Establishment and maintenance of a managed community

A method for establishing information needed to manage a community, comprising:

• identifying at least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• discovering the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• selecting data objects and attributes within the at least one data repository to manage from the discovered structure;
• and
• defining access permissions for managing the selected attributes.

A method for enabling an administrator to establish information needed to manage a community, comprising:

• identifying at least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• discovering the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• prompting the administrator select data objects and attributes within the at least one data repository from the discovered structure;
• and
• prompting the administrator to define access permissions for managing the selected attributes.

A method for configuring a community to support an administrative tool, comprising:

• identifying at least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• discovering the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• selecting data objects and attributes within that at least one data repository from the discovered structure;
• defining access permissions for managing the selected attributes;
• and
• using the administrative tool to manage the community according to the selected data objects and attributes and defined access permissions.

A tool for establishing information needed to manage a community, comprising:

• a data repository identification component that identifies at least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• a data structure discovery component that discovers the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• a data selection component that selects data objects and attributes within that at least one data repository according to the structure discovered by the data structure discovery component;
• and
• an access permissions component that defines access permissions for managing the attributes selected by the data selection component.

A tool for establishing information needed to manage a community, comprising:

• means for identifying at least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• means for discovering the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• means for selecting data objects and attributes within that at least one data repository according to the structure discovered by the discovering means;
• and
• means for defining access permissions for the managing attributes selected by the selecting means.

A system for establishing information needed to manage a community, comprising:

• at least one data repository containing a plurality of community information;
• a tool to establish information in the at least one data repository to manage the community;
• the tool comprising a data repository identification component that identifies the least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• a data structure discovery component that discovers the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• a data selection component that selects data objects and attributes within that at least one data repository according to the structure discovered by the data structure discovery component;
• and an access permissions component that defines access permissions for managing the attributes selected by the data selection component;
• and
• a first computing unit configured to serve the tool.

A computer-readable medium storing computer instructions for instructing a computer system to establish information needed to manage a community, the computer instructions comprising:

• identifying at least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• discovering the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• selecting data objects and attributes within the at least one data repository;
• and to manage from the discovered structure;
• and
• defining access permissions for managing the selected attributes.

A computer-readable medium storing computer instructions for instructing a computer system to enable an administrator to establish information needed to manage a community, the computer instructions comprising:

• identifying at least one data repository containing data related to the community;
• discovering the structure of the data within the at least one data repository;
• prompting the administrator to select data objects and attributes within the at least one data repository from the discovered structure;
• and
• prompting the administrator to define access permissions for managing the selected attributes.