JP2005122631A - Contextual information collection mediation method, information collection mediation system, information collection mediating program and program recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a contextual information collection mediation method, apparatus and the like that enable real time information collection between terminals and enable easy management by reducing transmission to terminals supposed to be useless for information collection. <P>SOLUTION: A mediation server for mediating communication between a collector terminal for collecting desired information and provider terminals for replying to an inquiry sent from the collector terminal to provide information receives the inquiry from the collector terminal, reads out contexts of providers related to the inquiry from a context database accumulating and managing contexts of a plurality of terminals including the collector terminal or terminal owners, extracts providers matching the inquiry by the contexts read out, sends the inquiry from the collector terminal to the extracted providers, and if the destination providers reply, sends the replies to the collector terminal. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention collects various information and information from an information provider based on a context that is a collection of the various information, and transmits and receives the collected information via a communication network. The present invention relates to a system, an information collection mediation program, and a program recording medium.

Currently, techniques such as a mailing list and an electronic bulletin board have been disclosed as means for electronically inquiring a plurality of people simultaneously (see, for example, Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Great Circle Associates, Inc., “Majordomo”, [online], 2001, [October 20, 2003 search], Internet <URL: http: // www. greatcircle.com/majordomo/ ＞ Kenichi Fukamachi, "fml.org", [online], July 9, 2003, [October 20, 2003 search], Internet <URL: http://www.fml.org/>

  However, in the technology using the conventional mailing list, there is a problem that an e-mail has to be sent to all members corresponding to the mailing list in order to collect information.

  In the electronic bulletin board, the information collector's inquiry content is answered when the information provider accesses and confirms the electronic bulletin board, and the reply is transmitted to the information collector until the information collector accesses the electronic bulletin board again. There was a problem that the answer could not be obtained in real time.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and its purpose is to enable information collection between terminals in real time and to transmit to terminals that are not useful for information collection. It is an object of the present invention to provide a context-based information collection mediation method, an information collection mediation system, an information collection mediation program, and a program recording medium that can be managed easily.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, at least an inquiry regarding information to be collected transmitted from a collector terminal collecting desired information is made between terminals connected via a communication network. Context executed by the information collection mediation system that mediates communication between the provider terminal that receives and provides information in response to the inquiry based on the context of the terminal including the collector terminal An information collection intermediation method based on: a query receiving step for receiving a query from the collector terminal; and a plurality of terminals including the collector terminal or a context database for storing and managing contexts of the plurality of terminal owners Context of the provider terminal associated with the provider related to the inquiry or the provider And extracting the provider that matches the inquiry using the read context, and sending the inquiry from the collector terminal to the provider terminal associated with the provider extracted in the extraction step An inquiry sending step, an answer receiving step for receiving the answer when an answer is received from the providers extracted in the extracting step, and an answer for sending the answer received in the answer receiving step to the collector terminal A transmission step.

  The term “context” in the present invention refers to communication information such as identification information unique to an object, capability, configuration, state, latitude, longitude, altitude, mobile phone / PHS (Personal Handyphone System) / PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), etc. Location information in a broad sense such as area ID, MAC (Media Access Control) address, IP (Internet Protocol) address, URL (Uniform Resource Locator), information about the community to which a person belongs, information about a person's preference and behavior including. In addition, a very wide range of information concepts that can include information that combines these various types of information as appropriate, and information such as past, present, and future points or continuous state changes obtained by linking with time. It shall be generic.

  In addition, the “communication network” of the present invention means a general network composed of the Internet, an intranet, a dedicated line, and the like.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the extracting step supplements the content of the inquiry using a provider or provider terminal context related to at least a part of the content of the inquiry. The provider that matches the completed inquiry is extracted.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the extracting step includes the step of extracting the inquiry according to a predetermined rule using presence information of a provider or a provider terminal related to at least a part of the inquiry. After the contents are complemented, a provider that matches the complemented inquiry is extracted.

  The “presence information” in the present invention may be any information as long as it is information indicating the current state of the provider or the provider terminal including the current position and the current time.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the extraction step uses the context of the collector or the collector terminal related to the content of at least a part of the inquiry. After further supplementing the content of the inquiry, a provider that matches the complemented inquiry is extracted.

