(12) United States Patent Andersen

Transcription

1 US B2 (12) United States Patent Andersen (10) Patent N0.: (45) Date of Patent: US 7,831,580 B2 Nov. 9, 2010 (54) (75) (73) (*) (21) (22) (86) (87) (65) (60) (51) (52) (58) OWNER-BROKERED KNOWLEDGE SHARING MACHINE Inventor: Richard Park Andersen, San Jose, CA (Us) Assignee: Pandesa Corporation, Los Gatos, CA (Us) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 1669 days. Appl. No.: 10/520,269 PCT Filed: Oct. 24, 2003 PCT No.: 371 (0X1) (2), (4) Date: PCT/US03/34021 Dec. 30, 2004 PCT Pub. No.: WO2004/ PCT Pub. Date: May 6, 2004 Prior Publication Data US 2009/ A1 Jan. 1, 2009 Related US. Application Data Provisional application No. 60/421,274,?led on Oct. 25, Int. Cl. G06F 17/30 ( ) US. Cl /706; 706/12; 706/13; 706/ 14 Field of Classi?cation Search / 100, 707/706; 706/12*14 See application?le for complete search history. (56) References Cited U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 2002/ A1 8/2002 Sutherland et a / A1* 4/2003 Morris et al / / A1 10/2003 Chen et al. 2004/ A1* 4/2004 Rahman /182 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS JP A 6/1991 JP A 3/1998 JP A 8/2001 (Continued) OTHER PUBLICATIONS International Search Report mailed on Jul. 20, 2004, for PCT Appli cation No. PCT/US03/34021,?led on Oct. 24, 2004, 1 page. International Preliminary Examination Report completed on Aug. 31, 2004, for PCT Application No. PCT/US03/34021,?led on Oct. 24, 2004, 3 pages. (Continued) Primary ExamineriJohn R. Cottingham Assistant ExamineriNoosha Arjomandi (74) Attorney, Agent, or FirmiMorrison & Foerster LLP (57) ABSTRACT The invention discloses a system and method for promoting information or knowledge sharing among users registered to a computer network by allowing an information or knowl edge owner to locate or directly access private information, to publish information for direct access by knowledge request ers, or to broker information or knowledge with an informa tion or knowledge requester. This invention also discloses a system and method which allow an organization to develop and manage a reward system based on the frequency of an information or knowledge owner s contribution to informa tion or knowledge sharing and the frequency of an informa tion or knowledge requestor s use of shared knowledge. 20 Claims, 17 Drawing Sheets

2 US 7,831,580 B2 Page 2 JP JP JP JP FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS A A A A 8/2001 2/2002 5/2002 6/2002 OTHER PUBLICATIONS English Translation of Japanese Of?ce Action mailed on May 19, 2009, for Japanese Patent Application No ,?led on Oct. 24, 2003,?ve pages. * cited by examiner

3 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 1 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2

4 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 2 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2

5 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 3 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 Sawey

6 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 4 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B \ Knowledge Sharing Application Browser f / Operating System (08) f < Central Processing Unit(CPU) f f 122 \ f 127 f 126 f 125 HO Interface RAM ROM 129 \ 38 Network f 131 Terminal Storage Connection FIG. 4

7 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 5 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 200 Knowledge Requester (KR) 12 f0 150 \ Knowledge Owner (KO) f 261 ullllllolul lllllllv llul-l. KNOWLEDGE SHARING MACHiNE (KSM) FIG. 5

8 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 6 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 Info listed in KSM but not yet published to the user-community Info already published available to every community member

9 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 7 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 KR initiates a request f 51 KSM compares I the request / against the information in CKOR and DKORs l 3 KSM returns to the KR a set f 5 of relevant results YES 54 is the targeted info published? KR accesses the targeted information in the published domain Knowledge brokering process starts f 56 FIG. 7

10 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 8 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 KR instructs KSM to forward the request/result set to KO f 61 1 f 62 KO evaluates the request Knowledge Sharing Rewarding Track 63 Does KO decide to share NO Request cannot 70 be completed KSM delivers the f 65 information to KR 1 66 KSM prompts KO to publish the info I f 64 I 1 YES KSM publishes the info f 69 Does KO decide to publish the info? FIG. 8 f 67 V Do not publish f 68

11 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 9 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 KR enters a query f 81 Published Domain Specified Brokered Domain Specified, Local Domain Specified Search the local domain NO " 83 Any match found? Return the matching results f 84 Continues on 81 v f 85 Examine the results l f 86 Brokered Domain Specified Published Domain Specified NO Search published domain or brokered domains? Published Domain V Continues On 90 in specified f 89 FIG 10 Search the published domain It FIG. 9

