JP2002342232A - Knowledge storage support system and participation inviting method for the system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase participation ratio in a virtual community which is a site for exchanging opinions, and to automatically and efficiently collect and store knowledge, such as personal know-hows by effectively using the community. SOLUTION: A community server 122 classifies and stores messages to be exchanged by users on a virtual community. Moreover, the community server 122 is provided with an invitation control part 131. The invitation control part 131 temporarily registers a user who should participate in the community as a participants as a temporary registered person, by enabling the manager of the community to designate the temporary registered person, in order to perform processing to encourage a user designated by the manager of the community to participate in the community, and periodically performs automatic distribution of an invitation mail to a client terminal 11 of each temporary registered person.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a knowledge storage support system used in a knowledge management system and a method for inviting participation in the system, and more particularly to a knowledge storage support system for supporting knowledge storage using an unspecified number of participating virtual communities. The present invention relates to a system and a method for inviting participation in a virtual community in the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the introduction of groupware for sharing information among a plurality of users, mainly in companies, has been promoted. E-mail systems, workflow systems, etc. are known as typical groupware,
Recently, a knowledge management system for sharing knowledge and information has been developed.

The knowledge management system is for accumulating and managing personal know-how as a knowledge database in addition to Web information and electronic file information. By combining it with search functions such as natural language search, it is possible to use knowledge and information efficiently.

[0004] In such a knowledge management system, how to collect and accumulate knowledge such as individual know-how is important. This is because knowledge such as personal know-how is so-called tacit knowledge, and is not formalized like Web information or electronic file information, so it is difficult to automatically collect and accumulate it. .

Therefore, recently, there has been a demand for the development of a knowledge management system having a knowledge accumulation support function. By implementing a mechanism that automatically collects and accumulates knowledge such as individual know-how, the knowledge as tacit knowledge can be used in the same way as formal knowledge such as Web information and electronic file information Becomes possible.

[0006]

However, in order to accumulate knowledge, a place for a large number of users to actively exchange opinions is prepared, and furthermore, the users are spontaneously involved in the exchange of opinions. A mechanism is needed.

In this case, participation of a large number of users cannot be expected unless the existence of the place for exchanging opinions itself is known, especially when the participation procedure is complicated. Furthermore, depending on the type of place for exchanging opinions, users may not be able to expect participation unless security is also considered, and conversely, places where free participation is possible without specific participation procedures are also important. . If such places are not properly managed, there is a risk that even if a place for exchanging opinions is prepared, voluntary participation by users will decrease, and the place itself will eventually lose its significance. Will happen.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and enables a user to easily promote voluntary participation in a virtual community, which is a place for exchanging opinions. It is an object of the present invention to provide a knowledge accumulation support system capable of automatically and efficiently collecting and accumulating knowledge of a knowledge, and a participation invitation method in the system.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is configured to be connectable to a plurality of client terminals via a network, classifies messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community, A knowledge accumulation support system that supports accumulation of knowledge by accumulating, wherein an access control unit that performs user authentication on an access requesting client terminal in order to permit message posting from the client terminal,
Community processing means for managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate, classifying messages posted to the virtual community from each client terminal permitted to access by the access control means for each topic, and accumulating the messages; The community processing means,
Manages the participation attribute of the user to the virtual community, and posts each message to the virtual community between the participant to the virtual community and the other, based on the participation attribute so that the operation authority for browsing is different for each client terminal. An operation authority control unit for controlling an operation authority, a temporary registration unit for temporarily registering a user who is to participate as a participant in the virtual community, and when the user is provisionally registered by the temporary registration unit, the temporary registration is performed. And a solicitation mail distribution unit that distributes a solicitation mail for encouraging participation in the virtual community to the client terminal of each user.

In this knowledge accumulation support system, messages exchanged between users in a virtual community are classified and accumulated for each topic, whereby personal knowledge included in a conversation exchanged between a plurality of users is automatically collected. Is done. In particular, it is possible to temporarily register a user who is to participate in the virtual community as a participant, and to automatically distribute an invitation e-mail for encouraging participation in the virtual community to each temporarily registered user terminal. Therefore, it is possible to easily promote the user's voluntary participation in the virtual community where opinions are exchanged. In particular, by automatically distributing an invitation mail to a newly created community, the participation rate of users can be increased even in a new community.

In addition, since the operation authority for posting and browsing messages to the virtual community is controlled based on the user's participation attribute to the virtual community,
A certain restriction can be imposed on the operation permitted to the temporary registrant, and security can be ensured.

In this case, in particular, the participation attributes of the user include a participant whose participation has been approved, a tentative registrant who is temporarily registered as the participant, and other than the tentative registrant. It is preferable to give a registered user intermediate operation authority between the participant and other users.
By using such a new participation attribute of the temporary registrant, it is possible to provide the temporary registrant with an environment that makes it easier for the other users to participate in the virtual community as an official participant. it can.

It is preferable that link information to an operation screen for executing a procedure for joining a virtual community be added to the invitation mail. Thereafter, in response to the operation on the operation screen performed by the temporarily registered user, only the process of changing the participation attribute regarding the temporarily registered user from the temporary registrant to the participant is performed. It becomes possible to make the temporary registrant participate in the virtual community as an official participant.

