"Method, system and computer server for managing collective creativity sessions" Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the collection and sharing of information and the stimulation of thinking in relation with collective creativity, and in particular computer environments of mental maps shared by a group of participants via a network.

Background of the invention

To improve their competitiveness, organizations and esp. companies must innovate. In particular, they need to imagine new commercial products and services, the marketing of these products and services, new business practices, to reorganize business processes, to reveal the expression of latent problems, to stimulate the questioning on company culture, and others.

To this end, methods of collective creativity have been developed such as brainstorming, mind mapping, the association of ideas from a stimulus or a reference idea, or real life scenarios. These methods implement known models such as the mind map, the six hats method or the "Merlin the

Magician" method.

With the development of computer technology, it is clear that some of these methods could advantageously be partially or fully integrated into a computer environment.

For example, the display of a mind map that represents a tree of ideas, can be easily updated with the addition of new ideas, which will be gradually grafted on the tree through the refresh features of a computer screen, while the same operation could be particularly burdensome with a real board, even of an erasable type. Several platforms have been proposed by MeisterLabs®, Mindomo® or Xminds® to facilitate the sharing of a mental map between employees, to invite participants by email, to have them involved simultaneously for enriching the map, to provide real-time indications of the changes made by other participants by means of color- coding, to enable two particular employees to share ideas with an integrated instant messaging, to view the history of changes and return to a previous version, or to replay the evolution of the mental map through the use of a timeline slider.

Another example is the implementation of discussion forums on computer platforms, which makes the bouncing of ideas from a first message posted by one of the contributors. BlueKiwi® thus offers online messaging specialized for idea management. Compared to a conventional online discussion, additional functionalities allow assigning a status to a discussion thread around an idea: "submitted", "under study", "in progress", "done", "rejected", or a rating (one to five stars).

To stimulate participants, the IdeaScale® platform refines this rating system to incite the contributors to better present their ideas. Spigit® even provides a marketplace of ideas. With a virtual currency, the ideas are subject of buying, selling and quotation. Jovoto® calculates a rating of the participants themselves, depending on their activity and the ratings received from the other participants. Openldeo® refines this rating according to the phase of the project ("inspiration", "design", "evaluation") and the number of reactions from other participants to a comment. Quirky® pays royalties to participants on ideas that lead to commercialization. The royalties are based on the participant's contribution and involvement in the original idea, the vote and positive feedback in favor of a winning idea, the participant's involvement in the design of a product around the idea, etc. On another note, the

MindManager® platform provides inspiration cards, i.e. a kind of list of questions randomly drawn on request of a participant, such as: "can you condense your idea?", "What can you learn from the behavior of a snake?", "How would someone else solve the problem?", "What new ideas do you have when connecting the word "competition" with the problem? ". These different solutions facilitate the exchange, discussion, sorting, aggregation, incubation, acceptance and reward of ideas. In contrast, the loss in face-to-face contact between participants leads to a loss of creative intensity despite participants stimulation functionalities. Indeed, approaches such as rating of contributors, ideas marketplace, or inspiration maps induce methodological bias in that rather than promoting creativity, they tend to promote activity, responsiveness, irrelevant originality, conformism and inhibition. Therefore, the use of such platforms often leads to a gradual loss of motivation among participants due to the inadequacy of tools in certain phases or for certain sessions, which ultimately causes a decrease in the total number of contributions and/or their quality. Thus, none of these platforms are really satisfactory.

Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to alleviate at least part of the drawbacks of the known solutions. More particularly, one object of the present invention is to promote participants activity in creativity or brainstorming sessions in an environment including a computer server and a plurality of participants terminals.

For this purpose, the invention provides according to a first aspect, in a computer environment comprising a session server and a plurality of participant terminals connected to the server via a network, a method for managing collective creativity sessions comprising, for each session:

setting a session content and a session schedule, including stimulation periods based on the playing of stimuli alternating with creativity work periods,

during a stimulation period, playing at least one stimulus to the participant terminals via the network,

during each creativity work period, receiving and storing in a server memory contributions from the participants terminals, generating a session display comprising predetermined visual arrangements of contributions received from the terminals and transmitting said session display to the terminals,

monitoring the participants activities from these contributions, and adapting at least one among the session schedule, the session stimuli and the visual arrangements in response to the monitored activity.

Certain preferred but non-limiting aspects of this method comprise the following features, taken alone or in any technically compatible combinations as will be appreciated by the skilled person:

^* the stimuli are selected in a group comprising audio files, video files, slide sets and slide shows.

^* the participants comprise active participants entitled to provide contributions through their terminals and observers only entitled to visualize said contributions at their terminals.

^* said contributions include ideas, comments and ratings of other participants ideas and/or comments.

^* the method further comprises a step of arranging the participants' contributions in nodes of a tree-structure stored in the server memory.

^* said visual arrangements comprise an adjustable display of a visual representation of at least part of the tree-structure for at least part of the participants.

^* the visual representation of the tree-structure selectively comprises or not node contents of the tree-structure according to predetermined criteria.

^* said monitoring of the participants activities comprise the determination of a contribution rate of each participant or a group of participants.

