KR20030007915A - A system and related methods for dynamically selecting publication content - Google Patents

Abstract

Receiving a plurality of content objects, determining whether one or more articles cover the same or similar material, and automatically reducing the occurrence of duplicate and / or duplicate content objects according to user preferences Is disclosed.

Description

How to dynamically select publication content {A SYSTEM AND RELATED METHODS FOR DYNAMICALLY SELECTING PUBLICATION CONTENT}

In the mid-1400's, Johann Gutenberg revolutionized the way information was spread through his inventor's movable type press. In the publications of the Mazarin Bible, documents once owned by very few selected people in the exclusive realm are now widely available to the public. Nearly 550 years later, Gutenberg's mass media revolution is revived and completed through newspapers such as The New York Times and the Washington Post, magazines such as Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, and thousands of other publications.

These thousands of publications cover a wide range of interests, from news to sports, fashion, and model rocketry, while they have something in common. That is, they are intended to be subscribed to in the mass-market. In fact, unlike previous Gutenberg days when documents were only subscribed by one of the few people, at least in part due to the high marketing, production and distribution costs, today's publications cannot have a small readership economically. In fact, many of today's publications are largely financed by the advertisements they contain. These advertisers are attracted to publications that can consistently provide a broad, reliable readership among consumers who will be exposed to their ads.

This mass-market publishing model has worked well for hundreds of years, but this has problems. If a typical publication subscriber has a wide variety of interests, one problem is that a single mass-market publication cannot satisfy both of these interests. For example, subscribers interested in international news, golf, fly fishing, households and computers, etc., must subscribe to several different publications in order to satisfy these interests. Of course, because these publications are aimed at the mass-market, these publications will contain a significant amount of material that our subscribers are not interested in and will not read. If there is a significant amount of material that is not read, it goes without saying that there are not only a lot of paper wasted, but also a large amount of advertising that is not read. Advertisers are aware of this, and they also pay far less for mass-selling magazines or newspapers per thousand people exposed to their advertisements than they pay direct-mail generators. Because people can be more specially guaranteed to be a demographic group of people exposed to and interested in reading their ads.

In addition, it is not only cost-effective or time-effective for most subscribers to subscribe and / or subscribe to multiple publications. In general, a typical subscriber will only subscribe to the few publications that are most interested in them. Even if you are interested in at least some of the editorial and advertising content included in a publication, a reduced readership level publication that our typical subscribers don't subscribe to means that the publication receives less subscription and advertising revenue than it would otherwise. If multiple other subscribers make the same decision, the continued health of the publication may be compromised and the publication may be retired. In fact, even though there are a large number of subscribers interested in subscribing to their publications and a corresponding number of advertisers who want to attract those subscribers exposed to their ads, many publications assume responsibility for not maintaining the number of advertisers or subscribers every year. Lose and go bankrupt. Generally, publications that fail to elicit a mass market of people who are willing to pay for and / or subscribe to the publications will stop publishing. This is a shame, because many of these publications can enrich the wide variety of information available to all readers and provide a means by which unknown writers or artists can practice their work. .

More recently, new types of publications have emerged. That is, electronic publishing. Subscribers of these publications typically sign up to the Internet through their computers and subscribe to the publications online. Some of these publications, for example CNN.com and pointcast.com, allow you to set your personal preferences depending on what type of material you want to read. Often, these personalized publications usually include advertisements in the form of banner advertisements placed along the periphery (top, bottom, side, etc.) of the visual display.

These electronic publications have made interesting advances in the distribution of information, but they still represent only a small fraction of the information published under the more traditional past-Gutenberg model. Many subscribers of these electronic publications complain that electronic publications (on video displays) are difficult to subscribe, especially for long periods of time. While it may be convenient for subscribers to sign up on the Internet to find an overview of the latest news on the CNN.com website, this subscriber will want to spend very little time on this site, and more traditional, such as Newsweek or Washington Force. You will still want to subscribe to the print media. They will also spend more time subscribing to more traditional print publications than to subscribing to electronic publications, and therefore spend more time being exposed to advertisements of traditional print publications. Thus, print publications continue to flourish to this day, more than five centuries after Gutenberg made print publications possible, and more than ten years after the innovation of electronic publishing.

Thus, while these publications have clearly benefited modern society, no major attempt has been made to solve the underlying problems of these publications discussed above. Such an answer is provided herein.

Summary of the Invention

In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, various aspects of an innovative document delivery system incorporating the teachings of the present invention are disclosed. According to one aspect of the invention, a system and associated method for dynamically selecting publication content is shown. According to one exemplary implementation of the invention, one or more content includes receiving a plurality of content objects, determining whether one or more articles cover similar materials, and articles covering similar materials according to an editor profile A method is disclosed that includes automatically editing a publication to include an object.

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of printing, and in particular, to a multi-sourced extensible publishing and editorial system and a method thereof.

