Abstract: A document management system includes one or more document repositories for storing documents and a document notification and delivery service (DNDS) for detecting documents pertaining to subjects that are stored in the document repositories. A plurality of workflow modules subscribe to the DNDS to receive documents identified that pertain to subscribed subjects. At least two workflow modules produce documents that are published to the document repositories. Further, a first workflow module publishes to one of the document repositories a first document which is detected by the DNDS and which pertains to at least one subscribed subject of a second workflow module. Subsequent to the publication of the first document by the DNDS to the one of the document repositories, the DNDS delivers the first document to the second workflow module that operates independent from the first workflow module to produce a second document.

Abstract: A constraint solver is encapsulated in a service adapted to participate in a negotiation. In operation, the system constructs a graph in its memory for negotiating a set of actions to be performed by selected ones of a plurality of participants. Each node of the graph defines a negotiation context that has associated therewith a constraint store with at least a set of domain constraints stored therein that limit during the negotiation a set of semantic constraints of the service on variables of the constraint solver.

Abstract: The method of the invention overcomes the problems in a community when the amount of interaction drops off through the use of “community crickets.” A community cricket monitors the amount of community activity, establishes criteria for deciding when a community is sleeping and uses that criteria for initiating a recovery mechanism for “re-awakening” the community. A community is “sleeping” if the level of activity falls below some predetermined level or criteria. By monitoring the community's activity, the community cricket can prevent sleeping communities from dying. Various methods to detect and to re-awaken sleeping communities are defined.

Abstract: A negotiation is carried out between a plurality of participants. Each participant defines an invocation pattern. A set of coordinator parameters are attached to each invocation pattern, where the set of coordinator parameters define interdependencies between parameters of the plurality of participants that are shared across their invocation patterns. A graph is constructed to carry out the negotiation of a set of actions to be performed by selected ones of the plurality of participants, with nodes of a first node type that represents a negotiating context or a second node type that represents a decision point. The participants construct the graph with primitives instantiated by the invocation patterns. At least one node in the graph is a decision point that merges two or more negotiation contexts into a single decision point. The single decision point combines values of the parameters from the two or more negotiation contexts.

Abstract: A plurality of components are specified to perform a negotiation, where each component is a participant, a coordinator, or both. Each component is provided with a conversion table that maps a set of parameters between invocation patterns instantiated by the participants. Each coordinator is provided with a negotiation graph that it modifies to coordinate its neighborhood of negotiation graphs, and each participant is provided with a negotiation graph that it modifies for each invocation pattern it instantiates. Two message types are sent between components that communicate directly with each other in each neighborhood of negotiation graphs. The two message types are sent between the components to collaboratively mirror their negotiation graphs using their conversion tables in each neighborhood of negotiation graphs so that each participant only views information concerning those aspects in its negotiation graph that relate to the parameters of the invocation patterns it instantiated.

Abstract: Workflow techniques for coordinating organizational processes by providing flexible representations of work using generalized process structure grammars (GPSG). The techniques take into account that, in reality, work evolves both horizontally, in the co-operation of causally unrelated, but information-sharing tasks, and vertically, in the co-ordination of causally-dependent activities. Process modeling involves (1) viewing documents and tasks as duals of each other, capturing horizontal co-operation; and (2) exploiting constraints to express the soft dependencies among related activities and documents within the framework of generative rule-based grammars for processes, thus handling vertical co-ordination. This alleviates or avoids rigidity arising in conventional workflow solutions in part from viewing work processes as unfolding along a single line of temporally chained activities.

Abstract: The visibility of shared documents in a collaborative recommender system is managed by analyzing both the document's substance and user actions that are performed on the document. The document's substance includes both metadata and content. User actions include both user ratings and semantic actions. The visibility of the shared documents is updated when either a user action or an event occurs.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method to support the coordination of geographically distributed activities, e.g. printing and, in particular, a method for mixed human and computer-supported distributed scheduling of a task according to scheduling decisions within a plurality of workplaces. The workplaces are connected to each other and to a shared negotiation facility via a computer network. The method involves expressing a first scheduling decision by manual modification in a scheduling board within a first of said workplaces, recording said first scheduling decision and creating computer-readable first scheduling decision data. These first scheduling decision data are transferred via the computer network to the shared negotiation facility, where said task is negotiated by combining the first scheduling decision data with second scheduling decision data received from at least a second of said workplaces. Negotiation results are transferred to at least said first workplace.