^* said contribution rate for a given participant is determined by said server from a number of contributions inputted to the server by this participant.

^* said determination of contribution rates is adjustable by a session organizer before the start of a session. ^* said adaptation step comprises changing the timing of stimulus playing.

^* said adaptation step comprises displaying in a selectively highlighted manner contributions from participants in the visual arrangement.

* said adaptation step comprises selectively displaying certain session contents to the terminal of a given participant in order to channel his/her contributions.

According to a second aspect, a computer environment for managing creativity sessions among a plurality or participants is provided, said environment comprising:

- a session server,

- a plurality of participants terminals connected to the server via a network,

- stimuli files stored in the server and capable of being played to the participants terminals,

- means for receiving and storing in said server contributions received from the terminals,

- a session display generator for transmitting to the terminals predetermined visual arrangements of contributions received from the terminals,

- a session scheduler provided in the session server, capable of selectively and alternatively setting said session server in a stimulation mode where at least one stimulus file is played at the participants terminals, and a participant working mode, where contributions made by participants at inputs of their terminals are received by said server and stored in a session memory,

- means provided in the session server for adjusting at least one among the session schedule, the session stimuli and the visual arrangements in response to a processing of the participants contributions.

Certain preferred but non-limiting aspects of this computer environment comprise the following features, taken alone or in any technically compatible combinations as will be appreciated by the skilled person:

^* the stimuli files include audio files, video files, slide sets and slide shows.

* the participants comprise active participants entitled to provide contributions through their terminals and observers only entitled to visualize said contributions at their terminals.

^* said contributions include ideas, comments and ratings of other participants' ideas and/or comments.

* the server comprises means for arranging the participants' contributions in nodes of a tree-structure stored in the server memory.

^* the session display generator comprises means for generating adjustable representations of the tree-structure and their node contents for at least part of the participants.

* said adjustable representations contain or not node contents of the tree-structure according to predetermined criteria.

^* said server is capable of monitoring of the participants' activities by computing a contribution rate of each participant or a group of participants.

^* said contribution rate for a given participant is computed by said server from a number of contributions inputted to the server by this participant.

^* said computation of contribution rates is adjustable by a session organizer input from an organizer terminal before the start of a session.

^* the session schedule adjusting means are capable of changing the timing of stimulus playing.

^* the session schedule adjusting means are capable of displaying in a selectively highlighted manner contributions from participants.

^* the session schedule adjusting means are capable of selectively displaying certain session contents to the terminal of a given participant in order to channel his/her contributions. Finally, the present invention provides a computer server for implementing the method as defined above, comprising:

- stimuli files stored in a memory of the server and capable of being transmitted via a network for being played at participants terminals,

- means for receiving and storing from participants terminals contributions,

- a session display generator for transmitting on the network for being displayed at participants terminals, predetermined visual arrangements of contributions received from the terminals,

- a session scheduler capable of selectively and alternatively setting said server in a stimulation mode where at least one stimulus file is transmitted via the network for being played at participants terminals, and a participant working mode, where contributions made by participants are received by said server through said network and stored in a session memory,

- means for adjusting at least one among the session schedule, the session stimuli and the visual arrangements in response to a processing of the participants contributions. Brief description of the drawings

Other features, aims and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description, given by way of non-limiting example and made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a computer system suitable for implementing the present invention;

Fig. 2 shows the generation of a stimulus from a scenario and the first levels of a hierarchical tree-structure from organizer-defined categories;

Fig. 3 shows the generation of a scenario from multimedia contents time, free working periods and transition rules;

Fig. 4 shows a creativity session form; Fig. 5 shows a session closure wizard;

Fig. 6 shows a screen for a first-time participant in free mode;

Fig. 7 shows a screen for a first-time participant in constrained mode; Fig. 8 shows an idea creation form;

Fig. 9 shows a main participation screen for a participant;

Fig. 10 shows a main participation screen for an organizer;

Fig. 1 1 shows a global interface screen for an organizer;

Fig. 12 shows a management interface for idea baskets; and

Fig. 13 shows the process of creating and running session 900.

Detailed description of preferred embodiments 1. Findings

It has been found that creativity sessions are exercised in a more productive way when stimuli, such as the playing of audio or video files or PowerPoint™ type slide shows (.pps) or slide sets (.ppt) are initially proposed to the participants. For example, a short documentary on the dodo bird, which disappeared for lack of adaptation to the environment at the end of the seventeenth century, helps by analogy stimulating innovative ideas for the company. More specifically, it has been found that scripting a creativity session with alternating stimuli and contributions, according to a predetermined sequence, allowed better results. Moreover, the simultaneous presence in the same session of participants subject to the same sequence of stimuli promotes under certain conditions reciprocal emulation of these participants.

The present invention aims at a process that can effectively control a session based on a contribution rate of the participants. This control essentially includes:

- executing stimuli for each participant at the proper time,

- displaying a given particular idea or bringing the latter to the attention of a participant, - selectively authorizing certain visualizations or actions by a participant to guide his contribution.

This allows increasing the number of contributions and ultimately improving the quality of the output.

