KR100330346B1 - Internet information billing system - Google Patents

Abstract

The internet information monetization system is a system that provides a means for billing various types of information existing on the web. According to the present invention, the information provider can be provided with an integrated billing method through minimal changes while connected to the Internet, and the information user can conveniently access various information from various information providers by subscribing to one system. It becomes available. The present invention is largely composed of two systems. One is a main system for managing the whole billing information and the other is a vendor system for managing the own information provided by the information providers. The two systems are interconnected through the Internet, so that usage information used by information users can be maintained through mutual exchange. The information user subscribes to a user server of the main system, and when a service is selected, the information user can use the information on the information sites of many other information providers subscribed to the Internet information fee-based system without additional subscription.

Description

Internet Information Billing System {INTERNET INFORMATION BILLING SYSTEM}

Due to the development of the Internet and the rapid spread of the World Wide Web (WWW), there are many changes in the way of distributing information in the present society. Especially in a society where information is important, such as modern society, obtaining more accurate information sooner becomes a key factor in competitiveness. Due to these factors, the rapid spread of information through the Internet is regarded as an important development in terms of sharing and disseminating various information. However, from the point of view of the provider of information, providing more accurate information faster has an additional cost. Therefore, the provider who provides the information has a desire to receive reasonable compensation for the information provided by the user. Where these needs can be met is more information available. At present, the best place to meet these needs is PC communications. However, there is also a great deal of desire to distribute information through the Internet by the expansion of the Internet mentioned above.

In addition, from the point of view of the PC communication company, the necessity to expand the currently provided information on the Internet in consideration of the development of new technology and the scalability of the system is increasing. However, the Internet has not met the needs of PC telecommunications companies to charge through the centralized system management due to the early open philosophy. Therefore, although much effort has been made to find ways to meet these demands, the results of such efforts have not been satisfactory.

In this situation, the present invention proposes a method for billing information provided using the Internet in a decentralized situation and describes a system for implementing the same.

It is an object of the present invention that an information user who uses information subscribes to one system, registers an ID, and uses the same ID at the sites of multiple information providers who provide the information using the same information. Use of the bill is to enable the consolidated billing through a single consolidated bill. The entirety of this billing system of the present invention is referred to as Internet Information Monetization System (EasyID).

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing the flow of information between the elements associated with the entire system to show the operation of the system,

2 is a system configuration diagram of a main system and a vendor system required for configuring an entire system;

3A, 3B, and 3C are configuration diagrams of respective interface data format packets for data exchanged between a main system and a vendor system;

4 is a user server main web page for a system to which information users access for the first time;

5 is a login page for viewing information of a user after an information user who has subscribed to an Internet information monetization system logs in from a user server;

6 is a manager server main page accessed by a system administrator to manage an entire system;

7 is a system configuration diagram provided with a log server in the vendor system to reduce the load on the vendor system;

8 is a main page of a vendor server for managing the services provided by the administrator of the information provider side;

Fig. 9 shows a database configuration diagram of an internet information monetization system existing in the main system that holds information on the entire system.

As shown in FIG. 1, the Internet information paying system manages an information user 101 who wants to use the information by subscribing to an internet information paying system, an information provider 102 who wants to provide his or her information on the Internet, and manages and needs them. It consists of a management system 103 that performs a task. This management system 103 will be used later as the main system (main system) (103). The information user 101 subscribes to the Internet information pay system through the registration process 111 and subscribes to the information service provided by the information provider 102. Thereafter, when the information user 101 requests the provision of information provided for a fee through the path 112 for accessing the system of the information provider 102, the information provider 102 may authenticate the requested information user 102. Through the process 114, the process 115 for requesting the information user authentication and the approval for providing the information is received. With respect to the authorized information user, the information provider provides the information requested by the information user through the process 113.

Further details of the operation of the system for this process are shown in FIG. 2. 2 illustrates a more detailed configuration of FIG. 1.

Vendor system 102 is an interface module 221 for exchanging information with the main system 103 and the information provider owns the system. It consists of a vendor server (222) for managing this, and a database (223) for maintaining these information. In addition, the main system 103 is an interface module 211 for exchanging information with the vendor system 102 and web pages and information of a manager server 213 for managing an entire system. A web page of a user server 212 for a user to subscribe to a service or retrieve and modify his or her information, and a database 214 for maintaining their information.

