JP2007094905A - Community information generation device, communication information management device, and community information management system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a community information generation device, a community information management device, and a community information management system for allowing a client terminal to instruct establishment of a community in a server-client system. <P>SOLUTION: This community information generation device 110, which generates community information to be used by the community information management device 120 managing a community via a network, is provided with an input part 101 inputting electronic program information, a generation part 102 generating the community information based on the inputted electronic program information, and a transmission part transmitting the generated community information to the community information management device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a community management system for managing a community using a network, and in particular, a community information generation device, a community information management device, and community information for generating community information for managing a community whose theme is a program such as a television. Regarding management system.

  Communities using networks, such as electronic bulletin boards and mailing lists, are prevalent. Many of these are operated by TV stations and the like with information on TV programs and their performers. There are also services (such as www.teleban.jp) in which each program in the TV program guide is associated with a bulletin board.

  In the case of a community operated by a TV station, etc., there is not a community related to all TV programs and performers, and the user wishes to join the community after watching a program or before watching the program. However, there is a problem that the corresponding community does not exist and may not be able to participate in the community.

  In such a case, it can be assumed that a user who desires to participate in a non-existing community newly creates and manages the community, but in general, such a user cannot be actively involved. For example, in a conventional media data viewing apparatus, a server administrator accumulates metadata (data describing information related to programs, etc.) created by individual viewers in a server and makes it available to other viewers. Viewers share these metadata (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Further, the service in which the program guide and the bulletin board are associated with each other only provides a uniform function for all the programs, and there is a problem that appropriate communication according to the contents of the program cannot always be performed in the community.
JP 2004-193871 A (pages 4-5, FIG. 1)

  An object of the present invention is to provide a community information generation device, a community information management device, and a community information management system in which a client terminal can instruct a server to start a community in a server / client system.

1st invention is the community information generation apparatus which produces | generates the community information for the community information management apparatus which manages the community using a network to use,
An input unit for inputting electronic program information, a generation unit for generating community information based on the input electronic program information, and transmitting the generated community information to the community information management device And a transmission unit.

  According to a second aspect of the invention, the generation unit sets a performer name as a community name when the genre of the input electronic program information is drama, and generates community information according to the first aspect of the invention Device.

  According to a third aspect of the invention, the generation unit sets a community name based on program introduction information when the genre of the input electronic program information is news. An information generation device.

  According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the generation unit sets the title name of the program as a community name when the genre of the input electronic program information is neither drama nor news. Community information generation device.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the generation unit uses the input electronic program information to inquire to the community information management device whether a corresponding existing community exists, and the community Means for receiving a response from the information management device regarding whether or not the existing community exists, and when receiving a response that the existing community does not exist, the community related to the input electronic program information The community information generation device according to the first invention is characterized in that new community information is generated.

  A sixth invention is based on a community information generating device, a reception unit that receives community information for managing a community using a network, a storage unit that stores the received community information, and the stored community information. A community information management device comprising a management unit for managing a community on a network.

  In a seventh aspect of the present invention, the receiving unit further includes a search unit that searches whether there is community information about the existing community in the storage unit when receiving an inquiry about whether there is an existing community from the community information generating device. A community information management device according to the sixth aspect of the invention.

  The eighth invention includes an input unit for inputting electronic program information, a generation unit for generating community information for managing a community using a network based on the input electronic program information, A community information management system comprising: a storage unit that stores the generated community information; and a management unit that manages a community using a network based on the stored community information.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a community information generation device, a community information management device, and a community information management system in which a client terminal can instruct a server to start a community in a server / client system.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a server / client system according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, a community information management system for generating a community via a network based on electronic program guide information and having the subject information such as a TV program and performers accompanying the TV program will be described.

The community information management system includes a client terminal (community information generation device) 110 and a community information management server 120. Each of the client terminal 110 and the community information management server 120 includes a communication unit (not shown) that can communicate via a network.
Examples of the client terminal 110 include an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) recorder that can be connected to a network. The program information input unit 101 receives an input of electronic program information related to a television program from an electronic program guide server (not shown). The community generation unit 102 generates a community based on the program information input to the program information input unit 101.

