JP3889299B2 - E-mail system, e-mail address assignment method and e-mail address assignment program - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a mail system, a mail address assigning method, and a mail address assigning program for sending and receiving mail, and more particularly to a simplified method for specifying a mail destination in a mail system.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The mail system not only exchanges information between individuals, but also exchanges information between individuals and an unspecified number of people through a so-called mailing list or in-house LAN (Local Area Network). Information exchange is possible.
For example, when it is desired to obtain information relating to stock investment, it is expected that desired information can be obtained by posting an e-mail having contents to be known on a mailing list relating to stock investment and waiting for a reply from a member.
In addition, in an in-house LAN or the like, by sending a mail by designating a department that seems to be familiar with the contents as a destination, the mail is sent to a person belonging to that department, and the same effect as described above can be expected.
Hereinafter, a group, a mailing list, or the like in which a plurality of mail addresses are registered in the mail server as a unit and information is distributed simultaneously is collectively referred to as a “group”.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the case where it is desired to send information or ask for opinions using the mail system as described above, it is first necessary to determine specifically to which group the mail is to be sent. For example, if you want to know information about stock investment, you must first search or select a group that seems to be familiar with stock investment, and then enter the name of the group you searched or selected in the address field. It was.
[0004]
In recent years, the fields of mailing lists are gradually subdivided, and it is difficult to search for and select an appropriate mailing list. Even when the same thing is performed by an in-house LAN or the like, it may be difficult to search or select an appropriate department or group due to frequent organizational changes.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and eliminates the complexity of searching for a partner to which mail should be transmitted, and lowers the psychological barrier for the mail sender, mail address assigning method, and mail address The purpose is to provide a granting program.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
For the purposes achieve mail system according to the first invention of the present application, displays a destination indication areas displayed and mail transmission destination indicated areas, the areas displayed, with each other close the contents Displayed at a short distance compared to the distant contents, and the transmission destination display stored a visualization map configured by displaying in the vicinity of the field display related to the field deeply related to the transmission destination Search the database, display means for displaying the visualization map, specification means for designating the field display on the display means, and the destination display arranged within a predetermined range around the designated field display And e-mail address assigning means for assigning to the e-mail an e-mail address related to the destination display searched by the search means. In the first invention, adjustment means for adjusting the predetermined range can be provided.
[0012]
According to the first aspect of the invention, when a field display is designated on the visualization map, a destination display arranged within a predetermined range around the field display is searched, and a mail address related to the searched destination display is searched. Is added to the email. Destination display, because it is displayed in the vicinity of the areas displayed according to the deeper areas associated with the destination, the above procedure, the task of selecting the destination in the source is reduced.
[0016]
For the purposes achieved, email address assignment method according to the second invention of the present application, displays a destination indication areas displayed and mail transmission destination indicated areas, the areas displayed, close the content A database that displays a visualization map configured by displaying each other at a distance shorter than that of a distant content and displaying the transmission destination display in the vicinity of the field display related to the field deeply related to the transmission destination. A storage step for storing as a display step, a display step for displaying the visualization map, a designation step for designating the displayed field display, and the destination display arranged within a predetermined range around the designated field display A search step for searching for a mail, and an email address assignment step for assigning to the email an email address related to the destination display searched by the search step It is characterized in that a-up.
[0017]
For the purposes achieved, a third e-mail address assignment program according to the invention of the present application, displays a destination indication areas displayed and mail transmission destination indicated areas, the areas displayed close in content While displaying things close to each other compared to those far from the contents, the transmission destination display is a visualization map configured by displaying in the vicinity of the field display related to the field deeply related to the transmission destination. a display step of displaying a designation step of designating the field display displayed, a search step of retrieving the transmission destination display disposed within a predetermined range around the specified areas displayed by said search step The computer is configured to execute a mail address assigning step of assigning the searched mail address related to the destination display to the mail. The features.
[0020]
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.
[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mail system according to the present embodiment includes a mail creation terminal 11, a mail server 12, and a hard disk 13. The mail system is connected to other mail servers 22, 23, 24, etc. via a network 14 such as an in-house LAN. Connected with.
The mail input terminal 11 is provided with a keyboard for inputting mail, a mouse 11m, and the like, and a mail creation program for creating mail is installed, and the mail is created by activating this. be able to.
[0021]
An example of the mail creation screen is shown in FIG. In the “destination” field m1, (1) a specific mail address, (2) a destination name (department name, mailing list name, etc.), or (3) a keyword can be entered. In this embodiment, when entering a keyword, the keyword (eg, “stock” “A securities”) is enclosed in parentheses as shown in FIG. And When entering multiple keywords with AND condition, insert symbols such as “&” and “AND” between keywords, and when entering with OR condition, insert symbols such as “|” and “OR” between keywords. To do. In addition, a NOT condition or the like may be designated.