12 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 10 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 1 Search the brokered domain [90 Any match found? 91 End YES Return the matching results Examine the results 7 f93 NO Involve another user (KO)? 94 End Forward K0 the search criteria V Specify KR s request Continue on FIG FIG. 10

13 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 11 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 1' 97 KO evaluates the request KO decides to help KR? 98 End Does the targeted objects fit KR s request? 99 KO selects the most suited f 100 l KO adds notes f 101 " 102 1* KO authorizes to deliver / Continues " 103 on in KR received the delivered f FIG 8 KO makes a suggestion or substitution End

14 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 12 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 402 User initiates a search Search returns the l 403 results, which are all Local documents, contacts and s that match the search criteria. User examines the results to determines if one or more meet the task requirement. 405 Domain is Local? Domain is Published? 401 *6) 404 Search returns the results, which are all Published documents, contacts, and s that match the search criteria and can be accessed directly Requirements met? 409 User examines the results to determines if one or more meet the task requirement. No+ User modi?es the search criteria and repeats the Local search or expands the domains being searched to include the Published or Brokered domains. FIG. 12 V (9 V G)

15 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 13 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 411 User utilizes the individual information objects to compiete the task. 410 G) Domain is Brokered? 414 Yes V Search is initiated within System. Access boundaries exist? No No t4 User modi?es the search criteria and repeats the Published search or expands the domains being searched to include the Brokered domain Yes 41 3 User utilizes the individual information objects to complete the task. End 417 System incorporates boundary 416 constraints into the search parameters, such as allowing inbound brokered requests from requestors Yes-> de?ned by topic, group, organizational role or level, or requestors on a "white list" such as those who are represented in a knowledge holder's contact/address folder FIG =

16 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 14 or 17 US 7,831,580 B2 418 Search returns the results, which are based on a central metadata index of all documents accessible to the system. The results enable the System to present a ranked listing of all other Users of the System that appear to be the holders of documents matching the search criteria. The displayed results, specifying the degree of correlation (eogw Correlation Index score) or strength of a relationship (e9. Relationship lndex score) and presented in descending order, are the names of the Other Users of the System that appear be the most likely able to provide information to accomplish the task 419 User examines the results to determine if at least one of the Other Users of the System has a suf?ciently high correlation score to warrant continuing the process and involving the other User in order to complete the task requirement Continue with a Request? Yes" 422 NO 1 The Knowledge Requesting User (KR) seeking the information decades to involve one or more Knowledge Owning User (KO). The User (KR) instructs the System to forward the search criteria to User (KO). FIG. 14

17 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 15 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B2 423 The System, on behalf of User (KR), speci?es the speci?c information objects which matched the search criteria to User (KO) as well as the search criteria originally entered by the User (KR). 425 User (KO) decides to assist? 424 No > A message is sent to the User (KR) indicating that the System was unable to find at least one appropriate, accessible knowledge object matching the search request. No reasoning or disposition is required from the User (KO)v 426 Yes \/\ i,, Upon the User (KO) deciding that he or she would like to assist User (KR), the User (KO) evaluates the System determined matching information objects to determine which are best suited for the task implied by the query input by the (KR), or if a substitution is required. End c ne or more appropriate results? Substitute other object(s)? Yes FIG. 15

18 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 16 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B The User (KO) selects the speci?c objects which are best suited for the task. 431 Add additional objects? Yes v The User (KO) inserts one or more appropriate, additional objects, 432 The User (KO) marks the request complete. It 433 The User (KR) receives the completed request, 434 FIG. 16 The System asks the User (KO) if he or she would like to make the information object(s) which was shared in the preceding process step directly available to other users and therefore bypassing the brokering process for these objects in subsequent searches. This is the equivalent of "Publishing" the object(s)v

19 US. Patent Nov. 9, 2010 Sheet 17 0f 17 US 7,831,580 B Publish the object(s)? N O Yes V N Knowledge object(s) are copied or moved to the central repository, or "Published" domain. 436 Yes For the purposes of Rewards-based compensation or other process or individual user performance measures, the System will incrementally tabulate the number of times a user publishes information objects for use by other users, requests information objects from other users, or shares information objects with other users. Through these measures, the System can aid in the determination of which users are most actively sharing information and also which information objects are most commonly requested. End FIG. 17