The community type indicating the public level of the virtual community includes a free participation open system,
It is desirable to prepare a member system consisting of a group of approved participants and a private system that is not disclosed to anyone other than the approved participants, but in this case, the distribution of the invitation mail including the link information is It should be executed only when the user is provisionally registered to the virtual community whose community type is a member system or a private system by the temporary registration means.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a knowledge accumulation support system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This knowledge accumulation support system is used as a knowledge management system having knowledge accumulation support, and classifies and accumulates knowledge using a virtual community that can be commonly used by a plurality of client terminals 11. Before describing a specific configuration, first, an outline of the knowledge accumulation support system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

As shown in FIG. 2, there are "formal knowledge" and "implicit knowledge" in knowledge. Currently, formalized information (formal knowledge) such as document management systems and Web servers
The system of organizing and managing is being completed. But, in fact, they are not everything we can afford in terms of "knowledge accumulation". Because, in fact, light conversations that are simply exchanged by email,
This is because there is very unclear information, such as knowledge only in each person's head. This is what is called "tacit knowledge". It is important to handle this tacit knowledge well and to share it. It is difficult for conventional systems to support accumulation of tacit knowledge, and a system for handling tacit knowledge is needed.

The knowledge accumulation support system of this embodiment is a tool for formalizing such information called tacit knowledge and promoting the accumulation of knowledge. Discussions in groups are conducted in a virtual community in the form of an electronic bulletin board. Classify and accumulate messages (posts) by topic. A summary can be created for one topic (hereinafter referred to as a thread). A thread represents a bundle of related knowledge on a virtual community. The summary is a message that serves as a kind of minutes that summarizes the discussion in the group, and can be created for each thread.

[0018] The message can be posted by e-mail or We
The message posted by input from the browser b is stored in a server constituting the knowledge storage support system. In this knowledge accumulation support system, it is also possible to post a message by e-mail, and it also has a mailing list aspect. Just by each user having a conversation by e-mail, tacit knowledge is accumulated without knowing it. This is shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 shows a “sports community” which is a virtual community related to sports, an “English study group community” which is a virtual community related to an English study session, and a “○ × development member” which is a virtual community between certain development members. Community ". Post messages from each user are classified and accumulated for each of these virtual communities, and are classified for each thread within each virtual community. In FIG. 3, messages about three types of topics, threads 1, 2, and 3, are currently stored in the "sports community", and messages about two types of topics, threads 1 and 2, are stored in the "English study community". The message is accumulated, and the case where a message relating to one topic of the thread 1 is accumulated in the “XX development member community” is shown. The message posted to each of these virtual communities is based on other knowledge (W
eb, workflow, formal knowledge collected from a filing system, etc.), and stored as knowledge information in a knowledge database (knowledge DB). In particular, by collecting the "summary" created for each thread in the knowledge DB and applying it to other messages as a search target, for example, a full-text search or a natural language search, so as to be called flow information, "Message flow" can be efficiently used as static stock information.

<Site> In this specification, the server function of the knowledge accumulation support system is called a "site". An administrator user (Administrator) exists at the site, and manages site information. The site information includes the following.

(1) User information Information on users who can use the site. Registration, deletion, and change are possible by the site administrator. (2) Community creation authority information Authority information for creating a virtual community Virtual community , Simply called a community) is a type of electronic bulletin board that can be used in common by multiple users for posting and viewing messages, and is a “place” where people who gather for the same purpose communicate. Indicates that. Each user gains necessary knowledge and posts a message (article) by accessing a community with a theme that meets the purpose.
Each community has at least one administrator (community creator is the default administrator but can be changed).
The authority for community creation can be selected from the following two.

All registered users can create a community.

Only users approved by the site administrator
Create communities.

(3) Category information of community Category information for classifying the community This can be registered, deleted, or changed by the site administrator.

<Community> Next, the community will be described. Community information (community properties) for managing each community includes the following.

(1) Name Name of community (2) E-mail address for posting E-mail address for each community. When the user sends an e-mail to this address, the contents are automatically registered as a new posted message in the corresponding community.

(3) Subject Information of Received Mail In the form of participation in the community, a message is browsed and posted through a Web browser, and "Subscribe by Web".
And "subscription by e-mail", which provides an automatic e-mail distribution service for newly posted messages in addition to browsing and posting messages through a Web browser. When a new message is posted to the community for a user who has selected "subscribe by e-mail", the newly posted message is automatically distributed by e-mail. At this time, the “Subject information of the received mail” (for example, information such as {community name, message number}, etc.) is added to the Subject information of the e-mail to be distributed.

(4) Creator Name of the user who created the community (5) Creation date Date when the community was created (6) Introduction of the community Brief introduction of the community (7) Category of the community As described above, the community Categories can be classified according to the content, and information on the category of the classification destination is held for each community. Use the category registered by the site administrator.

(8) Community type It means the public level of the community. There are three public levels of the community: a "public system" of free participation, a "member system" consisting of a group of approved participants, and a "private system" that is not disclosed to anyone other than the approved participants.

(9) Statistical information The statistical information includes, for each community, the number of users belonging to the community and the ranking of the number of comments by each participant.

(10) Administrator Name of the administrator who manages this community (11) Member User belonging to (accessible to) this community (12) Message deletion authority User who is allowed to delete posted messages. You can select one of the following.

Community managers only Community managers and contributors <Messages and threads> Next, messages and threads will be described. A message is an individual statement (posting of an article) exchanged in a conversation in the community. It is possible to attach multiple files to a message. The message can be posted by input from a Web browser or by sending an e-mail to an e-mail address of the community.

