JP2003015977A - Information management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To overcome such a problem that, when a user manages a schedule, the user wants to manage it together being associated with various information simultaneously, but the method is not established yet. SOLUTION: A schedule communication system 10 has a schedule communication device 14 of a client-side and a schedule communication device 38 of the server side. The schedule communication device 38 of the server side manages the schedule that is inputted by the user. When the user looks at a certain page with a browser and designates 'remind specification' of it, the URL of the page is clickably entered in a remind specification time-of-day column of the calendar in which the schedule is described.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for managing information to be distributed to users.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A technique for providing a calendar to a user by an electronic method and managing a schedule, such as an electronic notebook, is known. However, the user may want to manage not only his own schedule but also various information related to the schedule. For example, "concert"
Even if you just enter, it would be convenient to be able to manage the location and other details of the concert at once.

[0003]

However, the method therefor has not been established. The present inventor has made the present invention based on the insight of such a situation, and an object thereof is to provide a schedule or information management technique having high convenience and usefulness.

[0004]

One aspect of the present invention relates to an information management device. This device has a predetermined information page,
For example, a button for reminding is displayed on a web page, and a functional module is linked to the button so that the following processing is started when the button is clicked.

Step 1: A process for allowing the user to input the date and time of reminding, Step 2: A process for directly displaying the information page or displaying that the information page should be referred to at the input date and time.

The display indicating that the information page should be referred to may be made in a clickable form in the address of the information page. This is the case, for example, when the URL is displayed in a clickable manner.

In step 2, in the electronic calendar in which the schedule of the user is entered, the display may be performed in the column of the input date and time.

Another aspect of the present invention also relates to an information management device. This device implements a reminding function in a browser that displays an information page, the function displays a button for reminding, and when the button is clicked, the processes of steps 1 and 2 described above are activated. The function module is linked to the button. As an example of this aspect, it is considered that the remind function is provided as a plug-in of a browser.

Yet another aspect of the present invention also relates to an information management device. This device includes a receiving unit that receives information from a server, a first display unit that displays the received information in a date and time column that matches the date and time associated with the information in an electronic calendar, and a user can specify a reminding designation. And a second display unit for displaying the displayed information in the date and time column corresponding to the designated date and time of the remind in the calendar.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method of communicating a schedule in a network system, which is based on the step of receiving the schedule of the user via the network and the personal information of the user via the network. Receiving a selected advertisement, determining a destination time for the advertisement, and incorporating the advertisement along the destination time in the schedule or its associated fields to notify the user. .

The "network" may be wired or wireless,
It includes a transmission means capable of exchanging some data.
"Schedule" refers to general individual information that is assembled based on a time axis, such as a user's personal schedule.

[0012] Another aspect of the present invention is a method of communicating a schedule in a network system, which comprises transmitting the schedule to a user via the network, and selecting an advertisement based on personal information of the user. And adding a destination time to the selected advertisement for incorporating the advertisement into the schedule and transmitting the advertisement to the user.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is a schedule communication method in a network system including a server and a client on the user side, wherein the server transmits the schedule to the user, and the user side Receiving the schedule,
The server selecting an advertisement based on the personal information of the user, the server transmitting the selected advertisement to the user, the user side determining a destination time of the advertisement, Including the advertisement on the user side in the schedule along the target time and notifying the user.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is a schedule communication device in a network system, which is based on a unit for acquiring the user's schedule via the network and personal information of the user via the network. A unit for acquiring the selected advertisement, a unit for determining a target time of the advertisement, and a notification control unit for notifying the user of the advertisement by incorporating the advertisement along the target time in the schedule. Including.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is a schedule communication system in a network system including a server-side system and a user-side client, wherein the server-side system includes a unit for transmitting the schedule to the user. , A unit for selecting an advertisement based on the personal information of the user, and a unit for transmitting the selected advertisement to the user. The client includes a unit that receives the schedule, a unit that receives the advertisement, a unit that determines a target time of the advertisement, and the user who incorporates the advertisement in the schedule according to the target time. An announcement control unit for announcing.

The server-side system extracts the schedule and the advertisement according to the contents of the communication with the WWW server, which is a front server for communicating with the client on the Internet, and the WWW server. It may also include a delivery ad server.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an information management device. This device includes a receiving unit that receives event information that is transmitted when an event registration button formed on a predetermined information page is clicked and is associated with the button in advance, and the received event information that is registered. A registration processing unit that registers in the schedule database in association with the user who clicks the button, and a transmission unit that transmits the event information stored in the schedule database to the schedule communication device of the user when requested by the user. Equipped with. "event information"
Is the content, date and time of things to be registered as a schedule,
Indicate each item that you want to register as a schedule, including the location.

Yet another aspect of the present invention relates to an information management device. This device includes a receiving unit that receives event identification information that is transmitted when an event registration button formed on a predetermined information page is clicked and is associated with the button in advance, event identification information, and event information. And an event storage unit that stores the event information, a registration processing unit that registers event information associated with the received event identification information in the schedule database in association with the user who clicks the registration button, and requests the user And a transmission unit that transmits the event information stored in the schedule database to the user's schedule communication device.

The apparatus may further include an identification information generation unit that receives event information in advance and generates event identification information in association with the event information.

This device may further include a data generation unit for converting the format of data to be transmitted or the communication procedure in accordance with the type of the schedule communication device when the event information is transmitted to the schedule communication device. . As a result, schedule data can be transmitted to schedule communication devices developed by various vendors.

The apparatus may further include a charging unit that counts the event information or the event identification information received by the receiving unit and charges the provider of the event information.

Any combination of the above components,
It is also effective as a mode of the present invention to replace the expressions among the methods, systems, devices, computer programs, and recording media, or to combine the expressions.

[0023]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The basic configuration of the embodiment is
The present applicant has previously proposed it in PCT / JP00 / 06072, which will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 30 under the title of “basic technology”. After that, [applied technology]
The technical matters characteristic of the present invention will be described below.

[Basic Technology] <First Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a schedule communication system according to the first embodiment. In this system, the server side manages the user's schedule.
The user accesses the server side to know his / her schedule. At that time, the server side provides an advertisement suitable for the user or recruitment information of the company in a form that can be incorporated into the schedule.

The schedule communication system 10 includes a server side system 30, a user side client system PC (personal computer) 12, and a company server 52. However, the client system is PC1
The number need not be 2, but may be, for example, the mobile phone 16 or any other information terminal.

The server-side system 30 mainly includes a function of transmitting a schedule to a user, a function of selecting an advertisement according to the user's taste, and a function of transmitting the selected advertisement to the user. The server-side system 30 further includes a function of selecting a job advertisement to be transmitted to the user and a function of transmitting the selected job information to the user. On the other hand, the client receives the sent schedule, receives the sent advertisements and job information, determines the target time of those advertisements and job information, and has the time of day in the sent schedule. A function of notifying the user by incorporating an advertisement according to the above, and a function of notifying the user of the schedule sent and the job offer information sent in association with the target time. Here, the target time means a time having some relation to the advertisement or the job offer information, such as the date and time of the event targeted for the advertisement or the work date and time included in the job offer information.

The PC 12 as a client includes the schedule communication device 14 according to the embodiment. The schedule communication device 14 is mainly realized by the CPU of the PC 12 and a program loaded in the memory. However, it is also possible to configure this device by combining any other hardware and software, and it is easily understood by those skilled in the art that the degree of freedom in designing the device is high. When the schedule communication device 14 is configured as a software module group, this program can be loaded into the PC 12 by a recording medium such as the flexible disk 18.

The server side system 30 has a main unit 32, a user information database 40 and an advertisement database 50. The main unit 32 is a front server W that communicates with clients over the Internet.
It includes an advertisement server 36 that extracts schedules, advertisements, and recruitment information from the user information database 40 and delivers them to the WWW server 34 in accordance with the contents of communication between the WW server 34 and the client.

The advertisement server 36 incorporates the server-side schedule communication device 38 according to the embodiment. However, part or all of the server-side schedule communication device 38 may be built in the WWW server 34 side, and the degree of freedom in designing is high.

The user information database 40 is a schedule database 42 holding the user's schedule and a personal information database 44 holding the user's personal information.
including. The advertisement database 50 holds advertisements of companies, and the advertisements are stored from the company server 52 via the main unit 32, for example. However, the storage of the advertisement may be performed by offline processing. Corporate server 52
Has a server function of sending an advertisement to the main unit 32, and also has a function of a home page of a company that is accessed when detailed information of the advertisement is inquired from a client.

In the above-mentioned configuration, the main body of communication between the server and the client is the schedule of the user, but in this system, the user is notified that advertisements and job information are incorporated in the schedule around the time of the schedule. It In addition, the matching of advertisements and users and the matching of job information and users are verified in advance,
Advertisements are sent to users who are expected to have the highest advertising effectiveness, and job advertisements are effectively delivered to users who are most likely to employ the company. Also for the user, the advertisement that seems to be most interesting to him / herself is naturally flown, and the job offer information of the condition he / she wants to work can be efficiently obtained.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the schedule communication device 14 on the client side. User identification information input unit 100
Enter the information to confirm the user when accessing the schedule. Schedule registration unit 102
Is used when the user himself registers or updates the schedule. The schedule acquisition unit 104 is used when the user confirms the schedule by himself. The schedule acquired by the schedule acquisition unit 104 is sent to the target time determination unit 110.

