JP2004320227A - Summary creating apparatus, summary creating method, message distribution apparatus, and message distribution method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus capable of creating a summary including useful information in which each user is interested by narrowing information items in messages transmitted by a plurality of members of a plurality of communities through the use of electronic communication means. <P>SOLUTION: The summary creating apparatus stores messages transmitted from members of the community and addressed to the community whose members are a plurality of the users to a first storage means, selects messages satisfying conditions corresponding to each user or a message group the messages of which have connections from the standpoint of message return among a plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, and creates summarized texts from partial texts selected on the basis of a score calculated depending on the kind of utilization of and the frequency of use of messages wherein the partial texts are quoted among partial texts quoted by the selected messages or quoted in other messages of the message group. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

【０１６０】
式（１）の得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）は、選別方法ｄｆに依存する方法で計算されたメッセージｍの部分テキストｔの得点である。ただし、メッセージｍが選別方法ｄｆを満足しないときは、その各部分テキストｔについての得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）も「０」とする。
【０１６１】
得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄ）は、配信方法ｄにて指定される各選別方法ｄｆについてのｔの得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）の総和である。すなわち、配信方法ｄに複数の選別方法が指定されているときは、各部分テキストｔについて求めた各選別方法別の得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）を求め、それらの総和があるメッセージｍ中の各部分テキストｔについての得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄ）である。
【０１６２】
得点ｓ（ｍ、ｄ）は、メッセージｍ中の各部分テキストｔについての得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄ）の総和である。
【０１６３】
例えば、選別方法ｄｆが、メッセージの内容による選別方法の場合、選別方法ｄｆとして指定された表現（指定されたキーワード、イベント情報に関する表現、関連情報に関する表現のいずれか）ｗが、メッセージｍの部分テキストｔ、および、メッセージｍを引用する他のメッセージ中の部分テキストｔに出現する頻度に基づいて、ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）を計算する。これは例えば次式（３）から計算することができる。
【０１６４】
【数２】

【０１６５】
式（３）において、Ｃ（ｔ）は、部分テキストｔが他のメッセージからの引用であるかどうかと、引用である場合は、当該部分テキストｔを引用したメッセージの利用の種類（返信、転送、システムによる配信等）に応じて予め定められた係数である。ｆｗ（ｔ，ｗ）は、表現ｗが部分テキストｔ中に含まれる頻度によって定まる得点である。一般に、Ｃ（ｔ）の値は、返信での引用の場合に大きく、転送の場合はそれより小さく、システムによる配信の場合はさらに小さく設定する。部分テキストｔがメッセージ本文自体の場合は、返信での引用の場合と同じ程度でよい。部分テキストｔが他のメッセージからの引用であるか否か、引用であるなら、その種類は、返信、転送、配信などのうちのいずれであるか（Ｃ（ｔ）の値）は、図１８に示した操作の履歴情報の記録から求める。またｆｗ（ｔ，ｗ）の値は、基本的には表現ｗが部分テキストｔに多く出現すればするほど（部分テキストｔ中での出現頻度が多いほど）大きくなるよう定めるものとする。すなわち、従来の文書検索や情報フィルタリング技術と同様の手法で、部分テキストｔ中の表現ｗの出現頻度を、部分テキストｔのテキスト長や、表現ｗを含むメッセージの全体数に応じて正規化した値をｆｗ（ｔ，ｗ）とする。
【０１６６】
部分テキストｔがユーザにとって重要なテキストであるほど（ユーザが指定した表現の出現頻度が高く、しかも他のメッセージにより引用される頻度が高い部分テキストであるほど）、得点ｓ（ｔ、ｄ）の値は高くなり、メッセージｍがユーザにとってより重要なメッセージであるほど（ユーザが指定した表現の出現頻度が高く、しかも他のユーザにより引用される頻度が高い部分テキストが多いほど）、得点ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）の値は大きくなる。
【０１６７】
同様に、選別方法ｄｆが、スレッドによる選別方法や、投稿者による選別方法である場合には、指定された特徴を有する選別されたスレッド（人気があるスレッド、自分が投稿したことのあるスレッド、自分がよく閲覧するスレッド、指定したスレッドのいずれか）や、指定された投稿者により投稿されたメッセージ（自分とやり取りしたことのあるメンバーにより投稿されたメッセージ、自分が属するコミュニティに新規に参加したメンバーにより投稿されたメッセージ、指定した人物からのメッセージのいずれか）の属するコミュニティのメンバーｖが、各メッセージｍ中の部分テキストｔを利用した頻度に応じた値ｆｕ（ｔ，ｖ）を用いて、次式（４）のように、得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）を計算する。
【０１６８】
【数３】

【０１６９】
ここでのＣ´（ｔ）は、式（３）のＣ（ｔ）とほぼ同様であるが、部分テキストｔを引用したメッセージの利用の種類は、返信、転送、配信だけでなく（しかも、メンバーによる引用だけでなく）、他のコミュニティのメンバーによる閲覧などの利用全般を含む。例えば、部分テキストを引用したメッセージをあるメッセージの返信メッセージとして利用した場合に最も大きく、部分テキストｔを引用したメッセージを転送や閲覧した場合はそれより小さく、部分テキストとをシステムによる配信メッセージとして配信した場合はさらに小さく設定する。
【０１７０】
ｆｕ（ｔ，ｖ）は、メンバーｖが送信あるいは受信するメッセージ内に部分テキストｔが頻繁に引用（返信、転送、配信等における引用）されたり、当該部分テキストｔを引用したメッセージが頻繁に閲覧されていると、値が高くなるよう定められている。
【０１７１】
部分テキストｔが、コミュニティ内の各メンバーにより利用（特に返信メッセージ中で引用として利用）される頻度が高いほど、当該部分テキストの得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）の値は高くなり、得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）の値が高い部分テキストｔが多く含まれているメッセージｍほど得点ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）の値は高くなる。
【０１７２】
例えば図１５の領域１１５で「人気のあるスレッド」が設定されているとき、ｆｕ（ｔ，ｖ）を当該スレッド内のメッセージを利用した全てユーザｖ（あるいは、当該スレッドの属するコミュニティ内で当該スレッド内のメッセージを利用した全てのユーザｖ）について総和を取ってｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）を計算する。
【０１７３】
図１１の領域１１８で「自分がよく閲覧するスレッド」が設定されているとき、自分すなわち配信先ユーザｕについてのみ総和をとって、ｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）を計算する。あるいは、自分が利用したテキストの重みを特別に重くして、当該スレッド内のメッセージを利用した全ユーザｖ（あるいは、当該スレッドの属するコミュニティ内で当該スレッド内のメッセージを利用した全てのユーザｖ）について総和を取ってｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）を計算する。
【０１７４】
同様に、投稿者による選別方法である場合も、図１４の領域１４１、１４２、１４３で、指定された投稿者（自分とやり取りしたことのあるメンバー、自分が属するコミュニティに新規に参加したメンバー、指定した人物のうちのいずれか）ｖについてのみｆｕ（ｔ，ｖ）の総和をとってもよいし、あるいは、当該投稿者ｖについて重みを特別に重くして、当該メッセージを利用・閲覧した全てのユーザｖ（あるいは当該メッセージの属するコミュニティ内で当該メッセージを利用・閲覧した全てのユーザｖ）について総和を取ってｓ（ｔ，ｄｆ）を計算する。
【０１７５】
次に、ステップＳ２１４では、ステップＳ２１２と同様にして、メッセージｍをスレッドｇでまとめ、同時に、スレッドの得点を、そこに属するメッセージの得点ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）の総和をとって、次式（５）で計算する。
【０１７６】
【数４】

【０１７７】
得点ｓ（ｇ，ｄ）が大きいスレッドほど、ユーザにとって重要と思われるスレッドである。
【０１７８】
以上のようにして求めたスレッドｇ毎の得点ｓ（ｇ，ｄ）、メッセージｍ毎の得点ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）、部分テキストｔ毎の得点ｓ（ｔ，ｄ）の値に従って、配信に含めるスレッド、メッセージおよび部分テキストを求める。
【０１７９】
図１０の設定画面のメッセージの要約方法の設定領域１０３では、ダイジェスト形式の要約のサイズは、「大」「中」「小」という形でユーザが選択できるようにしているが、そのそれぞれについて、配信メッセージに含めることのできるスレッドの個数、メッセージの個数およびテキストの個数（あるいはテキスト長、データ長）が定められている。その所定の上限を超えないように、ステップＳ２１５では、上述の得点ｓ（ｇ，ｄ）、ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）が大きい順に、配信メッセージに含めるスレッドやメッセージを選ぶ。
【０１８０】
さらに、次のステップＳ２１６では、選択されたメッセージについて、その要約となる部分テキストを、上述のｓ（ｔ，ｄ）が大きい順に選ぶが、この際、ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）が大きいメッセージほど、多くの部分テキストを用いて要約するようにする。また、ステップＳ２１５で選択されたスレッドについて、上記ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）の値が大きいものから順に選択し、その選択されたメッセージについて、その要約となる部分テキストを、上記ｓ（ｔ，ｄ）が大きい順に選ぶが、この際、ｓ（ｍ，ｄ）が大きいメッセージほど、多くの部分テキストを用いて要約するようにする。この処理により、ユーザにとってより重要と思われるメッセージほど、より詳細な記述の要約を作ることができる。
【０１８１】
ステップＳ２０７では、ステップＳ２１２と同様にして、コミュニティｃと選別方法ｄｆの名称を用いた見出しの下に、先に選択したメッセージｍの部分テキストｔを、スレッドｇでまとめて連結し、さらに配信方法ｄを設定するための上記設定データを付加して、配信メッセージｍｄを作成する。そしてステップＳ２１８では、作成した配信メッセージｍｄを配信先のユーザｕに送信する。
【０１８２】
先に示した図９は、このようにして配信されたメッセージｍｄの例である。図９に示したメッセージの領域９７、９８、９９、９１０には、図２１のステップＳ２１３およびステップＳ２１４で計算した得点に基づいて、ステップＳ２１５およびステップＳ２１６で選択したスレッドとメッセージおよびそのテキストであり、これらはステップＳ２１７により、図９に示すようにスレッド毎にまとめて、各々の選別方法に対応する見出し９２、９３、９４、９６の下に配置される。
【０１８３】
図９の配信メッセージは、各メッセージを逐一ユーザに送信する図７に示した配信メッセージや、メッセージを単純に繋げて配信する図８に示した配信メッセージに比べ、ユーザにとって重要な情報をより簡潔に表した内容になっている。
【０１８４】
また、図９の配信メッセージによれば、ユーザが配信を希望するときに着目するであろう、従来の情報フィルタリングに典型的なメッセージの内容がキーワード等を含むか否かだけでなく、コミュニティで活発に議論されている話題や、ユーザ自身に直接関わりのある情報、着目するメンバーによって発信された情報など、複数の観点から選別されたメッセージの内容を含めることが可能であるのみならず、これが１つの簡潔なメッセージとしてまとめられて配信されるのである。
【０１８５】
本実施形態のメッセージ配信方法として、上記に説明した選別方法、要約方法、および送信方法は、ユーザにとって有用なものを過不足なく用意したものであるが、本発明は、本実施形態の方法に限らず、本発明の目的と方法を逸脱しない範囲において、選別方法、要約方法、および送信方法を拡張し得るものとする。
【０１８６】
以上説明したように、上記実施形態によれば、複数のユーザをメンバーとするコミュニティ宛てに、当該コミュニティのメンバーが送信したメッセージを受信して、メッセージ記憶部３に記憶する。このメッセージ記憶部３に記憶された複数のメッセージのうち指定された条件を満たすメッセージを、要約してあるいは要約せずに、指定した配信タイミングで配信するための、少なくとも上記条件と要約の有無と上記配信タイミングを定めた、複数のユーザのそれぞれに対応する複数のメッセージ配信方法を表したメッセージ配信情報をメッセージ配信方法記憶部１０に記憶する。メッセージ選別部５ａは、メッセージ記憶部３に記憶された複数のメッセージから、複数のメッセージ配信情報のうちの１つである第１のメッセージ配信情報で指定されている条件を満たすメッセージあるいは返信関係で繋がるメッセージ群（スレッド）を選択する。メッセージ要約部５ｂは、上記第１のメッセージ配信情報で要約有りと指定されているとき、メッセージ選択部５ａで選択されたメッセージあるいはメッセージ群を要約するために、各メッセージ中の他のメッセージで引用されている部分テキストのうち、当該部分テキストを引用したメッセージの利用の種類（返信、転送、配信など）と利用頻度を基に上記第１のメッセージ配信情報にて指定されている（選別方法として指定された）条件に適した部分テキストを求める。そして、メッセージ送信部５ｃは、メッセージ要約部５ｂで求めた部分テキスト、あるいは、上記第１のメッセージ配信情報で要約無しと指定されているときには、メッセージ選別部５ａで選択されたメッセージあるいはメッセージ群を含む配信メッセージを上記第１のメッセージ配信情報で指定されている配信タイミングに従って当該第１のメッセージ配信情報に対応するユーザに配信する。
【０１８７】
以上の構成を有することで、複数のコミュニティの複数のメンバーがやり取りする大量のメッセージの中から、各ユーザが希望するメッセージを容易に選別し、理解しやすい形式に過不足なく要約し、ユーザが希望する時間に配信することができる。したがって、大量のメッセージが任意の時間に個別に送信される繁雑さや、メッセージを手作業で選別する労力が、大幅に軽減される。また、要約と配信の方法は一通りではなく、ユーザの興味の度合に応じて、要約の分量や形式、配信の時間などを適切に設定することができるので、ユーザにとって興味ある有用な情報（ユーザにより選別方法として指定された条件に適した部分テキスト）や、コミュニティの多くのメンバーにとって重要な情報が、見落されることもなくなる。
【０１８８】
本発明の実施の形態に記載した本発明の手法は、コンピュータに実行させることのできるプログラム（特に、図１９〜図２１に示す処理を含むメッセージ配信装置１２全体の動作を実現するためのプログラム）として、磁気ディスク（フレキシブルディスク、ハードディスクなど）、光ディスク（ＣＤ−ＲＯＭ、ＤＶＤなど）、半導体メモリなどの記録媒体に格納して頒布することもできる。
