Patent Publication Number: US-2011055230-A1

Title: Community-Based Knowledge Sharing

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This application relates to community-based knowledge sharing, and in particular, to intelligent routing and response composition in community-based knowledge sharing with mobile devices. 
     2. Background 
     Community-based knowledge sharing is becoming increasingly important as individuals become more mobile. For example, as individuals of a particular group or company perform tasks away from a typical work environment, it becomes difficult to share knowledge using conventional methods. If an individual has a question related to a particular area, and the individual is separated from the work environment, it may take a plurality of phone calls, emails, or other communications before the question may be accurately answered. For example,  FIG. 1  depicts such a conventional example. 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram representing a group of mobile individuals. As illustrated, group or system  100  includes a plurality of individual users  101 - 106 . The plurality of individuals  101 - 106  may be in active or passive communication facilitated through network  110 . As an example, if any one of the plurality of users  101 - 106  has a particular question, said user may issue a phone call, or message, to another user in an attempt to gain a response answering the question. It follows that if the initial recipient of the question does not respond, the questioning individual may necessarily attempt contacting another individual until all known co-workers are exhausted. 
     Thus, it may be beneficial to provide enhancements to typical mobile professional knowledge sharing methods to increase access to necessary information. 
     SUMMARY 
     A method of intelligent community-based knowledge sharing in accordance with an exemplary embodiment is provided. The method includes receiving a question of a user of a community, retrieving a social distance hierarchy of members of the community associated with the user, traversing the social distance hierarchy to determine a first recipient of the question, and transmitting the question to the first recipient. The social distance hierarchy is a hierarchy of members of the community associated with the user and is a linked-hierarchy based on social distance of each of the members to the user. 
     A system of intelligent community-based knowledge sharing according to an example embodiment includes a router configured to route a query from a user of a community to a first recipient within the community, and a knowledge composition engine in communication with the router, and configured to augment an answer received from the first recipient and to format the augmented answer based on a format of the query. 
     A computer readable storage medium according to an example embodiment includes computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer processor, direct the computer processor to perform a method of intelligent community-based knowledge sharing. The method includes receiving a query from a user of a community, retrieving a social distance hierarchy of members of the community associated with the user, wherein the social distance hierarchy is a hierarchy of members of the community associated with the user and is a linked-hierarchy based on social distance of each of the members to the user, traversing the social distance hierarchy to determine a first recipient of the query, and transmitting the query to the first recipient. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram representing a group of mobile individuals; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram of an example knowledge sharing system, according to an example embodiment; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram of an example knowledge sharing system, according to an example embodiment; 
         FIG. 4  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment; 
         FIG. 5  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment; 
         FIG. 6  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment; 
         FIG. 7  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment; 
         FIG. 8  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment; and 
         FIG. 9  is a computing apparatus, according to an example embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Detailed illustrative embodiments are disclosed herein. However, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of describing example embodiments. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein. 
     Accordingly, while example embodiments are capable of various modifications and alternative forms, embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit example embodiments to the particular forms disclosed, but to the contrary, example embodiments are to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of example embodiments. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description of the figures. 
     It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. 
     The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising,”, “includes” and/or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. 
     It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions/acts noted may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two figures shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved. 
     Hereinafter, example embodiments will be described with reference to the attached drawings. 
     As illustrated and discussed above with regards to  FIG. 1 , group  100  does not include any intervening client to facilitate accurate and timely responses. Thus, any individual user issuing a question must attempt contact with a plurality of individuals to facilitate an accurate response. According to example embodiments of the present invention, novel methods and systems are provided to overcome these deficiencies. 
       FIG. 2  is a diagram of an example knowledge sharing system, according to an example embodiment. As illustrated, the system  200  includes a plurality of users  210  and  211 . Each user of the plurality of users may be a questioner, a question recipient, or a combination of both. For ease of understanding, user  210  represents a questioner and user  211  represents a question recipient, with the understanding that any other combination may be suitable. User  210  and user  211  may be in active or passive communication with each other through a network (not illustrated), through help client  202 , or any combination of the network and help client  202 . User  210  and user  211  are also each in communication with the help client  202  individually. 