The target time determination unit 110 determines the target time of the acquired schedule. For example, if the schedule is “go on a trip from January 1st to 1 week”, the target time is determined as “January 1st” or “January 1st to 1 week”. The schedule and its target time are sent to the notification control unit 120.

The notification control unit 120 performs various controls for notifying the user of the contents of the schedule and the target time. For example, if the user's schedule is to go to a concert on October 10, the notification control unit first displays the calendar around October 10 on the display,
In addition, "concert" is displayed in the date part on October 10.

The advertisement acquisition unit 106 is the server side system 3
Get the advertisement of the company sent from 0. The recruitment information acquisition unit 108 similarly acquires recruitment information. The job offer information may be received only by a preselected user. Both the advertisement and the job information are the target time determination unit 110.
And the destination times are determined. The result of the determination is sent to the notification control unit 120. In the notification control unit 120, for example, the content of the advertisement is “XX department store, November 10
If "day, all items 20% off", the calendar around November 10 is displayed, and the date portion of November 10 is displayed, for example, "XX department store, 20% off".
Similarly, if the job posting information is “December 10 Construction site part-time job”, the notification control unit 120 first displays the calendar around December 10 and the December 10 date section is “Construction site part-time job recruitment”. "Medium" is displayed.

The related information access section 160 is used by a user who is interested in the displayed advertisement or job information and wants to know the detailed information. For example, if the underlined information of the advertisement or job information displayed by the notification control unit 120 is clicked, the related information access unit 160 detects this action and accesses the detailed information.

The timer 150 is used for schedule, advertisement,
It is used to acquire job information at predetermined times and at regular intervals. For example, the schedule communication device 14 is normally used offline, and control such as dialing up every 5 minutes to obtain an advertisement is possible. Timer 1
50 can be configured by software polling or a real-time clock IC. When the real-time clock IC is used, its output is notified by the notification control unit 120.
It can be used for calendar display in.

The job offer response section 114 is used when the user applies for a job offer. Actually, when the job offer information is displayed, a button "Apply" is also displayed, and when the user clicks the button, the job offer response unit 114 notifies the server side system 30 of that fact.

The personal information input section 116 inputs personal information including the address and name of the user.

The communication I / F unit 112 is an interface between the communication unit 162 and the schedule communication device 14. The communication unit 162 is an arbitrary communication function block such as a modem, a LAN circuit, an optical communication circuit, etc., which the PC 12 is equipped with in advance. The communication I / F unit 112 converts the data of the schedule communication device 14 so that the communication unit 162 can exchange data with the network. However, the communication unit 162
May have the function of the communication I / F unit 112,
In that case, the schedule communication device 14 uses the communication I / F unit 11
You don't have to have two.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the user identification information input section 100. The PID input unit 100a inputs an ID for authenticating the user as an individual. PPW input section 100b
Enter the password to authenticate the user as an individual. The GID input unit 3 inputs an ID for authenticating a user as a group. The GPW input unit 100d inputs a password for authenticating the user as a group.

This embodiment has a function of not only authenticating a user as an individual but also as a member of a group to which the user belongs. For example, when friends allow the schedules to be viewed by each other, the schedules can be shared by the group of the friends acquiring a common group ID and group password.

The user identification information input unit 100 further includes a machine ID acquisition unit 100e. Machine ID acquisition unit 1
00e acquires a machine-specific ID such as the serial number of the CPU of the PC 12, for example. When using the machine ID, for example, the user does not have to input the personal ID. Various modification techniques are conceivable for improving the convenience of the user or improving the security by combining the machine ID and the usual individual ID and password.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of the data stream 400 sent from the server system 30. The data stream 400 includes a header 402, a user's schedule 404, advertisements 406 selected to suit the user's preferences, and job listings 408 also selected to suit the user's preferences and skills. However, the schedule 404, the advertisement 406, and the job information 408 may be information to which any one or more of these are sent.

FIG. 5 shows the internal structure of the schedule acquisition unit 104. The constant interval access unit 104a activates access to the schedule, advertisement, or job offer information at regular intervals based on the output of the timer 150 described above. The user activation access unit 104b actually activates the schedule acquisition operation when the user explicitly instructs access to the schedule or the like. The advertisement acquisition unit 106 and the job information acquisition unit 108 may also access those information at regular time intervals or when the user instructs. As another example of other timings for acquiring advertisements and job information, when a user requests registration of a schedule, when a schedule is actually registered, when a user acquires a schedule, and the like can be mentioned.

FIG. 6 shows the internal structure of the target time determination unit 110. The schedule stylization unit 110a decodes the schedule 404 of the data stream 400 sent from the server side system 30, and drops the contents of the schedule and the target time into a predetermined data format.

FIG. 7 shows the format 430. This format 430 includes a header 432, a schedule content 434 and a schedule destination time 436.
Advertisement stylization unit 110b and job information stylization unit 110c
Drops the advertisement and job information into the same format as in Fig. 7, respectively. These three types of formatted data are sent to the notification control unit 120.

FIG. 8 shows the internal structure of the notification control unit 120. Notification control unit 120 mainly includes a display control unit 122 and a voice notification unit 140. The display control unit 122 includes a calendar display unit 124 and a non-calendar display unit 126.

The calendar display section 124 displays the schedule incorporated in the calendar. At that time, the advertisement and the job information are also incorporated in the calendar or displayed in association with the calendar. Calendar display 1
24 includes a month display unit 128, a week display unit 130, a day display unit 132, a year display unit 134, and a time display unit 136.
If the target time of the advertisement is expressed in units of months, the month display unit 128 incorporates the advertisement in the display of the corresponding month of the schedule. Similarly, if the target time of the advertisement is expressed in week units, the week display unit 130 incorporates the advertisement in the display of the corresponding week in the schedule. The date display portion 132,
The same applies to the year display unit 134 and the time display unit 136.

A plurality of these display units may be operated at the same time. For example, "1 week from November 27, 1999"
If the target time is, the month display section 128 and the week display section 1
The four display units of 30, the date display unit 132, and the year display unit 134 may operate simultaneously. Although the advertisement has been described here, the same applies to the job information.

On the other hand, the non-calendar display unit 126 displays the user's schedule, advertisements, job information, etc. in a non-calendar form, such as a memo form. Calendar display section 12
4 and the non-calendar display 126 may operate simultaneously,
For example, a schedule can be described in the calendar, but job listings can be displayed outside the calendar.

The voice notifying section 140 performs a process for notifying the user's schedule, advertisement, recruitment information and the like by voice. For example, the schedule may be output by voice with a message such as “Today 10:00 Tokyo Station”. Any known technique may be used for voice output of text data such as a message and will not be described in detail here. The above is the configuration of the client-side schedule communication device 14 built in the PC 12.

FIG. 9 shows the internal construction of the schedule device 38 incorporated in the advertisement server 36 of the server-side system 30.

The communication unit 200 has an arbitrary communication function of the advertisement server 36, and the communication I / F unit 202 functions as an interface between the communication unit 200 and the schedule communication device 38. As described above, the communication I / F unit 202 may be in the communication unit 200.

The schedule request receiving section 224 receives a request regarding a schedule transmitted from the user. This request is sent by the authentication unit 226 together with the user identification information.
Sent to. The authentication unit 226 refers to the combination of the ID and password recorded in the table 232 to authenticate the user. When the user is properly authenticated, the request for the user's schedule is sent to the schedule management unit 222. The schedule management unit 222 controls the reading and writing of data with respect to the schedule database 42.
Therefore, if the user's request for the schedule is confirmation of the schedule, the schedule for the user is read from the schedule database 42,
This is sent to the transmission data generation unit 208. The transmission data generation unit 208 converts the user's schedule into the data stream 400 shown in FIG. 4, and transmits this to the user via the communication I / F unit 202 and the communication unit 200.

The personal information acquisition unit 204 acquires the personal information input to the personal information input unit 116 of the schedule communication device 14 on the client side shown in FIG. This personal information is sent to the personal information management unit 210. The personal information management unit 210 controls the reading and writing of data with respect to the personal information database 44. The data read from the personal information database 44 is sent to the search unit 220 as needed.

The advertisement acquisition unit 244 acquires advertisements from the company server 52 and others. This advertisement may or may not already have the target time. When the target time is not added, the advertisement acquisition unit 244 requests the corporate server 52 or the like to transmit the information. Information regarding the advertisement and its target time is sent to the advertisement management unit 250. The advertisement management unit 250 controls read / write of data with respect to the advertisement database 50. The advertisement read from the advertisement database 50 is searched by the search unit 2 as necessary.
20 and the charge management unit 246.

The job offer information receiving unit 206 is the company server 52.
Get job listing information from etc. The acquired job offer information is stored in the buffer memory 242. The acquired job offer information is sent to the transmission data generation unit 208 and the charging management unit 246. The transmission data generation unit 208 includes a search unit 22 described later.
Generates the data needed to send job listings to users selected by 0. The job response acceptance section 240
Accepts applications for job postings sent to users. The accepted application is stored in the buffer memory 242.

