JP2006260100A - Message context management device, and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately and easily display a context relevant to a message. <P>SOLUTION: An input context collecting service 110, a work context collecting service 120, and a message creation context collecting service 130 collect context information relevant to a reply message. A context association degree calculating service 140 associates the reply message with the context information, and it registers association information in a context information management service 200. Context information presenting software 150 displays a context of a replier at message replying to an analyst when displaying the message. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a message context management technique for generating and managing a message context using a user's action history and schedule information.

  As a method of analyzing the activities of a corporate organization, there is a method of analyzing a message issued by a person belonging to the corporate organization to be analyzed and estimating from what the intention the person has acted on the environment. A typical example of such a method is content analysis. Content analysis is a technique for estimating the context in which a message is issued by quantitatively grasping the frequency and correlation of symbols such as keywords that appear in the message.

  It is difficult for an analyst (usually a third party) to know clearly how a person or organization understood the environment and how it processed that information. Thus, when the analyst estimates from the message, the accuracy of the estimation is important. In order to improve the accuracy of the estimation, it is necessary to have a wealth of data that knows how the message was created and transmitted.

  It is desired to obtain the context in which the message is issued accurately and easily.

  The following are known as proposals related to the present invention.

  Patent Document 1 proposes a system for extracting candidates for documents to be attached to a message and presenting them to the user based on the degree of relevance with the user's work information and message. The purpose of this system is to reduce the labor of attaching a document to a message. For this reason, the analyst cannot handle the information of the message creator's context.

Patent Document 2 proposes a system in which a message transfer mechanism adds multimedia data to a message mainly composed of text according to a sender's situation. The purpose of this system is mainly to efficiently add multimedia data to messages and cannot be used for collecting and analyzing context information.
JP 2002-63157 A JP 2002-288213 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a message context management technique for easily and accurately acquiring a context in which a message is issued.

  First, a schematic configuration example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  According to the configuration example of the present invention, in order to achieve the above-described object, a system for recording a user's electronic message transmission history includes at least the following configuration.

(1) Context information acquisition means 10 for acquiring user context information at the time of message transmission by means such as software or sensors.
(2) Message context association means 20 for associating the transmitted message with the context information acquired by the context information acquisition means 10

  In the following, such a system is called a message context management device or system. Of course, there are various ways of calling depending on the implementation mode, and even if the way of calling changes, it is included in the technical scope of the present invention. It is clear that

  Here, a user's action history and state are referred to as a context, and transmitted mail is referred to as a message.

  In FIG. 1, the message context management apparatus 1 includes a context information collection unit 10, a message context association unit 20, and a message transmission history collection unit 30. The context information collecting unit 10 collects context information such as an action history and a state of the analysis target person 40. The context information collecting means 10 actually collects data and methods in various forms depending on the implementation. For example, an operation history of application software, a physical action history of a target person collected using sensors connected to a network, and the like can be mentioned. The message transmission history collection means 30 collects the message transmission state of the analysis subject as message history information. The message context association unit 20 calculates the degree of association between the message and the context from the context information and the message history information collected by the above two units. The message context association unit 20 has some function of presenting the association between the message and the context to the analyst 50.

  By associating the message with the context, a third party can know the context in which the message was issued and deepen the understanding of the message and the message sender.

  In this configuration, it is preferable to provide context information presenting means for displaying the context information associated with the message by the association means when the received message is displayed.

  Typically, the context information is at least one of context information regarding a message sender's job, context information regarding information acquired by the message sender, and context information regarding a message creation mode by the message creator. including.

  The message is typically at least one of a mail message, a web message, and an instant message message.

  Preferably, the association means associates the message with the context information based on the message transmission time and the duration of the event related to the context information.

  The association means may associate the message with the context information based on the word of the message and the word included in the character record related to the context information.

  The character record is, for example, at least one of a message log, a context cache, and the contents of a stored file.