  In the community information management server 120, the community information generated by the community generation unit 102 is stored in the community information storage unit 103. The community information search unit 104 searches the community information stored in the community information storage unit 103. The community management unit 105 manages a community based on at least one community information stored in the community information storage unit 103.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of program information input to the program information input unit 101 from an electronic program guide server (not shown). The program information may be a set of information related to a plurality of programs. The program information in FIG. 2 includes information on two programs. Each piece of program information is composed of information of a broadcast station name, scheduled broadcast date, broadcast start time, broadcast end time, title, genre, performer, and program introduction.

  The format of the program information is not limited to that shown in FIG. 2, and existing electronic program guide information such as EPG (Electronic Program Guide) may be used.

  In addition, an electronic program guide server (not shown) is an existing Internet TV program guide service (http://www.tvguide.or.jp/, http://tv.yahoo.co.jp/, etc.) that provides iEPG. ), And the program information input unit 101 may periodically receive information of the electronic program guide from an electronic program guide server (not shown) by e-mail or the like, or HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). The information of the electronic program guide may be periodically requested from an electronic program guide server (not shown) using an existing communication protocol.

    3 to 5 are process flowcharts in which the community generation unit 102 generates a community based on the program guide information input to the program information input unit 101.

  First, the community generation unit 102 reads one piece of program information from the program information input unit 101 (S1001). When a plurality of program information is input, the program information is processed one by one in an arbitrary order.

  When the genre of the read program information is drama (S1002), community information is generated according to the processing flow of FIG. If the genre of the read program information is news (S1003), community information is generated according to the processing flow of FIG. The processing flow of FIGS. 4 and 5 will be described later.

  When the genre of the read program information is neither drama nor news, community information is generated by the processing of S1004 to S1015 in FIG. 3 and stored in the community information storage unit 103.

  In S1004, title information is read from the program information read in S1001. Next, using the read title as a keyword, the community information stored in the community information storage unit 103 is searched using the community information search unit 104 (S1005). If there is uncertainty in the search by title, broadcast station information, start time, and end time may be used as clues.

  When an existing community is searched (S1006), information on the date, start time, and end time is read from the program information read in S1001 (S1007), and the community ID of the community information searched in S1005 is read. (S1008), the message is sent to the community management unit 105 (S1009), and the community management unit 105 adds a thread to the existing community information. A process flow in which the community management unit 105 adds a thread will be described later.

  If an existing community is not searched in S1005, a new community ID is generated (S1010), community information is generated (S1011), and the title of the generated community information is set to be the same as the title of the program information read in S1004. (S1012) The type of the generated community information is set to “program” (S1013).

  Here, when the title of the program information includes sports characters such as soccer, community attributes may be set so as to have a chat function. Thus, by setting community attributes (bulletin board, chat, etc.) according to the genre and type, the community function can be changed according to the contents of the program, and appropriate communication can be performed.

  Further, the community ID of the community information generated in S1011 is set to the value of the community ID generated in S1010 (S1014).

  The community information generated and set in S1004 to S1014 is sent to the community information storage unit 103 and stored (S1015).

  The processing from S1001 to S1015 is repeated until there is no program information to be read in S1001 (S1016).

  Next, a processing flow when the genre is “drama” in S1002 will be described with reference to FIG.

  If the genre is “drama” in S1002, the performer information is extracted from the program information read in S1001 (S2001). When multiple pieces of performer information are included, they are processed one by one in an arbitrary order.

  The community generation unit 102 uses the community information search unit 104 to check whether or not a community having the performer name as a title exists in the community information storage unit 103 using the performer name extracted in S2001 as a keyword ( S2002).

  The specific operations of the community information search unit 104 and the community information storage unit 103 will be described later and will not be described in detail here. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of community information stored in the community information storage unit 103. The community information includes a community ID, a broadcasting station, a community creation date, a broadcast time of a related program, a community title, a type, and link information.

  The community ID in FIG. 6 is an identifier assigned to all community information generated by the community generation unit 102, and is represented by a seven-digit numerical value with 0 added to the left side of the serial number in this embodiment.

  In the broadcasting station, when the type described later is “program”, broadcasting station information of program information is described.

  The creation date represents the date when the community information is generated by the community generation unit 102.

  When the type described later is “program”, the broadcast time is described in the format of “start time to end time” in the broadcast time information of the program information.

  The title is title information given when generating community information.

  The type is information given when community information is generated. In this embodiment, the type can take three types of values: “program”, “person”, and “keyword”.

