Know-how management apparatus, and method

Claim 2

A know-how management system, comprising a plurality of know-how apparatuses, each apparatus including: an article posting unit that posts an article regarding one of a plurality of items stored in a database; a storage unit that stores a list indicating, for an indicated item in the plurality of items, a consultant who will answer questions regarding the indicated item; a first means for transferring management rights regarding a selected item from among the plurality of items from said know-how apparatus to a second know-how apparatus, including a management right for articles regarding the select item and a management right for a consultant list regarding the selected item; a second means for receiving management rights from another know-how apparatus; and a third means for storing an item-manager apparatus list, for updating the item-manager apparatus list upon transfer of management rights and upon receipt of management rights, and for creating a new item in the database by composing received management rights regarding at least two of the plurality of items; wherein the item-manager apparatus list identifies, for each item, a corresponding know-how apparatus having management rights pertaining to the item.

Claim 3

A know-how management apparatus, comprising: an article posting unit that posts an article by a poster regarding one of a plurality of items stored in a data base; a storage unit that stores a list indicating, for each of the plurality of items, a consultant who can answer a question on the item; an article management unit that enters a poster into the list as a consultant for a specified item, and that sets a consulting range for the consultant indicating a consulting range of users for which the consultant acts as a consultant; and a question transmission unit that accepts a question submitted by a user regarding an item, refers to a consulting range and selects a consultant having the user within the consultant's consulting range, and transmits the question to the selected consultant.

Claim 4

A know-how management apparatus, comprising: an article posting unit that posts an article by a poster regarding one of a plurality of items stored in a data base; a storage unit that stores a list indicating, for each of the plurality of items, a consultant who can answer a question on the item; an article management unit that enters a poster into the list as a consultant for a specified item, and that sets a consulting range for the consultant indicating a consulting range of users for which the consultant acts as a consultant; and a question transmission unit that accepts a question submitted by a user regarding an item, refers to a consulting range and selects a consultant having the user within the consultant's consulting range, and transmits the question to the selected consultant.

Claim 5

The know-how management apparatus of claim 1, wherein said question transmission unit transmits the accepted question to each of a plurality of consultants when: the consultant is a consultant for the item of the accepted question; and a corresponding consulting range is set for the consultant and the corresponding consulting range includes the user who submitted the question.

Claim 6

A know-how management system, comprising: a plurality of know-how apparatuses, each apparatus including: an article posting unit that posts an article regarding one of a plurality of items stored in a database; a storage unit that stores an item-consultant list indicating, for an indicated item of the plurality of items, a consultant who will answer questions regarding the indicated item; a transmission unit that transmits management information to a second know-how apparatus, the management information including a posted article regarding a selected item from the plurality of items stored in the database and a consultant list for the selected item; a reception unit that receives, from another know-how apparatus, management information regarding another item selected from the plurality of items in the database; a second storage unit that stores an item-manager apparatus list identifying, for each item stored in the database, a corresponding know-how apparatus that manages management information regarding the item; and an article managing unit that creates a new item by performing consolidation of respective management information regarding at least two of the plurality of items and modifying the item-manager apparatus list to indicate that said know-how apparatus manages management information regarding the new item.

Claim 7

A know-how management system, comprising: a plurality of know-how apparatuses, each apparatus including: an article posting unit that posts an article regarding one of a plurality of items stored in a database; a storage unit that stores an item-consultant list indicating, for an indicated item of the plurality of items, a consultant who will answer questions regarding the indicated item; a transmission unit that transmits management information to a second know-how apparatus, the management information including a posted article regarding a selected item from the plurality of items stored in the database and a consultant list for the selected item; a reception unit that receives, from another know-how apparatus, management information regarding another item selected from the plurality of items in the database; a second storage unit that stores an item-manager apparatus list identifying, for each item stored in the database, a corresponding know-how apparatus that manages management information regarding the item; and an article managing unit that creates a new item by performing consolidation of respective management information regarding at least two of the plurality of items and modifying the item-manager apparatus list to indicate that said know-how apparatus manages management information regarding the new item.

Claim 8

The know-how management system of claim 4, wherein each know-how apparatus further comprises a mapping unit that updates the item-manager apparatus list to indicate transmission and reception of management information, and wherein: the transmission unit transmits management information upon receiving a management right get request; and the reception unit receives the management information in response to a management right get request transmitted by said know-how apparatus.

Claim 9

The know-how management system of claim 4, wherein for each of the know-how apparatuses consolidation of the respective management information includes: modifying an item-article list to indicate an article list regarding the new item, the article list including an article regarding an item of the at least two items; modifying the item-consulting list to indicate a consultant list regarding the new item, the consultant list including a consultant for an item of the at least two items; and modifying the item-manager apparatus list to indicate that said know-how apparatus manages management information regarding the new item.

Claim 12

A computer-readable medium encoded with a program for managing know-how, the program comprising the functions of: posting an article by a poster regarding a specified item stored in a database; entering the poster into a list as a consultant for the specified item; setting a consulting range for the poster in the list when the article indicates the consulting range as a range of users for whom the poster is entered as a consultant; accepting a question from a user regarding a selected item stored in the database; referring to a consulting range set in the list for a selected consultant; and transmitting the question to the selected consultant when the consulting range for the selected consultant includes the user who submitted the question.

Claim 13

A computer-readable medium encoded with a program for managing know-how, the program comprising the functions of: posting an article by a poster regarding a specified item stored in a database; entering the poster into a list as a consultant for the specified item; setting a consulting range for the poster in the list when the article indicates the consulting range as a range of users for whom the poster is entered as a consultant; accepting a question from a user regarding a selected item stored in the database; referring to a consulting range set in the list for a selected consultant; and transmitting the question to the selected consultant when the consulting range for the selected consultant includes the user who submitted the question.