[0022]
The “CC” column m2 is a part for entering the mail address of the other party to whom a copy of the mail is to be sent as reference data. In the “subject” column m3, a title indicating the content of the text is described. In the lower column m4, the text of the mail is described.
[0023]
The mail server 12 is a server having a function of determining the address of the mail transmitted from the mail input terminal 11 and transmitting the mail and delivering the mail received from the outside to the mail input terminal 11.
[0024]
As shown in FIG. 2, the hard disk 13 stores group names such as a department name (eg, general affairs department) and a mailing list name together with the mail addresses of the members. Also, each group name is added with various keywords representing the spot color. For example, for the department named “General Affairs Department”, the e-mail address of the member (sm1@xxx.co.jp, sm2@xxx.co.jp, etc.) and the characteristics of the department name (responsible field, specialty) Keywords (personnel, employment, insurance) and the like indicating the field) are stored.
[0025]
In addition, regarding the mailing list “A Securities Association”, the keywords (stock, stock, etc.) that express the characteristics of the mailing list along with the member's email addresses (a1@xxx.co.jp, a2@xxx.co.jp ...). A securities company) is stored.
In addition, among members of “A Securities Association”, the owner an of email address an1@xxx.co.jp may want to receive emails related to A securities, but not emails related to stocks. obtain. In this case, information that the mail regarding the stock is not desired to be received (hereinafter referred to as “rejection information”) is received from the owner an, and this rejection information is stored in the hard disk 13. As a result, when a mail M that uses “stock” as a keyword but does not include “A securities” as a keyword is sent, this mail M can be prevented from being sent to the owner an.
[0026]
Specifically, this owner an's email address an1@xxx.co.jp is excluded from the email address list of “A Securities Association” to which it belongs and as shown in the bottom column of the table in FIG. The mail address an1@xxx.co.jp is stored with a new mailing list name “A Securities Association (excluding shares)”. This new mailing list name constitutes the rejection information. As a corresponding keyword, “A securities company not stock” is stored. As a result, only the mail with the keyword “A securities company” is transmitted to the owner an, and the mail with the keyword “stock” is not transmitted.
The method of configuring the reject information is not limited to this, and various changes can be made according to the purpose.
[0027]
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the contents of various processes related to mail from the mail input terminal 11 in the mail server 12, and is realized by a computer program stored in a storage medium (not shown) in the mail server 12. That is, the mail server 12 includes a mail reception unit 12a, a destination determination unit 12b, a match detection unit 12c, an address reading unit 12d, an address assignment unit 12e, and a mail transmission unit 12f.
[0028]
The mail receiving unit 12a has a function of receiving and temporarily holding the mail M transmitted from the mail input terminal 11. The address determination unit 12b has a function of determining the description content of the address column m1 of the mail M. The coincidence detection unit 12c has a function of detecting coincidence between the contents described in the destination column m1 and the contents of the hard disk 13. The address reading unit 12d has a function of reading the mail address when a match is found by the match detection unit 12c. The address assigning unit 12e has a function of assigning the mail address read by the address reading unit 12d to the mail M. The mail sending unit 12f has a function of sending the mail M given the mail address to the outside by some method.
[0029]
Hereinafter, the operation of the mail server 12 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
When the mail M is received by the mail receiving unit 12a (S1), the destination determination unit 12b first determines whether the content described in the destination column m1 of the mail M is a specific mail address or the name of the address (department name, Whether it is a mailing list name or the like) or a keyword (S2, S3, S4). In the present embodiment, whether the description in the destination field m1 is the name of a destination or a keyword is determined based on whether or not the input character is enclosed in parentheses. Needless to say, it may be judged.
[0030]
If it is determined that the mail address is a specific mail address, the mail M is directly output to the mail transmitting unit 12f (S5).
If the description is not an address but a group name (department name, mailing list name, etc.), the match detection unit 12c searches the database in the hard disk 13 for the department name, mailing list name, etc. corresponding to the group name. (S6). If a match is found, the address assigning unit 12e assigns the mail address for the group name to the destination column m2 of the mail M and outputs it to the mail transmitting unit 12f (S7). If there is no match, a message to that effect is sent back to the mail input terminal 11 (S8).
[0031]
When it is determined that the description in the destination field m1 is a keyword, a signal indicating the determination content is transmitted to the coincidence detection unit 12c. In this case, the coincidence detection unit 12c searches the hard disk 13 for the group name registered by this keyword based on the stored contents of the mail reception unit 12a. If a search is made, the mail address information of the members of the group is transmitted to the address assigning unit 12e.