  The thread is information on a topic included in the community. In the present embodiment, the thread title is described in the community information. For example, it is realized in the same way as a function called a thread in an existing communication method such as an electronic bulletin board or a mailing list.

  In the link, the community ID of the community information associated with the community information by the community generation unit 102 or the community management unit 105 by a process described later is described.

  When an existing community is searched in S2002 (S2003), the community ID of the searched community is read out (S2004).

  If no existing community is searched in S2002, the community generation unit 102 generates a new community ID (S2005), newly generates community information (S2006), and sets the title of the community information generated in S2006 as S2001. Is set to the name of the performer read in (S2007).

  Further, the type is set to “person” (S2008), the community ID generated in S2005 is set (S2009), community information is sent to the community information storage unit 103 (S2010), and the generated community information is stored.

  The community ID read in S2004 or the community ID generated in S2006 is stored in the stack (S2011) and used in the subsequent processing.

  The processes from S2001 to S2011 are repeated until the performer information read in S2001 is completed (S2012). When all the performer information is processed, the process proceeds to S2013.

  In S2013, title information is read from the program information read in S1001. Next, the community information stored in the community information storage unit 103 is searched using the community information search unit 104 using the read title as a keyword (S2014). If there is uncertainty in the search by title, broadcast station information, start time, and end time may be used as clues.

  When an existing community is searched (S2015), information on the date, start time, and end time is read from the program information read in S1001 (S2016), and the community ID of the community information searched in S2014 is read. (S2017), the community ID stored in the stack in S2011 is sent to the community management unit 105 (S2018), and the community management unit 105 adds a thread to the existing community information.

  A process flow in which the community management unit 105 adds a thread will be described later.

  If an existing community is not searched in S2014, a new community ID is generated (S2019), community information is generated (S2020), and the title of the generated community information is set to be the same as the title of the program information read in S2013. (S2021), the type of the generated community information is set to “program” (S2022).

  Further, the community ID of the community information generated in S2020 is set to the value of the community ID generated in S2019 (S2023), and the list of community IDs stored in the stack in S2011 is set as the link information of the community information generated in S2020. (S2024).

  Thus, the community information generated and set in S2019 to S2024 is sent to the community information storage unit 103 and stored (S2025).

  Next, a processing flow when the genre is “news” in S1002 will be described with reference to FIG.

  If the genre is “news” in S1002, program introduction information is read from the program information read in S1001 (S3001).

  A keyword is generated from the read program introduction information by the processing flow of FIG. 7 (S3002). The processing flow of FIG. 7 will be described later.

  The generated keywords are read one by one (S3003), and existing community information is searched by the community search unit 104 using the read keywords (S3004).

  When an existing community is searched in S3004 (S3005), the community ID of the searched community information is read out (S3006).

  When the existing community is not searched in S3004, the community generation unit 102 generates a new community ID (S3007), generates new community information (S3008), and sets the title of the community information generated in S3007 in S3002. The keyword generated and read in S3003 is set (S3009).

  Furthermore, the type is set to “keyword” (S3010), and the community ID generated in S3007 is set (S3011).

  The community information generated and set in S3007 to S3011 is sent to the community information storage unit 103 and stored in the community information storage unit 103.

  The community ID read in S3006 or the community ID generated in S3007 is stored in the stack (S3013) and used in the subsequent processing.

  The processing of S3003 to S3013 is repeated until the keyword extracted in S3003 is over (S3014).

  When all the keywords are processed, the program title is read out from the program information read in S1001 (S3015).

  Based on the read title, the community information search unit 104 is used to search the community information stored in the community information storage unit 103 (S3016). As in S2014, if there is uncertainty in the search by title, broadcast station information, start time, and end time may be used as clues.

  When an existing community is searched (S2017), the date, start time, and end time information is read from the program information read in S1001 (S2018), and the community ID of the community information searched in S3016 is read. (S3019), the community ID stored in the stack in S3013 is sent to the community management unit 105 (S3020), and the community management unit 105 adds a thread to the existing community information.

  If no existing community is searched in S3016, a new community ID (S3021), community information is generated (S3022), and the title of the generated community information is set to be the same as the title of the program information read in S3015. (S3023) The type of the generated community information is set to “program” (S3024).

  Further, the community ID of the community information generated in S3022 is set to the value of the community ID generated in S3021 (S3025), and the list of community IDs stored in the stack in S3013 is set as link information (S3026).