  The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method. Of course, a part of the invention can be configured as software. Of course, software products used for causing a computer to execute such software are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily and accurately grasp the context in which a message is issued.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below.

  In this embodiment, an example of use in daily work in a normal office is described, but the present invention is not limited to this and can be used in various environments.

  There are three main types of context handled by the system of this embodiment. One is the context related to the work the user is doing, the other is the context where the user got some information from a certain information path (website, email, etc.), ie the input was obtained, and the last one , A context that represents how each message was created (how much time it took, what work it was doing, etc.). In this system, there are three context information collection services, a business context collection service 120, an input context collection service 110, and a message creation context collection service 130, for collecting each of these context information. Collect contextual information. These three services correspond to the context information collecting means 10 in FIG. Of these, the message creation context collection service also serves as the message transmission history collection means 30.

  In the system of this embodiment, there is another context relevance calculation service 140 that calculates the “relevance” of the context collected by the above three services. This service calculates the degree of association between a message and context, or between contexts. This service corresponds to the message context association means 20 in FIG.

[Device configuration]

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an implementation environment and a logical device configuration of the message context management system according to the embodiment of this invention.

  In this embodiment, an office worker is assumed as a system user. The user is an analysis target person 40 (see FIG. 1) whose context information is collected at the time of creating a message, and an analyst 50 (see FIG. 1) who browses the context information of other users. Each office worker can freely browse the context information related to his / her message, but the context information of other office workers is browsed through processing such as authentication and access control.

  The user has one work terminal 100. The work terminal 100 is connected to the in-house network 300 and can be connected to the Internet via an in-house gateway. The work terminal 100 includes a web browser 101, mail software 102, instant messenger software 103, a schedule system 104, and the like, and the user can use them for business. Of course, the work terminal 100 is provided with other applications (such as document creation software) necessary for business execution. In FIG. 2, the mail software 102 is displayed redundantly in relation to an input context collection service 110 and a message creation context collection service 130, which will be described later, but in reality, one process is sufficient.

  In this embodiment, the business context collection service 120, the input context collection service 110, and the message creation context collection service 130 are realized as software installed in the work terminal 100. These three services may be independent processes or may be three software modules executed in one process. These services start processing at the same time when the user logs in to the work terminal 100. More detailed processing contents and interaction will be described later.

  Similarly, the context relevance calculation service 140 is software installed in the work terminal 100 and starts processing simultaneously with user login. Detailed processing contents and interaction regarding this service will be described later.

  The context information management service 200 is realized as a process on a server computer connected to the in-house network 300, and stores and manages context information transmitted from the work terminal 100 of each user. The user accesses this context information management service 200 (server computer) and browses the context information of other users. Therefore, the context information management service 200 performs user authentication and access control processing. There is usually one service per organization.

  The context information presentation software 150 is installed in the work terminal 100 of each user. This software has a function of graphically displaying the context information of itself or other users and a function of communicating with a context information management service. Detailed functions and processing contents of this software will be described later.

  In this embodiment, the message to be handled is an email, a web message, or an instant message. However, the message may be implemented by groupware or a blog post.

  The main part of the message context management system of this embodiment will be described below.

[Context Information Presentation Software 150]

  FIG. 3 shows one screen of the GUI of the context information presentation software 150. In the left area A of the GUI, a list of mails received by the user and the contents of the currently selected mail are displayed. In the leftmost area B, folders for managing mail are displayed as a tree. In the right area C of the GUI, a summary of the context related to the currently selected mail is displayed. In this figure, an e-mail “Customer satisfaction survey” sent from a user named ○ da △ male is selected. In addition, as context information related to the email, the name of the task that the email creator (in this case, ○ o △ o) was performing and the input context when creating the email (the website that was viewed at the time of creation) URL) is displayed.

  FIG. 4 shows details of the context information regarding the task in a pop-up window D. The user clicks the related task (displayed in the upper half of the area C) in FIG.