2. Overview

Referring to Figure 1 , the invention provides a system 100 in which a plurality of participants 101 , 102, 103 with respective computer terminals connect through a communications network 1 10 such as the Internet or a private network of a company to a computer server 120 in order to organize creativity sessions 121 1 , 1212, 1213, to stimulate the creativity of participants 102 for generating ideas and enriching ideas through comments and ratings.

The participants 101 , 102, 103 can be of one among three types: organizers 101 have the capacity to create sessions 121 1 , 1212, 1213 and to invite participants 102 to contribute thereto. Observers 103 can view certain items of the session, without contributing thereto.

3. Project Management Modules

3.1. Session Management Module

The server 120 includes a session management module 121 allowing an organizer 101 to create and parameterize sessions 121 1 , 1212, 1213, allowing participants 102 to contribute to these sessions and observers 103 to visualize items of these sessions.

A session 121 1 is a scheduled period of time of collective creativity that takes place in response to a scenario 1242 that has been previously developed by an organizer 101 . The participants 102 bring their ideas and other contributions in order to enrich a hierarchical picture 1231 of this session.

The contribution rate of each participant 102 is measured by an algorithm adjusted by the organizer 101 based on the number of ideas posted by this participant, the number of comments posted, the number of ratings posted, the ratings received by other participants, the number of comments on the ideas posted or the number of keywords created.

3.2. Model Management Module

The server 120 includes a model management module 122 comprising a set of models 1221 , 1222, 1223. Indeed, different practices of creativity session animation exist, such as the "heuristic map" model 1221 , the "six hats" model 1222 or else the "Merlin the Magician" model 1223. Each model has features 1221 1 , 12221 , 12231 such as the recommended duration of a session according to this model, the possible number of participants and the level of difficulty.

A session 121 1 is defined in particular by a model 1221 , 1222, 1223 by means of a session creation and monitoring form 200, as will be seen in the following.

3.3. Session Tree-Structure Management Module

The server 120 includes a module 123 for managing the tree-structure of the sessions that organizes, for each session 121 1 , the relationships between stimuli 1232, categories 1233, ideas 1234, ratings 1235 and comments 1236. These relationships are stored in the server in the form of hierarchical tables or dashboards 1231 according to the following hierarchy:

- hierarchical table

o Stimulus

• Category

· Idea

o Comment

o Rating

o Idea

• Comment Referring to Figure 2, an organizer 101 typically defines the first two levels of a hierarchical table 1231 in preparation for a session. The first level is a level of stimuli 1232, is implicitly caused by the identification of stimuli among multimedia contents using a button 1247. The second level is a level of categories 1233 and is built using the form 300, as detailed below. Higher levels (ideas, comments, ratings) in this hierarchical table will then be enriched by the participants 102 during the session.

An idea 1234 is an association of concepts, the text of which is drafted by a participant 102 who is the author thereof. An idea 1234 contains at least one text. This idea is preferably documented with attachments and keywords.

A category 1233 is a grouping of ideas 1234.

A comment 1236 is a text linked to an idea 1234, the text being written by a participant 102 who becomes its author. An idea 1234 can be linked to an unlimited number of ratings 1235, comments 1236 and other ideas 1234.

To a stimulus 1232 are linked one or more categories 1233. A plurality of ideas 1234 may be linked to a category 1233. Finally, a plurality of comments 1236 may be linked to an idea 1234.

Referring now to Figure 10, a main participation display sub-module 1261 generates a participation display 710 on the terminal of the organizer 101 . This display 710 allows him to create categories using an activation button 71 15, which causes the opening of form 300. Tabs 718 allow the organizer to visualize or create whiteboards 701 . Using button 7182, the organizer 101 launches a form for creating a new whiteboard. This form allows importing all or part of the items of another whiteboard. When a new whiteboard has been created, a new corresponding tab 7181 is displayed.

The session tree-structure management module 123 also allows the organizer to define rules for the display of a hierarchical table 1231 . A button 7013 allows setting the rules for displaying, hiding, highlighting or minimizing a category. For example, a particular category will be visible for a maximum duration of 10 minutes after the end of the stimulus, or a category will be hidden if the number of contributions therein exceeds the number of contributions in another category according to a given rule (for instance if this number exceeds three times the number in another category), or a category will be highlighted for a given participant after a given time (e.g. 5 minutes) has elapsed with no contribution from this participant. Another example is that a category will be visible only when a particular emerging theme 8043 will have exceeded a certain threshold. Similar display rules can be set by the organizer for any item (stimulus, category, idea, comments) of the tree- structure. The organizer 101 can further define rules for changing participant rights, which are stored by a sub-module 1272, relating to an item of the tree- structure, such as the right to enable/disable the capacity to propose ideas, enable/disable the capacity to provide comments, enable/disable the capacity to generate ratings, enable/disable participant anonymity, enable/disable the access by a participant. 3.4. Multimedia Content Management Module

Referring to Figure 1 , the server 120 includes a module 124 for managing multimedia contents.

This module allows an organizer 101 to prepare multimedia contents 1241 that will be needed for a scenario 1242. To this end, organizer can cause the uploading to the server 120 multimedia files 101 1 from his/her terminal. These files can be of different types including videos, audio files, flash animations, forms (for polls/surveys), images, slide sets such as PowerPoint files, PDF documents, spreadsheets, word processing files, HTML files, plain text, etc.