  The community information generated and set in S3021 to S3026 is sent to the community information storage unit 103 and stored (S3027).

  Next, the process of generating keywords in S3002 of FIG. 5 will be described using the process flow of FIG.

  First, the program introduction information read in S3001 is read for keyword generation (S4001). When the program introduction information includes a plurality of items, the flow of FIG. 7 is processed a plurality of times, and a keyword is generated for each item.

  A morphological analysis process is performed on the read program introduction information (S4002). The morpheme analysis process is a process that decomposes the input character string into morphemes that are the smallest meaningful units and gives part of speech information to each morpheme (reference: Takenobu Tokunaga, information retrieval and language processing, The University of Tokyo Press, pp. 98-101, 1999).

  Next, for independent words included in the result of morphological analysis in S4002, morphemes that appear consecutively are concatenated (S4003), other than attached words are extracted (S4004), and the extracted word / phrase has the longest character string length. Is output as a keyword (S4005).

  Here, the method of performing morphological analysis, concatenating continuous free-standing words, and using the word with the longest character string length as a keyword is only one implementation method. For example, the words can be divided by the difference in character type, IDF ( A method different from the present embodiment may be employed, such as selecting a keyword using a statistical quantity such as inverted document frequency) or using a stop word list (unnecessary word dictionary).

  Thus, the community generation part 102 produces | generates a community based on program information with the processing flow of FIGS. Here, the case of “drama” and “news” has been described as the genre of program information, but it may be changed so that program information of different genres such as “sports” and “variety” can be processed.

  The community information storage unit 103 stores community information using an existing relational database or the like.

  Further, the community information storage unit 103 sends community information of a community to be newly stored to the community information management unit 105 when the community information generated by the community generation unit 102 is stored.

  The community information search unit 104 searches the contents of the community information storage unit 103 using an existing search language such as SQL (Structured Query Language).

  The community management unit 105 reads the newly stored community information sent from the community information storage unit 103, and converts the newly stored community information to the community information previously stored in the community information storage unit 103. Add a link. This processing flow will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, information on a newly registered community sent from the community information storage unit 103 is read (S5001). Here, it is assumed that the community information read in S5001 is ComNew.

  Next, community ID information is taken out from ComNew (S5002). The community ID extracted in S5002 is set to ComNew_id.

  Further, one community ID described in the link information is taken out from ComNew (S5003). The community ID extracted in S5003 is set to ComNew_link.

  When a plurality of pieces of link information are included in ComNew, steps S5003 to S5008 are repeated, and when there is no link information to be extracted in step S5003, the processing flow in FIG. 9 ends (S5004).

  Next, community information corresponding to ComNew_link is read from the community information storage unit 103, and the read community information is defined as ComLink (S5005).

  A set of the link information of the COMLink is read out, and the set of the read link information is referred to as COMLink_links (S5006).

  When the ComNew_id is not included in the CommLink_links (S5007), the ComNew_id is added to the ComLink_links (S5008).

  S5003 to S5008 are repeated until ComNew_link is completely read as described above.

Thus, the community management unit 105 adds a link to the newly stored community information with respect to the existing community information stored in the community information storage unit 103.

  Further, when the community management unit 105 is instructed to add a thread from the community generation unit 102, the community management unit 105 adds a thread to the designated community and, based on the sent community ID list, stores the previously stored community information. Add link information. This process will be described according to the process flow of FIG.

  When the community management unit 105 is instructed to add a thread from the community generation unit 102, the community management unit 105 reads the community ID of the community information to which the thread is added from the community generation unit 102 (S6001). The community ID read in S6001 is set to ComOld_id.

  Further, the date information of the program information input from the community generation unit 102 (S6002) and the list of community IDs (S6003) are read. The list of community IDs that have been read is referred to as ComIdList_in.

  Next, community information is read from the community information storage unit 103 based on the value of ComOld_id (S6004). The community information read in S6002 is set to ComOld.

  Then, a new thread is added to ComOld, and the thread name is set in the date information read in S6002 (S6005).

  Subsequently, link information is read from ComOld (S6006). The read link information is assumed to be ComOld_link.

  One community ID is extracted from ComIdList_in one by one (S6007), and the extracted community ID is set to ComId_in. Steps S6007 to S6012 are repeated until all the ComId_in is extracted from the ComIdList_in (S6008).