  Similarly, FIG. 5 shows details of the input context in a pop-up window E. On the pop-up window, the Web site browsed at the time of creating the message is displayed as a block so that it can be seen how the page was browsed by following the link.

[Business Context Collection Service 120]

  The business context collection service 120 collects the user's business situation as data. The “user's work state” indicates the work that was being performed when the message was created and the progress of the work. The business context collection service 120 includes subsystems such as a progress management system 121, a schedule system plug-in 123, and a task determination system 122, as shown in FIG.

  The message context management system of the present embodiment presents to the user information on the “task” most relevant to the message as context information added to the message. A task represents a task that is continuously performed by an office worker for a certain period of time, such as creation of a document or development of software. The task is set with the deadline and result, and information on the person (participant) who is involved in the task. The task also has data indicating the current progress status. With these items, the user can grasp the task.

  The business context collection service 120 expresses a task by a data structure (table) as shown in FIG. Further, the service has FIG. 7 as a data structure for managing the progress of the task.

  The progress management system 121 has a GUI for managing these data and data perpetuating means (file or database). FIG. 8 shows the GUI that the progress management system 121 has. The user registers task information through the GUI. In addition, check the check point that the business progresses. The progress management system 121 has a file version management function. When creating a file, the user performs an import operation so that the progress management system 121 performs version management. After that, every time a file is edited, a checkout operation is performed to take out the file from the system. When the editing is completed, a commit operation is performed. With this function, the system grasps the detailed work situation of the user (compared to self-reporting by checkpoint input).

  The schedule system plug-in 123 is a plug-in for acquiring a user's schedule from the schedule system 104 operated in the group.

  The task determination system 122 is a system for determining what task the user is performing at a certain point in time. The task determination system 122 records the time when the task was performed in the data structure shown in FIG. The system makes a determination based on (1) schedule information (information from a schedule system plug-in) and (2) information that a file (related file) associated with a task is checked out or committed. FIG. 10 describes the details.

[Input context collection service]

  The input context collection service 110 collects as data that the user has obtained some information. Means for an office worker to get some information include dialogue with people, the WWW, and a mailing list. This service captures when and what information a user has obtained through what means.

  In the present embodiment, WWW, mail, and instant message are assumed as information acquisition means captured by the service. Plug-ins are installed in web browsers, mail software, and instant messengers (hereinafter also referred to as IMs), and data necessary for services is collected.

  The data collected by the input context collection service constitutes the data structure shown in FIGS. The session ID collected by the IM is an identifier that uniquely identifies an interaction on an instant message. If an IM already has such an identifier, it is used as it is. If not, the system assigns it. The partner ID is the ID of the conversation partner. Usually, this ID is the ID of the user registered in this system. Therefore, the system has a function of mapping the IM user ID to the user ID of the system.

  FIG. 14, FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 show the procedure in which the input context collection service collects context information from the Web browser 101, the mail software 102, and the IM 103. The process starts when each software is started.

  FIG. 14 shows a detailed example of processing for collecting context information from the mail software 102, and is as follows.

[Step S10]: It is determined whether or not an email is displayed. If it is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S11, and if not, the process proceeds to step S12.
[Step S11]: Create a data structure, set Message-Id and active start time, and proceed to Step S12.
[Step S12]: Wait until a user operation is performed on the mail software. After the end of standby, the process proceeds to step S13.
[Step S13]: It is determined whether or not the user has performed an operation to end the mail software. If the end operation has been performed, the process proceeds to step S16, and if not, the process proceeds to step S14.
[Step S14]: It is determined whether or not the mail software is out of focus by a user operation. If it is out of focus, the process proceeds to step S17. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S15.
[Step S15]: It is determined whether or not a mail different from the currently displayed mail is selected and displayed by a user operation. If a different mail is selected and displayed, the process proceeds to Step S18. If not, the process proceeds to Step S12. Return to and repeat the process.
[Step S16]: The active end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Thereafter, the processing is terminated.
[Step S17]: The active end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S19.
[Step S18]: The active end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Then, it returns to step S12 and repeats a process.
[Step S19]: Wait until the user operates the mail software. After waiting is completed, the process proceeds to step S20.
[Step S20]: It is determined whether or not the focus of the mail software is set by a user operation. If the focus is set, the process returns to Step S10, and the process is repeated. Otherwise, the process returns to Step S19 and the process is performed. repeat.

