International Business Machines Corporation

Jonathan Andrew Lewis

Lorin Ullmann

Christopher Andrew Peters

Martin T Moore

Craig M Lawton

Bethany Lyn Kessen

Michael B Beaver

Jesse B Overby, Iii

A skill finder service receives directly from a user or through a social networking service a request for help with an asset. The skill finder service finds users skilled in the asset from asset data collected by an asset management service. The skill finder service searches the asset data for assets that match the asset in the request, and for each matching asset, determines the user who owns the matching asset. The skill finder service creates a list of skilled users and sends the list to the requesting user. The requesting user can contact one or more of the skilled users for help with the asset. The skill finder service uses existing data typically obtained by asset data management services to provide a valuable service to users. Further, by using the asset data to find skilled users, the skill finder service lessons or eliminates the need for user-entered expertise listing.

Enablement of social networking based on asset ownership

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for sending a user's availability information to an instant messaging (IM) partner. A user predefines areas of the user's display and associates these predefined areas, or 'hotspots', with user defined messages. If the user is not available to immediately respond to an incoming message, the user may move the IM dialog window to a 'hotspot' in the display. Depending upon the user-defined message associated with the &#x201c;hotspot&#x201d;, the IM application generates an automated response indicating the user's availability to respond to the message, and sends the message to the IM partner. The user also may predefine and associate the user's IM status with a &#x201c;hotspot&#x201d;. Moving an IM dialog window into a &#x201c;hotspot&#x201d; automatically changes the user's status based on the associated &#x201c;hotspot&#x201d;. This change is communicated to only the particular IM dialog window partner while other IM partners are unaffected.

Method for determining availability of participation in instant messaging

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Morrisville, NC, United States of America

Jonathan Andrew Lewis