【０１８９】
なお、本発明は上記実施形態そのままに限定されるものではなく、実施段階ではその要旨を逸脱しない範囲で構成要素を変形して具体化できる。また、上記実施形態に開示されている複数の構成要素の適宜な組み合わせにより、種々の発明を形成できる。例えば、実施形態に示される全構成要素から幾つかの構成要素を削除してもよい。さらに、異なる実施形態にわたる構成要素を適宜組み合わせてもよい。
【０１９０】
【発明の効果】
以上説明したように、本発明によれば、複数のコミュニティの複数のメンバーが電子的なコミュニケーション手段を用いて送信するメッセージ中の情報を絞り込み、各ユーザが興味のある有用な情報を含む要約を作成することのできる。また、ユーザ毎に異なる、所望のメッセージの条件と要約の有無と配信タイミングを指定するだけで、ユーザの所望するメッセージをユーザの所望する形態（要約の有無）で、ユーザの所望するタイミングで配信することのできる。
【図面の簡単な説明】
【図１】本発明の実施形態に係るメッセージ配信システムの構成例を示した図。
【図２】コミュニティ情報記憶部に記憶されるコミュニティ情報の例を示した図。
【図３】ユーザ情報記憶部に記憶されるユーザ情報の例を示した図。
【図４】電子メールによるメッセージの例を示した図。
【図５】電子掲示板によるメッセージの提示画面の例を示した図。
【図６】電子掲示板によるメッセージの作成画面の例を示した図。
【図７】メッセージ配信装置がユーザに配信する配信メッセージの例を示した図。
【図８】メッセージ配信装置がユーザに配信する配信メッセージの例を示した図。
【図９】メッセージ配信装置がユーザに配信する配信メッセージの例を示した図。
【図１０】メッセージ配信方法を設定する画面とその設定例を示した図。
【図１１】メッセージの選別方法を設定する画面とその設定例を示した図。
【図１２】メッセージの選別方法を設定する画面とその設定例を示した図。
【図１３】メッセージの選別方法を設定する画面とその設定例を示した図。
【図１４】メッセージの選別方法を設定する画面とその設定例を示した図。
【図１５】メッセージの選別方法を設定する画面とその設定例を示した図。
【図１６】メッセージの選別方法を設定する画面とその設定例を示した図。
【図１７】電子掲示板を用いてメッセージの選別方法を設定する画面例を示した図。
【図１８】メッセージ操作履歴記憶部に記憶される操作履歴の例を示した図。
【図１９】メッセージ配信部の処理動作を説明するためのフローチャート。
【図２０】メッセージ配信部の処理動作を説明するためのフローチャート。
【図２１】メッセージ配信部の処理動作を説明するためのフローチャート。
【符号の説明】
１…コミュニティ管理部、２…メッセージ受信部、３…メッセージ記憶部、４…メッセージ提示部、５…メッセージ配信部、５ａ…メッセージ選別部、５ｂ…メッセージ要約部、５ｃ…メッセージ送信部、６…メッセージ配信方法設定部、７…メッセージ操作履歴記憶部、８…コミュニティ情報記憶部、９…ユーザ情報記憶部、１０…メッセージ配信方法記憶部、１１…ユーザ端末。[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a message delivery method and apparatus applied to a community system such as a mailing list or an electronic bulletin board for a plurality of users to exchange messages and discuss and share information.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, electronic communication means for exchanging messages between a plurality of users using a computer and a network have become widespread. A group of users who share a common purpose or interest (hereinafter referred to as a community) can distribute information by means of mailing lists, electronic bulletin boards, newsgroups, chats, etc. It is a very useful tool for discussion and information sharing.
[0003]
The messages exchanged using these means are enormous in communities with many members. In each community, messages on a plurality of topics are usually exchanged, and individual users often participate in a plurality of communities. The user receives a large number of messages of different topics on a daily basis.
[0004]
However, not all of these messages are useful for the user, and the user needs to select a message that is useful for himself from a large number of messages.
[0005]
It is very complicated for a large number of messages to be sent individually, regardless of the user's work or life situation, without mutual context, and conventional mailing list systems are provided to solve this The function includes a function called a digest function. This is because a plurality of transmitted messages are stored and, for example, when a predetermined number or capacity is reached, these are combined into one message and delivered to the user, or a predetermined time, for example, This is a function to deliver once a day. However, this is merely a function to reduce the number of transmissions, and does not select useful messages from a large number of messages. The amount of information received by the user is transmitted one by one. Is no different from the case where
[0006]
On the other hand, mailing list managers manually sort out messages that are considered useful to many members from among a large number of messages, edit them in an easy-to-read digest format, send them to members, and post them on the website It has also been done. However, the work requires a great deal of effort and the interests of individual users are different, so that it is difficult to distribute useful information for each of a plurality of users without excess or deficiency.
[0007]
Information filtering is a technique for automatically selecting useful information for a user from a large amount of information.
[0008]
For example, short-term interest knowledge and long-term interest knowledge are extracted as knowledge indicating the user's interest from the contents of emails and news sent and received, and information that the user may be interested in is extracted using these interest knowledge. (For example, see Patent Document 1). In this technique, short-term interest knowledge is configured by words included in an email or the like and the frequency of operations such as saving, transferring, deleting, and replying to the email or the like performed by the user. If the interest lasts for a long time, it is converted into long-term interest knowledge. By using both of these knowledges of interest, it is possible to perform filtering corresponding to the shift of the user's interest.
[0009]
However, this technique does not provide support such as summarizing and presenting a large number of mails or the like that the user may be interested in, for example, in an easy-to-read form. Also, in emails and news, it is often the case that multiple sets of messages, such as the flow of discussions and question and answer pairs, make sense.However, when filtering or sending, consider handling multiple related messages together. Has not been made. In addition, since the interest of the user is expressed by a set of words and various frequencies, it is impossible to determine whether the user is interested in information in which unknown words such as new topics are described. Furthermore, users often become interested in aspects that cannot be expressed in words, such as the status of discussions, the status of contributors, and the newness of a topic or the degree of attention, and cannot respond to these types of interests. There's a problem.
[0010]
In addition, information relevant to the user's interest is selected from articles such as newspapers and magazines. Using the selection conditions as they are, the text of the article is extracted from the text of the article, which is particularly relevant to the user's interest. (For example, see Patent Document 2). In this technique, unlike the technique described in Patent Document 1, the result of information filtering is distributed to the user in an easy-to-read form, such as an abstract, so that the user can read only the part of his / her interest and easily obtain the information. You can get an overview, and even if uninteresting information is mistakenly mixed, you can easily determine whether the information is useful or not.
[0011]
This technique is very useful when distributing articles such as newspapers and magazines. However, when targeting messages such as e-mails, as in the technique described in Patent Document 1, the frequency of occurrence of words in a text There is a problem that filtering according to the user's interest that cannot be expressed in words cannot be performed under the selected sorting conditions. In addition, it is not possible to select a unit of a plurality of related messages or create an abstract.
[0012]
There is also a technology in which the functions of a mailing list and an electronic bulletin board are integrated, and, for example, articles posted on the electronic bulletin board are transmitted to members of the mailing list (for example, see Patent Document 3). At this time, it is possible to transmit the simplified content of the posted article, for example, a portion of the first 100 characters of the article, and that a user interested in the content browses the detailed full text. . However, it is possible to select and send only useful messages from a large number of messages, summarize multiple related messages together, and control the time and amount of transmission for each user. Do not have. Thus, although the amount of text sent to the user is reduced by the simplification feature, the user still manually selects useful messages from among many messages sent at any time. There is a need.