1 is a block diagram of a document transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 to 4 are flowcharts showing in detail the operations of the transmission module and the printing module of the document transmission system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a diagram illustrating how user profile information is obtained from a user according to an embodiment of the present invention;

6 illustrates how user profile information is obtained from a user in one embodiment of the present invention;

7 is a diagram illustrating a printing schedule for document transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention;

8 shows how the print schedule of FIG. 7 can be modified by a user;

9A to 9B show a document printed by a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

10 is a view showing a document printed by a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

11A to 11D show a document printed by a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

12 shows a document printed by a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

13 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary editing module incorporating the teachings of the present invention;

14 illustrates a block diagram of an example knowledge module that includes user profile information and content provider information;

15 is a block diagram of an exemplary virtual sensor, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

16A-16C illustrate a data structure for holding user profile information, content provider information, and publication profile information, respectively;

17 is a flow diagram of an example method of generating a customer document in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

18 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of operation for a client component of a document delivery system, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

19 is a flow diagram relating to a page allocation method of customer documents of separate different content objects, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

20 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of planning delivery of a customer document, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

21 is a flow diagram of an example method of tracking distribution and reporting to content providers, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

22 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of producing a publication using a publication profile, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

23 illustrates an example of a graphical user interface (UI) that allows a producer to register and generate a publishing profile, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 24 shows an exemplary document made up of content objects encapsulated in wrappers by an innovative virtual editor, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

25 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for identifying and reducing the occurrence of a dual / similar Content Object prior to publication, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

26-30 illustrate an exemplary matrix of Content Objects through multiple iterations of the method of FIG. 25 reducing the occurrence of dual / similar Content Objects prior to publication, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention.

1 illustrates a block diagram of an innovative document transfer system according to one embodiment of the invention. The document transmission system 10 includes a document server 100. In a preferred embodiment, document server 100 is operatively connected to various personal computers, printing devices, and other electronic devices via network 200, which are collectively referred to as device 300. As described in more detail below, document server 100 is edited with innovative publishing tools 512, a transmission module 150, and a knowledge module 170. An innovative publishing tool, including module 120, is used to dynamically generate personalized publications from completely different content objects in accordance with the publication profile generated by the producer.

As used herein, content provider 50 attempts to include all providers of publication content that do not include advertisements, while advertisement provider 80 provides advertisement content. In the economic business model, these two sources of publication content are very different (ie, content provider 50 receives royalties from the operator of the document server, while advertiser 80 pays the advertising costs in the generated publications). do). However, from the end consumer's point of view, they all provide content for the publication. As a result, when used without a reference number, the general term “content provider” is intended to include both content provider 50 and advertisement provider 80. If a distinction is needed, appropriate reference numbers will be specially marked to make the source of the content more specific.

The editing module 120 receives input content objects from one or more content providers 50 and / or one or more advertisement providers 80 to, for example, user interest, seasonality, content providers and advertisement provider distribution criteria, and the like. Generate personalized documents based at least in part on a number of key criteria, including: According to one aspect of the invention described in more detail below, the editing module 120 includes an innovative set of publishing tools 512 in which the editing module 120 obtains a content object and generates a publication according to a publishing profile. It facilitates the creation / maintenance of the publishing profile 640.

The distribution module 400 is operatively connected to the document server 100 and optionally provides products and / or product subsidies to the user based at least in part on the source and amount of content provided to the user, as described in the following. .

In a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will appreciate that document server 100 is capable of any type of other computing or electronic device described herein and that performs functions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. Is a microcomputer / server such as the HP 9000 server sold by Hewlett-Packard. Although an intranet, local area network, or other type of public or private network, either wired (e.g., telephone, cable TV, etc.) or wireless (e.g., satellite, radio, cell phone, etc.) may additionally be used, the network 200 is preferably the Internet.

A device 300 that can be configured in a wide variety of ways is shown in FIG. 1. For example, a personal computer 310 is connected to a printing device 320 that prints a document 10320 to a user 20320. It is shown as being. The personal computer 310 is operatively connected to the network 200. In contrast, the printing device 330 that prints the document 1033 to the user 20330 is operatively connected to the network 200 without a personal computer or other electronic device interposed therebetween. The printing device 350 that prints the document 10350 to the user 20350 may be a set top box, a television set, a palm-sized personal digital assistant (PDA), or other operatively connected to the network 200. It is shown to be connected to an electronic device 340, which may be a tangible electronic device. Finally, the printing device 360 for printing the document 10370 to the user 20370 is connected to the electronic device 360 operatively connected to the network 200. The printing device shown in Figure 1 is an HP Deskjet 890 printer, an HP LaserJet V printer, or any other model of printer manufactured by HP, or so-called "mopiers" capable of printing, faxing, scanning and / or copying. Or any other multi-function printing device, or any other medium capable of physically receiving such information, such as white paper, specialty paper, transparencies, or any other medium that can be easily carried with the user. It may be a device.

The transmission module 150 is preferably located in the document server 100. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing module 380 is a personal computer 310, a printing device 330, or an electronic device 340 that is operatively connected to the document server 100 via a network 200. It may be located on any of the devices 300, or may be located on the document server 100 itself, such as the knowledge module 170. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the transfer module 150 and print module 380 represent software functions performed on a properly programmed microprocessor in the apparatus 300 and / or document server 100. It will be appreciated that specific applications of hardware or other mechanisms may be used to implement the innovative features and functionality described below.

13 shows a block diagram of an editing module 120 in accordance with the present invention. As shown, the editing module 120 includes one or more controllers 502, an innovative publishing agent 504, an innovative virtual editor 506, a memory space 508, and one or more input / output (I / O) interfaces ( 510, each connected as shown. According to one implementation of the invention, the editing module 120 may include one or more applications 512 that may be performed by the controller 502. Indeed, according to one embodiment described in greater detail below, the editing module 120 allows a producer (eg, a registered user) to set up a publication profile used by the editing module 120 to automatically generate a publication. It includes a set of innovative publishing tools 512 that allow. Although shown as separate and distinct functional entities, it will be understood that one or more functional blocks 502-510 may be well coupled to the entities of common functionality. In addition, although illustrated according to a hardware paradigm, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the editing module and its components 502-510, when executed by a host processor, implement the features and functionality of the editing module 120, which will be described below. It will be appreciated that a series of executable instructions can be well implemented. In this regard, FIG. 13 merely illustrates the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.

