Patent ID: 8161108

Claim:
A method comprising: detecting a request for potential participants for an online collaboration based on one or more indicated skills; searching one or more skills repositories for potential participants that have the one or more indicated skills, wherein the searching yields a plurality of potential participants; selecting one or more of the plurality of potential participants; automatically inviting the selected one or more potential participants to participate in the online collaboration; allowing a user who does not possess the one or more indicated skills to join the online collaboration; detecting a request for a second user to join the online collaboration; determining that the one or more skills repositories does not indicate that the second user possesses at least one of the one or more indicated skills; prompting the second user to provide skill information; determining that the skill information provided by the second user includes at least one of the one or more indicated skills; allowing the second user to join the online collaboration; and graphically depicting the at least one of the one or more indicated skills of the second user differently than the one or more indicated skills of those of the selected one or more potential participants who have joined the online collaboration, wherein the at least one skill of the second user is depicted differently based, at least in part, on the second user providing the skill information; and restricting the user who does not possess the one or more indicated skills from actively participating in the online collaboration while allowing active participation in the online collaboration by those of the selected one or more potential participants who join the online collaboration.