When the user tries to access the transmitted related information regarding the advertisement or the job offer information, the related information instruction section 230 performs a process for realizing the access. Since the related information instruction unit 230 can grasp what kind of advertisement or job information the user is interested in, the related information instruction unit 230 sends the information to the search unit 220. The access to the related information is also a measure indicating that the schedule communication device 38 has been able to transmit the appropriate advertisement and the job offer information to the appropriate user, and therefore the information is sent to the charging management unit 246. That is, a kind of success fee is charged.

FIG. 10 shows the internal structure of the personal information acquisition unit 204. The game distribution unit 204a distributes the game software to the clients via the network. The quiz delivery unit 204b similarly delivers the quiz to the client. The questionnaire communication unit 204c includes an incentive questionnaire distribution unit 204d, a general questionnaire distribution unit 204e, and a questionnaire reception unit 204f.

Incentive questionnaire distribution unit 204
d distributes an incentive-type questionnaire to users who have achieved excellent results in the game distributed by the game distribution unit 204a. An incentive-type questionnaire means the user's address, name, age, occupation, hobby, work place, favorite sport, favorite music genre, favorite movie, favorite magazine, favorite sports team, and frequent trips. It provides products and prizes online and offline for excellent results in the game, provided that you provide personal information about the city, favorite food, lifestyle information, countries you want to visit, etc. . Similar questionnaires are also delivered to users who have answered the quiz correctly or have achieved excellent results.

The user merit providing unit 204g provides the user merit of such prizes and products in various forms. In this embodiment, for example, the user is provided with a merit related to the use of the network. For example, discounting the cost of communication on schedule,
It is conceivable that software such as music and games will be distributed free of charge, various network services of companies that provide the corporate server 52 will be provided at a low price, and awards will be given on the network as excellent game or quiz performers.

On the other hand, the general questionnaire distribution unit 204e
A questionnaire for prompting the user to fill in predetermined requirements when starting the communication service of the schedule according to the present embodiment, and a questionnaire of a type that does not particularly give an incentive are distributed.

The questionnaire receiving unit 204f receives the user's answer to the incentive type questionnaire or the general questionnaire. This answer is personal information management unit 210
Is stored in the personal information database 44 via. These questionnaires, especially incentive-type questionnaires, can create an environment in which the user himself / herself can provide detailed personal information of the user. Therefore, the user can be segmented according to the taste.

FIG. 11 shows the internal structure of the personal information management unit 210. The database read unit 210a reads necessary personal information of the user from the personal information database 44.
The read personal information is sent to the search unit 220. The database write unit 210b writes the personal information sent from the personal information acquisition unit 204 into the personal information database 44.

FIG. 12 shows the structure of the personal information card 450 created for each user. The personal information card 450 is stored in the personal information database 44. The card 450 includes a first area 452 for storing the personal information obtained from the answers to the questionnaire and a second area 454 for storing the information obtained by the related information instruction unit 230, which will be described later. The first area 452 stores information such as the address and name of the user described above. On the other hand, the second area 454
Stores the content of the related information accessed by the user, that is, the genre and the number of times of access, as will be described later.
The purpose is to grasp the user's preference based on the content of the related information accessed and the number of times.

FIG. 13 shows the schedule request receiving section 224.
The internal structure of is shown. Schedule confirmation reception section 224a
Accepts when the user sends a request to confirm the schedule. Schedule update acceptance section 224
When the user sends a request for registration or update of the schedule, b accepts the request. However, both updating and registration are equivalent to writing schedules, and there is no technical difference between them.

FIG. 14 shows the internal structure of the authentication section 226. The PID / PPW determination unit 226a determines the consistency between the personal ID and the password transmitted by the user as the personal identification information. On the other hand, the GID / GPW determination unit 226b
Determines the consistency between the ID and password sent by the user as a member of the group. These two determination units determine whether or not the combination of the ID and the password is correct, based on the combination stored in the table 232. When the machine ID of the user is sent, the machine ID determining unit 226c determines the consistency between the machine ID of the user and the password of the user. When the user is properly authenticated, information such as the name or ID of the user is sent to the schedule management unit 222 so as to permit confirmation or update of the schedule.

FIG. 15 shows the job offer information 460 transmitted from the company server 52. The job offer information 460 is received by the job offer information receiving unit 206 and temporarily stored in the buffer memory 242. The job offer information 460 includes any number of offers. Here, as the first recruitment 462, personnel who are lined up as a part-time job to purchase a concert ticket are required. Further, as a second recruitment 464, a permanent employee of PC design is required. Each piece of information describes the required time, work location, work content, salary, content or classification of work, URL of a company's home page for knowing details of recruitment, etc. Examples of the target time include a work start date and start time, a work period, and a work time zone.

FIG. 16 shows an advertisement 470 sent from the company server 52. The advertisement 470 is received by the advertisement acquisition unit 244. Advertisement 470 includes any number of advertisement items.
Here, the discount sale at the record shop is described as the first item 472, and the special exhibition at the museum is described as the second item 474. For each item, the target time such as the discount period or the exhibition period, the location of the event to be advertised, the content to be advertised, the content or classification of the event, the URL to access to know the details of the event, etc. including.

FIG. 17 shows the internal structure of the related information instructing section 230. When the access detection unit 230a presses a button or the like (not shown) displayed on the screen or the like of the PC 12 in order to know the related information of the advertisement or the job offer information transmitted from the user, that is, the detailed information here, Detect action. When the access detection unit detects access to the related information, the casting unit 230b casts the user's access to the company server 52 or the home page that actually holds the related information.

On the other hand, the access information analysis section 230c counts the total number of times the user has accessed the access content determination section 230b for determining the content of the related information clicked by the user and the related information having the same content as the related information. The access number counting unit 230e is included. The content of the related information may be an arbitrary classification that indexes the related information such as a genre, a field, and a category to which the related information belongs.

The second area 454 of the personal information card 450 of FIG. 12 shows the content of the related information thus analyzed and the number of accesses. For example, as shown in the figure, this user has accessed music-related information 10 times, art-related information 5 times, and in the same manner, the contents of the accessed related information and the number of times are listed. The information obtained by the access information analysis unit 230c is sent to the personal information acquisition unit 204, where the personal information card 450 is created. However, the personal information card 450 may be configured to include only the first area 452, in which case the information obtained by the access information analysis unit 230c is directly sent to the search unit 220. It is easily understood by those skilled in the art that there are various modes of managing and storing such information.

FIG. 18 shows the internal structure of the search unit 220.
The search unit 220 mainly has a search function related to advertisement and a search function related to job information. An advertisement-based user detection unit 220a and a user-based advertisement detection unit 220b are provided as search functions related to advertisements.

The advertisement-based user detector 220a first assumes an advertisement that the company wants to deliver to the user. Then, the user who matches the advertisement is selected. When selecting a user, the personal information card 450 is used.
For example, if the advertisement relates to a large sale of a department store, a user who has a hobby of shopping is selected. If the discount sale of the music CD is the content of the advertisement, a user who is interested in music is selected. As another example, in the case of an advertisement related to a bargain sale in Yokohama, users centering on Yokohama are selected first. The user is the first area 45 of the personal information card 450.
2, the second area 454 may be used for selection, or any combination of arbitrary items included in those areas may be used for selection. In any case, the advertisement-based user detection unit 220a may select, based on a certain advertisement, a user whose taste matches or is interested in the advertisement in some sense.

On the other hand, the user base advertisement detecting section 220b, on the contrary, first assumes a certain user. Then select the appropriate advertisement for the user. At this time as well, the personal information card 450 is used. For example, when selecting an advertisement for a user who has the personal information card 450 shown in FIG.
It can be understood that the hobby of the user is driving, and the frequently accessed fields are music and travel. Therefore, FIG.
From the plurality of items 472, 474, etc. of the advertisement 470 shown in FIG. 6, items including words such as “drive”, “music”, “travel”, or words related thereto are selected. FIG.
As described above, if the items 472, 474 and the like have the information record “classification” in advance, the advertisement may be selected based on the classification.

The user-based advertisement detecting unit 220b can further select an advertisement which the user may be interested in based on the user's profile, such as age, address, occupation and the like. This is because the consumption tendency can be estimated to some extent from the user profile. The selection based on the user's profile can also be naturally performed by the advertisement-based user detection unit 220a.

On the other hand, the job recruiting information is selected by the job recruiting condition matching determination section 220c. The recruitment condition matching determination unit 220c includes a user skill determination unit 220d, a user preference determination unit 220e, and a user schedule determination unit 220f. The user skill determination unit 220d selects a user having a skill that matches the job recruiting condition explicitly or implicitly included in the job recruiting information.

For example, the second item 464 of the job offer information 460 in FIG. 15 has a job design of a PC. Therefore, a user whose current or past work history describes PC design, information device development, etc. is first selected.
When age and qualification are defined as job recruiting conditions, users who meet these conditions are selected.
When selecting users, a company that has created job offer information in advance may select keywords for searching for users.