A thread is a bundle of messages related to a certain topic as described above. Conversation proceeds with various opinions (messages) for one topic, and comes to a conclusion. This conclusion is the “summary”. This knowledge accumulation support system also has a creation support function for “summary”. By using the creation support function, it is possible to easily create a “summary” as a conclusion of a topic while using the message or the attached file in the corresponding thread.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a hierarchical structure of messages constituting a thread. In FIG. 4, a thread 1 includes five messages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The structure of the thread 1 is as follows. First, a message 1 is posted, and a reply (response) to the message 1 is made.
This corresponds to a case where messages 2 and 3 are posted as messages, a message 4 is posted as a reply (response) message to message 3, and a message 5 is posted as a reply (response) message to message 1.

Thread 2 also has five messages 1,
2, 3, 4, and 5, in which messages 2 and 3 are posted as reply (response) messages to the first posted message 1 and further as reply (response) messages to message 3 This corresponds to the case where messages 4 and 5 are posted.

When a message different from the reply to each message of threads 1 and 2 is newly posted to the same community as threads 1 and 2, thread 3 is assigned to the newly posted message. Will be.

<Summary>"Summary" is a "conclusion" for a conversation (thread) as described above. In a workplace or other meeting, it is equivalent to "minutes", and in development it is equivalent to "specifications" for review. As shown in FIG. 5, one “summary” corresponds to one thread. That is, for each thread, the user or the administrator creates a "summary" that summarizes a group of messages in the thread, and manages the message as a special form of a message constituting the corresponding thread. Since the "summary" is also a message, a plurality of files can be attached like other ordinary messages.

The "summary" can be revised,
A new “summary” can be created by updating the already created “summary” and registered as the latest “summary”.

<Posting Message by Email> Messages posted to each community by email are as follows:
It is processed in the following procedure. (1) The user posts a message by e-mail to the e-mail address assigned to the post destination community. (2) The server of the knowledge accumulation support system sends the e-mail sent to all the communities from the e-mail server. Collectively obtain (3) The server of the knowledge accumulation support system determines which community the message is addressed to based on the destination mail address, and sorts the message.

(4) The server of the knowledge accumulation support system
Based on the header information (or title) of the obtained mail, it is determined which thread and which layer in the corresponding community is to be registered, and the body of the obtained mail is registered as a message there.

The message posted to the community by e-mail is automatically stored in the corresponding place by the above processing. The user need only post the message in the same manner as posting to the mailing list.

<Message Subscription Type> A user using the knowledge accumulation support system can select the following two types of message subscription types as described above.

Subscription by Web browser (Access to URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of knowledge accumulation support system) Subscription by mail Subscription (including posting) from Web browser is performed regardless of which subscription type the user selects. It is possible. That is, when a new message is posted, whether to automatically distribute the message by mail is selected. When a new message is posted, the message is delivered to the user who has selected the mail subscription. The selection of the message subscription type can be made for each community to which the user belongs.

<System Configuration> Next, referring to FIG.
A system configuration of the knowledge accumulation support system according to the present embodiment will be described.

The knowledge accumulation support system of the present embodiment is realized by a server computer 12 which can be connected to a plurality of client terminals 11 via a computer network 13 such as a LAN. Although not shown, the server computer 12 and the client terminal 11 each include a CPU, a main memory, a magnetic disk device as a storage device, and an input / output device having an input unit such as a keyboard and a mouse and a display unit such as a display. Is provided.

In the client terminal 11, one or both of the Web browser 111 and the mail client 112 are operating. UR indicating a resource for supporting knowledge accumulation built on server computer 12
L (Uniform Resource Locato
r) is designated from the Web browser 111 or the mail client 12 sends an e-mail to the e-mail address of each community managed by the community server 122 to use the knowledge accumulation support processing from each client terminal 11. be able to.

The knowledge accumulation support function of the server computer 12 mainly includes the control unit 121 and the community server 1
22, Web server 127, and mail server 128
And the like, and management information and actual data used for managing the posting and browsing of messages by these software. The management information includes login management information 123 for performing user authentication for each client terminal 11 and community management information 124 for performing management for each community, and message data 125 as actual data. And the attached file 126.

The control unit 121 is for controlling the entire operation related to the knowledge accumulation support, and is provided for the Web server 12.
7 and the mail server 128 and the community server 1 which is a core program of the knowledge accumulation support system.
22 and the client terminals 11 through the Web server 127 and the mail server 128.
Has a user authentication function when logging in to the community server 122. For this user authentication, the control unit 12
1 manages the login management information 123. The login management information 123 stores the user IDs and passwords of the users participating in the knowledge accumulation support system. By this user authentication, access permission / prohibition to the community server 122 for posting a message from each client terminal 11 is controlled.

The community server 122 manages and operates a community in which a plurality of client terminals 11 can participate, and classifies messages posted from each client terminal 11 into communities and topics (threads). ,accumulate. Community server 12
The management and operation of each community according to 2 are performed using community management information 124, message data 125, and attached files 126. That is, the community management information 124, the message data 125, and the attached file 126 are used as a database for storing and managing messages for each community.

Further, the community server 122
A user operation authority control unit 129, a search engine 130, and an invitation control unit 131 are provided. The user operation authority control unit 129 determines the operation authority of the user of each client terminal 11 for each community to be accessed.
For this purpose, the user operation authority control unit 129 uses the community management information 124 to manage, for each community, a community type indicating the release level of the community and a member type indicating the participation attribute of the user to the virtual community. The operation on the community of the access destination is restricted for each client terminal 11 by the combination of the type and the member type. Although a specific restricting method will be described later, basically, a process of determining an operation that can be performed by the client terminal 11 of the access request source and providing a screen on which only the operation can be performed to the client terminal of the access request source. Done by

The search engine 130 searches for a corresponding message from among the messages of each community stored as the message data 125 by full-text search or natural language search. When transmitting a list of messages searched by the search engine 130 to the client terminal 11 that has issued the search request, the user operation authority control unit 1
Under the control of 29, only a search result list relating to a message to which the client terminal 11 of the search request source has the viewing authority is sent to the client terminal 11 of the search request source.