  When ComId_in is not included in ComOld_link (S6009), ComId_in is added to ComOld_link (S6010), and community information is read out from community information storage unit 103 based on ComId_in (S6011).

  The community information read in S6011 is set to ComIn, and ComOld_in is added to the link information of ComIn (S6012).

  As described above, S6007 to S6012 are repeatedly processed.

  Each part of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1 operates as described above.

  Next, how the program information shown in FIG. 2 is processed in the present embodiment will be specifically described.

  When the program information 201 to 202 in FIG. 2 is input to the program information input unit 101, the community generation unit 102 reads the input program information one by one (S1001).

  First, when 201 program information is read, since the genre of 201 is “news”, the process proceeds to the processing flow of FIG. 5 by the determination processing of S1003 of FIG.

  In S3001 of FIG. 5, keywords are generated according to the keyword generation flow of FIG. 7 from the program introduction information “After the T-country earthquake” 201 and “hay fever” in 201 (S3002).

  First, “after the Great T Earthquake” is input in the keyword generation flow of FIG.

  The result of the morphological analysis is, for example, “T country <proper noun> / great earthquake <noun> / <case particle> / its <combined particle> / after <noun >>”. T country earthquake <independent phrase> / <case particle> / its <conjunction> / after <noun> "(S4003).

  If words other than the attached words are taken out from the result, “T country earthquake” and “after” are obtained (S4004), and these character string lengths are “T country earthquake (character string length = 5)” and “after” (character string). Since “length = 1)”, the keyword “T country earthquake” having the longest character string length is output (S4005).

  With regard to “hay fever”, which is another program introduction information item, “hay fever” is output as a keyword in the same processing flow.

  When the keywords are generated in S3002 of FIG. 5 according to the flow of FIG. 7, the community generation unit 102 takes out the generated keywords one by one (S3003).

  First, suppose that "T-country earthquake" was taken out as the first keyword. The community generation unit 102 uses the community information search unit 104 to search the community information storage unit 103 using this keyword.

  An example of community information already stored in the community information storage unit 103 is shown in FIG. For example, assuming that the community information storage unit 103 is realized by an existing relational database, the community information search unit 104 can perform a search by the following search command (S3004).

SELECT Community ID
FROM community information WHERE title = T country earthquake As a result, the community information 301 is retrieved from the example of the existing community information shown in FIG.

  Since the existing community information is searched, the process proceeds to S3006, where “0010102” is read as the community ID (S3006), and this value is stored in the stack (S3013).

  Since there is still a keyword (S3014), the same processing is performed for the next keyword “hay fever” in S3003 to S3004. However, since an existing community is not searched with this keyword (S3005), the process proceeds to S3007 and a new one is created. A community ID is generated.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the community ID is expressed by a seven-digit numerical value with 0 added to the left side of the serial number. Here, it is assumed that “0020853” is generated as a new community ID (402 in FIG. 8).

  Further, community information with empty fields is generated (S3008), the title is “hay fever”, the type is “keyword”, and the community ID is “0020853”, and the community information is registered in the community information storage unit 103 (S3009˜). S3012).

  The registration of community information in the community information storage unit 103 is realized by an existing method using SQL. At this time, the community information storage unit 103 informs the community management unit 105 that a new community has been registered. Notice.

  Upon receiving the notification, the community management unit 105 processes the link information of the community information according to the flow of FIG.

  The community management unit 105 first reads the newly registered community information (S5001), and extracts the community ID “0020853” (S5002).

  Next, the link information of the read community information is read out, but since nothing is set in the link information here, the flow of FIG. 7 ends (S5004).

  Returning to the description of the flow in FIG. 5, the community generation unit 102 adds the community ID “0020853” newly generated in S3007 to the stack (S3013).

  Since all the keywords generated in S3002 have been processed (S3014), the process proceeds to S3015, and the program title “TSB news” is read from the program information 201.

  The community generation unit 102 searches for community information whose title is “TSB news” by the same method as described in S3004 (S3016).

  However, since the corresponding community information does not exist in the existing community of FIG. 6 (S3017), the process proceeds to S3021, and “0020854” is generated as the community ID.

  Then, community information in which each field is empty is generated (S3022), the community name is set to "TSB news" which is the title of the program information (S3023), the type is set to "program" (S3024), and in S3021 The generated community ID “0020854” is set (S3025).