This multimedia content management module 124 also allows editing a file 101 1 for executing it, changing its content, removing or extracting part of its contents, of aggregating the file of part of it with parts of other files 101 1 in order to generate a multimedia contents 1241 . These functions are known per se and implemented in software such as MovieMaker® and the like.

Referring to Figure 3, this multimedia content 1241 may be of one among three types: - a preliminary content, such as the presentation of rules for the session, the presentation of a documentation for the session, a warm-up video, a waiting room or a first-time participant welcome display 1263-1264;

- a stimulus, such as a video presentation intended to incite participants 102 to make numerous and quality contributions. A stimulus generation button 1247 allows distinguishing a 1232 stimulus from another multimedia content 1241 , which causes the implicit generation of the first level of the hierarchical table 1231 ;

- a closing content such a video with a conclusion or thanks.

This module 124 allows the organizer 101 to define a scenario 1242. A scenario is a time ordered sequence alternating multimedia contents 1241 and free work time periods 1244 during which participants 102 will interact to enrich the session 121 1 . The transition between these steps is defined by transition rules 1246. For example, in a synchronous and constrained session, the transition rule for transiting from to a free work time period 1244 to the next stimulus is a mere predefined timer. Preferably, the transition rule 1246 will be defined by the organizer to take into account a contribution rate of participants. In a free, asynchronous session, the transition 1246 is for instance valid for a particular participant if the latter has submitted at least N1 ideas and written N2 comments, if all participants have submitted at least N3 ideas, if a majority of participants has responded to a particular message in a participant messaging system, if the time elapsed since the end of the last stimulus has reached a predefined duration, if the particular participant has pressed a "next" button, etc. The organizer 101 can for this purpose use an appropriate interface with adjustment sliders and other tools, known per so, to define such algorithm(s).

A scenario can be played at predetermined times during sessions 121 1 . The organizer 101 adjusts to this end a date and time of session opening 2064 (welcome of participants) and a date and time of session start 1245 (contributions can occur). The session 121 1 is preferably synchronous, i.e. all participants will be able to provide input simultaneously. In such case, the organizer can set the duration of the free work sessions 1244 to a fixed value, can define the multimedia contents of the waiting room, i.e. those which are accessible by the participants 102, 103 while they wait for the start of the session 121 1 .

Session 121 1 can alternatively be asynchronous, i.e. the participants can provide inputs at different dates or times.

The synchronous and asynchronous modes can combine with constrained and free modes. In the constrained mode, the participants can be guided to be subject to the stimuli in a unique order. In the free mode, they can select the stimuli in a different order and if needed return to a previous stimulus.

3.5. Form Management Module

The server 120 includes a form management module 125 comprising participant interfaces that allow organizers 101 to create and animate sessions 121 1 , 1212, 1213 and participants 102 to enrich the contents thereof.

3.5.1 Session Creation and Tracking Form

Referring to Figure 4, the session creation and tracking form 200 allows an organizer 101 to create a new session 121 1 by entering a title of the session 201 , the main theme of the session 202 and a model 203 of the session. The model 203 is selected by the organizer 101 from the list of models 1221 , 1222, 1223. Form 200 shows in a display zone 204 the features 1221 1 , 12221 , 12231 of the model 203. Clicking a help button 205 allows providing the organizer 101 with context-based help in text or video format.

The session creation and tracking form 200 contains an invitation assistant 206, not shown, through which the organizer 101 can define a list of email addresses 2061 of recipient participants 102, 103. To this end, he can download a list of emails contained in an email management sub-module 1274, supplement this list from his personal directory stored in his terminal, or use the invitation functionality of a social network such as Facebook® or Linkedln®, managed by a participant profile management sub-module 1275.

The organizer can further adjust the date and time of opening of the session 2064, which may be different from the date and time of the session start 1245, especially if the session is asynchronous or if there is a waiting room. He can in addition indicate a URL for connecting to the session 2063 and write an invitation or reminder text for sending via email 2062, by sub- module 1274, to the invited participants 102, 103.

The session creation and monitoring form 200 contains a session launch wizard 207, not shown, which is typically launched between the opening of the session 2064 and the start of the session 1245. The session opening 2064 allows welcoming the participants, while contributions can occur only from session start 1245. Assistant 207 allows the organizer 101 to visualize the list of invited participants, the list of participants connected to the session and the list of those who are not connected.

Referring now to Figure 5, the session creation and monitoring form 200 contains a session closure wizard 20 by which the organizer can prepare the sorting, editing and exporting of statistics and session reports, by opening a report edition form 805. In connection with the email management module 1274, the organizer can also parameterize an email for thanking the participants.

3.5.2. Category Creation Form

A category creation form 300, not shown, is launched by the organizer

101 by activating a button 71 15, described later, associated with a particular stimulus. It allows the organizer to create categories 1233 by writing the titles of these categories 301 in a text field. 3.5.3. Idea Form Referring to Figure 8, an idea form 400, launched in response to a click on button 7016 as described below, allows a participant 102 to post a new idea 1234. To this end, the participant writes a text in the description field of the idea 401 , adds an attachment 402 for illustrating or documenting this idea, and defines keywords 403 for referencing this idea. After these items have been provided, the participant can post his/her idea by activating a button 404 or exit without posting the idea by means of a "cancel" button 405.