[0032]
The address assigning unit 12e assigns the searched mail address to the mail M. At this time, when a plurality of groups are searched, there may be members registered in both of the plurality of groups, and as a result, a plurality of emails having the same contents reach the members. Become. In order to prevent this, as shown in FIG. 5, when there are a plurality of searched group names (S7-1), the address assigning unit 12e determines all the mail addresses belonging to the plurality of searched groups. (S7-2), and it is confirmed whether or not there is a duplicate mail address (S7-3). If an overlap is confirmed, only one mail address is left and the rest is deleted (S7-4), and only the remaining mail address is assigned to the mail M (S7-5). If it is determined in S7-3 that there are no duplicate mail addresses, all of the mail addresses acquired in S7-2 are assigned to the mail M (S7-6). This reduces unnecessary time and mental burden on the receiver. Note that duplicate mail address information may be acquired in advance before a plurality of group names are specified by specifying a keyword. This eliminates the need to perform a search every time a keyword is specified.
[0033]
[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the first embodiment, when a mail destination is not specifically known, a keyword is entered in the destination field m1 to automatically select a destination. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, a visualization map Ma as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display of the mail input terminal 11, and a mail transmission destination is selected based on the map.
Hereinafter, the contents of the visualization map Ma will be described.
[0034]
As shown in FIG. 6, the visualization map Ma is configured by arranging a field display mark fm indicating a field and a name display nm indicating a person's name on a two-dimensional plane.
The name display nm is displayed near a field display mark nm indicating a field in which the person with the name is interested or detailed. For example, in the visualization map Ma1 in FIG. 6, the name display “Karazawa” is displayed near the field display mark “bankruptcy”, which indicates that a person named Karasawa is familiar with or is interested in bankruptcy. . The distance between the field display mark fm and the name display nm can be changed according to the degree of interest in the field of the person displaying the name, the depth of knowledge, and the like. It should be noted that the name display nm may display only the keyman (department head, development unit leader, etc.) of the field, and other person's name display nm may not be displayed.
[0035]
A plurality of visualization maps can be prepared for each field. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, different maps Ma1 and Ma2 can be prepared in a field related to “law / economy” and a field related to “computer / communication”. Of course, when the types of fields are limited, all the field display marks fm may be arranged in one map.
[0036]
In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, the field display marks fm having the contents that are similar to each other are arranged closer to each other than the field display marks fm that are far from each other in one visualization map Ma. For example, in the “Major / Economy” map Ma1 shown in FIG. 6, the field display marks “patent” and “copyright”, which are similar contents, are compared to “stocks” and “bankruptcy” which are distant from each other. Located at a close distance. Further, even if the fields are different, if the range of people familiar with the field is common, the field display marks fm may be close to each other. Also, the name display nm of people who are familiar with the field and the name display nm of people who are only interested are displayed in different colors (eg red for the former, blue for the latter, etc.) on the display. You may make it distinguishable.
[0037]
The mapping of the mark fm can be manually arranged by the system administrator on the map, but can also be automated using a known self-organizing map or a spring model. References to introduce these include “Self-Organizing Map” (T. Kohonen, Springer Fairlark Tokyo, 1996), “Construction of Idea-Inspired System Using Spring Model” (7th AI Symposium (SIG- J), December 1996).
Further, on the right side of each map Ma1, Ma2, an adjustment volume B (B1, B2) for changing a range to be selected as a mail transmission destination is provided.
[0038]
Next, a method for selecting a destination to which the mail M is transmitted using such a visualization map Ma will be described with reference to FIG. Here, it is assumed that a mail is transmitted to obtain information on M & A.
First, the visualization map Ma1 related to “Law / Economy” is selected. Then, the field display mark “M & A” is selected. The selection can be performed by moving the pointer P displayed on the display with the mouse 11m of the mail input terminal 11 and clicking the button of the mouse 11m.
[0039]
When the field display mark fm is selected, as shown in FIG. 7, the field display mark fm (“M & A”) changes from a thin line display to a thick line display, and a circle display C1 indicated by a dotted line is displayed. This circle display C1 means that the name display nm included in the circle C1 is selected as the transmission destination of the mail M. In the example of FIG. 7, “Okigawa” and “Koizumi” are selected as the transmission destinations of the mail M.
[0040]
The size of the circle display C1 that is displayed first when the field display mark fm is clicked with the mouse 11m is determined by the position of the adjustment gauge Bg in the adjustment volume B1 described above. When the adjustment gauge Bg is at the uppermost position, the size of the circle display C1 is maximum, and when the adjustment gauge Bg is at the lowest position, the size of the circle display C1 is minimum. That is, by adjusting the adjustment volume B1, it is possible to set a range in which mail is desired to be sent. In real-world conversations, if you want a lot of people to talk to you, talk in a loud voice or in a place where many people can hear (for example, the stage), but only in a limited way If you want to talk to someone, talk in a quiet voice or in a place without people. The adjustment volume B is a realization of such adjustments performed in the real world on the mail system.
[0041]
The volume B1 may be adjusted before the field display mark fm to be selected is clicked or after the click.