  FIG. 15 shows a detailed example of processing for collecting context information from the Web browser 101, which is as follows.

[Step S30]: It is determined whether a Web page is displayed. If it is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S11, and if not, the process proceeds to step S12.
[Step S31]: A data structure is created, a display URL and an active start time are set, and the process proceeds to step S12.
[Step S32]: Wait until a user operation is performed on the Web browser. After the end of standby, the process proceeds to step S33.
[Step S33]: It is determined whether or not the user has performed an operation to end the Web browser. If the end operation has been performed, the process proceeds to step S36, and if not, the process proceeds to step S34.
[Step S34]: It is determined whether or not the web browser is out of focus by a user operation. If the focus is off, the process proceeds to step S37, and if not, the process proceeds to step S35.
[Step S35]: It is determined whether or not a page different from the currently displayed page is displayed by a user operation. If a different page is displayed, the process proceeds to Step S38. If not, the process returns to Step S32. Repeat the process.
[Step S36]: The active end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Thereafter, the processing is terminated.
[Step S37]: The active end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S19.
[Step S38]: The active end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Then, it returns to step S12 and repeats a process.
[Step S39]: Wait until a user operation is performed on the Web browser. After waiting is completed, the process proceeds to step S40.
[Step S40]: It is determined whether or not the focus of the Web browser is set by a user operation. If the focus is set, the process returns to Step S30, and the process is repeated. Otherwise, the process returns to Step S39 and the process is performed. repeat.

  FIG. 16 shows a detailed example of processing for collecting context information from the IM 103, and is as follows.

[Step S50]: Wait until an event occurs. After completion of standby, the process proceeds to step S51.
[Step S51]: It is determined whether or not the user has performed an IM end operation. If the user has performed an end operation, the process proceeds to Step S55;
Proceed to 52.
[Step S52]: It is determined whether or not the user has been “absent” or the dialogue has been terminated. If “absent” or has been terminated, the process proceeds to step S56. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S53.
[Step S53]: It is determined whether or not a dialog with a user who is not currently interacting has been started. If it has started, the process proceeds to Step S54, and if not, the process returns to Step S50 and the process is repeated.
[Step S54]: A data structure is created, and a session ID, a partner ID, and a start time are set. Thereafter, the process returns to step S50 and the process is repeated.
[Step S55]: An end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Thereafter, the processing is terminated.
[Step S56]: An end time is set, and the data structure is notified to the context information management service. Thereafter, the process returns to step S50 and the process is repeated.

[Message creation context collection service 130]

  The message creation context collection service 130 collects the state of message creation as data. This service detects the time taken to generate a message and uses it as context information when creating a message.

  In this embodiment, this service is realized as a plug-in 131 of the mail software 102 and acquires the data shown in FIG.

[Context relevance calculation service 140]

  The context relevance calculation service 140 collects context information from the three services described above, and calculates the relevance between the created message and the context.

FIG. 18 illustrates processing performed by the context relevance calculation service. This service starts processing upon user login. As shown in the figure, the context relevance calculation service 140 receives the notification that the mail has been created from the message creation context collection service 130, and extracts context information related to the mail from the context information management service 200. The specific extraction method is
(1) Search for a message creation time (data in FIG. 16) that is close to the time of each context information.
(2) Search for the same words included in the created message as those included in log data, content cache (FIGS. 10, 11 and 12), and files in the repository.
Use the method.

  The context relevance calculation service 140 adds an ID used in the system to the mail and embeds it in the header. Based on this ID, the context information management service 200 manages the association between the message and the context. The context information presentation software 150 takes out the necessary context information from the context information management service 200 using this ID as a key and presents it to the user (analyzer 50).