The user preference determining section 220e selects a user who has a preference for the job genre of the job offer. For example, the content of the job offer is the first item 4 of the job offer information 460 in FIG.
If it is a part-time job related to music like 62, a user who may be interested in music is preferentially selected based on the personal information card 450.

The user schedule determination section 220f selects the users whose schedules match the target time of the job offer information. That is, a user whose schedule is not entered at the target time of the job offer information is preferentially selected. for that reason,
The user schedule determination unit 220f accesses the schedule database 42 via the schedule management unit 222. However, if the company works for a relatively long time,
For example, when the number of employees as regular employees is being sought, it is considered that there are few users who have not been scheduled for a long period of time to meet the conditions. Therefore, in that case, the user schedule determination unit 220f may select the user regarding the job offer information regarding the relatively short-term work.

As described above, according to the search unit 220, it is possible to preliminarily narrow down the users who are considered to have a great effect when the advertisement is distributed, and the advertisement can be concentratedly distributed to such users. On the other hand, from the user's point of view, all of the advertisements delivered are of relatively high interest to the user, and the risk of losing the desired information in the flood of information is reduced.

With respect to the job offer information, the labor of the applicant selection in the company can be reduced by the action of the job offer information matching determination unit 220c. The user skill determination unit 220d can partially act as a document selection process for applicants in a company. From the user's point of view, the work that is relatively interesting to me is presented when my schedule is free,
You can efficiently obtain high-quality job information.

That is, the search unit 220 provides a function of screening advertisements and recruitment information for users, and at the same time provides a company with a screening function of effective marketing and securing of human resources. Moreover, since such advertisements and job information are provided in a form linked to the schedule, it is extremely convenient for users to utilize the information. With the efficient and prompt securing of a liquid workforce affecting the survival of a company, this embodiment is of great significance.

FIG. 19 shows the transmission data 500 generated by the transmission data generation unit 208. Transmission data 500
Is a part of the header information, which is the user / group address 502, schedule 504, advertisement 506, job information 5
Including 08. The user / group address 502 is the address of the user or group identified by the search unit 220 to which the schedule 504 or the like should be transmitted. However, the address of the group does not have to exist separately from each user, and may be an aggregate of a plurality of addresses of a plurality of users belonging to the group. Schedule 50
4, the advertisement 506, and the job offer information 508 are generated so that the target time is included in each of them. However, the transmission data generation unit 208 does not always include the target time in the schedule 5
It is not necessary to describe 04 etc. In that case, the target time determination unit 110 of the schedule communication device 14 on the client side
May be configured to inquire the target time via the schedule acquisition unit 104. That is, the final determination of the target time is performed by the transmission data generation unit 208, the schedule acquisition unit 104 on the client side, and the target time determination unit 110.
Can be shared between.

FIG. 20 shows the internal structure of the charge management unit 246. In this embodiment, the charge is made to the company requesting the delivery of the advertisement or the job information to the user. The company server identification unit 246e identifies the company server that has requested the delivery of the recruitment information or the advertisement. The billing information is generated in the table 248 for each specified enterprise server.

The recruitment information counter 246a counts the recruitment information requested by the company server or the recruitment items included therein. Similarly, the advertisement counter 246b counts advertisements requested by the company server or advertisement items included therein. A unit price is applied to each of the count values of these counters to generate billing information.

Further, in this embodiment, when a company requests a user search by the search section 220, a charge is added depending on the content and number of searches. Search addition unit 246c
Does the calculation for that. For example, the unit price is multiplied by the number of conditions for selecting users to determine the amount to be added. Other,
You may decide the additional amount based on the time required for the search,
This part also has a high degree of freedom in design.

The billing information management unit 246 further has a related information access counter 246d. This counter records the number of times a user who has received an advertisement or job offer has accessed the relevant information. As the number of times increases, the user is more interested, and thus the fee is added as a kind of success reward as described above. As described above, all charges are totaled and the charge amount for this company is stored in the table 248.

The schedule communication by the above schedule communication system 10 and the accompanying advertisement and job information distribution processing will be specifically described.

FIG. 21 shows an initial screen 300 displayed on the display of the PC 12 when the user confirms the schedule. Here, a personal identification information input screen 302 for confirming the schedule is displayed. When the user wants to access the schedule as an individual, the user has an ID (PID) and a password (PP
Enter W). On the other hand, if you want to see the schedule of a certain group to which you belong, enter the group ID (GI
Enter D) and its password (GPW).

FIG. 22 shows an initial screen 360 displayed when the user confirms the schedule using the mobile phone 16.
Indicates. In the case of a mobile phone, the individual ID can be specified by the contractor number (telephone number), and therefore the password may simply be entered here. Although only one password input window is shown in the figure, it is of course possible to enter the group password. Since there is essentially no difference between using the PC 12 and using the mobile phone 16, an example using the PC 12 will be mainly described below.

FIG. 23 shows the schedule displayed after the user has been properly authenticated. Schedule display screen 3
32, the schedule of today, this week, or this month is switchably displayed by the action of the display control unit 122 of the notification control unit 120. To switch between these, select “Today” tab 310, “This week” tab 312, and “This month” tab 31.
It can be switched by 4.

FIG. 23 shows today's schedule. The left half of the schedule display screen 332 mainly relates to schedules arranged in chronological order. On the other hand, the right half displays supplementary information for the schedule, and for example, a memo screen, an address of a friend or the like, or a sticker screen containing various marks that can be pasted on an arbitrary place of the schedule book can be selected. The selection is made by the “memo” tab 316, the “address” tab 318, and the “seal” tab 320.

First, it is assumed that the schedule of "today" is selected on the left screen. Then today's date 11
The 27th of the month is displayed, and today's schedule is displayed below it. The today's schedule column includes a target time column 340, a symbol column 342 symbolically representing the schedule, and a column 344 indicating the contents of the schedule. In the symbol column 342, three types of symbols of square, triangle and circle are entered. For example, squares relate to an individual's private appointments, circles to work, and triangles to advertisements sent by companies. In the case of this figure, this user makes a reservation for the sports club at 11:00 and enters a part-time job at 13:00. “Mini Live AAA in Yokohama” described at 16:00 is an advertisement selected as this user may be interested in. In this case, this user may have been in the fan club of the rock group "AAA", for example. In this way, the advertisement is incorporated into the user's schedule and displayed according to the target time.

In the margin of "Today's schedule" in which the user's schedule is displayed, "11/28 XXX has ticket purchase byte" is displayed. This is the job listing selected as being of interest to this user or corresponding to the days when this user's appointment is open. This information is preceded by a circle 346 to make it clear that it is related to a job or job offer. However, the work that the user has already done, for example, 13
The color of the circle 346 may be changed so as to distinguish it from a part-time job that is time-consuming.

A link 348 is provided on this job offer information, and the user can confirm more detailed information on this part-time job by clicking on the portion.

Note that the “Today's Schedule” schedule column can be switched to display “Diary”. Further, it may be configured to display an arbitrary character or image desired by the user in the margin portion other than today's date “11/27” and “today's plan”. Such characters and images may be provided by advertising companies at low cost or free of cost.

On the other hand, the right screen of the schedule display screen 332 is currently in a state of displaying a memo. Here, the telephone number of the sports club which this user should make a reservation at 11 o'clock is written as a memo. On the right screen, a connection button 32 for establishing a connection between the client and server in order to obtain the latest information from the server.
Two are provided. When the user presses the connect button 322, the PC 12 connects to the Internet by an arbitrary connection method such as dial-up and receives the latest advertisement, job information, etc. from the server.

The user may press the connect button 322 also when checking or updating the schedule. When the connect button 322 is pressed, the fact is notified to the user activation access unit 104b of the schedule acquisition unit 104 in FIG. On the other hand, even if the user does not press the connect button 322, the user's schedule or the like is acquired via the constant interval access unit 104a by the action of the timer 150 in this embodiment.

FIG. 24 shows another state of the schedule display screen 332. On the left screen, the schedule of "this week" is selected and the weekly schedule from November 7th to 13th is displayed. The personal schedule is displayed here as well, and an advertisement "BBB new single released" is displayed on November 11th. Further, an advertisement "ABC record sale in progress (11 / 6-12)" is also displayed outside the schedule area. A link 348 is also set in this advertisement, and it becomes possible to access related information.

On the other hand, on the right screen, the "seal" screen is selected. Here, an image symbol 350 is given to words related to various action schedules and schedules, as well as an elephant symbol 350 indicating "kaimono". These symbols 350 can be embedded in the schedule for a more concise and easy-to-understand display of the schedule. Also, these symbols 35
It is also possible to actually use 0 as a sticker by directly making a hard copy of 0 on sticker paper. These symbols may be drawn by the user himself or may be downloaded free of charge from a company that provides advertisements and the like.

FIG. 25 shows another state of the schedule display screen 332. First, on the left screen, the schedule of "this month" is selected, and the schedule for the month of November 1999 is displayed. In this case, since there is no space to write the contents of the schedule, only the square, round, and triangular symbols 342 introduced earlier are displayed. In this state, the schedule of the day may be displayed by clicking an arbitrary date, or the content of the schedule corresponding to the symbol may be displayed by clicking an arbitrary symbol 342. Of course, the shape and color of the symbol may be arbitrarily set for each user.