As shown, the controller 502 allows one or more virtual editors 506 to generate customer documents for user requests and / or subscriptions, or the publishing agent 504 completes page assignments and schedules the transmission of such customer documents. Optionally call to optimize The controller 502 can initiate the configuration and / or transmission of the customer document in response to user interaction using a user interface (eg, web page) or to accept a user-selected transmission schedule. In this regard, the controller 502 communicates with an external application (eg, a web page) or other element (eg, a user profile) via an input / output (I / O) interface 510. In another embodiment, the controller 502 provides a user interface for requesting / creating customer documents using one or more applications 512. Except for implementation of the teachings of the present invention, a wide range of control devices known in the art including, but not limited to, programmable logic arrays (PLAs), microprocessors, dedicated controllers, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and the like. Any device will be the control device 502. In another embodiment, the controller 502, when executed, is implemented as a series of executable instructions that implement the control logic described herein.

Each of the memory device 508 and the I / O interface 510 represents these devices generally known in the art. In particular, the I / O interface 510 may include a direct connection communication interface (eg, serial interface, parallel interface, universal serial bus (USB), Advanced Graphic Port (AGP), etc.), local area network interface (eg, Ethernet). Interface, token ring interface, etc.) or telecommunications network interface, and the like, but is not limited to any one or more of a number of communication interfaces known in the art. In this regard, the editing module 120 may communicate with any of a number of external and remote devices using an appropriate one of the plurality of wired and / or wireless I / O interfaces 510.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the virtual editor 506 is unique based on a number of factors and personalizes the publication for a composite publication. As shown, the virtual editor 506 includes a content manager 518 and a configuration agent 520. The content manager 518 includes an analysis / wrapper agent 522, a contract manager function 524, and a transaction agent 506. When the editing module 120 receives content from one or more content providers, the content manager 522 is optionally called by the controller 502. The analysis / wrapper agent 522 analyzes the received content and classifies the received content based on any one or more of the plurality of attributes, including source, subject, length, and the like. The analytics / wrapper agent 522 also encapsulates the content object in a wrapper using a unique identifier. Based on the following description, it will be understood that the encapsulation wrapper enables a virtual sensor (not shown) of the document distribution system to accurately track the distribution, reception, and placement of content objects. According to one embodiment, a virtual sensor is embedded within the print module 380 to track the distribution, reception and placement of encapsulated content objects.

According to one aspect of the invention, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 is optionally invoked to identify and reduce the occurrence of duplicate and / or similar content objects related to the publication. When searching (retrieving) a content object associated with a particular region of interest, the virtual editor 506 is bound to receive duplicate content and / or dual content. Rather than simply publishing duplicate and / or duplicate content, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 may be called to reduce or eliminate duplicate / dual content according to user preferences (represented by user profile, publishing profile, etc.). have.

According to one implementation, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 receives the content objects in a dynamically created matrix, with the size of the matrix being the number of providers (columns) and the number of content objects received (rows). Is defined. According to another implementation, when receiving an electronic publication consisting of sections, each section is assigned one column, with each row assigned to the content object that makes up the section. In either case, according to one implementation, a two-dimensional matrix is generated. According to one implementation, columns and rows are assigned preferred values based at least in part on the content provider and / or the section of the publication in which the content was received. Content providers and / or section preferences are defined by one or more user profiles, publishing profiles, and the like. Once the matrix is properly configured, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 performs matrix classification according to the uniqueness of the article. As described in greater detail below, with reference to FIGS. 25-30, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 analyzes the content object from high priority to low priority to duplicate or similar objects within and also between columns of the matrix. Identifies If duplicate or similar content objects are identified, based on the location of the duplicate / similar content, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 may determine that the profile preferences (eg, user profile, publishing profile, etc.) have a lower priority occurrence of the content object. Determine whether to allow. If not, the content object is removed and analysis continues. If so, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 indicates that it is a duplicate, because the paper allocation manager 516 (described below) formats the content object occurrences at a lower priority according to the user and / or publishing profile preferences. Because. Therefore, it is understood that the analysis / wrapper agent 522 of the virtual editor 506 identifies and specifies the receipt of duplicate or duplicate content objects according to user preferences.

According to one implementation, contract manager 524 is a database driven component that manages all contractual obligations of users (subscribers, content providers, etc.) of document delivery systems. According to one implementation, contract manager 524 manages the loyalty calculation and display consent of the selected content provider (eg, author), advertising charges for other content providers (eg, advertiser), subscription information for selected users, and the like. . Periodically, contract manager 524 accesses one or more content provider databases to identify content object distributions and calculate royalties payments, advertising costs, and subscription fees for distributing to appropriate users through transaction agent 526. In this regard, the contract manager 524 ensures that the contractual obligations of the document transfer system belong to the contract manager.

