Hitachi, Ltd.

Tetsuji Ohno

Noriyuki Takahashi

Atsushi Komatsuzawa

Yoshiaki Sunaga

Takahiro Tanida

Takashi Horibe

An electronic discussion system including discussion terminals for writing and managing opinion information and clients for accessing the discussion terminals through a network. The electronic discussion system comprises a discussion apparatus for storing contents of input opinions so as to have correspondence relationships with discussion topics to which the contents pertain, contents of opinions having correspondence relationships with discussion topics in which registered users participate further having correspondence relationships with user divisions corresponding to the registered users; a participated discussion reading (client) terminal responsive to an operation instruction from a registered user, for referring to and displaying contents of opinions stored in the discussion server and having a corresponding relationship with a user division corresponding to the registered user; and a non-participated discussion reading (client) terminal responsive to an operation instruction from a user other than the registered users, for inputting an instruction for selecting a discussion topic, and obtaining and displaying contents of opinions stored in the discussion apparatus and having a correspondence relationship with the selected discussion topic.

Electronic discussion system for exchanging information among users creating opinion indexes in accordance with content of each options

Only important portions in all of messages are extracted in the halfway or after the end of a discussion and are allowed to be referred to the user. The time for discussion is reduced, thereby smoothly proceeding a conference. An electronic conference system is constructed in an electronic conference system server in a manner such that a plurality of user clients are connected to the electronic conference system server through a network (not shown). The electronic conference system is made up of a message database, a message relation extracting unit, a message type setting unit, a message input and display unit, and an electronic conference summarizing system. The electronic conference summarizing system is constructed by a discussion path specifying unit, a message merging unit, a duplication message deleting unit, and a message summary file. All of the conclusions derived from a subject and its discussion tree are extracted, unnecessary portions such as quotations or the like are deleted, and the correspondence of questions and answers is arranged and is formed as a summary.

Electronic conference system

An electronic discussion system of the client/server structure for an electronic exchange of messages which are presented by a plurality of users and shown on a display of a client computer, wherein the servers comprise at least one storage server for holding detailed contents of respective pieces of opinion information, and at least one discussion server for holding opinion indexes showing the storage locations of opinion contents of respective pieces of opinion information, wherein the clients comprise an opinion writing client for transferring and writing the opinion index created from a newly presented piece of opinion information and the opinion content into the discussion server and the storage server, and a reading client for referring to opinion indexes and opinion contents recorded and managed in the discussion server and the storage server.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Tetsuji Ohno