Social kudos

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating rating enterprise personnel or otherwise issuing and tracking indications of approval, e.g., kudos. An example method includes providing a first set of user interface controls adapted to enable plural enterprise personnel to participate in a discussion via electronic communications; providing a first user option for a first participant of the discussion to associate an indication of approval with input provided by a participant of the discussion; providing a second user option to associate a note with the indication of approval; and associating the discussion and the indication of approval with a business object. A social network may provide the first set of user interface controls. The electronic communications include messages exchanged over a social network used to conduct the discussion. The input may include, for example, text and/or a document submitted to participants of the discussion, such as a presentation document.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for facilitating rating enterprise personnel, the method comprising:
 providing a first set of user interface controls adapted to enable plural enterprise personnel to participate in a discussion via electronic communications;   providing a first user option for a first participant of the discussion to associate an indication of approval with input provided by a participant of the discussion;   providing a second user option to associate a note with the indication of approval; and   providing a third user option to associate the discussion and the indication of approval with a business object.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further including employing a social network to provide the first set of user interface controls, and wherein the electronic communications include messages exchanged over a social network used to conduct the discussion. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the input includes a document submitted to participants of the discussion. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more user interface controls includes a toggle for turning on or off display of indications of approval for one or more participants in the discussion. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further including providing a fourth user option to associate a second indication of approval with a group of enterprise personnel and the discussion. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further including collecting one or more indications of approval for a participant of the discussion and making a resulting collection of one or more indications accessible via a performance review document. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further including providing the collection to a profile of the participant, wherein the profile is maintained and accessible via a social network. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , further including providing a fifth user option, via the social network, for enterprise personnel to associate a third indication of approval with a participant of the social network at a profile of the participant. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further including providing a sixth user option, via the profile, for enterprise personnel to view one or more statistics pertaining to indications of approval that have been associated with the participant. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further providing a seventh user option, via a user interface control that is included among the first set of user interface controls and appearing in a user interface display screen used during the discussion, to view one or more statistics pertaining to one or more indications of approval associated with a participant of the discussion. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more statistics include a number of indications of approval received by a participant of the discussion during a time interval. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more statistics include an indication of one or more enterprise personnel who have received more indications of approval than other enterprise personnel. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further including making the statistics viewable by a manager of a participant in the discussion. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further including providing an eighth user option to display information pertaining to the business object. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , further including providing a ninth user option to associate a portion of text occurring in an electronic message with an indication of approval and with the discussion. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further including providing a tenth user option to access a performance review document pertaining to one or more enterprise personnel. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further including providing one or more user interface controls in the performance review document for facilitating displaying a conversation associated with one or more indications of approval. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , further including providing one or more user interface controls in the performance review document for facilitating navigating to a user interface display screen that is adapted to illustrate data of a business object with which an indication of approval is associated. 
     
     
         19 . An apparatus comprising:
 a digital processor coupled to a display and to a processor-readable storage device, wherein the processor-readable storage device includes one or more instructions executable by the digital processor to perform the following acts:   providing a first set of user interface controls adapted to enable plural enterprise personnel to participate in a discussion via electronic communications;   providing a first user option for a first participant of the discussion to associate an indication of approval with input provided by a participant of the discussion;   providing a second user option to associate a note with the indication of approval; and   providing a third user option to associate the discussion and the indication of approval with a business object.   
     
     
         20 . A processor-readable storage device including instructions executable by a digital processor, the processor-readable storage device including one or more instructions for:
 providing a first set of user interface controls adapted to enable plural enterprise personnel to participate in a discussion via electronic communications;   providing a first user option for a first participant of the discussion to associate an indication of approval with input provided by a participant of the discussion;   providing a second user option to associate a note with the indication of approval; and   providing a third user option to associate the discussion and the indication of approval with a business object.