  Further, the community IDs “0010102” (301 in FIG. 6) and “0020853” (402 in FIG. 8) stored in the stack in S3013 are set as link information (S3026) and registered in the community information storage unit 103 (S3027). .

  The flow in FIG. 5 ends here, but as described in S3013, registration of a new community is notified from the community information storage unit 103 to the community management unit 105, and the flow in FIG. 9 is processed again.

  In S5001 of FIG. 9, newly registered community information related to “TSB news” is input, and the community ID “0020854” (403 in FIG. 8) is read (S5002).

  Further, first, the community ID “0010102” is read as link information of this community information (S5003).

  Since link information exists (S5004), the process proceeds to S5005, and 301 in FIG. 6 is extracted from the community information storage unit 103 as existing community information regarding the community ID “0010102” (S5005).

  “0010105” and “0010204” are extracted as link information from 301 in FIG. 6 (S5006). These are communities related to other programs that include the keyword “Great T Earthquake” in the program introduction.

  Since the link information extracted in S5006 does not include the community ID “0020854” of the newly registered community information read out in S5002 (S5007), the process proceeds to S5008 and the link information of the community ID “0010102” is “0020854”. "Is added (401 in FIG. 8), and the flow returns to S5003.

  In S5003, the community ID “0020853”, which is another link information of “0020854” newly registered, is extracted, and community information (402 in FIG. 8) corresponding to this community ID is read from the community information storage unit 103. (S5006).

  This community information is community information related to “hay fever” generated in the same flow of FIG. 5 as “0020854” is generated, and the link information is empty, so that the process proceeds from S5007 to S5008 as before, The community ID “0020854” of the newly registered community information is added to the link information.

  The flow returns to S5003 once again, but since the processing related to the link information of the newly registered community information is completed, the flow from S5004 to FIG.

  Since the flow of FIG. 5 is completed, the process returns to S1016 of the flow of FIG. 3 and the next program information 202 is read (S1001).

  Since the genre of the program information 202 is “drama”, the process proceeds from S1002 to the flow of FIG.

  In S2001 of FIG. 4, paying attention to the performer information of the program information 202, first, the first performer information “Saburo Nakamura” is extracted.

  Next, the community information storage unit 103 is searched from the community information search unit 104 based on the performer name (S2002). The search method of the community information storage unit 103 can be realized in the same manner as in the case of S3004 and S3016 described above.

  As a result, the community information 303 with the community ID “0000113” is searched from the existing community information in FIG. 6 (S2003), and the process proceeds to S2004, and the read community ID “0000113” is stored in the stack (S2011). .

  The next performer name is “Fuyuko Kimura”, but this does not exist in the existing community information of FIG. 6, so the process proceeds to S2005, and a community ID is generated. Here, it is assumed that “0020865” is generated as the community ID (405 in FIG. 8).

  Further, community information with empty fields is generated (S2006), the community name is set to “Fuyuko Kimura” (S2007), the type is set to “person” (S2008), and the community ID is set to “0020865”. (S2009), it is registered in the community information storage unit 103 (S2010), and the community ID “0020865” is stored in the stack (S2011).

  When S2010 is processed, the community information storage unit 103 notifies the community management unit 105 of registration of a new community, and the flow of FIG. 9 is processed. The new community “0020865” registered here is a link. Since the information is empty, the flow of FIG. 9 does not affect the community information.

  Since the performer information of the program information 202 is as described above (S2012), the title information "Benkei" is read from the program information 202 (S2013).

  When an existing community is searched for “Benkei” (S2014), 302 in FIG. 6 is searched, and the process advances from S2015 to S2016.

  In S2016, “2005/02/17” is read as the date information of the program information.

  Further, the community ID “0010088” of the community information searched in S2014 is read, and the information obtained in S2016 to S2017 and the set of community IDs stacked in S2011 are sent to the community information management unit 105 (S2018). 4 ends.

  The community management unit 105 that has received information from the community generation unit 102 adds a thread to the community according to the flow of FIG.

  First, the community ID sent from the community generation unit 102 is read in S6001 of FIG. Here, the community ID “0010088” is read.

  Similarly, “2005/02/17” is read as date information (S6002), and “0000113” and “0020865” are read as a set of community IDs stored in the stack (S6003).