     The help client  202  represents a client application running on a computer processor, including question/answer storage. The help client  202  coordinates question receipt, routing, response acquisition, and response formatting in system  200 . The help client  203  may be in communication with a plurality of websites or website servers  205 - 207 . The communication may be facilitated through a network  203 , or through direct communication if suitable. The help client  202  may store and process information related to each of users  210  and  211 . For example, this information may include technical areas of interest, website affiliations, usernames, and any other suitable identifying information. The help client  202  may also represent each of users  210  and  211  with a single username such that any question requests for any connected user may include a single username that can be identified to a particular user, used to retrieve website usernames for said particular user, and used to route questions based on information for each website affiliated with said particular user. 
     For example, user  211  may be affiliated with the plurality of websites  205 - 207 . The plurality of websites  205 - 207  may be knowledge sharing websites, social networking websites, or any other website. Using information stored pertaining to user  211 , the help client  202  may identify user  211  for routing purposes based on received questions from user  210 . The routing may be facilitated though social networking distance or social distance between users  210  and  211 . 
     Social distance may be calculated through communication frequency, semantic analysis of related technical areas/communications, and other suitable parameters acquired or inferred through associations with the plurality of websites  205 - 207  or information stored at the help client  202 . 
     The routing may include directing a question from user  210  to user  211 , and directing a response/answer from user  211  to user  210  after processing and response composition steps are performed by the help client  202 . 
     Turning to  FIG. 3 , a knowledge sharing user interface of help client  202  is illustrated. The interface  300  may include a plurality of information and/or options to identify a user and provide knowledge sharing resources. For example, the interface may include a website affiliation section  301  such that a user may provide website affiliations for interpretation by the help client  202 . Although not illustrated, the website affiliation portion may further include selectable, configurable, or text box areas for each website affiliation such that a user may provide username information or other suitable information pertaining to affiliated websites. 
     The interface  300  may further include a status configuration portion  302 . The status configuration portion  302  may provide for selection of a plurality of status options for a user. For example, a user may elect to be contacted by any user at any time. Alternatively, a user may select to be contacted only by friends within a particular group or social distance. The status configuration portion  302  may further include any other suitable status configuration option. Furthermore, actual user status may be facilitated through “presence” services facilitated by the help client  202 . For example, if a user is actively or passively communicating with the help client  202 , the user&#39;s presence may indicate an active user available to answer questions. This presence feature may be useful in the recipient determining portions of methods described later in the present application. 
     The interface  300  may further include a technical area selection portion  303 . For example, the technical area selection portion may include user selectable technology areas. Each selectable technology area may further include options as to level of expertise. For example, as illustrated, each selectable technology area includes an option to select if a user is an expert in a particular technology area. Although not illustrated, additional levels of expertise may be selectable. For example, there may be additional levels such as a number of years within a particular area, university degree level within an area, or any other suitable level of expertise option. 
     Using the information gathered through interface  300 , the help client  202  may route questions in the provided knowledge sharing systems effectively. Turning to  FIG. 4 , a more detailed example of a knowledge sharing system is illustrated. 
     The system  400  may include a plurality of users/questioners/recipients  401 - 403 . Each of the users  401 - 403  may be in communication with a question router  404 . The question router  404  may be included within a help client, or may be separate. The router  404  may be configured to provide question routing between users  401 - 403 . The system  400  may further include a knowledge composition engine  405  in communication with the router  404 . The knowledge composition engine  405  may be configured to compose responses based on answers received from users  401 - 403 . The system  400  may further include response database  406  in communication with knowledge composition engine  405 . The response database  406  may store previously submitted/formatted responses for search by the knowledge composition engine  405 . The knowledge composition engine may further organize, delete, or alter stored responses on the response database  406  in response to newer answers received from users  401 - 403 . 