The invitation control unit 131 performs a process for urging a user designated by a community manager to participate in the community. For this purpose, the invitation control unit 131 includes a temporary registration function for registering, as a temporary registrant, a user who is to participate in the community as a participant by designating a temporary registrant to the community administrator. And has a function of automatically distributing the above-described invitation mail to the client terminal 11 periodically.

The “temporary registrant” is one of the member types indicating the participation attribute of the user. That is, the member types managed by the user operation authority control unit 129 include “participants” whose participation has been approved, “temporary registrants” who are temporarily registered as participants, and the like. The registered user is given an operation authority as a “temporary registrant” for browsing and posting messages to the community.

Next, each table constituting the community management information 124 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the community management information 124 includes a user table 201, a community table 202, a subscription type table 203, a member table 204, a thread table 205, a message table 206, a summary table 207, and a user table. It is composed of a permission operation table 208 and the like. Hereinafter, each of these tables will be described.

<User Table> FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a user table 201 for managing users. The user table 201 stores a user ID, a user name, and a mail address for each user participating in the system. In FIG. 6, a user with a user ID “U00001”, a user name “Ichiro Tanaka”, a mail address “ichiro.tanaka@xxx.co.jp”, a user ID “U00002”, a user name “Taro Yamada”, and a mail address An example in which a user of “taro.yamada@xxx.co.jp” is registered is shown.

<Community Table> FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a community table 202 for managing a community. The community table 202 is a table for managing information on each community created on the knowledge support system. In this table, a community ID, a community name, a community The type and the member ID list of each member participating in the community are stored in association with each other. In FIG. 7, the community ID “C001”,
The community with the community name "Community A"
Community type is "public" and there is a member ID
The users assigned “M000001”, “M000004”,...
The community of "C002" and the community name of "community B" has a community type of "member system".
There are member IDs "M000002", "M0000"
03 ",... Are assigned. The member ID is unique across all communities, and each user is assigned the same number of member IDs as the number of participating communities.

<Subscription Type Table> FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a subscription type table 203 for managing subscription types. In the subscription type table 203, a user ID, a user name, a community ID of a participating community,
The subscription type for the community and the email address of the user when the subscription type is email are stored. When managing the mail addresses in the user table 201, it is not always necessary to register the mail addresses in the subscription type table 203.

In FIG. 8, when the user ID is “U000
01, and the user with the user name “Ichiro Tanaka” has joined two communities with community IDs “C001” and “C002”, and the community ID “C001”
The subscription type for the community of community is Web, the subscription type for the community of community ID “C001” is e-mail, and the user ID is “U0000”.
2, the user with the user name "Taro Yamada" has joined the community with the community ID "C005".
The case where the subscription type for the community is Web is shown.

<Member Table> FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of a member table 204 for managing members. In the member table 204, for each member ID,
A member type indicating a participation attribute related to a community in which the user participates and a user name of a user participating as a member are stored. The member types include "participants" who have been approved for participation, "temporary registrants" who have been temporarily registered as participants, "applicants who have applied for participation but have not been approved", and procedures for participation. There is "anonymous" that does not go and participates as a kind of guest.

In FIG. 9, the user having the user name "Ichiro Tanaka" has the member type "participant" for the community in which the member ID is "M000001" and the member ID "M000003". The member type of the participating community is “applicant to join”, and the user with the user name “Taro Yamada” has the member type of the participating community with the member ID “M000002”. Is a “temporary registrant”, and the member type is “anonymous” for a community participating as a member ID “M000004”.

<Thread Table> FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a thread table 205 for managing threads. The thread table 205 stores a community ID for each community and a thread ID list including thread IDs of threads created in the community. Thread ID
Also, unique values are used for all communities.

In FIG. 10, the community ID “C
The thread ID “T0100” is assigned to the community “001”.
, "T01002",..., And the thread with the thread ID "T02001",... Are included in the community with the community ID "C002".

<Message Table> FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the message table 206 for managing messages. The message table 206 has a thread I
For each D, a message ID of each message constituting the message and URL information (message data URL) indicating the location of the actual data of the corresponding message stored as the message data 125 are stored. The message data URL is stored in the corresponding thread I
The message ID may be uniquely identified from D and the message ID. In this case, the field of the message data URL becomes unnecessary.

<Summary Table> FIG. 12 shows a summary table 207 for managing “summary” created for each thread.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration. In the summary table 207,
For each thread ID, the message ID of the message created / registered as “summary” of the thread, the version number of each message when a plurality of “summary” is created / registered, and message data 125 are stored. URL information (message data URL) indicating the location of the actual data of the message relating to the corresponding "summary"
And are stored.

As in the case of the message table 206, the message data URL of the summary table 207 may be uniquely identified from the corresponding thread ID and the message ID. In this case, the message data URL field is unnecessary. Becomes

<User Permission Operation Table> Next, the user permission operation table 208 will be described. First, prior to the configuration of the user permission operation table 208, a relationship between a community, members, and a user will be described. FIG. 13 shows an example of a relationship between a community, members, and users.