The administrator of the entire system can search and modify the current use status and amount of money and information of the information user and the information provider by using the web page of the manager server 213, and add a new information provider 102. . In addition, the manager server 213 periodically extracts the use amount information of the information user and based on this, it also plays a role of charging the use amount to the information users 101.

The main system 103 of FIG. 2 is a tool for operating and managing the entire Internet information monetization system. These are composed of the interface module 211, the user server 212, the manager server 213, and the database 214 as described above.

The interface module 211 accepts a request from the information provider 102 while exchanging information with the vendor system, authenticates the information user ID and password, and transmits the result to the vendor system. When the information is to be viewed, a process 216 of approving the provision of the information through the processes 114 and 115 and transmitting the result to the vendor system and storing the content thereof is performed. In addition, when the information user 101 subscribes to the new service of the information provider 102, the information related to the subscription is transmitted to the vendor system 102 through the process 116 through the interface module 211. Through this operation, the vendor system 102 plays a role of helping to grasp the usage history and the personal information of the information user who subscribed to the information service in real time. The interface module 211 performs work in cooperation with the interface module 221 of the vendor system 102, and data is transmitted between them through the processes 114, 115, and 116. In particular, two data formats are transmitted again through steps 114 and 115, one of which is an authentication interface for authenticating the information user, and the other of which obtains approval to provide information on the information charged as pay-as-you-go. Informational approval interface. The data format for each of these is shown in authentication request data 302 and authorization request data 305 in FIG. 3A.

The authentication request data 302 is obtained by the filtering program on the web server when the information user 101 wants to use the paid information in the vendor system 102, so that the information (user ID, A user's password, etc.) to generate a data packet including an information provider ID (cpid) for requesting authentication and an information service ID (service ID) to be provided. The structure of these data packets is given at 302 of FIG. 3A. Since the data packets of the authentication request data 302 are information transmitted through the Internet, they are encrypted for security. In other words, the encrypted data 323 has data obtained by encrypting a packet of information to be authenticated, and has data length 321 and information provider ID information 322 as information for decrypting it. They each have a length of 4 bytes and 10 bytes and the encrypted data packet 323 has a data length 321. The planar data packet structure of the double encrypted data packet 323 is given at 301. In the planar data packet structure 301, the information user ID 311 has a size of 10 bytes. The planar data packet structure 301 is composed of an information user password 312 of 10 bytes, an information provider ID 313 of 10 bytes, and a service ID 314 of 10 bytes.

The data packet configured in the above manner is received from the vendor server 222 through the process 114 of FIG. As shown in FIG. 3A, an encrypted data packet 302 is composed of a data length 321, an information provider ID 322, and an encrypted information 323. The main system 103 checks the information user ID and password based on this information, checks whether the information user is subscribed to the service to be used currently, and transmits the result value to the requesting server.

The information provided through the Internet information monetization system has a flat rate or pay-as-you-go billing method depending on its characteristics. Of these, the pay-per-view information should leave a log in the main system 103 for charging. This is the informational grant request packet in the data packet passed to step 114. The structure of the packet delivered at this time is given in 305 of FIG. 3B. The authorization request data 305 is configured to be encrypted in the same manner as the authentication request data 302. The plain packet format that is encrypted in the packet of grant request data 305 is given at 304. The flat packet format 304 includes information on an ID 340 of an information user, an ID 344 of an information provider providing information, and an ID 343 of a service to which information to be used belongs. Information about the information provided with the (341, 342, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349). Among them, the information ID 341 to be provided is a value created for the information provider to manage his system. The fee information 342 for the information is calculated by the information provider and delivered to the main system 103 according to the type of information described below. The contents of the information are classified in a predetermined manner according to four classification criteria such as etc1 (345), etc2 (346), etc3 (347), etc4 (348). And finally, 349, the title of the information provided. The packet having these information is changed into a field 353 of the grant request data 305 packet through the DES encryption algorithm and included. When the interface module 211 receives the information through the process 114, it is first checked whether the information user can read the information, and thereafter, the limit amount set by the information user and the information user provided by the system. It checks whether the limit is exceeded and sends an acknowledgment message if it is reasonable and a disclaimer message to the interface module 221 of the vendor system 102 if it is not. The data packet sent at this time has a structure of 306. The data packet 306 is composed of an ID 361 of the information user who wants to use the information, an information processing result value 363, and the amount of data 362 used by the information user in the Internet information monetization system to date. In addition, the separators have distinct values (364, 365) as a separator for distinguishing each of them. The authorization data is not encrypted for the same reason as the result of the information user authentication. The information provision approval code 363 has five kinds of result values which are largely divided into approval and disclaimer. In this case, the values 1 and 6 indicate approval. In the case of 1, the information consumer pays the amount 342 and sees the information. If you read the authorization code to use the information at no additional charge. In addition, the denial codes will have values of 2 (wrong information user), 3 (information usage period or limit charge exceeded), and 4 (log record failure), respectively, depending on their meaning.