Transaction agent 526 is the first interface between a document transfer system and a public / private e-commercial banking system (eg, the ChechkFree ^TM banking network provided by CheckFree company). As introduced above, the transaction agent 526 makes payments based on at least a portion of the distribution of the content objects and terms of credit / debit transactions with the user account, according to terms and conditions governed by the contract manager 524. Take charge of calculating. Although shown as an element of the editing module 120, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the content manager 518 may be used as a separate and independent functional entity without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The configuration agent 520 of the virtual editor 506 extracts the content object and generates a customer document according to one key contributor. As used herein, key donors include one or more user request / subscription interests, demographic characteristics, seasonality, document server requirements, content provider usage criteria, and the like. As described in more detail below, configuration agent 520 extracts content objects that may be of interest to a particular user and generates a personalized publication for the user. The configuration agent 520 requests information from the user using the information received through the overt and implicit process of the document delivery system 10, as well as requesting feedback from the user and the user's interaction with the received material and Disposition is recorded and subsequent personalized publications satisfy the needs of the user. The information gathered as a result of these explicit / implicit processes is used by the configuration agent 520 to update the user profile associated with the user being accessed when generating a personalized publication. In this regard, the configuration agent 520 performs, for example, functions generally associated with the example editor of a magazine, such as publishing content determination, page allocation and formatting determination, advertising, etc. Create personalized publications for millions of individuals, including key information as a factor. Once the configuration agent 520 extracts the content object to create the publication, it is passed to the publishing agent 504 to complete the page assignment and schedule transfer of the personalized publication to the designated recipient.

According to the exemplary embodiment shown, the publishing agent 504 is supposed to include a schedule manager 514 and a page allocation manager 516. As described in detail below, the page assignment manager 516 receives a content object from the configuration manager 506 and completes at least a partial page assignment of the personalized publication. According to one aspect of the present invention, as shown in the user and / or publishing profile, the page assignment manager 516 performs partial page assignment of the content object in accordance with user format preferences. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the page allocation manager 516 records the time required to at least partially complete the page allocation of the publication to determine the complexity of the personalized publication. This indicator of complexity is used by the publishing agent 504 to estimate the time needed to allocate space for future publications that contain one or more identical content objects, and also to schedule manager 514 to estimate the time required to complete the publication. Used to support

Once the page allocation manager 516 has at least partially completed the page allocation of the publication, the schedule manager 514 completes the publication page allocation (eg, in addition to the last-minute content object, or an update to such object), Plan for the transmission of personalized publications. According to one embodiment, which will be described in more detail below, the schedule manager 514 uses the information from multiple available sources to plan the publication of the publication. More specifically, schedule manager 514 may be associated with user confirmation of information from a user's personal profile, measurement of complexity from page assignment manager 516, and confirming that an appropriate amount and type of media is available for printing of the publication. A display from a printing apparatus or the like is used. Based at least in part on such information, the schedule manager 514 operates to set an optimal publication schedule for one or more personal publications.

As introduced above, the editing module 120 includes an innovative publishing tool set 512 that allows a producer to register to publish a publication using the innovative features of the document server 100. According to one implementation, the publishing tool set 512 includes a user interface (UI) that, when invoked, enables a user to create and / or update a publishing profile. As discussed in more detail below, a publication profile may include information relating to one or more publication titles, producer contact information, the subject or genre of the publication, the scope of the publication, the content providers and / or advertising providers used, publication space assignment information, publication schedules, and the like. It includes. The publishing profile generated / updated by the publishing tool set 512 is maintained in the knowledge module 170. In addition to the registration / publishing profile UI, the publishing toolset 512 also provides other advanced publishing tools, for example, to assist producers in selecting the appropriate page layout for the publication and provide demographic information of the readership to the target audience. It may include. Once a publishing profile has been established, the publishing agent 504 and / or editing module 506 set up a publishing schedule based at least in part on the information contained in the publishing profile to create and publish the publication without further invocation / input from the producer. Plan automatically. Therefore, according to the innovative aspect of the present invention, the producer only sets up a publication profile in which the document server 100 collects the appropriate content and generates the publication according to the schedule defined by the publication profile.

14 illustrates an example knowledge module 170 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the knowledge module 170 includes user profile information 602, content provider information 620, contract manager information 630, publication profile information 640, and optional print module 380 and print schedules. 390. As introduced, in order to better predict the user's information and the need for advertisement, the general document delivery system 10 and the specific editing module 120 may continuously obtain information from the user requesting personalized publications from the document delivery system. Acquire or request. In this regard, any of a number of personal information attributes is maintained in the user profile information database 602. The content provider information 620 is received from a virtual sensor and includes information distributed throughout the document delivery system and regarding content object distribution, reception and user placement. The contract manager information 630 is used to determine the terms of use, usage / layout requirements, fee structures / schedules, etc. for each content provider that provides the content object to the document delivery system 10. Contains information about As introduced above, publication profile information 640 includes information provided by a publisher whose document server (eg, reference numeral 100) automatically creates and distributes publications therefrom. Although shown as a functional element of document server 100, those skilled in the art will appreciate that knowledge module 170 may be utilized by other document servers (not shown) in document delivery system 10 without departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention. It will be understood that it may be incorporated into, or incorporated into another and / or standalone element of the document delivery system 10.

15 illustrates a block diagram of an example virtual sensor, in accordance with one implementation of the present invention. As introduced above, one or more virtual sensors 35000 are selectively distributed throughout the document delivery system 10 to monitor and report the distribution, reception and user placement of content objects. According to one implementation, the virtual sensor 35000 is integrated into the printing module 380 throughout the document transfer system 10. According to the example embodiment shown in FIG. 15, the virtual sensor 35000 is shown to include a monitoring agent 35002 and a reporting agent 35004 connected to communicate as shown.

As used herein, monitoring agent 35002 receives network traffic and traces back to a particular editing module (e.g., reference number 120) and / or to a document transmission server (e.g., reference number 100). Analyze traffic for possible distribution of content objects. According to one exemplary implementation, the monitoring agent 35002 analyzes the received network traffic for content objects wrapped in a trace wrapper (described in more detail below). The trace wrapper information uniquely identifies the Content Object and optionally identifies the Editing Module or Document Delivery Server responsible for the distribution of the Content Object. A report agent 35004 is called to organize and publish articles to one or more document delivery servers 100 that identify document distribution, received, and received user placement of the received content object. Although shown according to a hardware paradigm, the virtual sensor 35000 and / or one or more components may be implemented by a series of executable instructions that perform the functions described in further detail below.

