International Business Machines Corporation

Michael T Roche

Stanley Kieran Jerrard-Dunne

Eamonn Dwyer

Daniel Kavanagh

David R Millen

Bill Looby

Hussam Eid

Stephen Joseph Tapley

Michael Crawford

Fintan Fairmichael

Kevin Tadgh O'Riordan

A system for temporally associating a user with a location. The system includes a receiving component for receiving identity data from an electronic sensor, the identity data being indicative of a user's presence being detected at a location at a given time. The receiving component further receives scheduling information about the availability of the location for the given time, and an analysis component determines from the scheduling information and the user's detected presence whether the location is available for use by the user.

Temporally associating a user with a location

A database table within a database to persist within a cache as a cached table can be identified. The database can be a relational database management system (RDBMS) or an object oriented database management system (OODBMS). The cache can be a database cache. Database transactions within can be logged within a log table and the cached table within the cache can be flagged as not cached during runtime. An asynchronous replication of the database table to the cached table can be performed. The replication can execute the database transactions within the log table upon the cached table. The cached table can be flagged as cached when the replication is completed.

Database caching utilizing asynchronous log-based replication

A system, method and computer program product for displaying a conversation summary is provided. The method may include providing a graphical user interface (GUI) configured to allow communication between a number of users. The method may also include displaying an invitation to join a conversation at the graphical user interface from at least one of the users and displaying a summary of the conversation in a tag cloud on a computing device. Numerous other variations and embodiments are also included within the scope of the present disclosure.

System and method for displaying a conversation summary

An apparatus for providing for virtual communication and collaboration comprises a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) application executing within a distributed data processing system, and a navigation module implemented within the CVE application. The CVE application provides a virtual world represented as a grid of an interconnected set of locations each divided into a set of zones and each having an assigned context through a user interface provided to a plurality of users through one or more client systems. The CVE provides each user with a respective avatar representation for navigating and interacting within the locations of the virtual world. The navigation module provides a user interface element and automatically directs the avatar representation to traverse the set of zones the set of locations of the virtual world in a particular order of locations and at a particular.

Apparatus for navigation and interaction in a virtual meeting place

An apparatus for providing for virtual communication and collaboration comprises a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) application executing within a distributed data processing system, and a shadow module implemented within the CVE application. The CVE application provides a virtual world represented as a grid of an interconnected set of locations each divided into a set of zones and each having an assigned context through a user interface provided to a plurality of users through one or more client systems. The CVE provides each user with a respective avatar representation for navigating and interacting within the locations of the virtual world. The shadow module provides a first user interface element through which a first user can create and leave a shadow object representation for the first user within a zone of a subset of the set of locations when the avatar representation for the user is currently located in that zone. The shadow object representation persists in the zone after the avatar representation for the first user has navigated away from the zone. The shadow module provides a second user interface element providing a second user with one or more selectable options for corresponding with the first user when the avatar representation for the second user is located in the zone with the shadow object representation.

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County Wexford, Ireland

Michael T Roche