  Details of the processing example of the context relevance calculation service are as follows.

[Step S60]: Wait until there is an event. After the end of standby, the process proceeds to step S61.
[Step S61]: It is determined whether or not the user has performed an operation for ending the system. If the user has performed an ending operation, the process ends. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S62.
[Step S62]: It is determined whether or not a message creation notification has been received from the message creation context collection service. If a message creation notification has been received, the process proceeds to step S63. If not, the process returns to step S60 to perform the process. repeat.
[Step S63]: Access the context information management service and extract the related context. The context information presentation software 150 displays this context using the areas C, D, E, etc. as shown in FIGS.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the context relevance calculation service 140 and the context information presentation software 150 are used to load the relevance calculation and the context display to the work terminal 100. The terminal 100 may use it. In addition, the analysis and display of the message context is not limited to when the message is received / viewed, and any message can be extracted by searching or the like, and the relevant context information can be displayed without displaying or displaying the message. You may make it acquire or display.

It is a figure explaining schematic structure of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the structure of the Example of this invention. It is a figure explaining the example of a display of the message relevant context of a present Example. It is a figure explaining the other example of a display of the message related context of a present Example. It is a figure explaining the other example of a display of the message related context of a present Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure showing the information of the task which the business context collection service of a present Example collects. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure which manages the progress of the task of a present Example. It is a figure explaining the example of GUI of the progress management system of a present Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure expressing the duration of the task of a present Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the start event of a task of this example, and an end event. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure of the context information collected in relation to IM in a present Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure of the context information collected in relation to mail software in a present Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure of the context information collected in relation to a Web browser in a present Example. It is a flowchart explaining the example of a process which collects context information regarding a mail software in a present Example. It is a flowchart explaining the example of a process which collects context information in connection with a Web browser in a present Example. It is a flowchart explaining the example of a process which collects context information regarding IM in a present Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the data structure of the context information collected in connection with message preparation in a present Example. It is a flowchart explaining the example of a context continuousness calculation process of a present Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Message context management apparatus 10 Context information acquisition means 20 Message context correlation means 30 Message transmission log | history collection means 40 Analysis object person 50 Analyst 100 Work terminal 101 Web browser 102 Mail software 103 Instant messenger software 104 Schedule system 110 Input context collection service 110 business context collection service 120 input context collection service 120 business context collection service 121 progress management system 122 task determination system 123 schedule system plug-in 130 message creation context collection service 131 mac software plug-in 140 context relevance calculation service 150 context information presentation software 150 Context Information Presentation Software 200 Context Information Management Service 300 Internal Network

Claims (9)

Context information acquisition means for acquiring user context information when sending a message;
A message context management apparatus comprising: an association means for associating a transmitted message with the context information acquired by the context information acquisition means.   2. The message context management device according to claim 1, further comprising context information presenting means for displaying context information associated with the message by the associating means when displaying the received message.   The context information includes at least one of context information regarding a message sender's business, context information regarding information acquired by the message sender, and context information regarding a message creation mode by the message creator. Or the message context management device according to 2;   4. The message context management device according to claim 1, wherein the message is at least one of a mail message, a web message, and an instant message.   5. The message context management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the association means associates the message with the context information based on a message transmission time and a duration of an event related to the context information.   5. The message context management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the association means associates the message with the context information based on the word of the message and the word included in the character record related to the context information.   7. The message context management device according to claim 6, wherein the character record is at least one of a message log, a context cache, and the contents of a stored file. A step of acquiring context information of the user at the time of message transmission by the context information acquisition means;
A message context management method comprising the step of associating a message transmitted by the association means with the context information acquired by the context information acquisition means. Context information acquisition means for acquiring user context information when sending a message;
A computer program used for realizing association means for associating a transmitted message with context information acquired by the context information acquisition means.

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