Similarly, content provider information database 620 is used by the document delivery system to maintain a history of content object distribution, reception and placement. According to an aspect of the present invention, the contract manager 524 periodically calculates royalty payments, advertising fees, subscription fees, and the like using information maintained in the content provider information database 620. Exemplary user profile information and content provider information data structures are shown with reference to FIGS. 16A and 16B.

16A shows an example user profile data structure 602 suitable for use with the innovative document delivery system. According to the depicted implementation, the user profile information data structure 602 may include a user-name field 604, a user_id field 606, a contact information field 608, an interest information field 610, and a subscription information field 612. ) (Eg, primary sources), batch information field 614, conflict resolution rules field 616, and the like. As introduced above, some of the information maintained in the user profile data structure 602 is explicitly obtained, for example, by asking the user such information during the registration period. For example, other information, such as batch information, may include, for example, how much time a user spends on certain information, and how long it takes for the user to pass certain information to others. Obtained implicitly by monitoring the placement of trace wrappers. In this manner, user profile data structure 602 is a set of information that reflects the user's current interest in a document delivery system that is constantly evolving and improving. According to one aspect of the invention, which will be discussed in more detail below, the user profile 602 is a first source that allows the analysis / wrapper agent 522 to identify and reduce the number of occurrences of duplicate and / or duplicate content from a publication. Identification 616 and dispute resolution provision 616. According to one implementation, the first source and / or dispute resolution provision is explicitly defined through a user interface (eg, see FIG. 23), while other implementations may automatically generate such preferences in consideration of user placement monitoring. Can be.

16B illustrates an example data structure that includes content provider information, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. According to the illustrated embodiment, the content provider information data structure 620 includes a content provider name field 622, a content provider ID field 624, and a wrapper ID field 626 for each of the content objects provided by the content provider. A rate schedule field 628, a monthly usage field 630, and a feedback information field 630.

16C illustrates an example data structure that includes publication profile information, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As shown, publication profile 640 may include publication name field 642, producer identifier field 644, producer contact information field 646, interest (subject, genre, etc.) information field 648, first source ( Content provider 50) information field 650, advertisement (content provider 80) information field 652, transmission schedule field 654, and the like. Information constituting a user preference profile (eg, publishing profile, user profile, etc.) may be obtained explicitly (FIG. 23) or implicitly. As mentioned above, data structures with greater or smaller complexity may be used to maintain user profile information and / or content provider information without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

2 through 4, there is shown a flowchart detailing the first mode of operation of the transmission module 150 and of the printing module 380, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. 2 to 4, the flowchart shown in the left column is performed by the transmission module 150 of the document server 100, and the flowchart in the right column is performed by the printing module 380.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a flowchart for the transfer module 150 begins at block 1000 and a flowchart for the print module 380 begins at block 2000. As shown by the dashed lines connecting the two columns, since there is considerable interaction between these two flowcharts, the operation of the two flowcharts will be described at the same time.

In block 2100, user profile data is passed to the document server 100 and stored in the user profile. This user profile data can take many different forms, from simple to very detailed. 5 shows a very simple acquisition of user profile data as used in HP's instant delivery program. The first version of the program was generally made available to the public less than one year before the filing date of the priority application of the present application. In this program, three pieces of information are stored in the user profile: the printer type, email address, and whether HP can contact the user. Figure 6 shows a more complex user profile than is currently used in HP's instant delivery program, which includes user name, email address, company name, city, state, country, postal code, telephone number, printer information and Includes areas of interest. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that more or less user profile data than shown in FIGS. 5-6 can be passed to the transmission module 150 at block 2100 and still falls within the spirit and scope of the present invention, at least some of which information being It will be understood that it is derived from the source rather than the user. For example, user profile data also includes, among other things, family income, age and user gender. In any case, block 1100 receives user profile data delivered by block 2100. Block 1200 preferably stores user profile data in knowledge module 170. Alternatively, user profile data may be stored on device 300 or some other local or remote location.

Block 2200 checks whether a document has been received from document server 100. This is preferably done by checking the print schedule 390 which is stored on the device 300 or the document server 100 but may be stored in some other local or remote location. Preferably, the print schedule 390 may include at the time of document generation, user request, lapse of specified time period and / or one or more external events (eg, stock price or indicators reaching a certain value, sporting events). Final score), and the like, which may be used to determine when the document is printed by the printing apparatus. Print schedule 390 may be associated with an individual user, device or group or users and / or device. In addition, each entry in the print schedule 390 may result in the printing of one or more documents.

7 illustrates a type of print schedule 390 that may be used in an enhanced version of HP's instant delivery program. In this example, the transmission title, transmission schedule, next transmission date and time, and last transmission status are shown. Preferably, the user can select when the document should be printed, whether the document should be printed on a specified day, weekday, or weekend of the week or month, and whether the print schedule expires after a certain period or lasts indefinitely.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the printing module 380 monitors the print schedule 390 to see if the document is requested from the document server 100 or another source. If block 2200 determines that the document should be requested from document server 100 or another source, and if block 2200 receives a positive answer, block 2300 is server 100 as described in more detail below. Or automatically request a document from another source without user intervention. If the printing module 380 is located on the device 300, block 2200 may be used to retrieve the document from the document server 100 or another source. 300 is operated in a "pull" mode, which is pulled. However, if the print module 380 is located away from the device 300, such as located in the document server 100, block 2200 may indicate that the document is from the document server 100 or another source from the device 300. It is operating in "push" mode, which is pushed into). If block 2300 determines that the document is located on document server 100 or in another source accessible through network 200, and device 300 is currently inoperably connected to network 200. If present in the disconnected state, block 2300 is signed on or otherwise enters the connected state with network 200 such that device 300 is operatively connected to network 200.

