user, the second online status displaying an availability message to any user within both the second subset of users and the first subset of users, and displaying a different availability message to any user within the second subset of users but not within the first subset of users.