Answer change notifications based on changes to user profile information

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system, causes the data processing system to:

• generate, by a question and answer (QA) system, an original answer to an original input question;
• determine, based on user characteristics of a user that submitted the original input question, as specified in a user profile data structure corresponding to the user, whether or not the original answer is time dependent and dependent upon one or more of the user characteristics specified in the user profile data structure, wherein the time dependency indicates that the original answer is useful to the user at a future time based on the one or more user characteristics;
• store, by the QA system in response to determining that the original answer is useful to the user at a future time based upon user characteristics specified in the user profile, the original question and original answer in an entry in a question and answer (QA) log data structure corresponding to the user and setting an indicator of the entry to indicate that the answer is dependent upon the user profile data structure;
• store, in a reminder notification data structure, a reminder to provide the original answer to the user at a reminder time that is closer to the future time than the current time is to the future time;
• receive a change operation to change a portion of the user profile data structure;
• determine whether or not the portion of the user profile data structure changed by the change operation comprises the one or more user characteristics upon which the original answer is dependent, and in response to determining that the change operation changed the portion of the user profile data structure comprising the one or more user characteristics:
• identify the entry in the QA log data structure, having the indicator identifying the previously generated original answer as being dependent upon the user profile data structure;
• resubmit the original input question to the QA system to generate a new answer to the original input question;
• receive the new answer from the QA system;
• and
• modify the reminder stored in the reminder notification data structure, to provide a reminder of the new answer at a second reminder time based on the new answer from the QA system and a determination of a second future time at which the new answer is useful to the user based on the changed portion of the user profile data structure.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• generate, by a question and answer (QA) system, an original answer to an original input question;
• determine, based on user characteristics of a user that submitted the original input question, as specified in a user profile data structure corresponding to the user, whether or not the original answer is time dependent and dependent upon one or more of the user characteristics specified in the user profile data structure, wherein the time dependency indicates that the original answer is useful to the user at a future time based on the one or more user characteristics;
• store, by the QA system in response to determining that the original answer is useful to the user at a future time based upon user characteristics specified in the user profile, the original question and original answer in an entry in a question and answer (QA) log data structure corresponding to the user and setting an indicator of the entry to indicate that the answer is dependent upon the user profile data structure;
• store, in a reminder notification data structure, a reminder to provide the original answer to the user at a reminder time that is closer to the future time than the current time is to the future time;
• receive a change operation to change a portion of the user profile data structure;
• determine whether or not the portion of the user profile data structure changed by the change operation comprises the one or more user characteristics upon which the original answer is dependent, and in response to determining that the change operation changed the portion of the user profile data structure comprising the one or more user characteristics:
• identify the entry in the QA log data structure, having the indicator identifying the previously generated original answer as being dependent upon the user profile data structure;
• resubmit the original input question to the QA system to generate a new answer to the original input question;
• receive the new answer from the QA system;
• and
• modify the reminder stored in the reminder notification data structure, to provide a reminder of the new answer at a second reminder time based on the new answer from the QA system and a determination of a second future time at which the new answer is useful to the user based on the changed portion of the user profile data structure.