Meanwhile, block 1300 checks whether a document is requested from print module 380 in block 2300. If it is determined that such a document has been requested, block 1400 generates a document for print module 380. Block 1500 then sends the document to print module 380. Block 2400 checks whether a document was received from document server 100 via block 1500. Once such a document is received, block 2500 prints the document on a printing device without user intervention. The term "without user intervention" means that the user is not directly involved in the operation in printing. That is, the document is automatically sent to the apparatus 300 and printed by the printing apparatus. According to this mode of operation, the user may not press the "no" print button or otherwise may not be directly involved in the printing process. In fact, the user may not be in the same place, city, state or country using the device 300 during a printing operation. The printing operation occurs automatically in the non attendance state regardless of whether the user exists. In addition, the print schedule 390 is stored in a device-independent manner, such as in the document server 100, and traveling users can " log in " to the document server 100 and their customized documents can be Can be sent to a device 300 that is convenient for the current location.

Referring now to FIG. 3, block 2600 checks whether the document has been successfully printed. If not, block 2800 performs an error adjustment, such as attempting to print the document again, notifies the user that the printer has run out of paper, or simply decides not to print the document. If the document is successfully printed, block 2900 informs document server 100 that the document has been successfully printed. Block 1600 waits for an indication from the print module 380 that the document was successfully printed. If such an indication is received, block 1700 uses this information to update the user profile.

It will be appreciated that not all of the blocks of FIGS. 2-4 need to be implemented in accordance with the flowchart, as long as they fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention. In particular, according to one implementation, as will be described later, the control flow moves from block 2600 to block 4100 of FIG. 4 and back to block 1300 of block 1500 of FIG. 2. Another embodiment is contemplated where other information is sent back to document server 100 at block 2900 to update the user profile stored in knowledge module 170. This other information may be ink usage (total usage or usage using ink color), printable media usage (number of pages printed, type of media used), or other type of information. Further, another embodiment is contemplated in which some or all of the information included in the user profile, preferably stored in knowledge module 170, is generated from sources other than the user via print module 380. For example, information about a publicly or personally available user and / or his / her / the device 300 they use may be obtained from a wide variety of sources and preferably stored in the knowledge module 170. Can be inserted in

Block 1800 reviews the user profile, preferably stored in knowledge module 170, to determine if product grants should be provided to the user. For example, this information in the user profile may include its 10000th document, such as a "preferred" document, which may or may not include advertisements from the advertising provider 80 or under the control of the editing module 120. When printed, it may be justified to provide product subsidies to users. For the purposes of the present invention, "product subsidies" may be printing consumables or other products. A "printing consumable" is any ink that is consumed, including inkjet cartridges for inkjet printers, ink for such inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges for laser printers, toner for such toner cartridges, or printer ribbons when documents are printed. Products or materials. Note that the "ink" referred to above is typically of a permanent kind, but erased ink sold by Eink may be used.

The product grant referred to herein is based at least in part on advertising revenue received from the advertising provider 80 (FIG. 1), but the product grant is based at least in part on the distributed income received from the content provider 50 (FIG. 1). Note that the embodiment to be considered is also contemplated. In any case, information (statistical information) on what was printed by whom is a document that is automatically sent to the content provider 50 and / or the advertising provider 80 to one or more printing devices in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. It is preferably provided.

Other types of products contemplated to be subsidized in the present invention typically include printable media such as paper, specialty paper, transparencies, and the like, and may also include devices 300 such as printing devices, electronic devices, and personal computers. Can be. In fact, another embodiment is contemplated in which other products, such as subscriptions to documents, or products that are not directly related to the document delivery system shown herein, such as, for example, soup or dog food, are paid as subsidies. If block 1800 determines that such a grant is legitimate, block 1900 requests distribution module 400 to provide the grant to the user. In one embodiment, distribution module 400 mails a product, such as a printing consumable or other product of the type described above, to a user at an address specified in a user profile. In another embodiment, distribution module 400 mails or electronically generates a coupon that a user can use to receive free or discounted products of the type described above. Regardless of whether block 1800 was answered positively or negatively, control flow returns to block 1300 (FIG. 2) to observe whether another document was requested from print module 380.

Referring again to FIG. 3, after block 2900 notifies document server 100 that the document has been successfully printed, the control flow checks document server 100 to determine what is the current version of print module 380. Move to block 4100 (FIG. 4) to find out. Block 3100 checks if such a request has been received and when it has been received, and block 3200 sends information to print module 380 regarding the current version of the print module. Block 4200 compares this information from document server 100 with its version and determines if an updated version of the print module is available. For example, if print module 380 is running version 4.0 and document server 100 indicates that the current version of print module 380 is version 4.1, then block 4200 print module 380. Determines that an updated version of is available, and control flows to block 4300. Block 4300 checks if this updated version of print module 380 is requested to be downloaded. The user is typically asked if a download should be requested and will also perform this download at a convenient time, but this step can also be performed automatically without user intervention. If a download is requested, block 4400 receives a positive answer, block 3500 downloads the updated print module, and is installed in block 4500. Regardless of how block 4200 and 4300 are answered, the control flow moves to block 4600, where block 4600 checks whether a disconnected state should be entered. As described above, if block 2300 (FIG. 2) determines that device 300 is in a broken state when a document is requested (not operatively connected to network 200), block 4600 is positive. Upon receiving an answer, block 4700 reenters the disconnected state. In any case, control flow returns back to block 2200 of FIG. 2.