FIG. 26 shows a screen 360 that appears when the user uses the mobile phone 16 to confirm the schedule. This screen 360 corresponds to the left screen of the schedule display screen 332 of FIG. In general, since the display screen of the mobile phone 16 is narrow, an arbitrary subset of screens for a schedule displayed on the display of the PC 12 or a screen specific to the mobile phone 16 may be displayed.

FIG. 27 is a flow chart showing the procedure when the user confirms the schedule. The user first uses the schedule acquisition unit 104 to transmit a request for schedule confirmation (S10). The schedule request receiving unit 224 of the advertisement server 36 receives the request sent by the user (S12). Subsequently, the authentication unit 226 authenticates the user (S14). If the authentication is completed correctly, the schedule management unit 222 reads the user's schedule from the schedule database 42 (S1).
6), which is sent to the transmission data generation unit 208. The transmission data generation unit 208 generates the transmission data 500 (S
18), and sends it to the communication I / F unit 202. The transmission data 500 is transmitted from the communication I / F unit 202 to the communication unit 200 and transmitted to the user (S20).

The user acquires the transmitted transmission data 500 in the schedule acquisition unit 104 via the communication unit 162 and the communication I / F unit 112 (S22). Continuing,
The target time determination unit 110 determines the schedule, and the target time of the advertisement and the job offer information, if any (S).
24). Then, the notification control unit 120 displays a calendar of schedule and other information (S2).
6). The user can confirm his / her own schedule and advertisement or job information by looking at the schedule and other information displayed on the calendar (S28).

28 and 29 are flowcharts showing the procedure for displaying an advertisement when confirming the schedule. As a preparation for delivering the advertisement to the user, first, the advertisement 470 is transmitted from the company server 52 to the advertisement server 36 (S100). The advertisement server 36 receives the advertisement 470 received.
Is segmented and stored (S102). Here, segmentation means giving a keyword necessary for an advertisement in order to search an advertisement required later more easily.
However, if the keyword for such classification has already been added when the advertisement 470 is sent from the corporate server 52, segmentation is not necessary. Advertising 470
Is stored in the advertisement database 50 via the advertisement management unit 250.

Subsequently, the personal information database 44 is read out via the personal information management section 210 to search for the target user (S106). Here, the target user is a user who should send the advertisement. This search is performed by the search unit 220 based on the personal information card 450. This completes the preparation for delivering the advertisement.

Here, it is assumed that the user sends a request for schedule confirmation (S10). The advertisement server 36 accepts this request (S12), authenticates the user (S14), and reads the user's schedule (S16). Here, the processing differs depending on whether or not this user is the target user of the advertisement (S108). If it is the target user, not only the schedule but also the advertisement is stored in the transmission data 500, and the data TD1 is generated (S110). on the other hand,
If it is not the target user, the data TD2 is stored without storing the advertisement.
Is generated (S112). The transmission data 500 thus generated is transmitted to the user (S20).

The user receives the transmission data 500, that is, the data TD1 or TD2 (S22). Subsequently, the schedule and, if necessary, the target time of the advertisement are determined (S24). The information such as the schedule is displayed in a calendar (S26), and the user confirms the information such as the schedule (S28). When the user is interested in the displayed advertisement, the user requests the display of the related information, that is, the detailed advertisement (S120). This request is
It is transmitted by the related information access unit 160. This request is detected by the access detection unit 230a of the related information instruction unit 230. The casting unit 230b relays to the corporate server 52 that there is an access to send detailed information to the user (S122). At the same time, the access information analysis unit 230c determines the content of the information accessed by the user and counts the number of accesses (S124).

The company server 52 or the company home page sends the relevant information requested by the user, that is, the detailed advertisement, to the user directly, via the WWW server 34, or via the advertisement server 36 (S126). The user who receives the detailed advertisement confirms the content (S12).
8).

Here, the user is first selected on the assumption of advertisement, but this may of course be reversed. That is, the configuration may be such that a user is assumed first and an advertisement suitable for the user is selected.
This is realized by the function of either the advertisement-based user detection unit 220a or the user-based advertisement detection unit 220b of the search unit 220.

FIG. 30 is a flow chart showing the procedure for transmitting job offer information from the advertisement server 36 to the user. First, the company server 52 sends the job offer information to the advertisement server 36 in preparation for distributing the job offer information to the user (S).
200). The job offer information is acquired by the job offer information receiving unit 206 (S202). Subsequently, the personal information management unit 210 reads the personal information from the personal information database 44 (S20).
4). The personal information is stored in the search unit 2 as the personal information card 450.
Sent to 20. The schedule management unit 222 reads the user's schedule from the schedule database 42 (S206). The schedule information is also included in the search unit 220.
Sent to.

The search unit 220 searches for the target user (S
208). First, the user skill determination unit 220d and the user preference determination unit 220e of the recruitment condition matching determination unit 220c narrow down the users based on the personal information. Subsequently, the user schedule determination unit 220f selects the users who are not scheduled at the target time of the job offer information. The transmission data generation unit 208 stores the address of the target user, generates transmission data 500, and transmits this to the communication I / I.
A call is made to the user via the F unit 202 and the communication unit 200 (S210).

The user acquires the job offer information sent from the advertisement server 36 by the job offer information acquisition unit 108 (S212). The job offer information is displayed on the calendar after being processed by the target time determination unit 110 and the notification control unit 120 (S214). Here, it is assumed that the user applies for a job offer (S216). The application is made via the job response section 114. The application is once sent to the advertisement server 36, acquired by the job offer response reception unit 240, and stored in the buffer memory 242.
Stored in. Next, the job response reception unit 240 informs the communication I / F unit 202 and the communication unit 200 that there is an application.
Then, it is transferred to the corporate server 52 (S218). After this, an arbitrary employment contract is signed between the company and the user (S220).

Here, an example is shown in which the job offer information is sent to the user at an arbitrary timing, but it is of course possible to send the job offer information when the user confirms the schedule. In this example as well, job offer information is assumed and a user suitable for the job offer is searched for. However, there is no problem in assuming a user first and selecting the job offer information suitable for the user.

Some of the modifications of the embodiment will be described below.

The target time regarding the job offer information may not be the working hours. The schedule communication devices 14 and 38 may, for example, put the time of briefing sessions and interviews of various companies as the target time in the schedule during the employment season. In this case, the job offer information may be grasped as an advertisement. By pre-registering a desired job type, work place, work time, salary, and other conditions, the user can search for the necessary information in a timely manner from the vast amount of job information. In the embodiment, the job offer information is not sent to the user who is already scheduled, but in that case, it may be sent depending on the situation. The notification control unit 120 of the user's schedule communication device 14 displays such information in another color or a light color, or displays the information below the user's schedule or smaller than usual, and the original user's schedule has priority. It may have a display control function that can be grasped. In particular, the information that is important to the user, such as the interview date and time of the company of the first choice, should be promptly known by the user even if the schedule is included. Therefore, the client side may be provided with an optional function for deciding whether or not to display the information to be batting with the user's schedule.

The schedule communication devices 14 and 38 may also handle information about entrance examinations and other examinations as a kind of recruitment information or advertisement. For example, the conditions of a desired school may be registered by an online questionnaire or other method, and the test schedule of the school may be added to the schedule. The examination institution or the cram school may use the schedule communication device 14, 38 to display the curriculum in the schedule. When the advertisement, job information, or related information linked to the calendar that is to be cast into the calendar becomes a large amount of data, the main server 32 may format the information and send it to the user's schedule communication device 14 by e-mail. .

Not limited to the examination and the examination, the user may register the keyword of the information that he / she is interested in by a questionnaire or the like, and receive the information hitting the keyword as an advertisement in the schedule. Therefore, for example, the personal information input unit 116 receives a keyword, the personal information management unit 210 on the server side holds the keyword, and the search unit 220 collates it with the advertisement or the keyword therein. As a result, the hit information is sent to the user as an advertisement, which is announced along with the target time of the schedule. The charging management unit 246 may set a higher advertisement distribution unit price to users who have hit a larger number of keywords to charge the company for the advertising cost.

The target time does not have to be determined by an objective factor closely related to the event, such as the date and time of the sales for which the advertisement is to be held, but may be a proactive factor such as the date and time when the company wants to show the advertisement to the user. You may decide. In that case,
A company that puts out an advertisement may make a request that "I want to put an advertisement in the frame at 10:00 am on October 10," and the date and time is treated as the target time. The same applies to job offer information. The server-side schedule management unit 222 may detect a date and time when the target user's schedule to which the advertisement or the job offer information is to be sent is relatively open, and may use the date and time as the target time to recruit a company that issues the advertisement or the job offer information. The advertisement thus distributed is poured into the calendar of the user's schedule communication device 14 at the date and time. As described above, there is also a method of setting the advertisement cost lower than that of the advertisement announced outside the calendar for the advertisement or the job information that fills the gap of the user's schedule.