     In the system  400 , as a question is received from any of the users  401 - 403 , the router  404  may determine an appropriate recipient and forward said question to the recipient. Upon receipt of an answer from the recipient, the router  404  may route the answer to the knowledge composition engine  405 . The knowledge composition engine  405  may parse the answer, traverse the response database  406 , retrieve stored responses, augment/alter the answer, store any changes, and return the formatted answer to the router  404 . The router  404  may route the formatted answer to the questioning user of users  401 - 403 . Hereinafter a more detailed explanation of the methodologies provided by example embodiments is given with reference to  FIGS. 5-8 . 
       FIG. 5  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment. The method  500  may include receiving a question submission at block  501 . The question may be transmitted by a user and received by a router of a help client. In response to the receipt of the question, the method  500  further includes retrieving the questioner&#39;s social hierarchy at block  502 . For example, a help client may retrieve website/friend/social information for the questioner as stored or retrieved from additional sources. The method  500  may further include traversing the retrieved questioner&#39;s hierarchy at block  503 . The method  500  may further include determining an appropriate recipient for the received question from the hierarchy at block  504 . The appropriate recipient may be determined based on a combination of availability, presence, selected availability options, technical area, level of expertise, and/or social distance. As hierarchies and search trees are relatively known, particulars of these data structures is omitted herein for the sake of brevity. The method  500  may further include transmitting the question to the appropriate recipient. Thus, method  500  provides knowledge sharing routing. Hereinafter, a more detailed explanation of knowledge sharing routing is provided with reference to  FIG. 6 . 
       FIG. 6  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment. The method  600  may include receiving a question submission at block  601 . The question may be submitted by a user and received at a router of a help client. The method  600  further includes determining a recipient at block  602  (see  FIG. 5 ). If a recipient is not found ( 603 ), information pertaining to the received question is transmitted to a composition engine at block  607 . 
     If a recipient is found ( 603 ), the received question is transmitted to the located recipient at block  604 . If an answer to the question is received ( 606 ), the answer and other associated information is transmitted to the knowledge composition engine at block  607 . Alternatively, if an answer is not received, for example during an allotted, desired, or preconfigured amount of time ( 605 ), the method  600  may include determining another recipient at block  602 . If an additional recipient is found, method blocks  603 - 607  continue as described above for the initial recipient, otherwise, the question information is transmitted to the knowledge composition engine at block  607 . Hereinafter, a more detailed explanation of knowledge sharing answer composition methods are described with reference to  FIG. 7 . 
       FIG. 7  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment. Method  700  includes receiving information from a router at block  701 . For example, the information received may include a question, proposed answer, or other suitable information. The method  700  may further include traversing database entries of a response storage at block  702 . For example, a composition engine may parse the received information into logical portions, and use these portions to traverse the response storage. As appropriate previous responses are identified from the traversal, the composition engine may determine an augmentation for the answer at block  703 . 
     For example, a provided answer may be augmented with previously submitted material. Alternatively, the existing answers may be augmented with the newly received material. Thereafter, a response is composed using the augmented answer. The augmenting may be facilitated through intelligent mixing of new answers and previously submitted responses to similar questions. For example, word frequency, synonym matching, indexing, hashing, natural language algorithms, and/or parsing may be used to filter existing entries to the most related or relevant entries. Thereafter, these relevant entries may be parsed and mixed with the newly received response. 
     In the event no new answer has been submitted, the above described mixing and sorting techniques may be used to locate the most relevant entries to the unanswered question, and these previously stored entries may be mixed to form the response. 
     Additionally, a syndicated feed of recently answered questions may further facilitate timely responses. For example, newer entries in the response database may be traversed first. 
     The response may be formatted into a message suited for the questioner&#39;s form of question submittal. For example, a question may be submitted over electronic means, or verbal, if desired. If a user submits a question over Short Messaging Service (SMS), the response may be formatted according to SMS standard format, or, 160-character limited message. If the question is received is a different format, the composition engine may format the response accordingly, for example, as an email or other appropriate message. 
     The method  700  further includes adding the composed response to the database (response storage) and transmitting the response to the router at block  705 . Hereinafter, a more complete methodology or overview is described with reference to  FIG. 8 . 