[0013]
There is also a technique for automatically extracting the subject from a text article such as electronic news or electronic mail (for example, see Patent Document 4). Here, a method of extracting a subject from a portion quoted in another article in the text of the target article is described. This method is based on the assumption that the text of the parts quoted in other articles is likely to contain important themes of the original article. This assumption is somewhat valid, but more precisely, citations are made by the intent and interest of the quoting person, and may be useful to the original author's subject or to other users. Information is not always included in the citation. Further, it does not provide a method of, when there are a plurality of portions that may include the subject, further selecting a portion that is useful for the user who uses the plurality of portions. Therefore, this method cannot be used as it is for extracting a part that may be of interest to a certain user from a message to create a summary.
[0014]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent No. 2,625,397 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-235088)
[0015]
[Patent Document 2]
JP-A-9-167164
[0016]
[Patent Document 3]
JP 2001-320398 A
[0017]
[Patent Document 4]
Japanese Patent No. 2798039 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-198406)
[0018]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, conventionally, it is not possible to extract useful information that is interesting to each user from among messages transmitted by a plurality of members of a plurality of communities using electronic communication means and create a summary. There was a problem.
[0019]
Also, from messages sent by a plurality of members of a plurality of communities using electronic communication means, useful information of interest to each user is extracted to create a summary, and each user desires the summary. There was a problem that distribution could not be performed at the respective timings.
[0020]
In view of the above problems, the present invention narrows down information in a message transmitted by a plurality of members of a plurality of communities using electronic communication means, and summarizes a summary including useful information of interest to each user. It is an object of the present invention to provide an abstract creation method and an abstract creation device using the same.
[0021]
It is another object of the present invention to provide a message delivery method and a message delivery device that can create a summary using the above-described summary creation method and deliver the summary at a timing desired by each user. More specifically, only by designating the condition of the desired message, the presence / absence of the digest, and the distribution timing, which differ for each user, the message desired by the user in the form desired by the user (the presence / absence of the digest) It is an object of the present invention to provide a message delivery method capable of delivering a message at a predetermined timing and a message delivery device using the same.
[0022]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
(1) According to the present invention, a message transmitted by a member of a community to a community including a plurality of users is stored in a first storage unit, and the message corresponding to each of the plurality of users is selected. For storing a plurality of conditions in the second storage means, and among a plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, a message satisfying a first condition which is one of the plurality of conditions or Select a group of messages that are connected in a reply relationship, and, among the partial texts quoted in other messages in the selected message or each message in the message group, the type and frequency of use of the message that quotes the partial text A summary sentence is created with the selected partial text based on the score of each partial text calculated from.
[0023]
According to the present invention, a message or information in a message group selected based on conditions determined according to different interests and preferences for each user is narrowed down, and a summary including useful information according to each user's preferences and interests is narrowed down. Can be created.
[0024]
(2) To a community of which a plurality of users are members, receive a message transmitted by a member of the community, store the message in a first storage unit, and store a plurality of messages stored in the first storage unit. Of the plurality of users, the message satisfying the designated condition is summarized or not summarized, and is to be delivered at the designated delivery timing. Are stored in the second storage means, and the first message which is one of the plurality of message distribution information is stored from the plurality of messages stored in the first storage means. A message group that satisfies the condition specified in the distribution information or a message group connected in a reply relationship is selected, and the first message is selected. When the delivery information specifies that there is a summary, a message that quotes the partial text among the partial texts quoted in other messages in each message in order to summarize the selected message or message group A partial text to be used as an abstract sentence is obtained based on the type of use and the frequency of use, and when the obtained partial text or the first message delivery information specifies no abstract, the selected message or The delivery message including the message group is delivered to the user corresponding to the first message delivery information according to the delivery timing specified by the first message delivery information.
[0025]
According to the present invention, a message or information in a message group selected based on conditions determined according to different interests and preferences for each user is narrowed down, and a summary including useful information according to each user's preferences and interests is narrowed down. And can be distributed at desired timing specified by each user.
[0026]
Also, by simply designating the desired message conditions, the presence / absence of a digest, and the delivery timing, which differ for each user, the user can deliver the desired message in the form desired by the user (the presence / absence of a digest) at the timing desired by the user. Can do it.
[0027]
For example, important messages can be immediately delivered in the same format, and messages of relatively low interest can be bundled together and delivered in a concise form.
[0028]
When summarizing the selected message group, the type and frequency of use of the message citing the partial text among the partial texts quoted in other messages in each message of the message group By selecting the partial text to be included in the delivery message based on the score calculated from the above, the message groups connected in a reply relationship are not summarized and delivered individually, but are summarized so that the user can easily understand. It can be distributed in a summarized format.
[0029]
(3) When a feature relating to the type of use and the frequency of use of the message group to be selected is specified as the condition, the first storage means sends, replies, transfers, distributes, By selecting a message group that includes a message that has been used more than a predetermined number of times for browsing, information about topics that many community members are paying attention to or topics that are being actively discussed is distributed to users. be able to.
[0030]
The type and frequency of use of the message is also characterized in that the system includes the results of distribution to the community members so far. In other words, messages that are selected by many members of the community that are desired to be distributed are considered to be topics that are receiving more attention.
[0031]
(4) When summarizing the selected message group, use of a message that quotes the partial text among the partial texts quoted in other messages in each message of the message group (reply, forward, A partial text to be included in the distribution message is selected based on the score calculated from the type of distribution and browsing and the frequency of use.
[0032]
Preferably, for each of the selected plurality of message groups, a sum of the scores of the partial texts included in each message group is determined, and the data amount specified by the first message distribution information is satisfied. From among the partial texts included in the message group selected in descending order of the sum, the partial texts to be included in the delivery message are selected in descending order of the score.
[0033]
When summarizing each selected message, among the partial texts quoted in other messages in the message, the type of use of the message in which the partial text is quoted (reply, transfer, delivery, browsing) And the like, and the score calculated from the usage frequency, to select a partial text to be included in the delivery message.
[0034]
Preferably, for each of the plurality of selected messages, a sum total of the scores of the partial texts included in each message is obtained, and the sum of the sums is satisfied so as to satisfy a data amount specified by the first message distribution information. From among the partial texts included in the message selected in descending order of value, the partial texts to be included in the delivery message are selected in descending order of the score.
[0035]
With this summarization method, a topic that is being watched by more members of the community, or a topic that is being actively discussed, can be summarized by using a larger amount of data, such as a larger message count or text length. Detailed distribution to the user is possible. Conversely, messages of topics that have received relatively little attention are simply delivered with a small amount of data.
[0036]
It also finds a partial text of the message that many members of the community are paying attention to, and uses it for summarization. Because partial texts that are frequently cited by many members are selected, it is possible to create summaries that include text that is likely to contain the subject of the message and that is likely to be useful to many members. it can. The type and frequency of usage considered here is also characterized in that it includes the results of distribution that the system has made to members of the community so far. That is, the partial text that has been used in the summary of the distribution desired by many members of the community is also used for the summary when newly distributed.
[0037]
(5) When an expression included in a message to be selected is specified as the condition, the partial text quoted in another message in each of the plurality of messages satisfying the selected condition is selected. The delivery message is obtained based on the appearance frequency of the expression specified as the condition in the partial text, the type of use (reply, transfer, delivery, etc.) of the message citing the partial text and the score calculated from the usage frequency. Select the partial text to be included in.
[0038]
Preferably, for each of the plurality of selected messages, a sum total of the scores of the partial texts included in each message is obtained, and the sum of the sums is satisfied so as to satisfy a data amount specified by the first message distribution information. From among the partial texts included in the message selected in descending order of value, the partial texts to be included in the delivery message are selected in descending order of the score.
[0039]
A common sorting method in the conventional information filtering is a method of sorting documents containing many expressions such as keywords and phrases, but in the present invention, a message in a communication means such as an e-mail or an electronic bulletin board is more accurately identified. In order to do the screening, the screening method is improved. In other words, consider not only the frequency of expressions such as words and phrases in the text of the message itself, but also the frequency of words and phrases in quotes when the text is quoted, and the type and frequency of use of the quoted message. To sort.
[0040]
Partial text quoted by many members of the community is likely to contain the subject of the message, and is likely to be useful to many members, so that part of the text contains a lot of the phrase. Messages are sorted out on a priority basis. Furthermore, by using such a partial text for the summary, a summary that meets the user's desire is created.
[0041]
(6) Setting data for changing the setting of the first message delivery information is added to the delivery message, delivered to a user corresponding to the first message delivery information, and edited by the user. When the setting data is received, the user changes the setting of the first message distribution information based on the setting data, so that the user can easily distribute the message in a form corresponding to the message distributed from the system. Information settings can be changed.
[0042]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0043]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a message delivery system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the message delivery system, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of user terminals 11 and a message delivery device 12 are connected via a network, and each user has a community management unit 1, a message reception unit 2, a message presentation unit. A message and various kinds of setting information are exchanged with each of the unit 4, the message distribution unit 5, and the message distribution method setting unit 6.
[0044]
The community management unit 1 manages information on a plurality of communities and information on a plurality of users. The community information storage unit 8 of the community management unit 1 stores information such as names, addresses, and members of a plurality of communities. The user information storage unit 9 stores information such as names and addresses of a plurality of users belonging to a plurality of communities. Using the community information and the user information, the community management unit 1 controls whether or not each user is allowed to transmit, view, and edit information such as messages, that is, perform access control.
[0045]
Each community is given a unique community ID or community name for identifying each community. In this embodiment, the information indicating the location of the community on the network includes one or both of the mailing list address and the bulletin board URL.
[0046]
Under the control of the community management unit 1, each user can perform operations such as registration and editing of his / her own user information, participation and unsubscription to a community, and creation of a new community from his / her user terminal 11. it can.
[0047]
The message receiving unit 2 receives a message that the user sends to the community, and stores the message in the message storage unit 3. At this time, the community management unit 1 confirms whether or not the sender of the message is a member of the community, and eliminates a message transmitted by a user who is not a regular member if necessary.
[0048]
The transmission of the message by the user may be realized by using one or more conventional means such as an e-mail and an electronic bulletin board on a website.
[0049]
The message presenting unit 4 presents a message stored in the message storage unit 3 to a user in response to a request from the user. Specifically, it is realized by a conventional method of presenting a message in the form of a web page on a website such as the Internet or an intranet. When presenting a message, access control using the community management unit 1 is performed if necessary.
[0050]
The message distribution unit 5 is a unit for selecting, summarizing, and transmitting a message desired by each user in a desired method. The message distribution unit 5 includes a message selection unit 5a, a message summarization unit 5b, and a message transmission. It is composed of a part 5c.