In the embodiment, the job offer information is sent during the time when the user has a free time, but conversely, the user uses the schedule communication device 14 to select the date and time of the job or desired job, that is, "reverse job offer information". You may send the workforce provision information to be mentioned. In that case, the schedule registration unit 102 of the schedule communication device 14 may be provided with a function of inputting additional information such as a desired time zone and desire in the calendar display. This workforce provision information is transferred to the corporate server 52 via the main server 32.

In the embodiment, the function of authenticating a user as an individual and the function of authenticating as a group have been described. Not only the schedule of oneself and the group to which the band belongs, but if, for example, one is in a fan club of a certain music band, the schedule of that band may be confirmed. That is, it is possible to have a configuration in which the schedule of another person can be confirmed through a predetermined procedure. In that case, a special ID or password may be set to the member who permits such access. Also, special charge management may be performed. The variety of billing is the same in various services of the embodiments.

In addition to authenticating the user as an individual or a group, when the user inputs a schedule, the user can make a selection such as "personal", "business", or "open to the public", so that "very close friends" or "work relationship" can be entered. The schedule can be made public to anyone who wants to see their own schedule. In this case, the schedule communication device 14, which is a client, has only to have a function of accepting the user's designation regarding the openness of the schedule information input by the user, and the schedule communication device 38 of the server-side system uses It is sufficient to have a function of determining whether or not to permit access to a user who desires to access the schedule. Alternatively, each user can set a different keyword for “personal”, “business”, and “public” and share the schedule with a desired degree of disclosure by teaching one of those keywords to the other party. it can. Note that these arbitrary passwords may be stored in the memory (not shown) of the schedule communication device 14 of each user, in which case there is no need to forget the password.

In order to facilitate the user's confirmation of the schedule, the schedule communication device 38 on the server side may be configured to send the user's schedule of the day to the user by e-mail at a fixed time, for example, early morning.

An upper limit may be set for the number of advertisements or job postings when the advertisements or recruitment information are poured into the user's schedule. The upper limit may be settable by the user. This is to prevent a situation in which too many advertisements are poured into the user's calendar. In this case, for example, when the number of advertisements or the like reaches the upper limit of the notification control unit 120 or the advertisement acquisition unit 106 of the schedule communication device 14 of the client, or any other place, the incorporation into the calendar or the notification or the suspension or interruption of the notification is performed. You can take action.

The size of the frame of the calendar day, week, or the like may be variable according to the amount of the schedule input by the user and the amount of the advertisement to be poured. For example, it is convenient for a user who has many schedules on Sunday that the Sunday frame is large. Therefore, the calendar display unit 124 of the notification control unit 120 may have a function of detecting the amount of information to be displayed and a function of variably displaying the calendar according to the amount of information.

Some schedule management programs are already on the market or available on the WWW. Also, when a PC or the like is purchased, it may be preinstalled. In order to cooperate with such other schedule management device, the schedule communication device 14 of the client may include a data format conversion unit for importing or exporting the user's schedule data with the other schedule management device. Good.

News can also be distributed as a type of advertisement. For example, the headline of the news at 8:00 pm on April 27, 2000 may be poured into the date and time of the user's schedule. In that case, the target time determination unit 110
Can grasp the news delivery time or the occurrence time of the event that is the source of the news, for example, the time related to the news such as the occurrence time of the earthquake, as the target time.

Schedule communication device 1 on client side
Reference numeral 4 denotes a function for allowing the user to enter a time-limited schedule in a calendar, for example, the schedule registration unit 102.
You may be prepared for. For example, if you have a report to be submitted by May 10, "May 10" will have a "deadline"
Specify "attribute" and record it as "report submission". A configuration may be used in which the user is warned by a cooperation of the timer 150 and the notification control unit 120 when a predetermined date and time, for example, May 4, which is one week before, is reached before the user erases the record.

The location of the person whom the user wants to track may be recorded in the schedule calendar. For example,
The position of the child can be detected by the timer 150 using the position transmission function of the PHS terminal held by the child at regular intervals, and the action record of the child can be written in the child's or the child's calendar. Therefore, the communication units of the schedule communication devices 14 and 38 may be provided with the function of receiving the position detection result, and the target time determination unit 110 may be provided with the function of detecting the time at the place as the target time.

The communication unit may be configured to automatically detect the whereabouts of the user himself and write this in the calendar of the user. In that case, the user can automatically form his / her activity diary as a log file. A GPS system may be used to detect one's whereabouts.

The weather forecast may be inserted as an advertisement at the corresponding date and time on the calendar. For example, put a mark of "Fine" in the May 5 column, or change the weather forecast for each time in the detailed schedule column of May 5,
For example, details may be entered such as “clear” at 10 am and “cloudy” at 3 pm. Advertising value is generated by putting a small sponsor's display near these marks. When distributing information that depends on a region, such as a weather forecast, the registered address of the user is used as a cue, and the place name written in the schedule by the user is identified on the main server 32 side. In addition to displaying such as "Yokohama is sunny", it is also possible to display according to the user's whereabouts on the main server 32 side based on the position transmission device separately provided in the schedule communication device 14 of the user.

Similar to the weather, it is possible to select the stock price, the exchange rate, and other information that changes every moment according to the registered contents of the user, and put the information at that time into the calendar. In this case, information such as stock prices may be considered as an advertisement. The target time is the time when the stock price is attached or the time when the stock price is distributed.
This service can display the sponsors, and the user can follow the stocks that he / she is interested in with a simple mechanism.

The information may be segmented and poured into a calendar. The segmentation includes a case where the information is classified according to the content and the genre, and a case where the information is classified according to the type of the user to whom the information is to be distributed. That is, it includes the case where information is classified according to its object and also according to the subject.

As an example, the segmentation is performed according to the following: • Object characteristics such as sports, travel, movies, restaurants, etc. • Subject characteristics such as young people and men. For example, you can put only the title "Restaurant" on the calendar, link from this title to various restaurant sites on the Internet, or information items such as "Restaurant Portal Site" that gathers such restaurants in one place. You may link to another aggregation site or aggregation page (hereinafter referred to as "aggregation point"). In many cases, the date field of the calendar of the schedule communication device 14 used in the embodiment does not have a large space, and the segmented information is delivered and displayed with one title, which is a great advantage for the user. According to this method, the user can also compare and consider similar products.

At the time of title distribution, the concept of target time can be used. For example, the title can be entered at a date and time when information such as other advertisements is not occupied.
In that case, preliminary check the target time of other information,
Dates that do not overlap or have relatively little overlap can be adopted as the target time. It should be noted that such a selection method regarding the target time can be used in addition to the title distribution.

There is also a method of selecting the date related to the title as the target time of the title distribution. For example, if it is Mother's Day, various information having the title "Mother" may be collected on the server side. By clicking on the title, the user can access the information item regarding "Mother" or the aggregation point therefor online and receive a display of the necessary information.

In addition to the above, for example, information on medical care, real estate, buying and selling of goods, fortune, travel, hobbies, culture, etc. required by the user can be distributed as an advertisement, and the application range of the embodiment is wide.

[Applied Technology] So far, the fusion of advertisement distribution and schedule management has been described with a focus on individual tastes. The applied technology also provides a reminding function for information including advertisements centered on the schedule of the user. The origin of the process is not the calendar, but when the user is browsing a web page. That is, when the user wants to refer to the page again at a certain timing, this is designated as "remind" and "remind date and time" is designated. The URL of the page is automatically entered in the corresponding date / time field of the calendar. When the user looks at the calendar to check his / her schedule, the URL is clickably entered in the date / time column corresponding to the remind date / time, and by clicking this, the browser is activated and the page can be accessed.

There are roughly two methods for the user to remind a page. In the first method, a button for reminding or other user action acquisition means (represented by “button” in this specification) is directly embedded in the page. This is easy to realize when the operator of the page is a sponsor of this schedule communication system or other related parties. The button is linked to a program such as CGI behind the page, and from this program, the URL is written to the relevant date and time of the user's calendar. U
To enter RL, if a protocol is decided between the program and the schedule communication program of the user terminal,
For example, it can be easily realized only by passing text data.

In the second method, the reminding function is incorporated in the user's browser as a plug-in. For example, when an item “Remind” is displayed on a toolbar or the like and the user clicks this item, the URL of the currently opened page is acquired, and then the input screen for “Remind date” is output. When the date and time is input, this is acquired by the plug-in program and passed to the schedule communication program of the user terminal in the same manner as described above.

An example of a scene using this technique is as follows. First, a user is interested in a certain theme park and accesses this official home page and other related pages. The user decides to go to this theme park on May 5, and sets "May 5" as the "remind date". By this action, the URL of the homepage and other pages of the theme park is entered in the column of May 5 of the user's calendar. The user can refer to the detailed information on the theme park by clicking the URL on the day or at any timing prior to that.

As described above, according to this applied technique, the remind function can be realized in the manner that the user sets a bookmark. As a base device for that purpose, it is sufficient to assume any function of the schedule communication device described in the basic technology. In that case, remind information is displayed on the calendar that the user frequently confirms, so it is also effective and convenient. Is also high.