  The invention according to claim 5 receives at least an inquiry about information to be collected transmitted from a collector terminal that collects desired information between terminals connected via a communication network. An information collection intermediary system that mediates communication between a provider terminal that provides information by answering the inquiry based on a context of the terminal including the collector terminal, and includes a plurality of collector terminals Reads the context of the provider or the provider terminal associated with the provider from the context database that stores and manages the context of the terminal or the plurality of terminal owners, and matches the query using the read context It has the extraction means which extracts the provider who performs.

  The “information collection mediation system” of the present invention is constituted by a computer system in which each means or each function is appropriately divided into a plurality of computers as well as a computer as one electronic device. It is also included.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the invention according to claim 5, wherein the extraction means supplements the content of the inquiry by using a provider or provider terminal context related to at least a part of the content of the inquiry. , Further comprising a function of extracting a provider that matches the completed inquiry.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the present invention, the extraction means uses the presence information of the provider or the provider terminal related to at least a part of the inquiry to determine the inquiry according to a predetermined rule. After the contents are complemented, the system further includes a function of extracting a provider that matches the supplemented inquiry.

  The invention according to claim 8 is the invention according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the extracting means uses the context of the collector or the collector terminal related to the content of at least a part of the inquiry. It further includes a function of further extracting the provider that matches the completed inquiry after further supplementing the contents of the inquiry.

  The invention described in claim 9 is an information collection mediation program which causes a computer to execute the information collection mediation method based on the context described in any one of claims 1 to 4.

  A tenth aspect of the present invention is a program recording medium in which the information collection mediation program according to the ninth aspect is recorded.

  The “program recording medium” of the present invention refers to a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory), a flexible disk, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), a magneto-optical disk, and a PC card. Means that.

  According to the present invention, the information collection mediation server that mediates communication between the collector terminal and the provider terminal extracts a provider that matches the inquiry received from the collector terminal using the provider's context. The information collection intermediation method based on the context, which makes it possible to collect information between terminals in real time and to facilitate the management by suppressing transmission to terminals that are not useful for information collection, An information collection mediation system, an information collection mediation program, and a program recording medium can be provided.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(First embodiment)
The context-based information collection intermediation method according to the first embodiment of the present invention collects and manages the context of an information provider (hereinafter referred to as “provider”) as needed in advance and collects the information collector (hereinafter referred to as “collector”). When a provider terminal makes an inquiry, it collects the desired information by making an inquiry only to the provider terminal that matches the content of the inquiry or the context specified by the collector terminal, and getting an answer from the provider terminal that made the inquiry To do.

  The context in this embodiment includes identification information unique to the object, capability, configuration, state, latitude, longitude, altitude, communication device area ID such as mobile phone / PHS / PDA, MAC address, IP address, URL, etc. This includes location information in a broad sense, information about a community to which a person belongs, and information about a person's preference and behavior. In addition, it may include information obtained by appropriately combining the various information, and information such as past, present, and future points obtained by linking with time or continuous state changes. It is assumed that such a context has an appropriate data structure according to the content. This point is common to all embodiments of the present invention.

  FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information collection system that realizes a context-based information collection mediation method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The information collection system 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a collector terminal 11 that collects information, and provider terminals 21-1, 21-2 that provide information by answering inquiries from the collector terminal 11. ... 21-n (n is a positive integer) are connected to a communication network 7 including the Internet, an intranet, a dedicated line, and the like. Moreover, the information collection mediation system 3 that mediates communication between the collector terminal 11 and the provider terminals 21-1, 21-2,..., 21-n, and contexts related to the collector and the provider. A context management system 5 that collects and manages is connected via a communication network 7.

  The collector terminal 11 and the provider terminals 21-1, 21-2, ..., 21-n constitute one community C1. In FIG. 1 and the following description, only one community C1 will be described for the sake of simplicity. In practice, however, various communities exist, and each terminal can belong to one or more communities. Needless to say. In addition, the definitions of “collector” and “provider” are given only for convenience of explanation. For example, when the owner of the provider terminal 21-1 wishes to collect information, this provider terminal It is clear that the collector terminal 11 becomes the provider side while 21-1 becomes the collector terminal.