[0051]
The means for each user to set the selection method, the summarization method, and the transmission method desired by the user is the message delivery method setting unit 6, and information representing the set contents (message delivery information, The selected sorting method, summarizing method, and delivery method are collectively referred to as a message delivery method), and are stored in the message delivery method storage unit 10. That is, the above-described message delivery unit 5 delivers a message based on the selection method, the summarization method, and the transmission method specified by the message delivery information stored in the message delivery method storage unit 10.
[0052]
The message selection unit 5a of the message distribution unit 5 selects a message or a group of messages (threads) connected in a distribution relationship from the message storage unit 3 according to the selection method specified by each message distribution information. The message summarizing unit 5a, when instructed to summarize by the summarization method specified in each message distribution information, further important messages and message groups from the messages and message groups selected by the message selecting unit 5a. Select to extract the partial text suitable for the summary and create the summary. The message transmitting unit 5c distributes the message or message group selected by the message selecting unit 5a and the digest obtained by the message summarizing unit 5b to each user as a distribution message in accordance with the transmission method specified by the message distribution information.
[0053]
Also in the message distribution processing, access control using the community management unit 1 is performed as necessary.
[0054]
The setting of the message delivery method is performed by the message delivery method setting unit 6 according to the user's input on an input form such as a web page, as described later. The message receiving unit 2 receives the setting of the distribution method in the form of a message from the user, and writes, changes, and deletes the setting contents in the message distribution method storage unit 10 in the message distribution method setting unit 6 according to the setting contents. I can do it.
[0055]
The message operation history storage unit 7 stores the history of the processing of receiving, presenting, and distributing messages in the message receiving unit 2, the message presenting unit 4, and the message distributing unit 5. By using the history information stored in the message operation history storage unit 7 and indicating which message the user has transmitted and which message has been presented and received, the distribution of the message can be changed.
[0056]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of community information stored in the community information storage unit 8. Each piece of community information includes a community ID 21 as identification information of the community, a community name 22, at least one of a mailing list address 23 and a bulletin board URL 24, and a list 25 of members belonging to the community.
[0057]
The mailing list address 23 is an e-mail destination when a user sends a message to another member in the same community by e-mail. On the other hand, the bulletin board URL 24 is a unique position on the network of the bulletin board when messages are exchanged using an electronic bulletin board. The user can send and view the message using one or both of the two means of the mailing list and the electronic bulletin board.
[0058]
The members 25 belonging to each community are described using a user ID (31 in FIG. 3) described later.
[0059]
The community information shown in FIG. 2 is created when a new community is created in the message distribution system 12, and the content is changed as necessary. When a new member joins the community, its user ID is added to the "Member" field in the community information, and conversely, when the member leaves, the user ID is removed. When the community itself is deleted, the community information itself is deleted.
[0060]
The community management unit 1 creates, changes, and deletes such community information. The function of managing community information as described above is indispensable for a mailing list, an electronic bulletin board, or the like, which is a publicly known technique.
[0061]
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the user information stored in the user information storage unit 9. Each user is given a user ID for identifying each user and a password for user authentication.
[0062]
Each piece of user information includes a user ID 31, a password 32, a name 33, a mace address 34, and a list 35 of communities to which the user belongs.
[0063]
The mail address 34 is a destination when delivering a message to the user. Each of a plurality of users can belong to a plurality of communities, and the community ID of the community to which each user belongs is described in the “affiliation community” field of the user information.
[0064]
The user information shown in FIG. 3 is created when a new user is registered in the message delivery system, and the content is changed as necessary. When a user newly joins a certain community, the community ID is added to the “affiliation community” field of the user, and when the user leaves the community, the community ID is removed. When the user stops using the message delivery system, the user information of the user is also deleted.
[0065]
The community management unit 1 creates, changes, and deletes such user information. The user information management function as described above is indispensable for a mailing list, an electronic bulletin board, or the like, which is a publicly-known technology.
[0066]
FIG. 4 shows an example of a message that the user sends to the community system using electronic mail. The message transmitted from the user is transmitted by the message receiving unit 2 of FIG. 1 and stored in the message storage unit 3. The messages handled by this system are equivalent to conventional e-mail.
[0067]
4A, the user “Aoki” whose e-mail address is “aoki@aaa.net” is sent to “atr-ml@xxx.net” which is the mailing list address of the community “Art Appreciation Society”. This message is usually broadcast to members of this community.
[0068]
The message 42 in FIG. 4B is a reply message to the message 41. The partial texts 43 and 44 in the message 41 are parts quoted from the text of the message 41 of the reply source.
[0069]
In the case of a conventional mailing list system, such a message is sent to all members at the same time at any time, but for each member, even if the information is of interest to them, It was very complicated to send messages of various topics mixed regardless of work or life.
[0070]
On the other hand, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a screen display example when exchanging messages using an electronic bulletin board. This is also an example of a message presented by the message presenting unit 4 of FIG. 1 to the user.
[0071]
In the case of the electronic bulletin board system, messages exchanged in the community are presented to the user using a means such as a web page.
[0072]
The display screen shown in FIG. 5 displays a list 57, 58 of headings for a plurality of messages. Each heading (51, 52, 53, 54, 55, etc.) in the heading list 57, 58 presents information such as a title, a contributor, and a posting date and time for each of a plurality of messages. When the user selects a heading corresponding to the message to be viewed from the heading list 57, for example, the heading 55, the main body 56 is displayed.
[0073]
Like the messages 41 and 42 in FIG. 4 described above, the reply relationship between the messages can be expressed by using a conventional electronic bulletin board system. In many electronic bulletin board systems that are currently in widespread use, in order to represent a reply relationship, as shown in a list 57 of headings in FIG. 5, the headings of each message are arranged and presented in a tree shape. Since a series of messages connected by a reply relationship is often called a thread, it is also called here.
[0074]
A plurality of messages in one thread are often discussions about the same one topic, but may be divided into a plurality of topics as the discussion progresses by a plurality of members. For example, a discussion that begins with a message corresponding to heading 51 in FIG. 5 forms a thread of six messages as a whole (corresponding to heading list 57), but a message corresponding to heading 52 and heading 53 In the message corresponding to each of the three headings 58 following the message corresponding to the heading 53, a topic slightly different from the entire thread 57 is discussed.
[0075]
To post a new article on the electronic bulletin board, first, for example, a “new message” button 56 or a “reply message” button 57 in FIG. 5 is pressed. Then, a message creation form as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed. After inputting the message title, text, and the like in the message creation form, when the “send” button 65 is pressed, the created message is sent to the message delivery device 12.
[0076]
The example shown in FIG. 6 shows a case where a button 57 is pressed when a message 56 corresponding to the headline 55 in FIG. 5 is displayed, and a reply message to the message 56 is created. This reply message includes a title 61 and a text 62. The partial text 63 in the text 62 is a portion quoted from the text of the reply message 56. The partial text 64 in the partial text 63 is the partial text 59 in FIG. 5 in which the reply message 56 is quoted from the message corresponding to the heading 54 that is earlier than the reply message 56, and the quotes of the text are nested in this way. There are cases.
[0077]
It is also possible to transmit and receive messages between communities by combining the above-described communication means using an e-mail and the communication means using an electronic bulletin board within the range of the conventional technology. That is, a message transmitted to the system by e-mail can be posted on an electronic bulletin board, or a message posted on the electronic bulletin board can be distributed to members of the community.
[0078]
The messages 41 and 42 shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B respectively correspond to the message corresponding to the headline 54 and the message corresponding to the headline 55 on the electronic bulletin board in FIG. 5 (having the same contents). .
[0079]
Members who are convinced that all messages exchanged in the community are distributed in a broadcast manner can communicate using an electronic bulletin board without receiving the message distribution. However, in this case, it is necessary to find a message of interest from a large number of thousands or tens of thousands of messages displayed on a screen as shown in FIG. Further, the electronic bulletin board has a problem that important messages or messages with high urgency are not transmitted immediately.
[0080]
Users may, for example, distribute very important information immediately, distribute interesting information once a day, and digest only a little interesting once a week. We want a flexible distribution service that distributes and does not distribute information that is of no interest.
[0081]
In the present embodiment, the request is realized, a message is selected from the degree of interest or importance of each user for each message, and the message is summarized by a summarization method according to the degree of interest or importance of each user. Then, it is distributed to each user at a frequency and time according to the degree of interest or importance of each user.
[0082]
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of a screen in which each user sets a message delivery method in the message delivery system of FIG. This screen is called up by the message distribution method setting unit 6 in FIG. 1 by, for example, selecting a button 510 on the electronic bulletin board in FIG. 5 and presented to each user. Using this screen, the user interactively sets the distribution method.
[0083]
The result of setting the delivery method is stored in the message delivery method storage unit 10 in FIG. As for the setting of the distribution method, each user can set a plurality of types of distribution methods for a plurality of communities according to a plurality of interests and purposes.
[0084]
FIG. 10 shows a display example of a distribution method setting screen. In this setting screen, three distribution method setting areas 105 to 107 are provided, and three types of distribution methods can be set. It has become. Here, the distribution method set in the setting area 105 is the first distribution method (example), the distribution method set in the setting area 106 is the second distribution method (example), and the distribution method set in the setting area 107 is Is referred to as a third setting method (example).
[0085]
The setting areas 105 to 107 of the setting screen in FIG. 10 include a community setting area 101, a message selection method setting area 102, a message summarization method setting area 103, and a transmission method setting area 104. The first to third distribution methods set a community, a selection method, a summarization method, and a transmission method. In this embodiment, a common selection method, a summarization method, and a transmission method can be applied to a plurality of communities for distribution, thereby improving user convenience.
[0086]
For example, the setting area 105 in FIG. 10 is an example in which a certain user has set a delivery method for a message exchanged in the community “Ecology Study Group”. In the setting area 105, the first distribution method is set so that the message of the "ecology consideration society" is not selected (the selection method is "none"), and "immediate transmission" is performed without "summarizing". As a result, all messages sent by members of this community will be immediately sent to this user without being summarized.
[0087]
FIG. 7 shows an example of a message distributed according to the setting contents of the first distribution method. The area 71 in FIG. 7 is the content transmitted by the poster of the message, that is, the header and the body of the e-mail. In this embodiment, data (setting data) for setting a distribution method is further added to the area 72. The user edits the setting data in the area 72 and returns it by e-mail to the message distribution device, whereby the distribution setting of the first distribution method can be changed.
[0088]
In the setting area 106 of FIG. 10, a certain user matches one of the two selection methods “remarks about himself” and “event information” for two communities “art appreciation party” and “friend fishing friend”, which will be described later. The second distribution method is set so that messages are "collected together" and transmitted at "21:00" at "every day".