In FIG. 13, the community A has M000001 which is a participating member and M0 which is an anonymous member.
It is assumed that the community B includes M000003 which is a member desiring to participate and M000002 which is a temporarily registered member.
The user with the user name “Ichiro Tanaka” is a member M000001 of the community A and the member M000003 who wants to participate in the community B. The user with the user name “Taro Yamada” is an anonymous member M000004 of the community A and a temporary registered member M000002 of the community B. Is shown.

As described above, each user can participate in a plurality of communities, and the member type is individually set for each participating community.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the user permission operation table 208. User permission operation table 208
Has three community types: "public", "membership", and "private", and four member types: "participant", "temporary registrant", "applicant", and "anonymous". It consists of a matrix. Permitted operations and actions are defined in advance by combinations of these three community types and four member types.

For example, if the combination operation is represented by “x”, it is expressed as follows, and the meaning is as described.

(1) “Public” × “Participant” = {Reference, Contribution} This means that a combination of “Public” and “Participant” allows a reference operation and a posting operation to the community. ing. (2) "Public" x "Tentative registrant" = {Reference, Post},
[Invitation mail] This means that in the combination of “public” and “temporary registrant”, a reference operation and a posting operation with respect to the community can be performed.
Means that the invitation mail is delivered to the user of the member. The invitation e-mail is an e-mail for urging a user set as a “temporary registrant” by the community manager to participate in the community as a “participant” as described above. Under the control of the above, the invitation e-mail including the introduction text of the community is "Temporary registrant"
Automatically sent to all users set as.

(3) “Public” × “Participant Applicant” = {Reference, Post} This is a combination of “Public” and “Applicant”.
This means that a reference operation and a posting operation for the community can be performed. (4) "Public" x "Anonymous" = ｛Reference｝ This is the combination of "Public" and "Applicants"
This means that only a reference operation to the community is possible.

(5) “Member system” × “participant” = {see, post} This is a combination of “member system” and “participant”.
This means that a reference operation and a posting operation for the community can be performed. (6) "Member system" x "Temporary registrant" = {Reference, Post}, {Public Summary Reference}, [Solicitation Email], (Subscription →
This means that the combination of "Member system" and "Temporary registrant" allows you to perform reference and post operations on the community, but the "Summary" message is set as "Public summary". Can be referred to only from the community server 122. Further, for the member of the "temporary registrant" from the community server 122, "the invitation mail is delivered to the user of the member" and "subscription" on the subscription procedure screen This means that for the user who has performed the procedure, the member type setting is changed from “temporary registrant” to “participant”. In other words, an invitation e-mail including a link to the joining procedure screen (URL) is automatically delivered to the tentative registrant of the member-based community in addition to the introduction text of the community, and the "join" on the joining procedure screen is displayed. The operation can be performed easily.

In the "public" and "non-public" communities, "summary" is handled in exactly the same way as other ordinary messages.
As shown in the above, for "summary", "public summary" means that it is made public to members other than "participants", and "private summary" which is not made public to members other than "participants" Can be set to either

(7) “Member system” × “applicants” =
! ｛Browse, Post｝, ｛Public Summary Reference は This means that in the combination of “Membership” and “Applicants”, both the reference operation and the posting operation related to normal messages are not possible. This means that the reference operation can be performed only on the one set as “public summary”.

(8) “Member system” × “Anonymous” =! ｛Browse, Post ｛, ｛Public Summary Reference は This means that in the combination of “membership” and “anonymous”, both the reference operation and the posting operation for normal messages are not possible, and the “summary” message is “public”. This means that the reference operation can be performed only for those set as “Summary”.

(9) “Private” × “Participant” = {Reference, Post} This means that a combination of “Private” and “Participant” enables a reference operation and a post operation to the community. Means. (10) "Private" x "Tentative registrant" =! ｛Reference, Post｝ ,! ｛Refer to summary ｛, [Solicitation email], (Subscribe → Participant) This is the combination of “Private” and “Temporary registrant”.
Neither the reference operation nor the posting operation for the community is possible, and the message of “summary” cannot be referred to because there is no concept of “public summary”. "Invitation mail is delivered to the member's user" with an introduction and link information, and "Temporary registrant" is given to the user who has performed the "Join" procedure on the enrollment procedure screen This means that the setting of the member type is changed from to "participant".

(11) “Private” × “Applicant” =!
<Community> This is a combination of "private" and "applicant"
It doesn't even exist because we don't even know the existence of the community. (12) "Private" x "Applicants" =! <Community> This is a combination of "private" and "applicant"
It doesn't even exist because we don't even know the existence of the community.

<User Operation Restriction Processing # 1> Next, FIG.
A procedure for automatically restricting the operation of the access destination community for each client terminal 11 based on the combination of the community type and the member type will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the Web browser 111 by the user
In response to the above operation, the Web browser 111 sends the Web server 12 to the control unit 121 of the server computer 12.
7 is issued through step 7 (step S10).
1). The control unit 121 controls the user I input by the user.
Access the login management information 123 to check whether the password D and the password are registered (step S
102), user authentication for deciding whether to permit login is performed (step S103).

If the user ID and the password are not registered in the login management information 123 and the login fails (NO in step S103), the control unit 121
Reports the login failure to the Web server 127
The process is returned to the browser 111 and the process ends (step S10).
4).

If the user ID and the password are registered in the login management information 123 and the login is successful (YES in step S103), the control unit 121 permits the user to access the community server 122. When a login request is made from the mail client 112, the mail client 1
12 issues a login request to the control unit 121 of the server computer 12 through the mail server 128, and performs the same user authentication processing as described above.