The information user information update module is responsible for delivering information to the information provider 102 when the information user joins or leaves the new service or changes his information. The purpose of this operation is to access the main system 103 every time when the information provider's system needs to grasp the information of the information users who subscribed to their services as often as necessary. There are a lot of loads, so there is a case that it is difficult to provide services. In addition, by providing a simple personal information of the information user to the information provider 102, the information provider can establish and proceed with various marketing policies according to their own policies. However, the information transmitted here does not send information related to the payment account and information about the password of the information user among the information user information. This is the element of choice for the safety of information. This information is conveyed through process 116, where the information conveyed is shown at 3103 in FIG. 3C. The information 3103 is also an encrypted packet as in the previous information, the contents of which are given in 307, 308, 309 and 3101. Each of these means signing up for a new user or changing information, leaving an information user, subscribing to a service, or leaving a service. Each of these is classified by the type (371, 381, 391, 3111) located in the front of the plane packet. The packet 307 contains all the information about the information user. The information stored here includes the information user's ID (372), the information user's name (373, 374), the information user's other personal information (375, 376, 377, 378), and the information user's home (379). , 3281, 3282), information about your workplace (3283, 3284, 3285), other mobile contact numbers (3286), how to contact information users (3287), information providers or email information provided by the Internet Information Monetization System. Receipt (3288), membership (3289), the date of change of information (3290), and when a new subscription is composed of the service ID (3291) to subscribe. In the case of information user withdrawal, the type 381 for the information user withdrawal information 308 and the canceled information user ID 382 are sent. In the case of subscribing to a new service, a type 391, an information user ID 392, a subscribing service ID 393, and a subscribing date 394 are sent to the packet 309. When the information user terminates the service of the specific information provider (3101), the type 3111, the information user ID 3112, and the service ID 3113 to be terminated are sent.

After receiving this, the result of processing in the vendor system sends a packet having a structure of 3102. This packet consists of an information user ID 3121 and a processing result code 3122. This information is not encrypted.

The user server 212 is a web page accessed by an information user to inquire / modify his or her information. It is also a public place used when new information users or general Internet users access the Internet information monetization system for the first time. The main function of this server is to inform the user of joining / unsubscribing information and to the person who wants to become a new information provider. In addition, the user server 212 performs a function for existing subscribers to search / modify their information or to subscribe to a new service. In addition, the information user 101 can also see information such as the amount of information used and payment amount used by the user. In addition, the system may provide other additional functions. These additional functions may include functions such as a board, internet chatting, and e-mail.

The main page 401 of the user server 212 of FIG. 4 is composed of three main menus, which are information user subscription and other guide functions 411, information user information inquiry function 412, and additional information. The service function 413 is it. The guide function 411 is made up of functions for explaining the guidance when a new information user wants to subscribe to the Internet information monetization system and registers as a new information provider. The information inquiry function 412 can be accessed by the information user through his or her information user ID and password, and the page at this time is the page 501 of FIG. The additional service function 413 is a function for performing other functions, such as a bulletin board system or a chat.