Referring back to the print schedule 390 shown in FIG. 7, it can be seen that a number of different types of documents may be requested to be printed. For example, the title of document 11000 specifies a network address, such as an Internet uniform resource locator (URL) that contains the network location of the document to be printed. This URL may be partially or completely hidden from the user, as in the case of the URL for document 15000. In this scenario, the editing module 120 of the document server 100 is moved to the Internet only at the designated URL (shown in FIG. 1 as one of the content providers 50) and, as described, captures the designated document. Then it is transmitted through the transmission module 150 and the printing module 380. Alternatively, the device 300 may go directly to the URL itself without assistance from the document server 100. That is, in this case, block 2300 (FIG. 2) requests document 11000 from another source directly from content provider 50 (at the specified URL) via network 200.

In contrast, document 12000 is not a document provided from content provider 50 via the Internet, but is instead stored directly on device 300, such as a printing device, personal computer, or other electronic device. Such an exemplary document may be a daily schedule from a program such as Microsoft Outlook, and is a document that requests the user to automatically print to his printer at 7 am each morning without user intervention. In one such embodiment, the printing module 380 does not require a document request from the document server 100 because the printing module can access the document without going through the network 200. In this embodiment, block 2300 of FIG. 2 requests a document from another source (apparatus 300). Block 2900 preferably indicates that the document has been printed, and also while block 1700 preferably updates the user profile of the knowledge module 170, printing any such document may also generate any form of credit for the product grant. It is not preferably generated because the document is not considered to be a "preferred" document, for example a document that is not under the control of the editing module 120.

Referring again to Figure 7, a print schedule of document 1300 is shown. Document 13000 is referred to as a "personalized document." A "personalized document" is a document that is combined by the editing module 120 of the document server 100 from the various content providers 50 and the advertising provider 80 based on the information contained in the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170. to be. For example, document 13000 is a "personalized document." Our user requests that document 13000 (his personalized newspaper) be printed at 6 am every morning. The editing module 120 examines the user's interests referred to in the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170 and combines the documents from the selected content provider 50 that the user has shown interest. Based again on the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170, the editing module 120 also publishes an advertisement from the selected advertisement provider 80.

FIG. 8 shows how the print schedule 390 of FIG. 7 can be edited by a user. The user can use the publisher's recommended schedule, use a default schedule set by the user, or use a customer schedule for delivery. If a customer schedule is selected, the user can select daily, weekly, or monthly delivery, or select delivery on a specified day, or select all weekdays. In addition, a specific time of day may be designated, such as once at a designated time, several times during the day, or several times divided into specific periods. Although not shown herein, the user can also edit the print schedule 390 such that the document occurs as a creation, or an external event.

9A-9B illustrate a document 11000 printed by a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Note that this document is a document provided from the content provider 50 via the network 200 (via the document server 100 or directly) and does not include advertisements. Although the document 11000 is preferably formatted by the content provider such that the information contained in the document is optimized for printing, such formatting is not necessary.

10 illustrates a document 12000 printed by a printing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. Note that this document is the user's daily calendar provided directly from the device 300 and not from the document server 100 via the network 200.

11A-11D illustrate a document 13000 printed by a printing apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Note that this document is the user's personalized newspaper that contains information indicating a particular interest, stored in the user profile of knowledge module 170. Note that this document also includes an advertisement that the editing module 120 has determined that the user will also be interested in based on the information contained in the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170 again. As already explained, if a user prints a sufficient number of "preferred" documents, the user may receive product subsidies for printing consumables or other products.

12 illustrates a document 14000 printed by a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Document 14000 is HP Instant Delivery Times (document located on document server 100). Although this document does not itself include advertising, this document is still considered a "preferred document" because it is under the control of the editing module 120. Document 14000 informs the user of new information about the newly published instant delivery or instant delivery program.

While the basic operation of the document delivery system 10 has been described so far, FIGS. 17-21 provide additional operational information in consideration of selected aspects of the present invention.

Thus, referring to FIG. 17, a flow diagram illustrating a method of generating a personalized document is shown. As shown, the method begins with block 1010 where the editing module 120 receives a content object from the content provider 50 and / or the advertising provider 80, and the instance of the content manager 158 ( instance is optionally called. In response, at block 1015 content manager 518 analyzes, sorts, packs, and stores each received content object. More specifically, as described above, content manager 518 invokes an example of parse / wrapper agent 522 to analyze the received content object and encapsulate it in a trace wrapper with a unique identifier. . According to one implementation, the analysis agent 522 classifies the content object by identifying metadata in the received content object. According to one aspect of the present invention, in accordance with the dispute resolution provisions of the user profile and / or publication profile (see FIGS. 25-30), the analysis / wrapper agent 522 further analyzes the received content to duplicate / Identify and reduce double occurrences.

When parser agent 522 classifies and encapsulates the content object received in the wrapper, content manager 518 updates the content provider information data structure 620 associated with the provider of the content object to wrapper identification for the received content object. Specifies.