If the login is successful, the community server 122 first searches the user table 201 of FIG. 6 included in the community management information 124 from the user ID specified through the control unit 121, and
Is acquired (step S105). Then
The community server 122 searches the member table 204 of FIG. 9 using the obtained user name as a key, and obtains the corresponding member ID and member type (step S10).
6). Thereafter, the community server 122 sets the community table 2 in FIG.
02 and retrieves the name of the community in which the user participates and the community type (step S1).
07).

Next, the community server 122 generates the relationship between the community, the member, and the user described in FIG. 13 based on the information obtained by the above processing (step S 108), and the user permission operation table 2 in FIG.
08 is searched for in a combination of community type × member type (step S109), and operations that can be performed by the user during login are determined for each community (step S110). After this, the community server 122
A community list screen that can be operated by the user or an operation screen that includes only operation buttons that can be operated for each community, etc., is used as operation screen information that can be operated by the user.
The request is returned to the Web browser 111 through the Web server 127 (step S111).

The web browser 111 displays the operation screen information returned from the community server 122 on the screen (step S112), and the user selects and executes an operation possible on the display screen (step S113). Specifically, a community to be operated is selected from the community list screen that can be operated by the user, and an operation screen of the community is requested to the community server 122,
Request a message browsing or posting operation that can be performed on the operation screen related to the selected community.

FIG. 17 is an example of a community list screen provided from the community server 123 to the user.

Here, as shown in FIG. 17 (A), open community C1 and C2 and member community C3. C4 and private community C5, C6
Is assumed to exist on this system. If the member type of the user with respect to the private communities C5 and C6 is neither “participant” nor “temporary registrant” but “participant” or “anonymous”, FIG. As shown in B), the community list screen provided to the user is displayed on the community C
5 and C6 are not displayed, and the other open-based communities C1 and C2 and the member-based communities C3. C
Only 4 is displayed as a list of accessible communities. When a community is selected on the community list, a screen for operating the selected community is displayed.

Also, if the private community C5,
If the member type of the user with respect to C5 of C6 is “participant”, as shown in FIG. 17C, the community list screen provided to the user indicates that the community C5 is closed. Will be displayed as a list of accessible communities. In addition,
If the member type of the user with respect to the private community C5 is “temporary registrant”, the user is currently “temporarily registered” with the private community C5, and a joining procedure screen for the community C5 is displayed. Is displayed on the community list screen.

FIG. 18 shows an example in which different operation screens are displayed based on the relationship between the community selected on the community list screen and the user's member type for that community. For example, when the member-based community C4 is selected by the user, if the member type of the user with respect to the member-based community C4 is “participant” or “temporary registrant”,
As shown, an operation screen for posting and browsing a message to the community C4 is displayed. In this case, for example, if the member type is "participant",
For example, a list of titles of all messages (including a secret summary) existing in the community C4 is displayed on the screen, but when the member type is “temporary registrant”,
Titles related to private summary are not displayed, and only a list of ordinary messages and titles related to public summary are displayed.

On the other hand, if the member type of the user with respect to the member-based community C4 is neither “participant” nor “temporary registrant”, but is “participant” or “anonymous”, the disclosure is made public. Only the operation screen for referring to the summary is displayed.

In this way, only the operation information that can be operated by the user is provided to the user. Therefore,
The user can perform an operation that can be performed without considering the combination of the member type and the community type by himself, so even though the user selects a certain operation, the operation is not accepted and an error is returned. , Operation control according to the user operation authority can be realized.

Further, since an intermediate operation authority between “participant” and “participant” or “anonymous” is set for “temporary registrant”, certain restrictions are imposed on the permitted operations. While providing the opportunity to utilize the community that you want to participate as a formal “participant”.

FIG. 19 shows an example of a community operation / management screen called “my page” provided from the community server 122 to the user. The screen of this My Page is a kind of community list screen. However, unlike FIG. 17, only the information about the community that is actually participating as a “participant” and information about the community that is temporarily registered as a “temporary registrant” Is displayed.

That is, for each community whose member type is “participant”, the community type (public,
Member system, private) and community name (for example, "X
XX User Association "," Next XXX Development ", ...), the mail address of the community, and a" Subscription Status "button for displaying the current subscription type and changing the settings. When you press the "Subscription Status" button, a pull-down list for changing the current subscription type is displayed. Change the subscription type from "Subscribe by Email" to "Subscribe by Web" or "Subscribe by Web". You can change to "Subscribe by email." For a community other than the community in which the user himself is the manager, “withdrawal” from the community can be performed on the pull-down list.

If there is a community whose current member type is "temporary registration", the community name of the community (for example, "xxx conference") is used as information on the community for which temporary registration or subscription is being applied.
And a community testimonial are displayed,
"Temporary registration" is displayed on the "subscription status" button.
When the “subscription status” button is pressed, a “subscription” button is displayed on the pull-down list. By pressing the “subscription” button, the member type can be changed from “temporary registration” to “participant”. This My Page screen is also linked from the link information included in the invitation e-mail, and is used as a subscription operation screen.

<Temporary Registration> Next, a process of temporarily registering a user who wants to participate in the community will be described. The provisional registration of a user is performed by, for example, designating a user who wants to participate in a new community at the time of creation of the new community as a creator of the new community and registering the designated user as a temporarily registered member of the community. FIG. 20 shows an example of a new community creation screen.

When the client terminal 11 requests the community server 122 to create a new community, a new community creation screen shown in FIG. 20 is provided to the client terminal 11. On the new community creation screen, the following items are input and set.