  Such collector terminal 11 and provider terminals 21-1, 21-2,..., 21-n include not only portable small terminals such as personal computers, mobile phones, PHS, and PDAs, but also contexts. Depending on the contents of the server, it is possible to assume a server used in a search engine or the like, devices such as various sensors and cameras.

  The information collection mediation system 3 includes a mediation server 31 having a mediation function of information collection performed between the collector terminal 11 and the provider terminals 21-1, 21-2, ..., 21-n. Yes.

  The context management system 5 includes a context collection server 51 having a function of collecting context from each terminal constituting the community C1, and a context DB 53 that stores and manages the collected context.

  The mediation server 31 and the context collection server 51 include a central processing unit (CPU) having a calculation function and a control function, a main storage device (main memory) having a function of storing programs and data, and a hard disk drive And a computer which is an electronic device including an auxiliary storage device such as a flexible disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, a DVD drive, a magneto-optical disk drive, and a PC card drive. Incidentally, the “computer” here includes not only a case of being constituted by one computer but also a case of being constituted by a computer system in which each means or each function is appropriately divided into a plurality of computers. And

  By the way, the description will be made on the assumption that the context used when collecting information in the present embodiment is appropriately collected by a predetermined method. This context collection function can be realized (1) on the context collection server 51 side and (2) on the provider terminal side (including the collector terminal).

  Among these, in the case of (1), the context collection server 51 inquires about the context of the provider with respect to each terminal constituting the community C1, and stores the collected result of the inquired context in the context DB 53. This process is performed at regular time intervals, and the context is updated sequentially.

  On the other hand, in the case of (2), each terminal constituting the community C1 monitors and collects the provider context, and determines whether the collected context has changed from the previously collected context on the terminal side. . If there is a change in the context as a result of the determination, the latest collected context is transmitted to the context management system 5. In this case as well, context collection and update are performed at regular time intervals.

  An information collection mediation method executed by the information collection mediation system 3 based on the context collected as described above in the information collection system 1 having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

  It is assumed that the information collector inputs and transmits “provider context: person in tavern A, inquiry: congestion status of tavern A” as the condition Q11 of the provider from the collector terminal 11.

  The mediation server 31 of the information collection mediation system 3 receives the condition Q11 via the communication network 7 (step S11), and then matches the provider that matches the condition Q11 (hereinafter, the provider that matches the condition in this way). Is extracted (step S12). The matching person extraction process in step S12 is performed by referring to the data stored in the context DB 53 accumulated in the context management system 5, that is, the context.

  FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the context of the provider terminal extracted as a matcher. In the figure, only the provider terminal having the context of “I am in Tavern A” is shown, so the description of the context itself is omitted. The provider terminal 21-1 has a context of “drinking with friends” in addition to a context of “I am in pub A”. Similarly, the provider terminal 21-2 has a context of “entering business”, and the provider terminal 21-m (m is a positive integer) has a context of “dating”.

  In addition, when the provider who matches the condition Q11 cannot be extracted or when the specified context is insufficient for the inquiry content, for example, a person with a short physical distance to the tavern A (not limited to the current location but living The matching person may be re-extracted by searching the context DB 53 again by changing the information of the person who has been at the pub A a little before to the condition that can be extracted. In addition, when it is possible to add to the specified context depending on the context state of the collector terminal 11, processing for transmitting a notification to the collector terminal 11 to change or add a condition may be performed.

  After that, for each terminal owned by the extracted matcher (provider terminals 21-a1, 21-a2,..., 21-am; m is a positive integer) constituting the matcher group gr-a, An information provision request including at least the condition Q11 is transmitted (step S13).

  FIG. 1 shows a situation in which there is at least an answer from the provider terminals 21-a1, 21-a2, 21-am, and no answer has been obtained from the provider terminal 21-c3. In general, responses from the provider ’s terminal are assumed to be returned by the provider by entering or selecting some response message on the terminal, or automatically depending on the provider ’s context, In any case, a reply may not be obtained from all the provider terminals that constitute the matcher group gr-a in response to the information provision request. This may be in a situation where the provider side cannot answer, or there may be a cause in the accuracy when extracting a match.