In FIG. 5, the page 501 is a function 511 for the information user to view / modify his or her information, a function 512 for leaving the Internet information monetization system, a new subscription to the service of the information provider, or search for the provided service. And a function 513 for inquiring about the amount of money used by the information user from the information providers, and a function 515 for inquiring about the payment status of the information user. Here, the use amount inquiry function 514 may again search for the amount used by the monthly, daily, information provider.

The manager server 213 is a system for the administrator of the Internet information pay system to operate and manage the entire system. The system can also be implemented as a web page or as a separate application.

The manager server main page 601 of this system is shown in FIG. 6, the main functions of which are the subscription of the information provider and the function for managing the new service 611, and the function of searching and modifying information of the information user 612. ), The function of charging and managing the use amount (613), the function for processing various statistics about the information user (614), and the function of sending a mail to the information user for marketing, or to promote the system through a lottery It is composed of 615.

The database 214 of the Internet information monetization system is a place for storing information required to operate the entire system. The information stored here is largely divided into five types of information.

These are information user profile information 911, information user delivery information 912, log information 913, provided service information 914, and information provider information 915, respectively. Information User Profile Information is a collection of data on the status of information users who have subscribed to the Internet information monetization system. This information includes information about the user ID, password, contact information, information about the subscribed service, and payment account information. Information User Payment Information contains information related to payment of the amount used by the information user. It includes the subscription fee, monthly flat fee, and pay-as-you-go information used by each information user, and the past payment information stores whether the information user paid. The log information has information on the details of each information user using the services of various information providers. This information is further divided into three types of information, each of which provides information on the contents of the authentication that the information user has been authenticated, information on each usage history for the amount of information paid for, and a situation in which the information user pays for the use of the service. It is a usage amount log where contents of all cases are stored. Information provider information has information about information providers who subscribe to the Internet information monetization system and provide information to information users. This information includes information about the identity of the information provider, information about the administrator who manages this information as a whole, and information about payment. The service information provided includes information about services provided by respective information providers. This information contains information about the contents of the service and the rate policy.

When the raw data of the information usage fee for the information users generated in the main system (EasyID Billing System) is passed to the internet information charging system billing system 218, the information data is transferred to the information users based on the data data. A sales slip is created and the information user bills according to the payment method selected at the time of subscription. In addition, the billing system receives the results of the deposit processing of information users through three types of payments, such as Jiro, direct debit, and credit card, through the Korea Financial Services Agency, Korea Credit Information Co., Ltd. Management will be performed.

The vendor system 102 of FIG. 2 is a system for information providers provided to information providers who have subscribed to an internet information monetization system. This system is separate from the performance of the functions associated with maintaining the information provided by the information provider. This function is separated because the information is maintained in different ways depending on the type and type of information provided by each information provider. Therefore, it is difficult to provide the information management part in one consistent way. However, the function performed by the vendor system 102 is limited to information on personal information of the information user using the provided information, information on a fee using the information, information on usage statistics using each information, and the like. This limited division of functions can provide information providers with a variety of maintenance of the information they provide, and can also improve performance in the system. Therefore, any kind of information provider can be accommodated in the Internet information monetization system. The vendor system 102 is divided into two systems, one of which is an interface module 221 which is responsible for interfacing with the main system 103 and a web user of the information provider to perform work on his system. The vendor server 222 is configured as. And a database 223 in charge of storing the information received through the interface module 221 through the vendor server 222.

If the information user wants to use the paid information provided by the information provider in the vendor server (system for storing the paid information of the information provider) 222, the interface module requests the information user ID and password from the information user and the information provider has the information. The data packet 302 of FIG. 3A is generated by including the information provider (CP) ID and the service ID. This information is sent to the interface module 211 of the main system 103 to receive the processing result 303. The received processing result 303 is analyzed and the contents are stored in the database 223 using a log system, and the following operation is performed. In the next task, if the information you want to provide is a pay-as-you-go information that you charge for each scene, you enter the request for information approval to charge a fee. Otherwise, the information is displayed by a program produced by the information provider. do.