  Based on the community ID “0010088” read in S6001, 302 in FIG. 4 is read as community information from the community information storage unit 103 (S6004), and “2005/02/17” is added as thread information (S6005). ). The addition of threads and community functions based on threads are implemented in the same way as existing electronic bulletin boards and mailing lists.

  Also, community IDs “0000113” and “0010087” are read out as link information from the community information 302 in FIG. 6 (S6006).

  The set of community IDs read in S6003 is read in order. First, “0000113” is read out (S6007), and it is checked whether it is included in the set of community IDs read out in S6006 (S6009).

  Here, “0000113” is already included in the link information, and S6010 to S6012 are skipped. This indicates that there is already a link to the community regarding “Saburo Nakamura” as a performer of the program information “Benkei”.

  Returning to S6007 again, this time the community ID “0020865” is read out.

  Since this is not included in the set of community IDs read in S6006 (S6009), the community ID “0020865” is added to the link information (406 in FIG. 5) of the community ID “0010088” (S6010) and the community The community information with the ID “0020865” is read (S6011), and “0010088” is added to the link information (S6012).

  The processing returns to S6007 again, but since the processing of the set of community IDs read in S6003 has been completed, the processing flow of FIG. 10 ends from S6008.

  When the community information shown in FIG. 6 has already been stored in the community information storage unit 103 and the program information shown in FIG. 2 has been input to the program information input unit 101 by the processing described above, the community information storage unit The community information stored in 103 is changed as shown in FIG.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to generate a community based on information in the program guide. Therefore, it is always desirable when a user who has viewed a program tries to participate in a community related to the program. There is a community, and it is possible to facilitate participation of the user in the community.

  In addition, it is possible to provide a more convenient community by associating communities with each other based on the information in the program guide and generating appropriate subcommunities for each program, and the operation of the community is automated. The cost of community management can be greatly reduced.

  The above-described embodiment is a preferable specific example of the present invention, and thus various technically preferable limitations are attached. However, the embodiments are appropriately combined and changed within a range not departing from the gist of the present invention. It goes without saying that it can be done. For example, there may be sports as a genre. The community attribute is usually a bulletin board, but in the case of sports, the community attribute may be chat.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a server / client system according to the present embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the program information input into the program information input part 101. FIG. Processing flowchart (the 1) which produces | generates a community. Processing flowchart for generating a community (part 2; when the genre is drama). Process flowchart for generating a community (part 3; when the genre is news). The figure which shows an example of the existing community information memorize | stored in the community information storage part 103. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of keyword generation in S3002 of FIG. The figure which shows an example of the community information produced | generated / changed. The flowchart which adds the link to a new community to the existing community. A flowchart of adding a link to an existing community when a thread is added.

Explanation of symbols

101 Program information input unit 102 Community generation unit 103 Community information storage unit 104 Community information search unit 105 Community management unit 110 Client terminal 120 Community information management server

Claims (8)

A community information generation device that generates community information for use by a community information management device that manages a community using a network,
An input unit for inputting electronic program information;
A generating unit that generates the community information based on the input electronic program information;
A transmission unit for transmitting the generated community information to the community information management device;
A community information generating device comprising:   2. The community information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the genre of the input electronic program information is drama, the generating unit sets a performer name as a community name.   2. The community information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the genre of the input electronic program information is news, the generating unit sets a community name based on program introduction information.   2. The community information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the genre of the input electronic program information is neither drama nor news, the generation unit sets a program title name as a community name. The generation unit uses the input electronic program information to inquire to the community information management device whether a corresponding existing community exists;
Means for receiving a response from the community information management device regarding whether an existing community exists,
2. The community information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when receiving a response that an existing community does not exist, new community information relating to a community related to the input electronic program information is generated. A receiving unit for receiving community information for managing a community using the network from the community information generating device;
A storage unit for storing the received community information;
Based on the stored community information, a management unit that manages the community on the network,
A community information management device comprising: When the receiving unit receives an inquiry about whether there is an existing community from the community information generating device,
The community information management apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a search unit that searches whether there is community information about an existing community in the storage unit. An input unit for inputting electronic program information;
A generating unit for generating community information for managing a community using a network based on the input electronic program information;
A storage unit for storing the generated community information;
Based on the stored community information, a management unit that manages the community using the network,
A community information management system.

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