[0089]
FIGS. 11 and 12 show display examples of a selection method setting screen for setting each of “utterance about oneself” and “event information” in the selection method setting area 102 of the setting area 106.
[0090]
FIG. 8 shows an example of a message distributed according to the setting contents of the second distribution method. In the message shown in FIG. 8, the selected message is delivered as one message by linking a plurality of messages without changing the content. In the message of FIG. 8, the content itself of each message posted by members of each community set in the community setting area 101 is displayed in areas 86, 87, and 88. Each message displayed in each of the areas 86 to 88 is provided with a community name to which the message belongs, headings 81 and 82 indicating conditions (for selection) satisfied by the message among specified sorting methods. , So that it is easy for the user to read.
[0091]
Further, similarly to the delivery message shown in FIG. 7, setting data 89a to 89c for setting a delivery method are added to the right of the headings 82, 83, and 85. The user edits this setting data and returns it by e-mail to the message distribution device, thereby continuing or stopping distribution of the community specified by the second distribution method and the message selected by the selection method. Can be.
[0092]
In the setting area 107 of FIG. 10, a certain user selects, from among messages exchanged in the two communities “art appreciation meeting” and “painting classroom”, three sorting methods “impressionist-related” described below and “Mr. Messages that match any of the remarks or popular topics are summarized in digest format of medium size and distributed at weekly and Friday at 19:00. Thus, the third distribution method is set. FIG. 9 shows an example of a message delivered to the user as a result of this setting.
[0093]
FIGS. 13 to 13 show display examples of a selection method setting screen for setting each of “Impressionist-related”, “Mr. Aoki's remarks”, and “Popular topic” in a setting area 102 of a selection method in a setting area 107. It is shown in FIG.
[0094]
FIG. 9 shows an example of a message distributed according to the setting contents of the third distribution method. In the message illustrated in FIG. 9, for each community specified by the third distribution method, among the messages belonging to each, for each of the selection methods similarly specified by the third distribution method, a plurality of messages selected by the selection method are selected. Are summarized in a form that can easily grasp the activity status of the community, the presence or absence of an interesting message, and the like, and are summarized as one message. The message shown in FIG. 9 includes headings 91 and 95 indicating a community name and headings 92, 93, 94 and 96 indicating a selection method. The head of each selected and summarized message has the title of the message. Headings (911, 912, etc.) are attached.
[0095]
In the present embodiment, the summarized delivery message is created in a hypertext format such as HTML, and links for referring to various contents of an electronic bulletin board on a website are embedded. Thereby, for example, the screen of the electronic bulletin board of the community as shown in FIG. 5 can be easily browsed from the headlines 91 and 95. In addition, the main body of the original message on the electronic bulletin board can be easily browsed from the headline (911, 912, etc.) of each summarized message.
[0096]
Furthermore, in the present embodiment, creation or change of the setting of the distribution method is performed from the headlines 92, 93, 94, and 96 corresponding to the message selection method, and links embedded in other character strings “setting page” 913 and the like. Deletion can be performed. For example, by clicking a heading 92 or 93, a selection method setting screen corresponding to each heading as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 is displayed, and the user can change the selection method setting using this screen. Can be.
[0097]
Also, by clicking a link embedded in the character string “setting page” 913, a setting screen of a distribution method as shown in FIG. 10 is displayed, and the user can select the first to third distribution methods as a whole. Editing such as change / deletion can be performed.
[0098]
Next, the message selection method will be described with reference to the selection method setting screens shown in FIGS.
[0099]
Here, there are roughly three types of selection methods: a selection method based on content, a selection method based on a thread, and a selection method based on a contributor, and a setting screen is prepared for each of them.
[0100]
In the case of the present embodiment, the user can assign an arbitrary name 111 to the setting of the sorting method, and this name is assigned to a heading (82, 83, 85 in FIG. 8) in the finally delivered message. , And 92, 93, 94, 96 in FIG. Note that, in the present embodiment, the main headings (81 and 84 in FIG. 8 and 91 and 95 in FIG. 9) of the distribution message are used as community names.
[0101]
The setting screens shown in FIGS. 11 to 16 include a “selection by content” tag 112 for setting a selection method by content, a “selection by thread” tag 113 for setting a selection method by thread, A “selection by contributor” tag 114 for setting a selection method is provided. By selecting a tag corresponding to a desired selection method, a setting screen corresponding to each selection method is displayed. For example, when the “selection by content” tag 112 is selected, the setting screens shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 are displayed. When the “selection by thread” tag 113 is selected, the setting screens shown in FIGS. 11, 15 and 16 are displayed. When the “select by poster” tag 114 is displayed, the setting screen shown in FIG. 14 is displayed.
[0102]
The sorting method based on the content is a method of sorting on the condition that a predetermined word is included in the title of the message or the text of the body. For example, in the setting screen shown in FIG. 12, an area 121 for specifying a condition that includes a desired keyword, an area 122 for specifying a condition that includes a meeting or an event and its date and time, and a URL or an attached file And an area 123 for specifying a condition that related information is added in the form.
[0103]
In the setting screen shown in FIG. 12, as a method for selecting the name of “event information”, in the area 121, a message including the keywords “exhibition”, “exhibition”, and “ban on ban” is set. Further, in the setting screen shown in FIG. 13, as a method of selecting the name “Impressionism-related”, in the area 121, a message including a keyword such as “Impressionism” and “Monet” is set.
[0104]
Further, in the case of the setting screen of FIG. 12, in the area 122, "message including event information" is set to be selected. This is a setting that, instead of a fixed expression like a keyword, for example, checks whether expressions such as date, time, conference name, etc. are included in the text of the message and sorts. Can be realized using a conventional information extraction technique.
[0105]
The thread selection method is a method of selecting messages posted to a thread designated by a user or a thread having a predetermined property. For example, on the setting screen shown in FIG. 11, an area 115 for specifying a condition of a popular thread having a high posting frequency or a browsing frequency and a condition of specifying a thread for which the user has posted a message in the past are designated. Area 116, an area 118 for designating a condition that the thread is frequently viewed by the user, and an area 117 for specifically designating a thread to be sorted.
[0106]
In the setting screen shown in FIG. 11, as a method of selecting the name “remarks about myself”, in the area 116, “a thread that I have posted”, that is, a thread to which the user himself has posted a message in the past, A sorting method is set to deliver messages posted there. This is an effective selection method when, for example, it is desired to know the answers and opinions of other members who are posted for a message posted by the user or a discussion in which the user is participating.
[0107]
Similarly, in the area 118, a selection method for selecting a “thread that the user frequently browses”, that is, a thread that includes many messages that the user frequently browsed in the past, is set.
[0108]
Further, on the setting screen shown in FIG. 15, as a method of selecting the name of “popular topic”, in the area 115, “popular thread”, that is, the usage status of not only the user but also other members is considered. In addition, a selection method for selecting a message to be delivered from a thread having a large number of message postings and a large number of browsing is set.
[0109]
In this way, in order to realize a selection method based on the type and frequency of use such as message browsing and posting as "selection by thread", the history of message usage operation for all or specific members of the community is The data is accumulated, and the sorting process is performed according to the type and frequency of the operation. The details of this process will be described later.
[0110]
In the present embodiment, the sorting based on the usage history of the members of the community is performed in units of threads as described above. However, in a similar method, for example, a message is output instead of a thread. The usage history may be measured in units and messages to be delivered may be selected.
[0111]
It should be noted that as a method of selecting by threads, there is a method in which a user explicitly specifies a thread to be selected. For example, in the setting screen shown in FIG. 11, the setting can be made by inputting the characteristics of a desired thread in the area 117 or by inputting information for specifying the thread itself. It can also be set above.
[0112]
For example, it is assumed that the user is browsing a message of a community on a screen of an electronic bulletin board as shown in FIG. For example, when reading the message 54 of the thread 58 in FIG. 17, for example, if the user is interested in the content and wishes to distribute the message of the thread 58, the user checks the check box 172 and selects “Settings”. By clicking the "" button 173, the thread 58 can be specified as a selection target. That is, when the user checks the check box 172 provided on the screen of FIG. 17 and clicks the “setting” button 173, as shown in FIG. 16, the setting screen for selecting by thread is displayed on the screen. Information specifying the thread 58 is displayed in the area 117 provided, and a setting is made to distribute a message posted to the thread 58.
[0113]
The same settings shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 can be made by using the setting data 72 shown in FIG.
[0114]
The method of selection by the contributor is a method of selecting messages posted by members designated by the user or members having predetermined characteristics. For example, in the setting screen shown in FIG. 14, an area 141 for designating a condition of a message posted by a member who has exchanged a message with the user and a condition of a message posted by a member newly joining the community are set. There is provided an area 142 for specifying, and an area 143 for specifying a specific member name and the like and specifying a condition of a message posted by the specified member.
[0115]
In the setting screen shown in FIG. 14, a selection method for distributing messages posted by "members who have exchanged messages with themselves" in the area 141 is set as a selection method for the name "Speech by Mr. Aoki". Have been. In particular, in the case of a community having a large number of members, messages may be exchanged by being divided into a plurality of small groups that communicate closely. In such a case, there is a request from the user to preferentially read only the messages of the acquaintance members. In order to realize this, the sorting method is to sort messages posted by other members who have exchanged many messages with the user in the past.
[0116]
Whether the message is exchanged is determined based on the reply relationship of the message. In this case, not only the direct reply relationship but also the indirect reply relationship, that is, two or more replies may be considered. . In addition, not all the past reply relationships but, for example, recent one month reply relationships may be considered.
[0117]
The selection method for distributing the message of “newly joined members” set in the area 142 is not only useful for the community administrator and the like, but also prompts the activity of welcoming and responding to new participants. It is convenient to do.
[0118]
In the setting screen shown in FIG. 14, in the area 143, conditions for specifically specifying members are set. In this setting example, messages posted by members “Mori Aoki” and “Kaori Tanaka” are set to be delivered. As a setting means in this case, for example, when browsing a certain message on a presentation screen of an electronic bulletin board as shown in FIG. 17, the user wants to distribute a message posted by the poster of the message. In this case, by checking the check box 174 and clicking the “Set” button 175, the name of the poster of the message is displayed in the area 143 on the screen shown in FIG. Is set to deliver the message. The same setting can be made by using the setting data 72 in FIG.
[0119]
In this manner, each user can set a desired message delivery method by designating a desired community, a selection method, a summarization method, and a transmission method. The setting contents are received by the message delivery method setting unit 6 of the message delivery device 12 and stored in the message delivery method storage unit 10 as message delivery information for each user.
[0120]
FIG. 18 shows a specific example of history information of an operation on a message performed by the user or the message delivery system, which is stored in the message operation history storage unit 7 of FIG. The history information is displayed when a thread that the user frequently browses is specified (for example, in the area 118 in FIG. 11) or a popular thread is specified (for example, in the area 115 in FIG. 15). Used for etc. In addition, as a method of sorting according to the content, when a keyword is specified (for example, in the area 121 in FIG. 13) or in the message summarizing process, the history information is used to select a message more suitable for distribution, Can produce an appropriate summary.