When the ideas form 400 is launched from a zone outside any category, for example while a stimulus is played, an additional field "category" is generated in the form.

3.5.4. Comment Form

A comment form 500, not shown, is launched by button 7019 described below and allows a participant 102 to comment on an idea or to respond to a comment 1236. For this purpose, he writes in his comment in the text field 501 . He posts the comment by clicking button 502 or cancels its contribution by clicking button 503. 3.5.5. Rating Form

A rating form 600, not shown, is launched by clicking button 7018 described below and allows a participant 102 to sanction an idea 1234 by a rating 601 . He credits one point to the idea 1234 by clicking button 602 or cancels the credit clicking button 603. In a variant, the form allows granting one to several stars (e.g. one to four), a positive or negative count ("I like / 1 do not like") or a gift ("favourite", "gift", "coin"). In addition, a rating may be defined category by category (by progress status of the idea; by technical, marketing or design expertise; by type: originator, federator, contributor). An idea 1234 and can be linked to an unlimited number of ratings 601 .

4. Display Module Referring to Figure 1 , the server 120 includes a display module 126 allowing to generate screens and to display them on participant terminals 101 , 102, 103. 4.1. Home Screen for First-time Participants in Free Mode

Referring to Figure 6, the display module 126 can generate a home screen for first-time participants in free mode 1263. This screen contains a list of stimuli allowing the participant 102 to select the order in which he wishes to play them and contribute to the tree-structures of associated ideas.

4.2. Home Screen for First-time Participants in Constrained Mode

Referring to Figure 7, the display module 126 can generate a home screen 1264 for first-time participants in constrained mode. This screen contains information about the start of the session, its duration and the number of stimuli, and a button that allows a participant 102 or 103 to connect to the session.

4.3. Main Participation Screen Display Sub-module

The main participation screen display sub-module 1261 generates and displays the main participation screen 700 on the terminal display of a participant 101 , 102 or 103.

4.3.1. Main Participation Screen

Referring to Figure 9, a main participation screen 700 allows participants 102 to enrich a hierarchical table 1231 of session 121 1 with new ideas 1234, comments 1236 and ratings 601 by means of forms 400, 500, 600.

The main participation screen 700 is divided into six zones 701 -706, as follows:

a) a whiteboard zone 701 displays at least part of the tree-structure of the hierarchical table 1231 ; the following functions are preferably available: - a zoom/dezoom function: it allows visualizing the tree structure 701 1 in a more or less detailed manner by means of a zoom/dezoom slider conventional per se, which can be actuated by a mouse cursor or by a mouse wheel;

- a drag function: when the zoom coefficient is high, the tree structure is only partially displayed in zone 701 ; in such case, the participant 102 or 103 can drag the tree-structure display in two-dimensional or three- dimensional manner to browse through it by a conventional click-hold-drag action with a mouse on display zone 701 ;

- a navigation zone display function 705: as described below, it repositions the target 7052 (see below) according to the displayed part of the tree-structure in zone 701 to allow the participant to better browse through the tree-structure 701 1 ;

- contextual menus: a right-button mouse click on a node of the tree-structure 701 1 (corresponding to a category or idea) causes the display of a contextual menu 7013, 7014; menu 7013 obtained when clicking on a category contains several items; clicking on the "add idea" item 7016 causes the opening of form 400; clicking on the "list mode" item 7017 causes the display of the corresponding list of ideas 1234; menu 7014 obtained when clicking of an idea contains several items; clicking on the "rating" item 7018 causes the opening of the rating form 600; clicking on the comment item 7019 causes the opening of the comment form 500; this menu 7014 also contains an item for displaying the details of an idea, which causes the opening of a window displaying the text presenting the idea with the associated comments, including a representation (e.g. avatars) or the participants who have positively appreciated this idea, as well as indicators of ratings and comments.

b) a messages and interaction zone 702 displays a countdown clock 7021 for the time-limited contributions, a button 7022 for skipping to the next screen, visible when the predefined time has elapsed, and other contextual help information. c) a new items notification zone 703 allows a participant 102 to view the most recent contributions to the session, such as a new category 1233, a new idea 1234 or a new comment 1236; this participant can click on these contributions for selecting the corresponding object in the tree-structure 701 1 ; the contributions in zone 703 are displayed as a list, with the most recent contributions pushing higher in the list previous contributions; in order to bring the attention of participant 102 to the most recent contribution, the latter is highlighted or zoomed-in for a limited period of time after it has been added; finally, a scroll up-scroll down button allows going through the list when only part of the list items is visible.

d) a stimuli navigation zone 704 displays a stimulus 1232 selected from the list of stimuli of sessioni 21 1 ; it allows the participant 102 who clicks the replay button 7041 of this zone 704 to replay one (1232) of the stimuli which have already been played to him; clicking on the description button 7042 causes the display of the stimulus with an enlargement, along with a description information.

