Dynamic role creation

A method of establishing a virtual collaboration environment, the method comprising:

• receiving information specifying a plurality of collaboration participants and a plurality of collaboration roles;
• presenting the received information in a matrix having at least two dimensions including a first dimension corresponding to collaboration participants and a second dimension corresponding to collaboration roles;
• and
• enabling a user to selectively associate a collaboration participant with a collaboration role by designating an intersection of the first and second dimensions.

A method of establishing a virtual collaboration environment, the method comprising:

• predetermining a set of roles to facilitate collaboration among participants;
• presenting a user with a two-dimensional matrix wherein participants are associated with a first dimension of the matrix and roles are associated with a second dimension of the matrix;
• enabling the user to associate a participant with a role by selecting an intersection of a participant and a role in the matrix;
• inviting participants to join the virtual collaboration environment;
• and
• enabling collaboration in the virtual collaboration environment when at least each of the predetermined set of roles has been assigned to a participant.

A method of establishing a virtual collaboration environment, the method comprising:

• naming the virtual collaboration environment;
• selecting services being available in the collaboration environment;
• choosing the sequence of the available services and selecting one of said services as a default service;
• inviting participants to join the virtual collaboration environment;
• enabling a user to associate a participant with a role by selecting an intersection of a participant and a role in a matrix having the rows and columns identified by roles and participants, respectively;
• and
• verifying that the services, participants and roles facilitate collaboration.

An article comprising a machine-readable medium storing machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

• receive information specifying a plurality of collaboration participants and a plurality of collaboration roles;
• present the received information in a matrix having at least two dimensions including a first dimension corresponding to collaboration participants and a second dimension corresponding to collaboration roles;
• and
• enable a user to selectively associate a collaboration participant with a collaboration role by designating an intersection of the first and second dimensions.

A system for gathering information, the system comprising one or more computers configured to:

• receive information specifying a plurality of collaboration participants and a plurality of collaboration roles;
• present the received information in a matrix having at least two dimensions including a first dimension corresponding to collaboration participants and a second dimension corresponding to collaboration roles;
• and
• enable a user to selectively associate a collaboration participant with a collaboration role by designating an intersection of the first and second dimensions.