[0121]
As shown in FIG. 18, the record data of each piece of history information includes data corresponding to the “date and time” item 181, data corresponding to the “user ID” item 182, data corresponding to the “operation” item 183, and “ It consists of data corresponding to the "existing message ID" item 184 and data corresponding to the "new message ID" item 185.
[0122]
The “operation” item 183 records the content of an operation on the message, and includes, for example, “send”, “reply”, “distribution”, “transfer”, and “browse”. "Reply" is an operation of transmitting a new message as a reply to a certain existing message. "Send" is an operation of transmitting a message that does not have an existing message as a reply source, for example, providing a new topic. The “distribution” is an operation in which the message distribution device 12 transmits a message to each user. “Distribution” includes an operation of transmitting a message according to the above-described message distribution method. “Transfer” is an operation of transmitting a message addressed to a user received by a user to another user as it is. “Browsing” is a message shown in FIG. 1 when there is a browsing request for a message belonging to a certain community (stored in the message storage unit) from a user who is a member of the community or a user who is not a member of the community. This is an operation corresponding to the process of presenting the message to the user terminal by the presentation unit 4.
[0123]
By the “date and time” item 181, the “user ID” item 182, and the “operation” item 183, the user who is uniquely expressed by the “user ID” item at the date and time expressed by the “date and time” item "" (See the record data 188) and "reply" (see the record data 189) of the message represented by the "" item.
[0124]
Also, in the process of distributing a message to the user instead of the operation performed by the user himself, the data of the “operation” item 183 is set to “distribution”, and the date and time of distribution is represented by data of the “date and time” item 181. This is recorded as record data representing the user of the distribution destination as data of the “user ID” item 182 (see record data 187, 189, 190, 191).
[0125]
The message to be operated is described separately in an “existing message ID” item 184 and a “new message ID” item 185. In the “existing message ID” item 184, for example, in the case of a “reply” operation, the ID of the message of the reply source is recorded. The ID of the message newly created and transmitted as “reply” is recorded as data of the “new message ID” item 185.
[0126]
For example, the record data 186 records that the user “u26” “replies” the message “m95” as a reply to the message “m94” at the time “2002/12/3 19:43:57”. Similarly, in the record data 187, at the time “2002/12/3 19:43:57”, the system gives the user “u3”, “u19”, “u68”, etc. the delivery message “d96” based on the message “m95”. Is recorded.
[0127]
In this embodiment, the text (partial text) in the existing message quoted in the reply or the delivered message is also recorded. For example, the data of the “existing message ID” item 184 of the record data 186 is “m94 (o1-o2)”, and the description of “o1-o2” is the existing message cited in the reply message “m95”. The offset of the partial text of "m94", that is, for example, the line number counted from the beginning of the message, and represents the line number "o1" which is the start position of the partial text and the line number "o2" which is the end position. . The data of the “existing message ID” item 184 of the record data 187 is “m95 (o3-o4)”. According to this, the partial text in the range of “o3-o4” of the message “m95” is This indicates that the message was quoted in the delivery message “d96”.
[0128]
The delivery message “d96” is illustrated in FIG. 7, and the partial text in the range “o3-o4” quoted from the message “m95” is the area 71 in the message shown in FIG. (Except for headers other than the email title). Further, the text in the area 73 in the message shown in FIG. 7 is a partial text quoted from the message “m95” which is the reply source of the delivery message “m96” and further from the reply message “m94”. . That is, the text in the area 73 in the message shown in FIG. 7 is indicated by the offset “o1-o2” of the existing message “m94” recorded in the “existing message ID” item 184 of the record data 186 in FIG. Corresponding to the partial text.
[0129]
In many cases, a delivery message is obtained by collecting a plurality of messages and summarizing them as necessary. For example, in the case of the delivery message shown in FIG. 8, record data 190 indicating the delivery history of the delivery message is used. , A plurality of messages and their respective quoted partial texts (“m6 (o15-o16)”, “m9 (o17-o18)”, etc.) are listed, and it is recorded that the distribution message “d34” was configured.
[0130]
Similarly, the distribution history corresponding to the distribution message shown in FIG. 9 is the record data 191 in FIG. 18, and the distribution message is “d42” recorded in the “new message ID” item 185. It is assumed that the record data 191 is composed of a plurality of partial texts (“m1 (o7-o8, o9-10)”, “m4 (o11-o12)”, etc.) extracted from each of the plurality of messages. Has been recorded.
[0131]
As described above, in the present embodiment, even the partial text of the message quoted in the reply message or the delivery message is recorded, but this is a process for performing more appropriate selection and summarization, and is a simpler process. In the case of the embodiment, only the message ID may be recorded.
[0132]
Here, the type of use of the message citing the partial text is the operation content described in the “operation” item 183, and includes reply, transfer, transmission, distribution, browsing, and the like. Of these, reply, transfer, transmission, and distribution may be referred to as the type of citation of the partial text.
[0133]
Next, the message delivery processing operation of the message delivery device 12 according to the message delivery method for each user stored in the message delivery method storage unit 10 will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. I do.
[0134]
FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an entire process when the message delivery unit 5 delivers a message to a user. The substantial distribution processing is shown in FIGS. 20 and 21. This processing is performed in step S104 of FIG.
[0135]
In FIG. 19, the message delivery unit 5 executes a process corresponding to the delivery method d set by each user for all users u (step S101). That is, each message delivery information of each user stored in the message delivery method storage unit 6 is read one by one, and for each delivery method d described therein (step S102), the processes of steps S103 to S104 are performed. Is repeated.
[0136]
In step S103, the message delivery unit 5c checks whether or not the current time is the date and time at which the delivery is to be performed, based on the settings of the delivery method of the delivery method d. In the setting of the transmission method, as described in the example of the area 104 in FIG. 10, the date and time to be distributed may be, for example, a setting to immediately distribute the message when a member of the community transmits the message, or a number of days. It is set to deliver every other time. Therefore, in step S103, a process of checking whether a message has been transmitted from a member of the community designated as the distribution method d and a process of checking whether the current date and time are set are performed. If the current time is the date and time at which distribution is to be performed, the process of step S104, that is, the processing of the flowcharts of FIGS.
[0137]
In step 201 in FIG. 20, first, the message selection unit 5a sets the set M of message candidates to be delivered to φ (empty set), and performs steps S203 to S208 for each community c specified by the delivery method d. Is repeated (step S202).
[0138]
In step S203, it is checked whether or not there is a message posted in the community c within the time determined by the transmission method specified by the distribution method d. Then, the processing of steps 204 to 208 is performed for each message m. For example, if the delivery date and time is set every other week, all messages posted to the community c in the past week will be messages m to be processed, and the message will be delivered immediately after the message is posted. When such a setting is made, the one message becomes the message m.
[0139]
For each message m, if any one of the sorting methods specified by the delivery method d is satisfied (step S204), it is determined as one of the delivery candidates.
[0140]
The process of determining whether or not the message m satisfies the selection method df in step S204 is performed according to the type of the selection method df, that is, each of the methods described with reference to the examples in FIGS. , A thread, and a contributor. The method of selecting by content further includes a method of selecting a message including a specified keyword, a method of selecting a message including event information, and a method of selecting a message including related information. There are two ways to screen: threads, screens for popular threads, screens for threads that you post, screens for threads that you frequently view, The method of selecting the specified thread is divided into two ways. How to filter messages posted by members who have exchanged messages, how to filter messages posted by members who have newly joined the community, and how to filter messages posted by designated people ).
[0141]
When the method of selecting according to the content (see FIGS. 12 and 13) is specified, it is checked whether or not the specified expression is included in the text of the message m. In order to perform this processing at high speed, the message storage unit 3 of FIG. 1 may be provided with a full-text search index of a message or the like.
[0142]
When a method of selecting by thread (FIGS. 11, 15, and 16) is specified, a message operation (operation such as transmission, reply, distribution, browsing, and transfer) by a community member as shown in FIG. The number of times that the message m has been operated and the type of operation are checked based on the history information described above to determine whether or not the sorting method df is satisfied.
[0143]
In the case of the selection method of “popular thread” (set in the area 115 in FIG. 15), the thread to which the message m belongs is a predetermined number of times or more than the number of posted (transmitted, replyed) or viewed threads. , The thread is selected.
[0144]
In the case of the selection method of “thread posted by oneself” (set in the area 116 in FIG. 11), when the thread to which the message m belongs has posting (sending, replying) by the user u, the thread concerned Select
[0145]
In the case of the selection method of “thread that the user frequently browses” (set in the area 118 of FIG. 11), when the thread to which the message m belongs has been browsed by the user u more than a predetermined number of times, the thread Select
[0146]
When the method of sorting (FIG. 14) is designated by the poster, the sorting is performed based on the poster of the message m. For example, when selecting a message of “members who have exchanged messages with themselves” set in the area 141, the poster of the message m and the user u have exchanged replies in the past. Whether or not it is checked is also based on the history information shown in FIG. For example, referring to the record data 188 and 189 in FIG. 18, since the user "u2" has transmitted a reply message to the message transmitted by the user "u1," the two exchange "messages with oneself." Members who have done this. "
[0147]
Similarly, when the “member newly joined to the community” set in the area 142 or the “specifically specified” set in the area 143 is specified, the user who corresponds to the poster of the message m is similarly set. It checks whether it is or not and sorts. According to the above processing, if the message m satisfies any of the selection methods df specified by the distribution method d (step S204 in FIG. 20), the processing from steps S205 to S208 is performed.
[0148]
When the summarization method of the distribution method d is “not summarize” (step S205), for example, in the case of the summarization method specified in the first distribution method of FIG. 10, this message m is transmitted as it is. Will do. Here, the message summarizing unit 5b creates a message md in the form shown in FIG. 7 in which the setting data shown in the area 72 of FIG. 7 is added to the message m (step S206), and the message transmitting unit 5c transmits this to the user u (step S207).
[0149]
On the other hand, when the summarization method d is set to deliver a plurality of messages in a bundled form, the process proceeds from step S205 to step S208, where the message selection unit 5a adds the message m to the message set M of the delivery candidate. I do.
[0150]
The processing from step S203 to step S208 is performed for each community c specified by the distribution method d. If the message set M of the distribution candidate obtained as a result is not φ (step S209 in FIG. 21), the process proceeds to a process of summarizing these messages. When the message set M of the distribution candidate is φ, that is, when there is no message of the distribution candidate, it is determined that the message to be distributed has not been selected, and the process ends.
[0151]
When the summarization method specified in the distribution method d is set to “not summarize”, the processes in and after step S210 are not performed. This is because all messages to be delivered have been delivered in the processing of steps S206 and S207 in FIG.