<Second Embodiment> FIG. 31 is a block diagram of a schedule communication system 600 according to a second embodiment having an applied technique. In the figure, the components designated by the same reference numerals as the functional blocks described with reference to FIG. 1 have the same functions as the functional blocks. The business server 604 is a server that provides the user with explanations of products and services, sale dates, reservation reception dates, business start dates, online shopping, and the like by electronic means such as a homepage, and for example, the theme parks described above. It is a server that provides the homepage of.

The browsing device 612 provides the user with a function for browsing the home page provided by the business entity server 604 via the network 602. Web page 6
Reference numeral 06 is an example of a screen displayed by the browsing device 612. This web page 606 is a screen for notifying the reservation reception start date of the concert ticket, and conventionally, a user who wishes to purchase the concert ticket has memorized the reservation reception start date by himself / herself or taking notes. However, in this system, when the user presses the schedule registration button 608, information such as the reservation reception start date (hereinafter referred to as “event” or “event information”)
Is an electronic schedule book (hereinafter "Schedule book"
Automatically).

When the schedule registration button 608 is clicked, the information for specifying the event (hereinafter referred to as "event identification information") is specified for the user (hereinafter, referred to as "event identification information").
Network 60 together with "user identification information"
2 to the server-side schedule communication device 620 (hereinafter referred to as “server 620”). The browsing device 612 may accept the user identification information or the authentication information from the user when transmitting the event identification information. For example, the browsing device 612 holds the data on the client side generally called a cookie, and the data is stored as necessary. May be held in advance by using a mechanism for calling on the server side. By using this mechanism, it is possible to save the trouble of inputting the user identification information each time the event identification information is transmitted.

The server 620 presents the user information associated with the event content and the user identification information as a web page before storing the event information as a schedule, and stores it after receiving the confirmation of the content from the user. May be. In this confirmation process, if the user's information is different from that of the user, the user can change it to his own information. By performing such confirmation processing, the user can register event information in his or her own schedule book even when using the browsing device 612 of another person. Further, by making the user identification information different from the identification information for acquiring the schedule from the server 620, security can be enhanced.

The server 620 uses the detailed information of the event and
The event identification information is stored in association with each other, and the detailed information associated with the received event identification information is stored in association with the user who transmitted the event identification information.

Client-side schedule communication device 14
(Hereinafter, referred to as “client 14”) acquires schedule data from the server 620 according to a user's instruction, and displays a schedule screen 610 on the display device.
The “schedule data” is information on individual events necessary for the client 14 to display a schedule, and is, for example, a group of information such as the date and time of the event and the content. In this figure, the schedule screen 610 displays “200
In the column of "April 6, 2nd", the fact that the concert ticket reservation start date is displayed.

The client 14 may be developed by various vendors, and the server 620 performs transfer by changing the format of the schedule data or the transfer procedure according to the client 14 of the user. The browsing device 612 and the client 14 are formed in the PC 12 by executing a program, for example. The PC 12 may be a desktop PC or a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone.

FIG. 32 is an example of a command group for forming a schedule registration button 608 included in the web file for forming the web page 606 provided to the browsing device 612 from the business entity server 604 of FIG.
This file is HTML (Hyper Text Markup Langua
ge). The <FORM> tag is a command used when transmitting data to the specified server. Command 704 is schedule registration button 6
When the button is pressed, the event identification information “34243432” held in the event ID column 702 is transmitted to the address set in the CGI setting column 700. A web file including such a command group is sent to the business server 604.
To deliver.

FIG. 33 is an internal block diagram of the server side schedule communication device 620 of FIG. This server 620
In addition to the functional blocks shown in the figure, has a functional block of the schedule communication device 38 described with reference to FIG. 9 although not shown. The reception unit 624 is the business server 6
I accept event information from the operators who operate 04, I
The event identification information generated by the D generation unit 622 is stored in the event storage unit 634 in association with the event identification information, and the event identification information is provided to the business operator. The reception unit 624 may provide the business operator with an input form of event information such as date and time, content, and location of the event. After inputting necessary items in the input form, the business operator creates the web file by including the event identification information provided from the reception unit 624 in the button display command shown in FIG.

When the user presses the schedule registration button 608 shown in FIG. 31, the registration request receiving unit 626 receives the event identification information and the user identification information transmitted from the browsing device 612, and supplies them to the registration processing unit 632. . The registration processing unit 632 acquires the event information associated with the event identification information from the event storage unit 634, and uses it as the schedule of the user identified by the user identification information as illustrated in FIG.
The schedule database 42 of FIG. The registration request receiving unit 626 transmits the web file of the web page that presents the event information and the information of the user who registers the event to the schedule to the browsing device 612, and after receiving the registration confirmation from the user who has confirmed the page, Registration processing unit 6
The registration process may be instructed to 32.

Every time the registration request receiving unit 626 receives the event identification information, the charging unit 628 charges the business operator who provides the event information. And
The billing unit 628 bills the business operator for the billing amount, for example, on a regular basis. In another example, the charging unit 628 may charge each time the event information is stored in the schedule database 42. By this billing process, billing can be performed according to the number of event registrations.

The investigation unit 630 collects and analyzes the reaction of the user regarding the event based on the number of times the event identification information is received, the time, the sex, age, location, etc. of the user who transmitted the event identification information. Based on the analysis result, the business operator can investigate the trend of the user, that is, grasp the previous reputation, and can launch the marketing strategy and the advertising strategy in real time accordingly. Since the business operator can make a strategy that follows the trends of users,
Enables efficient marketing.

When the user activates the client 14 and requests the schedule data, the transmission data generation unit 208 of FIG. 9 generates the schedule data according to the transmission procedure and the data format according to the type of the client 14. For this reason, the personal information database 44 of FIG.
It holds information that identifies the client 14 used by the user. The transmission data generation unit 208 refers to the personal information database 44, grasps the client 14, and then generates appropriate transmission data. In another example, the client 14 may send information identifying itself when requesting schedule data from the server 620. As a result, the server 620 can transmit schedule data to various types of clients 14.

FIG. 34 shows the event storage section 634 of FIG.
2 is an example of a data structure of. The event ID column 710 is
Holds event identification information. The date / time column 712 holds the date / time at which the event is held. The content column 714 holds the content of the event. The confirmation flag column 716 holds, for example, whether the date and time and the content of the event are confirmed or not.
In the figure, "1" means that the event is confirmed, and "0" means that the event is not confirmed. For example, a game software or the like may be released, but the release date may not be set. In such a case, “0” is held in the confirmation flag column 716.

The registration processing unit 632 of FIG. 33 registers the confirmed event in the user's schedule, and the unconfirmed event is associated with an appropriate date such as "scheduled to be released in June". Register the event temporarily. For example, the registration processing unit 632 determines that “1st day” is in the beginning of the month, “10th day” is in the middle of the month, and “20th” is in the end.
It may have a correspondence relationship with "day" in advance. Then, when the event is confirmed, the registration processing unit 632 registers the event in association with the official date and time. The acceptance unit 624 of FIG. 33 also accepts registration of such an unconfirmed event, and accepts event information again when the event is confirmed.

FIG. 35 is a flow chart of event registration processing in the schedule communication system 600 of FIG. The business operator is the server side schedule communication device 62.
Event information is registered in 0, and the event identification information of the event is requested (S300). The server 620 registers event information and generates identification information (S3
02), and transmits it to the business operator (S304). The business entity creates a web file including the event identification information (S306) and publishes it on the business entity server 604 (S308).

The user activates a browsing device 612 which is generally called a browser (S314), and the business entity server 6
04, the web file of the web page 606 is requested (S310). The business entity server 604 transmits the web file in response to the request (S312). The browsing device 612 displays the web file on the display device, and the user browses the web file (S316). Then, the user registers the schedule registration button 6 on the web page 606.
When the user presses 08, the browsing device 612 sends event identification information to the server 620 and requests event registration (S3).
18). The server 620 registers the event information as a user's schedule (S320) and charges the business operator who provided the event information (S322). As a result, the event information is registered in the server 620.

The user activates the client side schedule communication device 14 (S324) and requests the schedule data from the server 620 (S326). Server 620
Generates schedule data (S328) and sends it to the client 14 (S330). Client 14
Arranges them in time series and presents them to the user (S332).

FIG. 36 shows an example of a command group different from the web file described with reference to FIG. In the figure, commands given the same symbols as in FIG. 32 have the same meaning. The command 706 means that information indicating the date and time of the event and the content thereof is transmitted, and another command 708 is transmitted.
Means to transmit the business operator ID. With these command groups, the user can enter a schedule registration button 60.
By pressing 8, the browsing device 612 transmits the event date and time, the content, and the business operator ID to the server 620. Such commands may be placed in the web file. Business ID
The command 708 for transmitting the
28 is written to perform the charging process,
It may not be provided in other examples.

<Third Embodiment> FIG. 37 shows a schedule communication system 6 according to a third embodiment having an applied technique.
It is a block diagram of 50. Schedule communication system 650
Is a mode in which the browsing device 660 that receives the web file supplies the event information included in the web file to the client-side schedule communication device 14. At the time of this supply, the browsing device 660 converts the event information into a data format according to the client 14 65.
4 and supply. In the figure, FIG. 1 and FIG.
Functional blocks designated by the same reference numerals as in FIG.
It has the same function as the function block described using 1.