  The mediation server 31 that has received the response from the provider terminal belonging to the matcher group gr-a transmits the response result to the collector terminal 11 (steps S14 and S15).

  In addition, between these steps, the intermediary server 31 is provided with a function of appropriately analyzing and totaling the responses from the provider terminal received within a predetermined time and transmitting the totaled results together with the responses to the collector terminal 11. It is also possible.

  Of course, it is possible to provide the intermediary server 31 with a function in which the collector and the provider communicate with each other while maintaining anonymity. Specifically, a predetermined rule is set regarding each other's anonymity, and information (e-mail address, terminal IP address, telephone number, name, etc.) that can identify the collector or the provider itself is disclosed to the other party. By providing a function that can select whether or not each time, the user can protect the privacy.

  Furthermore, the provider terminal (owner) who responded may be charged to pay a predetermined information provision fee for each response, or the communication fee may be discounted according to the frequency of responses, etc. You may give the function to do.

  By the way, the information collection mediation program for causing the mediation server 31 that is a computer to execute the information collection mediation method according to the present embodiment is stored in the main storage device or the hard disk of the mediation server 31 and can be mounted on the computer. It can also be recorded on various program recording media and widely distributed. As the “program recording medium” here, a CD-ROM, flexible disk, DVD, magneto-optical disk, PC card, or the like can be used.

  As is clear from the above description, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the information collection mediation server that mediates communication between the collector terminal and the provider terminal uses the context of the provider. By extracting providers that match the inquiries received from the collector terminal, it is possible to collect information between terminals in real time and suppress transmission to terminals that do not seem to be useful for information collection. Management can be facilitated.

  Thereby, it is possible to reduce the possibility of receiving unnecessary inquiries at each terminal constituting the community.

  Furthermore, by using this embodiment, even in a terminal with relatively little input means such as a mobile phone, an input operation step is used to complement the specified context by using the context of the information collector and the content of the inquiry. Can be reduced.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information collection system that realizes the context-based information collection mediation method according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The information collection system 2 shown in the figure includes a function (complementary function) in which the mediation server 31 of the information collection mediation system 3 ′ supplements a context with respect to an inquiry. It is characterized by having a complementary function DB 33. Since the other configuration of the information collection system 2 is the same as that of the information collection system 1 in the first embodiment, the corresponding components are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the information collection mediation method according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the collector terminal 11 designates and transmits only an inquiry without designating the provider's context condition. In the case shown in FIG. 4 as a specific example, the collector terminal 11 designates and transmits “inquiry: congestion status of pub A” (condition Q21).

  The mediation server 31 of the information collection mediation system 3 ′ receives the condition Q21 from the collector terminal 11 (step S21), then analyzes the condition Q21, uses the complementary function DB 33, cooperates with the context management system 5, “Provider context: person in tavern A” (condition Q23) is read from the context DB 53 and complemented (step S22).

  As the context complement function here, for example, when the collector inputs to the collector terminal 11, the location and the state are input in advance (in the above example, the query is “Location: Tavern A, Status: congestion status ”), a method of extracting location information, a method of identifying and recognizing a location from the received condition Q11 by using a predetermined natural language analysis function, etc. Assumed, but not necessarily limited to these.

  The subsequent steps S23 (extraction of matching person), S24 (information provision request), S25 (reception received from the provider terminal), and S26 (transmission of the reply to the collector terminal 11) are the first process. This corresponds to steps S12, S13, S14, and S15 of the mediation server 31 in the embodiment. In particular, in the case shown in FIG. 4, since the community C1 is the same as that in FIG. 1, the extracted matcher group gr-a is the same as in FIG. Needless to say, there may be slight differences.

  In the present embodiment, as an additional function of the mediation server 31, a tabulation function, anonymity maintaining function, and billing processing function can be further provided as in the first embodiment. Since this point is the same in the embodiments described later, the description of this point will be omitted in the following description of the embodiments.

  According to the second embodiment of the present invention described above, the same effects as those of the first embodiment can be obtained.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, since the intermediary server has a function of complementing the context, it is only necessary for the collector to specify a few conditions (inquiries, etc.), and information collection is further facilitated.

