Method and system for enhancing collaboration
View Patent ↗In order to enhance collaborations, the system responds to a trigger event to determine the nature of any collaboration which should be assembled in response to the trigger, and determines the requirements needed to respond to the event. These requirements set out the type of resources (personnel, equipment, information systems, etc) that are needed. The system then identifies a subset of specific resources based on a criteria, and invites the specified resources to collaborate to respond to the event. The criteria can include the availability of the specific resource. According to an embodiment, the system evaluates responses from the invited resources and then convenes the collaboration, for example by establishing one or more communication sessions. According to an embodiment, the system evaluates responses from the invited resources to ensure that the requirements are satisfied, and if not, determines other resources to invite.
1. A method for establishing a collaboration, said method comprising:
receiving, by a processing entity, event information identifying an occurrence of an event having an event type;
determining, by the processing entity, a collaboration qualification set that identifies qualifications of desired participants for the collaboration based on the event type by accessing a resource qualifications repository, the resource qualifications repository identifying a different respective collaboration qualification set for each of a plurality of different event types, each different respective collaboration qualification set identifying a desired qualification for each of a plurality of participants for a respective event type;
identifying, by the processing entity, from a plurality of individuals, a group of participants each of whom is identified as having at least one of the desired qualifications identified in the collaboration qualification set;
determining, by the processing entity, that at least one participant of the group of participants that has a particular Qualification of the desired Qualifications is unavailable for the collaboration;
in response to determining that the at least one participant is unavailable for the collaboration, identifying another participant from the plurality of individuals that has the particular qualification; and
determining that the another participant is available for the collaboration.
2. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the collaboration Qualification set further identifies the desired qualification for a non-personnel resource.
3. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
convening the collaboration of the group of participants.
4. A method as defined in claim 3 , wherein identifying the another participant from the plurality of individuals that has the particular qualification comprises:
receiving, from the at least one participant, information identifying the another participant.
5. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the collaboration comprises a communication session.
6. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein determining, by the processing entity, that the at least one participant of the group of participants that has the particular qualification of the desired qualifications is unavailable for the collaboration comprises:
obtaining location information and presence information associated with the at least one participant; and
based on one of the location information and the presence information, determining that the at least one participant is unavailable.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event information is received from a monitoring device via a network.
8. A system, comprising:
an input for receiving event information identifying an occurrence of an event, the event having an event type; and
a processing entity operative for:
determining a collaboration qualification set that identifies qualifications of desired participants for a collaboration based on the event type by accessing a resource qualifications repository, the resource qualifications repository identifying a different respective collaboration qualification set for each of a plurality of different event types, each different respective collaboration qualification set identifying a desired qualification for each of a plurality of participants for a respective event type;
identifying from a plurality of individuals, a group of participants each of whom is identified as having at least one of the desired qualifications identified in the collaboration qualification set;
determining that at least one participant of the group of participants that has a particular qualification of the desired qualifications is unavailable for the collaboration;
in response to determining that the at least one participant is unavailable for the collaboration, identifying another participant from the plurality of individuals that has the particular qualification; and
determining that the another participant is available for the collaboration.
9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a program element for execution by a processing entity, said program element comprising:
program code for receiving event information identifying an occurrence of an event having an event type;
program code for determining collaboration qualification set that identifies qualifications of desired participants for a collaboration based on the event type by accessing a resource qualifications repository, the resource qualifications repository identifying a different respective collaboration qualification set for each of a plurality of different event types, each different respective collaboration qualification set identifying a desired qualification for each of a plurality of participants for a respective event type;
program code for identifying from a plurality of individuals, a group of participants each of whom is identified as having at least one of the desired qualifications identified in the collaboration qualification set;
program code for determining that at least one participant of the group of participants that has a particular qualification of the desired qualifications is unavailable for the collaboration;
program code for in response to determining that the at least one participant is unavailable for the collaboration, identifying another participant from the plurality of individuals that has the particular qualification; and
program code for determining that the another participant is available for the collaboration.