e) a whiteboard navigation zone 705 displays a thumbnail 7051 of stimuli or tree-structure 701 1 ; a target 7052 superimposed on this thumbnail corresponds to the borders of the whitepaper zone 701 ; this target can be moved by participant 102 or 103 with a mouse to generate a corresponding movement in zone 701 , so as to facilitate browsing through the tree-structure 701 1 .

f) a word cloud zone 706 displays in the form of a word cloud a set of keywords 7061 for the session. When a participant 102 or 103 clicks on one of the keywords, a window (not shown) is displayed in overlay, which contains the list of ideas related to this keyword.

g) a pop-up message display zone 707 (not shown) allows displaying session animation messages as an overlay to zones 701 to 706; this zone can for example display a stimulus 7071 ; the zone then includes a "close" button 7072 clickable by a participant 102 or 103, or the stimulus closes automatically closes after a predefined time 7073 according to the transition rules 1246 defined in the scenario; this zone 707 may also display a list of ideas 7074.

4.4. Session Animation Display Sub-module

A sub-module 1262 for displaying session animation information generates and displays management interface screens 800 on the terminal of the organizer 101 . In a variant, these screens can be spread across multiple display monitors if the organizer terminal has such equipment. This sub- module allows assisting organizer 101 in the supervision of a session 121 1 . The organizer can then, if needed, change the transition rules of the scenario, the rules for displaying the hierarchical table, or other features of the session.

Referring to Figure 1 1 , the organizer 101 has for this purpose a global interface screen 800 that allows him to control the progress of a session. This screen comprises four zones 801 -804, as described below.

4.4.1. Stimuli zone

A stimuli zone 801 allows organizer 101 to view the list of stimuli 1232 in their order of play as defined by scenario 1242, and to easily distinguish those which are in the wait list (dark display) from those already played (grey shade display). The lists of stimuli allow visualizing their features such as color, tag name, number of categories, of ideas, of comments or of ratings, or activity. 4.4.2. Participants Zone

Participants zone 802 101 allows organizer 101 to view the list of participants 102, 103 by distinguishing active and inactive participants. To this end, the list 8021 displays active participants while the list 8022 shows inactive participants. The contribution rate of each participant, measured by an organizer-defined algorithm as defined above, can also be displayed. 4.4.3. Contribution and Tree-structure Management Zone

A contribution and tree-structure management zone 804 allows organizer 101 view the list of most recent contributions 8041 , and further displays a report generation button 8042 and a list of emerging themes 8043.

The 8041 list shows the contributions by participants 102 to the session 102 and is supplemented by features of the contributions, such as the category tag, the author, the keywords, etc.

The list of emerging themes 8043 is generated by a correlation engine, not shown, included in the keyword management sub-module 1273. The emerging themes 8043 correspond to the keywords which are most used and at the same time recently appeared.

4.4.4. Report Management

A button 8042 allows organizer 101 to open a report edit form 805 so as to present data and statistics from a session as an Excel®, Word® or PDF file. This form 805 contains selection and data filtering lists to be aggregated in this report according to well known reporting techniques.

4.4.5. Session Supervision

By means of the display zones 801 , 802, 804, the organizer can supervise the session and monitor the effectiveness of the rules that he has predefined for stimulating the participants' creativity. He may need to add or remove a stimulus in the execution list 801 , change the execution order for the stimuli that have not yet been played, change scenario 1242 and in particular the rules of transition between steps 1246; pause a running session, e.g. to remind the participants about the operating rules; delete, move, duplicate, merge, enable or disable ideas 1234 or categories 1233, create, delete, enable, disable, move items in the displayed tree-structure 701 1 . He can further manage participation tools such as sending invitations to new participants via external email, create groups of participants, change the groups of participants, visualize the participants level of activity, block a participant by restricting his/her rights, import/export a participant list from/to other sessions or in Excel® files, manage ideas and categories by visualizing the list of new ideas, the number of ideas per theme, the emerging themes detected by a keyword detection and correlation engine, create new themes, enabling/disabling participation in a branch of the tree-structure 701 1 .

4.4.6. Communications zone

Communications zone 803 allows the organizer 101 to communicate directly with participants 102. To this end a button 8031 allows the organizer 101 to open a text-mode communication window, e.g. via email or instant messaging. A button 8032 allows organizer 101 to open a communications window in audio or video mode. Another button 8033, not shown, allows organizer to open a form for editing and transmitting a poll generated by module 125. The sub-module 1274 then manages the transmission to the participants of a message prompting for an opinion, a vote or a rating. This message can be acknowledged by sending the response to this prompt. In case the terminal of a participant becomes disconnected from the session, this prompt will be represented again by sub-module 1274 at the next connection.