(Third embodiment)
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the information collection mediation method according to the third embodiment of the present invention. Since the configuration of the information collection system of this embodiment is the same as that of the second embodiment (see FIG. 3), the corresponding components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description of the configuration is omitted.

  In the case shown in FIG. 5, the collector terminal 11 inputs and transmits “provider context: person in tavern A, inquiry: congestion status of tavern A” (condition Q31), as in the first embodiment. Incidentally, instead of this condition, as in the second embodiment, the collector terminal 11 may transmit only an inquiry, and the provider's context may be complemented using the complement function DB 33.

  The feature of this embodiment is that the mediation server 31 has a function of complementing the additional condition Q33 of “person who can answer now” corresponding to preset presence information of the provider. That is, after receiving the condition Q31 (step S31), the mediation server 31 according to the present embodiment supplements the additional condition Q33 (step S32).

  In the subsequent step S33, a matching person is extracted using the context DB 53. A provider who can be a matcher is similar to the matcher group gr-a extracted in the above two embodiments, but by imposing the additional condition Q33, a part which does not satisfy the additional condition Q33 from gr-a Will be removed.

  As shown in FIG. 8, for example, the complementing process performed by the mediation server 31 in the present embodiment is assumed to use a conversion table 100 that defines a conversion rule by associating a context (presence information) with the availability of an answer. In the case shown in the figure, when the context is “entertaining”, it is automatically recognized that it is impossible to reply, and the provider terminal 21-a2 owned by this provider is provided. Is deleted from the matcher group. In this way, the matched person group gr-a ′ taking into account the presence information is extracted.

  Subsequent steps S33 (extraction of matching person), S34 (information providing request), S35 (receiving an answer from the provider terminal), and S36 (sending the answer to the collector terminal 11) are essentially This is the same as steps S12, S13, S14, and S15 of the mediation server 31 in the first embodiment.

  In the above description, the context of “person who can answer now” has been taken as an example of presence information. However, presence information is not limited to this, and more general in implementing this embodiment. In addition, any information indicating the current state of the provider or the provider terminal including the current position and the current time may be used.

  In the third embodiment of the present invention described above, the same effects as those of the two embodiments described above can be obtained.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to further narrow down the matching persons by complementing the presence information of the provider.

(Fourth embodiment)
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the information collection mediation method according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. Also in this embodiment, the configuration of the information collection system is the same as that of the second embodiment (see FIG. 3).

  The feature of this embodiment is to supplement the conditions of the provider using a context related to the collector. Hereinafter, more specific contents will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the case of FIG. 6, the condition Q41 transmitted from the collector terminal 11 is “Inquiry: Is the rooftop of department store B fun?”

  Upon receiving this condition Q41 (step S41), the intermediary server 31 uses the complementary function DB 33 and cooperates with the context management system 5 in the same manner as in the second embodiment, “provider context: on the roof of the department store B” "Person who has been to" (condition Q43) is complemented (step S42).

In the next step S43, the mediation server 31 first analyzes the collector's context. The context analysis rules here are not necessarily limited, but examples include the following:
First, it is assumed from the position information of the collector terminal 11 that the collector is currently in the vicinity of the department store B. This position information can be specified by GPS (Global Positioning System) when the collector terminal 11 is a mobile phone, PHS, PDA or the like.

  The intermediary server 31 determines from this context (current position) that the collector is considering going to the department store B's rooftop at the present time (2 pm on Sunday), and the past as the collector's context. A person who has been on the rooftop of department store B around 2 pm on Sunday is added as a condition.

  Also, assuming that the information collector is the mother of a two-year-old girl, it is determined that the opinion of a mother having a girl around two years old is more appropriate, and this is added as the context of the collector.

  In this way, the intermediary server 31 completes the process of step S43 by complementing “collector's context: mother of a 2-year-old girl, Sunday at 2 pm” (condition Q45), and extracting the subsequent matching person Proceed to step (step S44).

  Thereafter, an information provision request is transmitted to the provider terminals 21-b1, 21-b2,..., 21-bl (l is a positive integer) belonging to the extracted matcher group gr-b (step S45). Then, answers obtained from some of the provider terminals belonging to the matcher group gr-b (in the case of FIG. 6, responses are transmitted from at least the provider terminals 21-b3 and 21-bl). Is transmitted to the collector terminal 11 (steps S46 and S47).

