Patent Document ID: 9141668
Application ID: 12649271

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method to determine individuals having desired skills, the method comprising: receiving, by an application and from a requesting entity, a request to identify individuals having a desired skill specified in the request, wherein the application includes a semantic layer, a knowledge management system (KMS) layer, and a collaboration layer, wherein the request comprises a query composed according to a query language not supported by the KMS layer; reformulating the query by the semantic layer and into a different query language supported by the KMS layer; identifying, by accessing a data store using the reformulated query: (i) a first individual having the specified skill and (ii) a first characterization of a skill level of the first individual in the specified skill, wherein the first characterization is stored in the data store and is determined based on input from a plurality of individuals, wherein the data store contains a body of knowledge represented by the KMS layer; and upon determining, by the collaboration layer and by operation of one or more computer processors, that a count of the plurality of individuals is less than a desired count of individuals characterizing the skill level of the first individual, confirming the skill level of the first individual by requesting at least a second individual to provide a second characterization of the skill level of the first individual in the specified skill, wherein the second individual is not included in the plurality of individuals.

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Claim 5:
5. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1 further comprising: receiving the query in the semantic layer; and using the KMS layer to refine and accept the query.