4.4.7. Basket Management

Referring to Figure 12, a basket management interface 806 allows organizer 101 to classify 1234 ideas in baskets 8061 , 8062, 8063. This classification mode facilitates the steering of the session 121 1 by the organizer. He can for instance send the contents of a basket labeled "ideas to be expertized" to an expert via the email management sub-module 1274, the expert being then able to exploit all or part of the session results. Further, via a drag-and-drop action, the organizer can select a 1234 idea and drop it into one of the baskets 8061 , 8062, 8063 to classify it as an "idea for processing", "idea for refusal" or "idea for expert assessment". The organizer can also create a new basket be means of button 8064, specify a name and a color for this basket, remove a basket, view the list and the number of ideas contained in a basket, reorder them, edit a report relating to this ordering, and merge redundant ideas. 5. Administration Module

Referring to Figure 1 , the computer server 120 includes an administration module 127 allowing organizer 101 to parameterize and administer the system 100. It includes the following items. 5.1. Language Management Sub-module

The language management sub-module 1271 allows managing sessions in different languages within the same organization. Thus one session 121 1 may be in English while another session 1212 will be in Chinese Mandarin. These two sessions can be synchronized together so that participants 102, 103 using different languages can simultaneously view the same videos or other documents, each in his own language.

5.2. Rights Management Sub-module

The rights management sub-module 1272 allows organizer 101 to define, before the start of a session, access rules relating to visualizations and actions by respective participants 102, 103. Optionally, a super-organizer having a specific authorization may also adjust the rights of other organizers 101 .

A right is an access right to visualization or action on any item of the session and its organization. It can be defined participant by participant or participant group by participant group.

The rights granted to participants 102 can be rights to add, copy, modify ideas 1234, see new ideas, see one's own ideas, add or edit a comment 1236, rate ideas, visualize the average of an idea, the stimuli, the messages from the organizer. Certain rights can be enabled automatically when certain conditions are met. Thus, the rights to visualize one's own contributions or the new contributions since the last connection may be active only from the second connection of the member 102 to the same session. Similarly, a participant may rate an idea only once and cannot rate his/her own contribution. The number of possible ratings may be limited for a given participant. For instance, for a "favorite" rating, the participants may have a limited number of "favorite" to be allocated to contributions.

In addition to the rights of participants 102, organizers 101 may have additional rights to allow them controlling of the session as detailed above.

The observers 103 have more restricted rights, for instance limited to the rights to visualize ideas 1234, comments 1236 and the average ratings of ideas. 5.3. Keyword management sub-module

A keyword management sub-module 1273 manages the relationships between ideas 1234 and keywords. Some of these keywords 403 may be defined by organizer 101 before the session, and others by participants 102 by means of the idea form 400. Other keywords can be defined by a correlation engine, not shown. This engine contains for instance a semantic analyzer, known per se, which extracts the meaningful words from the description fields 401 of the ideas, their attachments 402 or comments 501 . The engine then analyzes the frequency of use of these words and their use context to select those that will enrich the keyword database.

Some of these keywords can be displayed in a tick-box list 403 in the form 400. In such case they are constrained, i.e. the participant must choose from this list those that correspond best to the new idea in 1234. They can also be displayed as a word cloud 7061 in the main participation screen 700. In this case, the sub-module 1273 assigns a value to each of the keywords, which is proportional to the number of ideas that are connected to them. Thus, their display size in the word cloud 7061 will be defined according to this value, with larger values inducing larger sizes.

5.4. Email management sub-module

An email management sub-module 1274 allows organizer 101 to manage 101 the sending and reception of emails relating to invitations, reminders and thanks for participants 102, 103, using for instance an address book in cooperation with an email management software such as Outlook®. The sub-module 1274 can also automatically send, in response to parameterization by organizer 101 , an email to participants 101 , 102, 103 each time a new item is generated in the hierarchical table 1231 . The organizer can thus define correspondence tables between lists or groups of recipients on the one hand, and the features of the new items. These features can include the item type or property (stimulus, category, idea, comment, rating), the branch of the hierarchical table 1231 when this item is connected, the branch of the tree-structure of a discussion, etc.

5. . Participant Profile Management Sub-module

A participant profile management sub-module 1275 allows each participant 102, 103 to inform his participant profile by setting its name, age, occupation, biography, etc.. The 1275 sub-module allows the participant to import or link profile to the one he already has a social network such as Facebook® or Linkedin®. In connection with the sub-module for email management in 1274 that in 1275 sub-module can also handle requests for networking, messaging and forums in groups, and portfolios of social relations.

6. Session Process

Referring to Figure 1 1 , the process of creating and running a session 900 will now be described: - step 910: the session is created and opened. In more detail, this step can be broken down as follows:

^* step 91 1 : organizer 101 opens the session creation and tracking form 200 and inputs the session title 201 , the main topic 202 and the session model 203;

^* step 912: the organizer 101 uploads multimedia source files 101 1 from his terminal to server 120 to form the multimedia contents 1241 , using the multimedia content management module 124;

^* step 913: the organizer 101 defines the scenario 1242, using the multimedia content management module 124, by assembling on a timeline the various multimedia contents 1241 and the free working times 1244, and by defining the transition rules 1246;

^* step 914: the organizer 101 defines the stimuli 1232 among the multimedia contents 1241 , using the multimedia content management module 124;

^* step 915: the organizer 101 defines at least one session 121 1 for execution of scenario 1242 by adjusting the opening 2064 and start 1245 of this session; he also defines the session report and the thanks email using wizard 208;

* step 916: the organizer 101 defines categories 1233 associated to stimuli 1232, the first levels of the hierarchical table 1231 associated with the session 121 1 by using the category generation form 300, whiteboards, hierarchical table display rules and rules adjusting the participants rights;