FIG. 38 is an internal block diagram of the browsing device 660 of FIG. The web file receiving unit 662 acquires the web file from the business entity server 604 and then analyzes the web file.
Send to 4. The analysis unit 664 analyzes the command included in the web file, that is, the HTML tag,
The web file receiving unit 66 acquires the image data and other files necessary for forming the web page 606.
2, and forms a web page 606. The display processing unit 666 performs processing for displaying the web page 606 on the display device.

The instruction receiving unit 670 receives a schedule registration instruction from the user. The instruction receiving unit 670
For example, a button such as “register with schedule” is formed on the menu bar of the browsing device 660, and when the button is pressed, the acquisition unit 672 is notified of that fact. Acquisition unit 672
Gets the event information contained in the web file. For example, the event information is included in the web file with a predetermined tag. The schedule device information storage unit 676 holds information such as a data format and a supply procedure when the schedule is supplied to the client 14 in FIG.

The registration processing unit 674 converts the acquired event information into a data format suitable for the client 14 and outputs it. The output destination is, for example, a registration module 678 that the client 14 has uniquely, for accepting schedule data from an external application, and a shared storage provided in the PC 12 of FIG. 37 for the purpose of exchanging schedule data between a plurality of applications. Area 6
80, the schedule database of the client 14 is operated to store 682. Further, the event data may be transmitted to the server side schedule communication device 38 of FIG.

FIG. 39 is an internal block diagram of a browsing device 690 of another form. The browsing apparatus 690 may be used in the schedule communication system 600 described with reference to FIG. 31 or the schedule communication system 650 described with reference to FIG. 37. The browsing device 690 has a function of setting the remind date and time when the user browses the web page being browsed again and registering the schedule as a schedule. 38, functional blocks denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 38 have the same functions as the functional blocks described in FIG. Upon receiving an instruction from the user, the instruction receiving unit 670 outputs a message to that effect to the address acquisition unit 692. The instruction receiving unit 670 may be, for example, the browsing device 690.
A button such as "remind registration" is formed on the menu bar of the address acquisition unit 692 when the button is pressed.
To that effect. The address acquisition unit 692 acquires the address of the currently displayed web page from the analysis unit 664. The remind date and time setting unit 694 receives the remind date and time from the user. The registration processing unit 674 performs a process of registering the address of the web page to be browsed again as a schedule at the reminding date and time.

In FIG. 39, the browsing device 690 acquires the address of the web page and accepts the remind date and time from the user. However, in order to form a button in the web file as described with reference to FIG. 32 or 36. When the button including the command group is pressed, the address of the web page being browsed may be transmitted to the server-side schedule communication device 620 of FIG. Then, the server side schedule communication device 620 may provide the user with a web page for receiving the remind date and time from the user.

With the above-described applied technology, the user can automatically add event information to the schedule book in chronological order by pressing a button displayed on a web page, for example. The event information may be various contents such as TV or radio program information, cooking recipes, newspaper articles, and the like. “TV program information” is information such as program name, airing date, start time, end time, channel, etc. When the user presses a button formed on the web page, this TV program information is stored in the user's schedule book. be registered. Client side schedule communication device 14
In addition, a function of transmitting television program information to a recording device such as a video may be provided.

[0171]

According to the present invention, a user's schedule can be electronically managed. In addition, the schedule can be easily registered with a simple operation. Furthermore, the registration status of the event can be analyzed and used for various purposes.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a schedule communication system according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of a schedule communication device on a client side.

FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of a user identification information input unit in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data stream acquired by a schedule acquisition unit in FIG.

5 is an internal configuration diagram of a schedule acquisition unit in FIG.

FIG. 6 is an internal configuration diagram of a target time determination unit in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a data format output from a target time determination unit.

FIG. 8 is an internal configuration diagram of a notification control unit in FIG.

FIG. 9 is an internal configuration diagram of a schedule communication device on the server side.

10 is an internal configuration diagram of a personal information acquisition unit in FIG.

11 is an internal configuration diagram of a personal information management unit of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a personal information card.

13 is an internal configuration diagram of the schedule request receiving unit of FIG.

14 is an internal configuration diagram of the authentication unit in FIG.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing job offer information.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an advertisement.

17 is an internal configuration diagram of a related information instruction unit in FIG. 9.

FIG. 18 is an internal configuration diagram of the search unit in FIG. 9.

19 is a configuration diagram of transmission data generated by the transmission data generation unit of FIG.

FIG. 20 is an internal configuration diagram of a charge management unit in FIG. 9.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an initial screen for the user to confirm the schedule.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an initial screen for a user to confirm a schedule using a mobile phone.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a screen displayed for the user to confirm the schedule.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing another screen displayed for the user to confirm the schedule.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing still another screen displayed for the user to confirm the schedule.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a schedule displayed when a user uses a mobile phone.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing a procedure for a user to confirm a schedule.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing a procedure for displaying an advertisement when a user confirms a schedule.

FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing a procedure for displaying an advertisement when a user confirms a schedule.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a procedure for transmitting job offer information from an advertisement server to a user.

FIG. 31 is a configuration diagram of a schedule communication system according to a second embodiment.

32 is a diagram showing a part of a web file for forming the web page of FIG. 31. FIG.

33 is an internal configuration diagram of the server side schedule communication device of FIG. 31. FIG.

34 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the event storage unit of FIG. 33. FIG.

FIG. 35 is a sequence diagram between each device in the schedule communication system of FIG. 31.

FIG. 36 is a diagram showing a part of a web file different from the web file of FIG. 32.

FIG. 37 is a configuration diagram of a schedule communication system according to a third embodiment.

38 is an internal block diagram of the browsing apparatus of FIG. 37. FIG.

FIG. 39 is an internal configuration diagram of a browsing device different from the browsing device of FIG. 38.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 schedule communication system, 14 schedule communication device, 30 server side system, 36 advertisement server, 38 schedule communication device, 50 advertisement database, 102 schedule registration unit, 106 advertisement acquisition unit, 110 target time determination unit, 116 personal information input unit, 124 calendar display unit, 204 personal information acquisition unit, 244 advertisement acquisition unit, 622 ID generation unit, 626
Registration request receiving unit, 628 charging unit, 630 research unit,
632 registration processing unit, 634 event storage unit, 670
Instruction receiving unit, 672 acquisition unit, 676 schedule device information storage unit, 692 address acquisition unit, 694 remind date and time setting unit.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification Code FI Theme Coat (Reference) G06F 17/60 ZEC G06F 17/60 ZEC

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A reminding button is displayed on a predetermined information page, and when the button is clicked, a functional module is linked to the button so that the following processing is started. Information management device. Step 1: A process for allowing the user to input the date and time of reminding, Step 2: A process for directly displaying the information page or displaying that the information page should be referred to at the input date and time. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display indicating that the information page should be referred to is made in a clickable form in the address of the information page. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in step 2, the electronic calendar in which the schedule of the user is entered is displayed in the entered date and time column. 4. A remind function is implemented in a browser that displays an information page, and the function displays a button for remind, and when the button is clicked,
An information management device characterized in that a functional module is linked to the button so that the following processing is activated. Step 1: A process for allowing the user to input the date and time of reminding, Step 2: A process for directly displaying the information page or displaying that the information page should be referred to at the input date and time. 5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the display indicating that the information page should be referred to is made in a clickable form in the address of the information page. 6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein in step 2, in the electronic calendar in which the schedule of the user is entered, the display is performed in the column of the entered date and time. 7. A receiving unit for receiving information from a server, a first display unit for displaying the received information in a date / time column corresponding to the date / time associated with the information in an electronic calendar, and a user's reminding designation. And a second display unit for displaying the obtained information in a date / time column corresponding to the designated date / time of the remind in the calendar, the information management device. 8. A receiving unit that receives event information that is transmitted when an event registration button formed on a predetermined information page is clicked and is associated with the button in advance, and the received event information. A registration processing unit that registers in the schedule database in association with the user who has clicked the registration button, and a transmission unit that transmits the event information stored in the schedule database to the schedule communication device of the user when requested by the user. An information management device comprising: 9. A receiving unit that receives event identification information that is transmitted when an event registration button formed on a predetermined information page is clicked and is associated with the button in advance, and an event identification information and an event. An event storage unit that stores information in association with each other, a registration processing unit that registers event information associated with the received event identification information in the schedule database in association with the user who clicked the registration button, An information management apparatus, comprising: a transmission unit that transmits event information stored in the schedule database to the user's schedule communication apparatus when requested. 10. The information management device according to claim 9, further comprising an identification information generation unit that receives event information in advance and generates event identification information in association with the event information. 11. When transmitting event information to the schedule communication device, a data generation unit is further provided for converting a format of data to be transmitted or a communication procedure according to the type of the schedule communication device. The information management device according to claim 8 or 10. 12. The charging unit according to claim 8, further comprising a charging unit that counts event information or event identification information received by the receiving unit and charges a provider of the event information. Information management device described.