The request for approval of provision of information is a task that is performed again after the information user is authenticated when the information to be provided is pay-as-you-go information. In this task, information such as additional information (document ID, document cost, document type, document title) of the information to be provided is obtained and combined with the existing information to create the transmission data packet 305 of FIG. Is sent to the interface module 211 of the main system 103 to obtain the resulting value 306. This information is stored in a database in the same manner as the previous information user authentication, and then provided to the information user.

The information of the information user who has subscribed to the Internet information paying system is basically maintained in the main system 103. However, there is a case where the personal information of the information users who use their service on the information provider side is necessary. In order to provide this, in the Internet information paying system, when an information user subscribes to a new information provider or changes his or her personal information, the updated information related to the information provider is transmitted to the information provider through step 116. 308). The interface module 221 receives this information and stores it in the database 223 of the vendor system 102.

When it is difficult to install a plurality of vendor systems 102 in one system due to the improvement of the performance of the system and the platform of the two systems, the system is provided with a log server in the vendor system as shown in FIG. It can also be configured. At this time, a separate program called a separate log server 226 operates on the side where the database 223 exists to receive all information received from the interface module 221 and store the information in the database 223. In this case, the data format 307 transmitted from the interface module 221 to the log server 226 is given in FIG. 3C, and this information is internally transmitted through the LAN and thus does not undergo a separate encryption process.

The vendor server 222 is a system composed of web pages for information providers to manage matters related to the Internet information monetization system at their local site. The main functions of this system are the inquiry of personal information of the subscription information user who subscribed to the service provided by the information provider, various marketing support functions based on the information, the usage log and the amount used by the information user for the information provided by the information provider. There is a search function for information. Information providers can also add new services or discontinue existing services. The main page 801 of this system is given in FIG. In FIG. 8, the information service processing function 811 is a function for the information provider to perform processing for the information service provided by the information provider. When one information provider provides a plurality of information services, it assigns several different information service IDs based on one information provider ID to determine various charging methods for each service. Function to set the reuse period. The performance of this function is not performed solely by the work of the vendor server 222. The contents according to the work of the actual vendor server 222 should also be made in the manager server 213 of the main system 103. However, this process is content that cannot be arbitrarily performed in the vendor server 222. This is because every one of these tasks leads to the charging of information users and the use of services. Therefore, such a task should be discussed separately with the manager of the main system 103 to be reflected in the manager server (213). This operation can only be performed by the administrator of the main system 103. Only after these two steps are completed will the new service be added or removed. The information user identification information function 812 is a function for identifying the identification information of the information users who have subscribed to one or more services among the services of the information provider. The values shown here are read from the database 223, which stores information transferred from the main system 103 to the vendor system 102 in step 116 of FIG. 2. These pieces of information have the same information as that of the main system 103. However, the information related to the payment account, which is important for the information user in the operation of the system, is not stored. This information is information that only the main system 103 has. If this information is sent to all information providers, there is a possibility of serious damage to the information user. Therefore, in the configuration of the system, such information is processed separately and is only included in the main system 103. The vendor server 222 may be classified according to the amount of money and the number of accesses using information usage statistics of information users. The number of connection statistics function 813 is a function of showing statistics based on the number of connections for information provided by the information provider. The services available with the connection statistics function 813 are limited to those that are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis among the services of the information provider. In the case of a flat-rate service, the information is provided only according to whether or not the information user subscribes to the service, and thus, no log of the access contents is left in the database 223 of the vendor server 222. . Therefore, the statistics are provided only for the pay-as-you-go service in which the access statistics remain in the database 223. In addition, the statistical processing function 814 shows the statistical processing based on the provided amount. The statistical processing function 814 shows the flat fee which is to be accepted from the information user in the month in the case of the flat service. In the pay-as-you-go service, each time the information user uses the information, the usage amount so far is shown based on the stored log. The mailing list management function 815 is a function used by an information provider to promote his or her information system. When a new service is started or there is something to inform the information users, this function is selected to provide a function of sending mail to all information users or some selected information users who have subscribed to the information provider.

The vendor database 223 of FIG. 2 is a place for storing information necessary for operating the vendor system 102. The information stored in this place stores some information provided by the interface module 221 and the vendor server 222. The information stored therein is mainly information about the service provided by the information provider, information on the personal information of the users of the subscription information subscribed to the information service, and information on the details of the information users using the information. These information are received from the main system 103 and stored.