1. Community name Enter the name of the community to be created. 2. Post Email Address Enter the post email address for the community. 3. Community type The public level of the community is designated using radio buttons corresponding to three types of community, “public”, “member system”, and “non-public”. 4. Community introduction text Enter the community introduction text. This introduction is sent to the temporary registrant by invitation mail. 5. Temporarily register a participant in a community Specify the user name or the like that you want to participate in the community. This is performed by displaying a user list or the like in a window and selecting a user who wants to participate from the user list.

When the “registration button” on the new community creation screen is pressed, the contents set above are sent to the community server 122 and registered in the community management information 124. As a result, a new community is created, and the user selected from the user list is registered as a temporarily registered member for the community. Then, an invitation e-mail is created based on the information about the new community, and the invitation e-mail is periodically delivered to the e-mail addresses of the temporary registered members.

As shown in FIG. 21, the invitation e-mail includes, in addition to information indicating that the e-mail is an invitation e-mail, an introduction sentence input on a new community creation screen, and the like, a top page of the created new community. The link information (link 1) to the community home screen and the link information (link 2) to the my page of FIG. 19 relating to the temporary registrant are included. The community home screen is provided with information about the community and a “subscribe” button. When the “subscribe” button is pressed, the member type of the corresponding user is automatically changed from “temporary registrant” to “participant”. Is changed to Further, as described with reference to FIG. 19, it is possible to register as a “participant” for a temporarily registered community even from the My Page.

Note that the temporary registration of the user can be performed not only when a new community is created, but also for a community that has already been created.

<Participation Invitation Process> Next, a specific procedure of the participation invitation process in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As described above, the invitation e-mail basically has to be delivered only to the users who are temporarily registered in the “member system” or “non-public” community. Therefore, this case will be described below. .

[0104] First, the community server 122
With reference to the community table 202 of FIG. 9 and the member table 204 of FIG. 9, for the user whose member type is “temporary registrant”, the community type of the community to which it belongs as a temporary registration member is “member system”. It is checked whether the information is present or “non-public” (step S201). If this condition is not met, that is, if the community type is “public” (step S
202 (NO), the community server 122 ends the processing (step S203).

On the other hand, if the condition is satisfied (step S
202), the community server 122 searches the user table 201 of FIG. 6 for the e-mail address of the "temporary registrant" user at regular time intervals, and transmits an invitation e-mail (step S204). As described above, this invitation e-mail is created based on information on the community having members of the “temporary registrant”.

When the user who has received the invitation e-mail selects, for example, “Link 1” on the invitation e-mail described with reference to FIG. 21, the community home screen is displayed by the Web browser 111, and the “join” button on the community home screen is clicked. Click (Step S20)
5), from the web browser 111 to the community server 1
“Subscription” data, which is an application for “subscription”, is transmitted to 22 (step S206).

The community server 122 that has received the “subscription” data changes the user from the “temporary registrant” to the “participant” in order to change the user to the “participant” in FIG.
Is updated to change the member type of the user regarding the currently temporarily registered community from “temporary registrant” to “participant” (step S207). The change of the member type to “participant” is executed unconditionally for the user who is currently temporarily registered without performing any special approval processing operation or the like. As a result, the user is given the operation authority as a “participant” thereafter.

As described above, according to the knowledge accumulation support system of the present embodiment, the community server 122 that manages posting and browsing of messages to each community is
By provisionally registering users who want to participate in the community and automatically distributing a recommendation e-mail to the provisionally registered users, the participation rate in the community can be improved. In particular, when a new community is created, the temporary registrant is designated as the community creator (community manager), and the invitation e-mail is distributed to the designated temporary registrant. However, it is possible to increase the participation rate of users who match the theme of the community.

Since the functions of the knowledge accumulation support system of this embodiment are all realized by a computer program, the computer program is stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and the computer program is stored in the computer-readable storage medium. The same effects as those of the present embodiment can be obtained only by introducing the present invention to a normal computer that can be connected to a computer network.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified in the practical stage without departing from the gist of the present invention. Further, the embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some components are deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment, the problem described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention can be solved, and the effects described in the column of the effect of the invention can be solved. Is obtained, a configuration from which this configuration requirement is deleted can be extracted as an invention.

[0111]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Users will be able to easily promote voluntary participation in the virtual community, which is a forum for exchanging opinions, and it will be possible to automatically and efficiently collect and accumulate knowledge such as individual know-how using virtual communities. Become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a knowledge accumulation support system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary view for explaining knowledge handled by the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view for explaining the principle of knowledge accumulation processing in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view for explaining the relationship between messages and threads managed by the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view for explaining the relationship between messages managed by the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment and “summary”;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary view showing an example of a user table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary view showing an example of a community table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an exemplary view showing an example of a subscription type table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an exemplary view showing an example of a member table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an exemplary view showing an example of a thread table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary view showing an example of a message table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an exemplary view showing an example of a summary table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is an exemplary view showing an example of the relationship between a community, members and users managed by the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an exemplary view for explaining an example of a user permission operation table used in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 15 is an exemplary view for explaining types of summaries managed in the member-based community of the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 16 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating the procedure of a user operation restriction process in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 17 is an exemplary view showing an example of a community list screen provided to the user by the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 18 is an exemplary view showing an example of an operation screen provided to the user by the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 19 is an exemplary view showing an example of a My page screen provided to the user by the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 20 is an exemplary view showing an example of a new community creation screen in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 21 is an exemplary view for explaining an invitation e-mail and a joining procedure in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