* step 917: the organizer 101 defines a list of email addresses

2061 to invite participants 102, 103 to the session, using the invitation wizard 206;

^* step 918: the session 121 1 opens at the date and time referenced 2064;

* step 919: the preliminary multimedia contents 1241 are played according to scenario 1242; organizer 101 can open a session lauch wizard 207 which allows him to view the list of invited participants 102, 103, whether or not they are connected to the session 121 1 ;

^* transition to step 920 is triggered by the session start clock

1245;

* step 920: a stimulus 1232 is played according to scenario

1242; in more detail:

• during the first pass in this step, the first stimulus 1232 according to the scenario 1242 is played;

• in the second and subsequent passes in this step, the second stimulus 1232, and then the next ones, according to the scenario

1242, are played;

• the transition to the next step is triggered according to the transition rule 1246 as provided in the scenario 1242;

^* step 930: a free working period 1244 allows participants 102 to enrich the hierarchical table 1231 of the 121 1 session; more precisely:

• at step 931 , a main participation screen 700 displays the hierarchical table 121 1 in the form of a tree-structure 701 1 , according to the display rules as defined at step 916;

• at step 932, the participants 102 post new ideas 1234, comments 1236 or ratings 1235 by clicking on the whiteboard 701 by means of the contextual menus 7013, 7014 and forms 400, 500 and 600, subject to their rights as ruled in step 916;

^* simultaneously, monitoring tools and administration tools 200, 710, 800 enable organizer 101 to change as necessary the categories 1233, the hierarchical table 1231 , the representation of the tree-structure 701 1 , the highlighting of its items or the rights of participants 102, 103.

^* when the stimuli 1232 provided in scenario 1242 have all been played, the transition to step 940 is triggered according to the transition rule 1246 following the last stimulus 1232 in scenario 1242;

* otherwise, step 920 is again triggered according to the transition rule 1246 provided in the scenario1242; ^* step 940: the session closes; more particularly:

• the closing multimedia contents 1241 are played according to the scenario 1242;

• a session report and the mailing for thanking the participants are sent according to the parameters defined at step 915.

7. List of features

100 System

101 , 102, 103 Participants

101 Organizer

101 1 Multimedia source files

102 Participant

103 Observer

1 10 Communications network

120 Computer server

121 Session management module

121 1 , 1212, 1213 Creativity sessions

122 Model management module

1221 , 1222, 1223 Models

1221 1 , 12221 , 12231 Features

123 Session tree-structure management module

1232 Stimuli

1233 Categories

1234 Ideas

1235 Ratings

1236 Comments

124 Multimedia content management module

1241 Multimedia files 1242 Scenario

1243 Session duration

1244 Free working period

1245 Date and time of session start 1246 Transition rules

1247 Stimulus generation buttons

125 Form management module

126 Display Module

1261 Main participation screen display sub-module

1262 Session animation display

sub-module

1263 Home screen for first-time participants in free mode

1264 Home screen for first-time participants in constrained mode

1265 Branch display parameters

127 Administration Module

1271 Language management sub-module 1272 Rights management sub-module 1273 Keyword management sub-module 1274 Email management sub-module 1275 Participant profile management

sub-module

200 Session generation and tracking form

201 Session title

202 Main topic of the session

203 Session model 203

204 Model features

205 Contextual help 206 Invitation wizard

2061 List of email addresses

2062 Invitation email

2063 URL of the session

2064 Date and time of session opening

207 Session launch wizard

208 Session closure wizard

Category creation form

301 Session title

Idea form

401 Idea description

402 Attachment for the idea

403 Idea keywords

404 Idea posting button

405 Cancel button

Comment form

501 Comment text

502 Comment posting button

503 Cancel button

Rating form

601 Rating of an idea

602 Idea credit button

603 Rating cancellation button

Main participation screen

701 Whiteboard zone

701 1 Tree-structure display

7012 Zoom/dezoom slider

7013, 7014 Contextual menu

7013 Category contextual menu 7014 Idea contextual menu

7016 Add idea button 7017 List mode button

7018 Notation button

7019 Comment button

Messaging and interaction zone

7021 Countdown timer

7022 Next screen button

New item notification zone

Stimuli navigation zone

7041 Replay button

7042 Description button

Navigation zone

7051 Miniature tree-structure

7052 Target

Word cloud zone

7061 Keyword list

Message display zone

7071 Stimulus display

7072 Close button

7073 Close timer

7074 Idea list display

Main participation screen (organizer version)

71 15 Category creation button

Tabs

7181 Whiteboard tab

7182 Whiteboard creation tab

Global interface screen

801 Stimuli zone

802 Participants zone

8021 List of active participants

8022 List of inactive participants 803 Communications zone

8031 Text-mode communication button 8032 Audio/video conference

communication button

8033 Poll transmitting button

804 Contributions and tree-structure management zone

8041 List of most recent contributions 8042 Report generation button

8043 List of emerging themes

805 Report edition form

806 Basket management interface

8061 , 8062, 8063 Baskets

8064 Add basket button

Session generation and execution process