  It goes without saying that the fourth embodiment of the present invention described above has the same effects as those of the first to third embodiments.

  In addition, in the present embodiment, since the context related to the collector is also supplemented as supplementary information, it is possible to further increase the accuracy of matching person extraction.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the collector terminal 11 transmits the condition Q41 in which only the inquiry is input has been described. However, when transmitting this condition, the provider's context is adjusted in the same manner as in the first embodiment. Of course, it is also possible to specify.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information collection system which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the information collection mediation method which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information collection system which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the information collection mediation method which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the information collection mediation method which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the information collection mediation method which concerns on the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a context. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a conversion table.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information collection system 3 Information collection mediation system 5 Context management system 7 Communication network 11 Collector terminal 21-1, 21-2, ..., 21-n Provider terminal 31 Mediation server 33 Complementary function DB
51 Context collection server 53 Context DB
100 conversion table C1 community gr-a, gr-a ', gr-b

Claims (10)

Receive at least an inquiry about information to be collected transmitted from a collector terminal that collects desired information between terminals connected via a communication network, and based on the context of the terminal including the collector terminal, An information collection mediation method based on a context executed by an information collection mediation system that mediates communication between a provider terminal that provides information in response to the inquiry and the collector terminal,
An inquiry reception step for receiving an inquiry from the collector terminal;
The context of the provider terminal associated with the provider or the provider related to the inquiry is read from a plurality of terminals including the collector terminal or a context database that stores and manages the contexts of the plurality of terminal owners. An extraction step of extracting providers that match the query using context;
An inquiry transmission step of transmitting an inquiry from the collector terminal to the provider terminal associated with the provider extracted in the extraction step;
An answer receiving step for receiving the answer when an answer comes from the provider extracted in the extraction step;
A context-based information collection mediating method comprising: a reply transmission step of transmitting the reply received in the reply reception step to the collector terminal. The extraction step includes
The content of the inquiry is complemented using the context of the provider or the provider terminal related to at least a part of the content of the inquiry, and then a provider matching the completed inquiry is extracted. An information collection mediation method based on the context according to Item 1. The extraction step includes
After supplementing the content of the inquiry according to a predetermined rule using presence information of a provider or a provider terminal relating to at least a part of the content of the inquiry, a provider that matches the completed inquiry is extracted. The information gathering mediation method based on context according to claim 1. The extraction step includes
The content of the inquiry is further supplemented using the context of the collector or the collector terminal related to at least a part of the content of the inquiry, and then a provider that matches the completed inquiry is extracted. The information collection mediation method based on the context according to any one of claims 1 to 3. Receive at least an inquiry about information to be collected transmitted from a collector terminal that collects desired information between terminals connected via a communication network, and based on the context of the terminal including the collector terminal, An information collection mediation system that mediates communication between a provider terminal that provides information in response to the inquiry and the collector terminal,
The context of the provider terminal associated with the provider or the provider related to the inquiry is read from a plurality of terminals including the collector terminal or a context database that stores and manages the contexts of the plurality of terminal owners. An information collection mediation system comprising: extraction means for extracting a provider that matches the inquiry using a context. The extraction means includes
A function of extracting a provider that matches the completed inquiry after supplementing the content of the inquiry using a provider or provider terminal context related to at least a part of the inquiry; 6. The information collection mediation system according to claim 5. The extraction means includes
A function for extracting a provider that matches the completed inquiry after complementing the content of the inquiry according to a predetermined rule using presence information of a provider or a provider terminal related to at least a part of the inquiry The information collection mediation system according to claim 5, further comprising: The extraction means includes
A function of further extracting the provider that matches the supplemented inquiry after further supplementing the contents of the inquiry using the context of the collector or the collector terminal related to at least a part of the contents of the inquiry The information collection mediation system according to any one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that   An information collection mediation program that causes a computer to execute the context-based information collection mediation method according to any one of claims 1 to 4. 10. A program recording medium in which the information collection mediation program according to claim 9 is recorded.

Images