       FIG. 8  is a method of knowledge sharing, according to an example embodiment. The method  800  includes transmitting a question to a router at block  801 . For example, the question may be transmitted by a user of a help client. The message is received by the router at block  802 . Thereafter, a recipient is determined by the router at block  803 . If a recipient is not found ( 804 ), the question and associated information is submitted to the composition engine at block  808 . 
     If a recipient is found ( 804 ), the question is transmitted to the recipient at block  805 . Thereafter, if the question is answered ( 807 ), the answer, question, and associated information is transmitted to the composition engine at block  808 . However, if there is a timeout and/or no answer is received ( 806 - 807 ), an attempt to determine an additional recipient occurs at block  803 . If an additional recipient is determined, the method continues as described above for blocks  804 - 808 . If no additional recipient is determined, the question and associated information is submitted to the composition engine at block  808 . 
     Upon receipt of the question, answer, and/or associated information, a response is determined at block  809  (see  FIG. 7 ). The response is transmitted to the router at block  810 . Finally, the response is transmitted to the questioner at block  811 . 
     Therefore, as described above, systems and methods of community based knowledge sharing are provided herein. The systems and methods provide intelligent routing and formatting of answers to questions submitted by users of a help client system. Questions may be submitted in a variety of formats, however, the use of Text-messaging, mobile email, and/or Short-Messaging Services (SMS) may be particularly useful for mobile individuals. 
     The systems may include a user, or users, a help client, a router, a composition engine, and a response database. The help client may interpret information relating a user to a number of affiliated websites to develop a social hierarchy between a number of possible question recipients. The help client may route messages through use of the router, compose responses based on received answers and stored answers through the composition engine/response storage. 
     Additionally, use of the help client system may be advanced through incentive based methods to allow recipients with short answer times, accurate answers, or other suitable criteria to be recognized. In this manner, incentives are provided for other question recipients to answer relayed questions in a timely manner. 
     The methods described provide intelligent knowledge sharing. Additionally, the methodologies and systems of example embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. For example, according to an exemplary embodiment, the methodologies described hereinbefore may be implemented by a computer system or apparatus. For example,  FIG. 9  illustrates a computer apparatus, according to an exemplary embodiment. Therefore, portions or the entirety of the methodologies described herein may be executed as instructions in a processor  902  of the computer system  900 . The computer system  900  includes memory  901  for storage of instructions and information, input device(s)  903  for computer communication, and display device  904 . Thus, the present invention may be implemented, in software, for example, as any suitable computer program on a computer system somewhat similar to computer system  900 . For example, a program in accordance with the present invention may be a computer program product causing a computer to execute the example methods described herein. 
     The computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having computer program logic or code portions embodied thereon for enabling a processor (e.g.,  902 ) of a computer apparatus (e.g.,  900 ) to perform one or more functions in accordance with one or more of the example methodologies described above. The computer program logic may thus cause the processor to perform one or more of the example methodologies, or one or more functions of a given methodology described herein. 
     The computer-readable storage medium may be a built-in medium installed inside a computer main body or removable medium arranged so that it can be separated from the computer main body. Examples of the built-in medium include, but are not limited to, rewriteable non-volatile memories, such as RAMs, ROMs, flash memories, and hard disks. Examples of a removable medium may include, but are not limited to, optical storage media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; magneto-optical storage media such as MOs; magnetism storage media such as floppy disks, cassette tapes, and removable hard disks; media with a built-in rewriteable non-volatile memory such as memory cards; and media with a built-in ROM, such as ROM cassettes. 
     Further, such programs, when recorded on computer-readable storage media, may be readily stored and distributed. The storage medium, as it is read by a computer, may enable the method(s) disclosed herein, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 
     While the invention is described with reference to an exemplary embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalence may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to the teachings of the invention to adapt to a particular situation without departing from the scope thereof Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited the embodiments disclosed for carrying out this invention, but that the invention includes all embodiments falling with the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. does not denote any order of importance, but rather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one element from another.