The Internet information monetization system proposes a method for charging a fee for various kinds of information provided on the Internet as in general PC communication. In particular, in order to charge for such information, information providers have presented a method for charging information users with minimal installation of complex systems or minimizing changes in existing operating systems. In PC communication, all systems provide information in a centralized manner, and information users have to be connected to a PC carrier to receive desired information. However, due to the development of the Internet, information users can search for the desired information by changing the location in various ways without being located in a single site. Under these circumstances, however, information providers had to introduce separate charging schemes into their respective information provision systems, each with a separate membership registration. In other words, the information users should send their information to the information provider each time, and have to make and remember different passwords in each site.In some cases, the information user's ID is also occupied by other information users. I had to use a different ID. In this process, the information user has caused a lot of confusion and the burden of providing a lot of information has gradually reduced the use of paid information. However, in the Internet information monetization system, by joining the entire system, all the information of numerous information providers connected to the system can be easily used. In addition, by using the billing of all the information is integrated and billed in one system, it is possible for the information user to avoid the hassle of complicated payments, and the information user can search the usage history of all the information at the same time on the integrated site. The hassle of having to visit various sites to find the price information has also been avoided. In addition, information providers can monetize the information they provide with minimal modification, and can easily perform tasks without difficulty in managing members, billing, and payment. In addition, information providers can focus on the content of the information they provide to provide more informed and faster information.

Claims (8)

In the system that charges the information provided to the information user through the Internet, A user server which is connected to information users and provides a function of subscribing to the information user and modifying his or her information or subscribing to a new service, and providing a function of searching the usage history and the amount of use of the service; A database connected to the user server for storing information user profile information, information user payment information, log information, provided service information, information provider information, and the like; It is connected to the user server and the database, manages the subscription of the information provider and the new service, checks the current usage status and the amount of use, searches and modifies the information of the information user and the information provider, and adds a new information provider. A manager server for performing a task and periodically extracting usage amount information of a user and charging and managing the usage amount based on the information; And It is connected to the user server, the manager server and the database, authenticates the ID and password of the information user, approves the provision of information for the information user, stores the result in the database, and provides the information user for the approval. An interface module that checks whether the information can be read, and subsequently checks whether the limit set by the information user exceeds the limit of the information user provided by the system, and sends an acknowledgment message in a data packet if appropriate. Internet information charge system, characterized in that for managing the entire billing information using the main system configured to include. The method of claim 1, Inquiry about the personal information of the subscription information user who is connected to the information provider and subscribed to the service provided by the information provider, various marketing support functions, and search for information on the usage log and amount used by the information user for the information provided by the information provider A vendor server that performs the functions and the information provider adds new services or discontinues existing services; A database connected to the vendor server for storing information on services provided by an information provider, information on the identities of information users subscribed to the information service, and details of information used by the information users; It is connected to the database and the vendor server, asks the main system for the ID and password of the information user, receives the authentication result of the information user, and if the information provided is paid information, requests the information user for approval to provide the information. And further comprising a vendor system including an interface module for receiving a result and receiving an information user from the main system by subscribing to a new information provider or changing information on personal information of the information provider. Internet information monetization system, characterized in that for managing information provided by information providers. The method of claim 2, The vendor system further comprises a separate log server for receiving the information of the other platform delivered through the interface module to store in the database. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The information transmitted through the interface module is in the form of a data packet encrypted by the DES encryption algorithm, including the data length, the ID of the information provider, the information of the information user, the price information or the information provided. Information monetization system. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The user server provides information about information user registration, information provider guidance, and subscribing company guide on the Internet in the form of a main web page, and provides information on information user subscription, withdrawal, and usage amount inquiry in the form of a login web page. Internet information charge system characterized in that. Claim 6 has been deleted. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The manager server provides the information on the information provider subscription, service management, information retrieval of information users, use amount management information, etc. in the form of a web page, the Internet information monetization system. The method of claim 2, The vendor server is an Internet information fee system, characterized in that it provides information on the subscription information user information, the user's usage log and information search function for the amount of money in the form of a web page.