20 1 OWNER-BROKERED KNOWLEDGE SHARING MACHINE CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority to the US. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/421,274?led on Oct. 25, BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention generally relates to information sharing and management technology. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for promoting information or knowledge sharing among users registered to a computer network by allowing an information or knowledge owner to locate or directly access private information, to publish infor mation for direct access by information or knowledge requestors, or to broker information or knowledge with an information or knowledge requester. This invention also relates to a system and method which allow an organization to develop and manage a reward system based on the frequency of an information or knowledge owner s contribution to infor mation or knowledge sharing and the frequency of an infor mation or knowledge requestor s use of shared knowledge. 2. Related Art A statement as to the general structure of knowledge shar ing and management systems can summarize the problem with such systems today. These systems are generally designed to manage knowledge rather than dynamically share it. As such, these systems are often called knowledge management systems and are built to manage a body of information that is collected from individuals within a group or organization. In most cases, the group or organization has some shared domain of responsibility or expertise. The man agement of the knowledge is generally focused around the central body of information. Software and business processes have been designed to facilitate the posting of information or knowledge objects in digital format to and retrieval from the central body of information, or central knowledge repository. Both the posting and retrieval of information have bene?ted by the association of descriptive contextual information, or meta-data, about the data stored in such a system. In addition, the security of and appropriate access to the information have bene?ted from software and business practices designed to manage rules, roles, and access privileges. The use of Internet technologies has enhanced the share-ability of digitized knowledge by collapsing barriers of time and geography. The premise that brought about these types of centralized knowledge management systems is that some people are knowledge creators (or knowledge leaders or knowledge owners or expertise providers ) and have information that would be useful one or more times to other potential users ( knowledge seekers or knowledge requesters ) of the information who could be granted access to the information. I call this the big bucket approach. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, the big bucket approach assumes that users who voluntarily contribute their knowledge or information content to the big bucket can also retrieve information from the bucket. Essen tially, information is obtained either directly or indirectly from the knowledge creators and stored in the central knowl edge repository for the knowledge seekers to locate and uti lize in the ordinary course of creating work products. The primary objectives for these systems are to have the most relevant and most current information available at all times.a variety of incentive compensation systems have been incor US 7,831,580 B porated along with this approach to encourage the ongoing and continuous population and maintenance of the knowl edge repository so that the big bucket is full of imminently locatable, useful information. Systems utilizing the population and updating of the infor mation en mass ( top down ) from central sources such as?leservers, Web pages, etc. or individually by capturing data at the point of origination or utilization ( bottom up ), such as within systems or in local end-user computer?les have been designed. Similar to the Marxist-Leninist social system, which did not work, big bucket information communism doesn t work well either. The problem with systems employing the big bucket approach is that they do not effectively take into account the human bias not to share information outside of the context of a trust-based relationship. The reality with such systems, as illustrated in FIG. 1B, is that the central bucket is empty relative to the actual digital information that is main tained or possessed directly by the knowledge creators. Extending the bucket metaphor, one can say that the reality is that the distributed individual buckets populated and main tained by individual knowledge owners is where the bulk of actual knowledge desired for a sharing system resides. What is desired is a multi-domain framework that takes into account, facilitates, and maximizes the access and shar ing of knowledge within the context of a trust-based relation ship. What is fur ther desired is an incentive mechanism incor porated with the multi-domain framework to encourage the users to share their work products or other knowledge objects in their possession. What is further desired is a security mechanism incorpo rated with the multi-domain framework to ensure privacy and to promote knowledge access and sharing within the context of a trust-based relationship. What is further desired is an instant message platform incorporated with the multi-domain framework to enable a knowledge owner to provide a knowledge requestor with advice, comments, and substitution of requested resource in a real time manner. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a multi-domain frame work for promoting the sharing of knowledge within a group or organization is provided which overcomes the problems of prior art methods discussed above. The invention encourages knowledge discovery and sharing by creating a system that allows knowledge owners to easily search their own private repositories of information, to publish information for direct access by knowledge seekers or requestors, or to broker infor mation with knowledge seekers or requestors. The system for sharing knowledge objects among the reg istered users of the computer network includes a central knowledge repository and a number of distributed knowledge repositories, each of which is associated with a speci?c user. The central knowledge object repository is used for main taining and updating a collection of published knowledge objects contributed by the users. Any of the users can access any of the published knowledge objects directly by entering a unique user identi?cation, so long as appropriate access privi leges have been granted. The central knowledge object repository is also used for maintaining and updating a collection of listed knowledge objects contributed by the users. Any of the listed knowledge objects can be identi?ed, through the metadata associated with each individual object, but cannot be accessed by any of

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