Patent ID: 7676542

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of establishing a collaboration area that facilitates collaboration on a project between members of an enterprise, the method comprising: receiving from an application, at a one or more portal computers, a collaboration area request that identifies a collaboration area template structure for establishing the collaboration area the collaboration area template structure comprising a content workset and a template workset, the content workset defining a default set of content available in the collaboration area, the template workset defining a plurality of preset roles that are assignable to users who access the collaboration area, each of the plurality of preset roles comprising a different a set of default permissions to access one or more resources of the collaboration area; receiving, at the one or more portal computers, collaboration area parameters comprising a name of the collaboration area, a designation of an owner of the collaboration area, a subset of the default set of content to be made available to each of the plurality of roles, and an assignment of users of the collaboration area to one or more of the plurality of preset roles, the assignment of authorized users comprising assigning a first member of the enterprise to a first of the plurality of preset roles if the first member's position within the enterprise is sufficient for the set of default permissions of the first of the plurality of preset roles and a second member of the enterprise to a second of the plurality of preset roles if the second member's position within the enterprise is sufficient for the set of default permissions of the second of the plurality of preset roles; mapping the collaboration area parameters to the collaboration area template structure to modify the default set of content and the set of default permissions associated with the plurality of preset roles in accordance with requirements of the project; establishing the collaboration area in accordance with the collaboration area template structure modified by the mapped collaboration area parameters; providing, to the owner via an owner display portal, access to all of the default set of content; and providing access to the subset of the default content associated with the first of the plurality of preset roles to the first user and access to the subset of the default content associated with the second of the plurality of preset roles to the second user, the access being provided via user portals accessed by each of the first and the second user.