Qwest Communications International Inc.

U S West, Inc.

Mediaone Group, Inc.

William D Hurley

Kyle D Habermehl

Charles P Bloom

Brigham R Bell

Alan Scott Wolff

Srdjan N Kovacevic

Michelle Neves

A collaboration model is provided for constructing evolutionary collaborative applications deployed in network environments, such as the World Wide Web, or wireless environments, which supports introduction of new object types into the deployed system. The collaboration model is arranged as a set of submodels. The highest-level control resides in a synchronization submodel. A merge submodel defines mechanisms for merging changes, detecting conflicts, and resolving conflicts whenever possible. A change submodel is operative to define allowable changes for shared objects. A replication model is arranged to provide replication functionality, and define how multiple versions of an object are presented. A distribution submodel provides distribution functionality, and a type submodel provides a programming language-independent representational scheme for the overall collaboration model. The synchronization submodel, the merge submodel, and the replication submodel are arranged to use constructs defined by the change submodel.

Collaborative model for software systems with synchronization submodel with merge feature, automatic conflict resolution and isolation of potential changes for reuse

A technique for providing a networked, distributed tutorial application having a direct manipulation graphical user interface displayable on an Internet client node is disclosed. The application has a first portion on an Internet server node and a second portion on the Internet client node, the first portion performing application specific subject matter processing and the second portion being substantially application independent in that this second portion is applicable in a wide variety of tutoring applications for generating and maintaining an appropriate user interface during user interactions. The second portion includes an Internet browser (e.g., a hypertext mark-up language browser) that is utilized for communicating with the server node to perform application subject matter specific processing. A user being tutored may create, delete or modify graphical objects whose data structure definitions are provided by the server node, each such object having, for example, a behavior or data structure representing the semantics of a tutorial subject matter entity. Such user interactions are accumulated and utilized on the client node to maintain, independently of any communication with the server node, an interactive user interface semantically consistent with both the tutorial application and the user's interactions.

Network-based intelligent tutoring system

Growing community of inventors

Louisville, CO, United States of America

William D Hurley