[0152]
When the summarization method of the delivery method d is “combining a plurality” as specified in the second delivery method of FIG. 10, the messages of the message set M of the delivery candidate are left as they are (without summarization). 3) Connect and distribute, but also in this case, the message summarizing unit 5b performs a process of processing the distribution message so that the user can easily read it.
[0153]
That is, first, in step S211, for each message m of the set M, the thread g to which the message belongs is obtained, and the messages are grouped for each of the plurality of obtained threads.
[0154]
In step S212, a heading is created for each of the plurality of communities and the plurality of sorting methods using their respective names. Under the heading, the messages are grouped together in a group of threads obtained in step S211 and the delivery message is created. Create At this time, like the setting data 89a to 89c in FIG. 8, setting data for setting the distribution method is added to the right side of the heading or the like. Thus, a delivery message as shown in FIG. 8 is created, and in step S218, the message transmitting unit 5c sends the delivery message to the user u.
[0155]
On the other hand, when the summarization method of the distribution method d is “summarize in digest format” as specified in the third distribution method of FIG. 10 in step 210, a more complicated summarization process is performed. In this case, the message summarizing unit 5b needs to extract appropriate partial texts as digests and summarize the messages into an appropriate data amount (size). Select (extract) the message to be used and its partial text.
[0156]
First, in step S213, each message m that is an element of the set M and a partial text in the message (a text in another message cited in the message m, or a predetermined range in the message m ( For example, the scores s (m, d) and s (t, d) of the delivery method d for one text, one line, one paragraph, etc. as a unit) t are obtained.
[0157]
As shown in FIG. 4B, for example, as shown in FIG. 4B, a text part in another message cited in the message m, which is a partial text t, is prefixed with a symbol such as ">" or ">>". , It can be easily determined.
[0158]
From each partial text t and the following equations (1) and (2), the score s (m, d) in the delivery method d of the message m and the score s (t, d) in the delivery method d of the partial text t therein are calculated as follows. Ask.
[0159]
(Equation 1)

[0160]
The score s (t, df) in equation (1) is the score of the partial text t of the message m calculated by a method depending on the selection method df. However, when the message m does not satisfy the selection method df, the score s (t, df) for each partial text t is also set to “0”.
[0161]
The score s (t, d) is the sum of the scores s (t, df) of t for each sorting method df specified by the distribution method d. That is, when a plurality of sorting methods are specified for the distribution method d, the scores s (t, df) for each sorting method obtained for each partial text t are obtained, and the sum of the scores s (t, df) in each message m The score s (t, d) for the partial text t.
[0162]
The score s (m, d) is the sum of the scores s (t, d) for each partial text t in the message m.
[0163]
For example, when the selection method df is a selection method based on the content of a message, an expression (any of a specified keyword, an expression related to event information, or an expression related to related information) w specified as the selection method df is replaced by a part of the message m. S (t, df) is calculated based on the frequency of occurrence of the text t and the partial text t in other messages that quote the message m. This can be calculated, for example, from the following equation (3).
[0164]
(Equation 2)

[0165]
In equation (3), C (t) indicates whether the partial text t is a quote from another message, and if it is a quote, the type of use of the message that quotes the partial text t (reply, forward , Distribution by the system, etc.). fw (t, w) is a score determined by the frequency at which the expression w is included in the partial text t. Generally, the value of C (t) is set to be large in the case of quotation in a reply, smaller in the case of transfer, and further smaller in the case of distribution by the system. If the partial text t is the message body itself, it may be about the same as the quote in reply. Whether the partial text t is a quote from another message, and if it is a quote, whether the type is reply, transfer, distribution, etc. (the value of C (t)) is shown in FIG. Is obtained from the record of the operation history information shown in FIG. In addition, the value of fw (t, w) is basically determined so as to increase as the expression w appears more frequently in the partial text t (the more frequently the expression w appears in the partial text t). That is, the appearance frequency of the expression w in the partial text t is normalized according to the text length of the partial text t and the total number of messages including the expression w by a method similar to the conventional document search or information filtering technology. Let the value be fw (t, w).
[0166]
The more the partial text t is important to the user (the higher the appearance frequency of the expression specified by the user and the more frequently the partial text is quoted by other messages), the higher the score s (t, d) The higher the value, the more important the message m is to the user (the more frequently the user-specified expression appears and the more frequently the partial text is quoted by other users), the higher the score s ( The value of m, d) increases.
[0167]
Similarly, when the selection method df is a selection method by a thread or a selection method by a contributor, a selected thread (a popular thread, a thread that has posted, Threads that you frequently view or specified threads, messages posted by specified contributors (messages posted by members who have interacted with you, new participation in the community to which you belong) The member v of the community to which the message posted by the member or the message from the designated person belongs) uses the value fu (t, v) corresponding to the frequency of using the partial text t in each message m. The score s (t, df) is calculated as in the following equation (4).
[0168]
[Equation 3]

[0169]
Here, C ′ (t) is almost the same as C (t) in Expression (3), but the type of use of the message citing the partial text t is not only reply, transfer, and delivery (and also (Including citations by members) as well as general use by members of other communities. For example, when a message that cites a partial text is used as a reply message to a certain message, the size is the largest. When a message that cites a partial text t is transferred or viewed, the size is smaller. If so, set a smaller value.
[0170]
fu (t, v) indicates that the partial text t is frequently quoted (quoted in reply, transfer, distribution, etc.) in the message transmitted or received by the member v, or the message in which the partial text t is quoted is frequently viewed. The value is set to be higher when the value is set.
[0171]
As the frequency of use of the partial text t by each member in the community (especially as a citation in a reply message) increases, the value of the score s (t, df) of the partial text increases, and the score s (t , Df), the value of the score s (m, d) becomes higher as the message m contains more partial texts t.
[0172]
For example, when “popular thread” is set in the area 115 of FIG. 15, fu (t, v) is set to fu (t, v) for all users v (or for the thread in the community to which the thread belongs) using messages in the thread. S (t, df) is calculated by summing up all the users v) using the messages in the above.
[0173]
When the “thread that the user frequently browses” is set in the area 118 in FIG. 11, the sum is calculated only for the user, that is, the distribution destination user u, and s (t, df) is calculated. Alternatively, the weight of the text used by the user is particularly increased, and all users v using the message in the thread (or all users v using the message in the thread in the community to which the thread belongs) And s (t, df) is calculated.
[0174]
Similarly, in the case of the selection method by the contributor, the designated contributors (members who have interacted with oneself, members who have newly joined the community to which oneself belongs, The sum of fu (t, v) may be calculated only for any one of the specified persons) v, or all users who use / browse the message by weighting the contributor v specially s (t, df) is calculated by summing v (or all users v who have used and viewed the message in the community to which the message belongs).
[0175]
Next, in step S214, in the same manner as in step S212, the message m is grouped by the thread g, and at the same time, the scores of the threads are summed up with the scores s (m, d) of the messages belonging thereto, and the following equation ( Calculate in 5).
[0176]
(Equation 4)

[0177]
A thread with a higher score s (g, d) is a thread considered to be more important for the user.
[0178]
Included in the distribution according to the values of the score s (g, d) for each thread g, the score s (m, d) for each message m, and the score s (t, d) for each partial text t obtained as described above. Ask for thread, message and partial text.
[0179]
In the setting area 103 of the message summarization method on the setting screen in FIG. 10, the digest size in the digest format can be selected by the user in the form of “large”, “medium”, and “small”. The number of threads, the number of messages, and the number of texts (or text length and data length) that can be included in a delivery message are defined. In step S215, a thread or a message to be included in the delivery message is selected in the order of the scores s (g, d) and s (m, d) so as not to exceed the predetermined upper limit.
[0180]
Further, in the next step S216, for the selected message, the partial texts to be summarized are selected in the descending order of s (t, d). At this time, the message having a larger s (m, d) is selected. Summarize using many partial texts. In addition, for the thread selected in step S215, s (m, d) is selected in descending order of the value of s (m, d), and for the selected message, the partial text to be summarized is written in s (t, d). Are selected in descending order of s (m, d). At this time, a message having a larger s (m, d) is summarized using a larger number of partial texts. By this processing, a message that is considered more important to the user can make a more detailed summary of the description.
[0181]
In step S207, similar to step S212, the partial text t of the previously selected message m is connected together under a heading using the name of the community c and the selection method df in a thread g, and further distributed. A delivery message md is created by adding the setting data for setting d. Then, in a step S218, the created delivery message md is transmitted to the delivery destination user u.
[0182]
FIG. 9 shown above is an example of the message md thus delivered. In the message areas 97, 98, 99, and 910 shown in FIG. 9, the thread, the message, and the text selected in steps S215 and S216 based on the scores calculated in steps S213 and S214 in FIG. In step S217, these are grouped for each thread as shown in FIG. 9 and arranged under the headings 92, 93, 94, and 96 corresponding to the respective sorting methods.
[0183]
The delivery message shown in FIG. 9 simplifies important information for the user compared to the delivery message shown in FIG. 7 in which each message is transmitted to the user one by one and the delivery message shown in FIG. It is the contents shown in.
[0184]
Further, according to the delivery message of FIG. 9, not only whether the content of a message typical for conventional information filtering but which includes a keyword or the like, which the user will pay attention to when he / she wants to deliver, is not limited to the community. Not only can it include the content of messages that have been screened from multiple perspectives, such as topics that are being actively discussed, information that is directly relevant to the users themselves, or information that has been sent out by members of interest, It is bundled and delivered as one simple message.
[0185]
As the message delivery method according to the present embodiment, the above-described selection method, summarization method, and transmission method are prepared without any shortage and are useful for the user. However, the present invention is not limited to the method according to the present embodiment. However, the selection method, the summarization method, and the transmission method can be expanded without departing from the object and method of the present invention.
[0186]
As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, a message transmitted by a member of a community to a community of a plurality of users is received and stored in the message storage unit 3. Among the plurality of messages stored in the message storage unit 3, a message satisfying a specified condition is summarized or not summarized, and is delivered at a specified delivery timing. Message delivery information indicating a plurality of message delivery methods corresponding to each of a plurality of users, which has determined the delivery timing, is stored in the message delivery method storage unit 10. The message selection unit 5a, from the plurality of messages stored in the message storage unit 3, selects a message that satisfies the condition specified by the first message distribution information, which is one of the plurality of message distribution information, or a reply. Select a connected message group (thread). The message summarizing unit 5b, when it is designated that there is a digest in the first message delivery information, quotes the other message in each message in order to summarize the message or the message group selected by the message selecting unit 5a. Out of the partial texts specified in the first message distribution information based on the type of use (reply, transfer, distribution, etc.) and frequency of use of the message citing the partial text (as a sorting method) Find the partial text that meets the (specified) condition. Then, the message transmitting unit 5c transmits the partial text obtained by the message summarizing unit 5b or the message or the message group selected by the message selecting unit 5a when the first message delivery information designates no summary. The distribution message including the distribution message is distributed to the user corresponding to the first message distribution information according to the distribution timing specified by the first message distribution information.