FIG. 22 is an exemplary flowchart showing the procedure of a participation invitation procedure in the knowledge accumulation support system of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Client terminal 12 ... Server computer 111 ... Web browser 112 ... Mail client 121 ... Control unit 122 ... Community server 123 ... Login management information 124 ... Community management information 125 ... Message data 126 ... Attached file 127 ... Web server 128 ... Mail server 129: User operation authority control unit 130: Search engine 131: Invitation control unit 201: User table 202: Community table 203: Subscription type table 204: Member table 205: Thread table 206: Message table 207: Summary table 208: User permission operation table

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G06F 17/30 230 G06F 17/30 230Z 17/60 132 17/60 132 514 514 (72) Inventor Masaaki Iwata Tokyo 2-9-9 Suehirocho, Ome City In the Toshiba Ome Plant, Inc. (72) Inventor Kazunori Shimakawa 2-9-9, Suehirocho, Ome City, Tokyo F Term in the Toshiba Ome Plant 5B075 KK43 KK54 KK63 NK46 NR03 NR12 PQ02 PQ05 PQ46 UU24

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A knowledge accumulation support system configured to be connectable to a plurality of client terminals via a network, and to classify and accumulate messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community to support accumulation of knowledge. Access control means for performing user authentication on a client terminal of an access requester to permit message posting from the client terminal; and managing a virtual community in which a plurality of client terminals can participate. Community processing means for classifying and storing messages posted to the virtual community from each client terminal permitted to access by the means for each topic, wherein the community processing means manages user participation attributes in the virtual community. , The virtual core Operating authority control means for controlling the operating authority of each client terminal based on the participation attribute such that the operating authority related to posting and browsing a message to the virtual community differs between a participant in the community and the rest of the virtual community; Temporary registration means for temporarily registering a user who is to participate as a participant in the virtual community, and when the user is provisionally registered by the temporary registration means, the client terminal of each temporarily registered user is sent to the virtual community. And a solicitation mail distribution means for distributing a solicitation mail for encouraging participation of the user. 2. The participation attributes of the user include a participant whose participation is approved, a tentative registrant temporarily registered as the participant, and other than the above. Controlling the operation authority of each of the client terminals so that the user temporarily registered as a temporary registrant by the temporary registration unit is given an intermediate operation authority between the participant and the other user. 2. The knowledge accumulation support system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The invitation mail includes link information to an operation screen for executing a procedure for joining the virtual community. The operation authority control unit includes a user temporarily registered by the temporary registration unit. 2. The attribute of participation in the virtual community for the temporarily registered user is changed from the temporary registrant to the participant in response to an operation on the operation screen performed by the user. Knowledge accumulation support system. 4. A community type indicating the public level of the virtual community includes a public system of free participation, a member system of a group of approved participants, and a private system that is not disclosed to anyone other than the approved participants. The invitation mail including the link information is delivered when the user is provisionally registered to the virtual community whose community type is a member system or a private system by the provisional registration unit. The knowledge accumulation support system according to claim 3, wherein 5. The temporary registration by the temporary registration unit is executed when a new virtual community is created, and the invitation e-mail distribution unit sends the invitation to a client terminal of a user who is temporarily registered for the newly created virtual community. The knowledge accumulation support system according to claim 1, wherein the mail is distributed. 6. A knowledge storage support system configured to be connectable to a plurality of client terminals via a network and to classify and store messages posted from each client terminal to a virtual community to support knowledge storage. A method for inviting participation in a virtual community, comprising: an access control step of performing user authentication on a client terminal of an access request source to permit message posting from the client terminal; and a plurality of client terminals can participate. A community processing step of managing a virtual community, classifying and posting messages posted to the virtual community from each client terminal permitted by the access control step for each topic, and accumulating the messages. Managing the participation attribute of the user to the virtual community, and operating each client terminal based on the participation attribute so that the operation authority for posting and browsing a message to the virtual community is different between the participant in the virtual community and the other. An operation authority control step of controlling authority; a temporary registration step of temporarily registering a user who is to participate as a participant in the virtual community; and if the user is temporarily registered by the temporary registration step, the temporary registration is performed. A solicitation mail distribution step of distributing a solicitation mail for encouraging participation in the virtual community to each user's client terminal. 7. The participation attributes of the user include a participant whose participation is approved, a tentative registrant who is temporarily registered as the participant, and the other, and the operation authority control step includes: Controlling the operation authority of each of the client terminals so that the user temporarily registered as the temporary registrant in the temporary registration step is given an intermediate operation authority between the participant and the other user. 7. A method for soliciting participation in the knowledge accumulation support system according to claim 6, wherein: 8. The invitation mail includes link information to an operation screen for executing a procedure for joining the virtual community, and the operation authority control step includes a step of: 7. The attribute of participation in the virtual community for the temporarily registered user is changed from the temporary registrant to the participant in response to an operation on the operation screen performed by the user. 8. For soliciting participation in the knowledge accumulation support system of the university. 9. The community type indicating the public level of the virtual community includes a free participation open system, a member system including a group of approved participants, and a private system that is not disclosed to anyone other than the approved participants. The distribution of the invitation mail including the link information is performed when the user is provisionally registered in the virtual community of which the community type is a member system or a private system by the provisional registration step. The method for inviting participation in the knowledge accumulation support system according to claim 8, wherein 10. The tentative registration in the tentative registration step is performed when a new virtual community is created, and the invitation e-mail distribution step includes sending the invitation to a client terminal of a user tentatively registered for the newly created virtual community. The method for soliciting participation in the knowledge accumulation support system according to claim 6, wherein the mail is distributed.