The size of the circle display C1 may be adjusted by dragging and dropping the circle display C1 itself with the mouse 11m.
[0042]
When the size of the circle display C1 is determined, the “OK” icon displayed at the lower right of the map Ma1 is clicked with the mouse 11m. As a result, the mail address related to the name display nm included in the circle display C1 is given to the destination field m1 of the mail M. As a method for specifying an area on the visualization map, a conventional CAD tool or the like is used. Needless to say, various methods used in a conventional CAD tool or the like can be applied as a method for specifying an area on the visualization map. For example, as shown in FIG. 7B, an end point is designated with a mouse and a name surrounded by a rectangle R1 is set as a transmission destination, and a free curve FR1 is drawn with a mouse as shown in FIG. 7C. And specifying the inside of the area as a transmission destination.
[0043]
[Modification]
As mentioned above, although embodiment was described, this invention is not limited to these. For example, the following changes are possible.
(1) In the above embodiment, the entire searched group is the target of the mail address assignment to the mail M. However, as shown in FIG. The list of group names is displayed on the display of the mail input terminal 11 (S21). The mail sender looks at this list and selects the name of the group that needs to be sent (S22). This selection can be performed using, for example, the mouse 11m. Then, the mail address related to the selected group name is assigned to the destination field m1 of the mail M, and is output to the mail transmission unit 12f. As a result, transmission to a destination that does not require transmission can be avoided.
[0044]
(2) The keyword described in the destination field m1 can also be described in the header H1 of the mail M (FIG. 9). Thereby, the recipient of the mail can check the transmission source of the received mail at a glance.
[0045]
(3) In the second embodiment, both the field display mark fm and the name display nm are displayed on the visualization map M, but only the name display nm is displayed and the name display nm itself is displayed with the mouse 11m. In addition to the designation, the name display nm arranged in the vicinity thereof may also be selected as the destination mail address depending on the adjustment of the adjustment volume B.
In addition to this, it goes without saying that various modifications and additions can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
[0046]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the mail system according to the first invention of the present application, the mail address assigning method according to the fourth invention, and the mail address assigning program according to the fifth invention, the creator of the email is Even if it is not known to which group (department, mailing list, etc.) the mail can be transmitted, it is not necessary to search for the group to be transmitted, and the psychological barrier of the sender is reduced. Further, according to the mail system according to the second and third inventions of the present application, even if the creator of the e-mail does not know which group (department, mailing list, etc.) may send the mail. , The group to be transmitted can be easily identified, and the psychological barrier of the sender is lowered.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a mail system according to a first embodiment of the present invention and the contents of a mail M to be transmitted.
FIG. 2 shows a group name stored in the hard disk 13 of FIG. 1 and a mail address of the member.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the mail server 12 in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing how a mail address is assigned by the mail system according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing how a mail address is assigned by the mail system according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 6 shows an example of a visualization map used in the mail system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a transmission destination designation method using the visualization map shown in FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 shows a modification of the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9 shows a modification of the embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
11 ... mail input terminal, 11m ... mouse, 12, 22, 23, 24 ... mail server, 13 ... hard disk, 14 ... network, M ... mail, Ma ... visualization map

Claims (4)

Display a destination indication areas displayed and mail transmission destination indicated areas, the field view, and displays in the near distance than with each other close the contents furthest of content, the destination display A database storing a visualization map configured by displaying in the vicinity of the field display related to the field deeply related to the transmission destination;
Display means for displaying the visualization map;
Designating means for designating the field display on the display means;
Search means for searching for the destination display arranged in a predetermined range around the designated field display;
An e-mail system comprising: e-mail address assigning means for assigning an e-mail address related to the destination display searched by the search means to the e-mail.   The mail system according to claim 1, further comprising adjusting means for adjusting the predetermined range. Display a destination indication areas displayed and mail transmission destination indicated areas, the field view, and displays in the near distance than with each other close the contents furthest of content, the destination display Storing a visualization map configured by displaying in the vicinity of the field display relating to the field closely related to the transmission destination as a database;
A display step for displaying the visualization map;
A designating step for designating the displayed field display;
A search step for searching for the destination display arranged within a predetermined range around the designated field display;
An e-mail address assigning method comprising: an e-mail address assigning step for assigning an e-mail address related to the destination display searched in the search step to the e-mail. Display a destination indication areas displayed and mail transmission destination indicated areas, the field view, and displays in the near distance than with each other close the contents furthest of content, the destination display A display step for displaying a visualization map configured by displaying in the vicinity of the field display relating to the field closely related to the transmission destination, a specifying step for specifying the displayed field display, and the specified A search step for searching for the destination display arranged within a predetermined range around the field display, and an email address giving step for giving the email an email address related to the destination display searched by the search step; A program for giving an e-mail address, characterized in that the program is executed by a computer.

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