[0187]
With the above configuration, a user can easily select a desired message from among a large number of messages exchanged by a plurality of members of a plurality of communities, summarize the message in a format that is easy to understand, without any excess or shortage. It can be delivered at the desired time. Therefore, the complexity of sending a large number of messages individually at any time and the effort of manually selecting messages are greatly reduced. In addition, the method of summarization and distribution is not one method, and the amount and format of the summary and the time of distribution can be appropriately set according to the degree of interest of the user. A partial text suitable for the condition specified by the user as a selection method) and information important to many members of the community are not overlooked.
[0188]
The method of the present invention described in the embodiment of the present invention can be executed by a computer (particularly, a program for realizing the operation of the entire message distribution device 12 including the processes shown in FIGS. 19 to 21). Alternatively, the program may be stored in a recording medium such as a magnetic disk (such as a flexible disk or a hard disk), an optical disk (such as a CD-ROM or a DVD), or a semiconductor memory and distributed.
[0189]
Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying constituent elements in an implementation stage without departing from the scope of the invention. Various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above embodiments. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Further, components of different embodiments may be appropriately combined.
[0190]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, information in a message transmitted by a plurality of members of a plurality of communities using electronic communication means is narrowed, and a summary including useful information of interest to each user is obtained. Can be created. Also, by simply designating the desired message conditions, the presence / absence of a digest, and the delivery timing, which differ for each user, the user can deliver the desired message in the form desired by the user (the presence / absence of a digest) at the timing desired by the user. Can do it.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram showing a configuration example of a message delivery system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of community information stored in a community information storage unit.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of user information stored in a user information storage unit.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an e-mail message.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a message presentation screen on an electronic bulletin board.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for creating a message by an electronic bulletin board.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a delivery message delivered by a message delivery device to a user.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a delivery message delivered by a message delivery device to a user.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a delivery message delivered by a message delivery device to a user.
FIG. 10 is a view showing a screen for setting a message delivery method and an example of the setting;
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a screen for setting a message selection method and a setting example thereof.
FIG. 12 is a view showing a screen for setting a message selection method and a setting example thereof.
FIG. 13 is a view showing a screen for setting a message selection method and a setting example thereof.
FIG. 14 is a view showing a screen for setting a message selection method and a setting example thereof.
FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a screen for setting a message selection method and a setting example thereof.
FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a screen for setting a message selection method and a setting example thereof.
FIG. 17 is a view showing an example of a screen for setting a message selection method using an electronic bulletin board.
FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation history stored in a message operation history storage unit.
FIG. 19 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the message delivery unit.
FIG. 20 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the message delivery unit.
FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a message delivery unit.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Community management part, 2 ... Message reception part, 3 ... Message storage part, 4 ... Message presentation part, 5 ... Message delivery part, 5a ... Message selection part, 5b ... Message summary part, 5c ... Message transmission part, 6 ... Message delivery method setting unit 7 Message operation history storage unit 8 Community information storage unit 9 User information storage unit 10 Message delivery method storage unit 11 User terminal.

Claims (18)

First storage means for storing a message sent by a member of a community to a community of which the members are a plurality of users;
Second storage means for storing a plurality of conditions for selecting the message corresponding to each of the plurality of users;
Selecting means for selecting, from among the plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, a message satisfying a first condition which is one of the plurality of conditions or a message group connected in a reply relationship;
Of the partial texts quoted in other messages in each message or message group selected by the selecting means, of each partial text calculated from the type and use frequency of the message citing the partial text, A creation means for creating a summary sentence based on the selected partial text based on the score,
An abstract creation device, comprising: The creating means obtains, for each of the plurality of message groups selected by the selecting means, a total sum of the scores of the partial texts included in each message group, and assigns the sum to the selected message group in descending order of the value of the total sum. 2. The digest creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a partial text to be used for the summary sentence is selected in the descending order of the score from the included partial texts. The creating means obtains, for each of the plurality of messages selected by the selecting means, the sum of the scores of the partial texts included in each message, and includes the sum included in the message selected in descending order of the value of the sum. 2. The digest creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a partial text to be used for the summary sentence is selected from the partial texts in descending order of the score. The selecting means selects a message including an expression specified as the condition,
The creating means, among partial texts quoted in other messages in each of the plurality of messages selected by the selecting means, the appearance frequency of an expression designated as the condition in the partial text, 2. The digest creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a partial text to be used for the summary sentence is selected based on a score calculated from a type of use and a use frequency of the message citing the partial text. The creating means obtains, for each of the plurality of messages selected by the selecting means, the sum of the scores of the partial texts included in each message, and includes the sum included in the message selected in descending order of the value of the sum. 5. The digest creation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein partial texts to be used for the summary sentence are selected from the partial texts in descending order of the score. Storing, in a first storage unit, a message transmitted by a member of the community to a community of which a plurality of users are members;
Storing a plurality of conditions for selecting the message corresponding to each of the plurality of users in a second storage unit;
A selection step of selecting, from among the plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, a message that satisfies a first condition that is one of the plurality of conditions or a message group that is connected in a reply relationship;
Of the partial texts quoted in other messages in each message or message group selected in the selection step, a score calculated from the type and use frequency of the message citing the partial text is used. A creation step of creating a summary sentence based on the selected partial text;
A summary creation method characterized by having: Receiving means for receiving a message sent by a member of the community to a community of which a plurality of users are members;
First storage means for storing the message received by the receiving means;
At least the condition and the presence or absence of a message that is to be delivered at a designated delivery timing, summarizing or not summarizing a message satisfying a designated condition among a plurality of messages stored in the first storage means. And a second storage means for storing a plurality of message distribution information corresponding to each of the plurality of users, wherein
From the plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, a message that satisfies the condition specified by the first message distribution information, which is one of the plurality of message distribution information, or a message connected in a reply relationship Selecting means for selecting a group;
When the first message delivery information specifies that the message has a digest, in order to summarize the message or the message group selected by the selecting means, a partial text quoted in another message in each message is used. Summarizing means for obtaining a partial text to be used as a summary based on the type and frequency of use of the message citing the partial text;
If the partial text obtained by the summarizing means or the first message delivery information designates no summary, the delivery message including the message or message group selected by the selecting means is sent to the first message delivery server. Delivery means for delivering to a user corresponding to the first message delivery information in accordance with the delivery timing specified by the information;
A message delivery device comprising: 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the condition includes at least one of an expression included in a message to be selected, characteristics of a message group to be selected, and characteristics of a sender of the message to be selected. The message delivery device according to the above. The selecting means, when the feature relating to the type of use and the frequency of use of the message group to be selected is specified as the condition, sends, replies, transfers, 8. The message delivery device according to claim 7, wherein a message group including a message that has been used a predetermined number of times in one of delivery and browsing is selected. The summarizing means, when summarizing the message group selected by the selecting means, among the partial texts cited in other messages in each message of the message group, The message delivery device according to claim 7, wherein a partial text to be included in the delivery message is selected based on a score calculated from a type of use and a use frequency. The summarizing means obtains, for each of the plurality of message groups selected by the selecting means, the sum of the scores of the partial texts included in each message group, and calculates a data amount specified by the first message distribution information. 11. The partial text to be included in the delivery message in the descending order of the score is selected from among the partial texts included in the message group selected in the descending order of the value of the sum so that the sum is satisfied. Message delivery device. The summarizing means, when summarizing each message selected by the selecting means, includes, among partial texts quoted in other messages in the message, the type of use of the message citing the partial text and The message delivery device according to claim 7, wherein a partial text to be included in the delivery message is selected based on a score calculated from a use frequency. The summarizing means obtains, for each of the plurality of messages selected by the selecting means, a sum of the scores of the partial texts included in each message, and satisfies a data amount specified by the first message distribution information. 13. The message distribution according to claim 12, wherein the partial texts to be included in the delivery message are selected from the partial texts included in the message selected in the descending order of the total value, in the descending order of the score. apparatus. The summarizing means, when an expression included in the message to be selected is specified as the condition, a part cited in another message in each of the plurality of messages satisfying the condition selected by the selecting means A portion of the text to be included in the delivery message based on the frequency of appearance of the expression specified as the condition in the partial text and the score calculated from the type and use frequency of the message citing the partial text 8. The message delivery device according to claim 7, wherein a text is selected. The summarizing means obtains, for each of the plurality of messages selected by the selecting means, a sum of the scores of the partial texts included in each message, and satisfies a data amount specified by the first message distribution information. 15. The message delivery according to claim 14, wherein the partial texts to be included in the delivery message are selected in the descending order of the score from the partial texts included in the message selected in the descending order of the sum. apparatus. The delivery means adds, to the delivery message, setting data for changing a setting of the first message delivery information, and delivers the message to a user corresponding to the first message delivery information;
8. The message delivery system according to claim 7, further comprising a unit for changing a setting of the first message delivery information based on the setup data when the setup data edited by the user is received. apparatus. A receiving step of receiving a message sent by a member of the community to a community of which a plurality of users are members;
Storing the message received by the receiving means in a first storage means;
At least the condition and the presence / absence of at least the above-mentioned condition for distributing at a designated distribution timing a message satisfying a designated condition among a plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, with or without summarizing Storing a plurality of message delivery information corresponding to each of the plurality of users in a second storage unit, wherein the delivery timing is determined.
From the plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, a message that satisfies the condition specified by the first message delivery information, which is one of the plurality of message delivery information, or a message connected in a reply relationship A selection step of selecting a group;
When the first message delivery information specifies that the message has a summary, the message or the message group selected by the selection means is summarized in order to summarize the partial text quoted in another message in each message. Summarizing a partial text to be used as an abstract based on the type and frequency of use of the message citing the partial text;
If the partial text obtained in this summarizing step or the first message delivery information specifies no summary, the delivery message including the message or message group selected in the selecting step is sent to the first message. A delivery step of delivering to a user corresponding to the first message delivery information according to the delivery timing specified in the delivery information;
A message delivery method comprising: Storing, in a first storage unit, a message transmitted by a member of the community to a community of which a plurality of users are members;
Storing a plurality of conditions for selecting the message corresponding to each of the plurality of users in a second storage unit;
A selection step of selecting, from among the plurality of messages stored in the first storage means, a message that satisfies a first condition that is one of the plurality of conditions or a message group that is connected in a reply relationship;
Of the partial texts quoted in other messages in each message or message group selected in the selection step, a score calculated from the type and use frequency of the message citing the partial text is used. A creation step of creating a summary sentence based on the selected partial text;
A program that causes a computer to execute.

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