In block 1300, the editing module 120 identifies whether an instruction has been received to construct a personalized document. As described above, such instructions may be generated by a user requesting through a user interface (eg, a web page), or in response to, for example, an instruction received from print schedule 390. In any case, upon receipt of the instructions, editing module 120 invokes an example of innovative virtual editor 506 to create a personalized publication that is sent to the identified user. In this regard, at block 1410, the virtual editor 506 calls an example of a configuration agent 520 that obtains information from a user profile associated with the identified user to determine user interest. At block 1415, the configuration agent 520 obtains information from the user profile 602 and sends the publication electronically via e.g., a selection medium (e.g., email, send via fax, send to a user's local printer, etc.). ), Interest, preferences and / or history of the received information.

At block 1420, configuration agent 520 determines whether the publication request is unique to an individual user or if the information has been retrieved by another user. If the content object identified for the publication has already been retrieved to satisfy another user request, then at block 1425 the configuration agent 520 accesses local memory 508 to quickly retrieve the identified content object. Otherwise, at block 1430, configuration agent 520 uses it to extract the appropriate one of the classified content objects to create a personalized publication.

In block 1435, the configuration agent 520 uses the extracted information to generate an initial page assignment of personalized documents. According to one implementation, the configuration agent 520 identifies additional content objects based at least in part on extracted content objects and other key donor criteria described above (eg, seasonality, locality, etc.). In addition, configuration agent 520 also leaves space in the page assignment for personalized publications to contain content (while being transmitted to identified users) by local content providers (eg, ISPs).

At block 1440, the configuration agent 520 further optimizes the document surface allocation and updates the content provider information database 620 as an indication that the content object was used to construct a personalized document. At block 1445, the personalized document generated by the configuration agent 520 of the virtual editor 506 is sent to the publishing agent 504. As will be described below (FIGS. 19 and 20), the publication assignment manager 516 of the publishing agent completes the layout and content, while the schedule manager 514 may include the last minute, time sensitive content object. Optimize your transmission. The publishing agent 504 publishes a personalized document to be sent to the user via the transfer module 150 and the print module 380 associated with the user.

Referring to FIG. 18, shown is a flow chart illustrating a method of operation of an innovative print module 380, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As described, the printing module 380 includes a virtual sensor (not shown) that detects and identifies a trace wrapper for the content object that includes the received personalized publication, and receives confirmation of receipt of the content object (the document server). 100).

According to the illustrated exemplary embodiment of FIG. 18, the method begins with block 2695, where the print module 380 informs the publishing server that the publication has been successfully printed. In block 2900, the document server 100 is notified that the publication has been successfully printed. In response, the content manager 518 updates the usage field of the content object containing the received personalized publication to provide accurate calculations for the content provider 50 and the advertisement provider 80. In block 2905, the printing module 380 implicitly monitors the interaction of the received publication with the user. As described above, this implicit monitoring (sensor 35000, via a client application) may include one or more content objects distributed to the user, user reception of the content objects, whether the object has been printed or observed on the display terminal, and the observed period ( Terminal), whether any edits have been made to the Content Object, and any interaction with the Content Object with any other user.

At the same time, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, at block 2910, the printing module 380 generally explicitly queries for feedback on the received publication, and in particular for one or more content objects. In block 2915, the printing module determines whether the user provided feedback.

In block 2920, the printing module 380 weights the user satisfaction based at least in part on the interaction of the received publication with the observed user and any received feedback from the user. In block 1695, the printing module 380 notifies any other distribution of the content objects that make up the personalized publication, and provides such information to the editing module 120 to provide a user profile and content provider information data structure 602. And 620, respectively.

19 and 20, the operation of the innovative publishing agent 504 will be described. As described above, once the configuration agent 520 organizes the components of the personalized publication, this configuration is provided to the publishing agent 504 at block 1445. In block 1447, the publishing agent 504 calls an instance of the land allocation manager 516 and an internal clock (not shown) serves to monitor the organization time associated with at least partial land allocation of the publication. According to one implementation, more sophisticated measurements are developed and maintained, such as organizing time at certain times of the day, day of week, and the like. By maintaining a complex or basic organizing time measurement, the publishing agent 504 may be able to improve the publishing and delivery schedule.

In block 1484, the layout manager 516 determines whether the publication includes any time-sensitive material. If so, another determination is made at block 1451 as to whether the transmission schedule should include the time to obtain the information immediately before transmission of the publication. If the publication does not contain time-sensitive information (1449), or if the delivery schedule does not require the information to be obtained immediately before delivery, then at block 1453, the layout manager 516 receives content from the virtual editor 506. Receive the object to complete the publication of the publication. In block 1455, the ground assignment manager analyzes the content object in light of key donor information and generates a final page assignment of the document.

If the publication contains last-minute, time-sensitive information (identified in blocks 1449 and 1451, respectively), then at block 1454, the page assignment manager 516 receives the content object from the virtual editor and A partial final page assignment is performed, leaving the completed page assignment to schedule manager 514 once the last instant Content Object has been retrieved.

In block 1457, upon completion of the last or partial-final page assignment of the publication, the page assignment manager 516 calculates the organization time and updates the measurement of the organization time without using an internal clock. According to one implementation, the page assignment manager 516 measures the publication complexity and maintains a measure of the estimated organizational time for varying degrees of publication complexity. The estimated organizing time can be used to optimize the publication page assignment task based at least in part on the complexity of the task.

In block 1459, the page assignment manager 516 determines whether the publication is a unique document designated for one user, or whether the publication is "broadcast" to multiple recipients. If the publication is destined for a single user, the page assignment manager sends it to the schedule manager 514. If the publication is spread to a large number of recipients, the page assignment manager 516 first tabulates the amount of publication at block 1541 before sending the publication to the schedule manager 514 at block 1460.

20 provides a flow diagram for a method of optimally planning a publication, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. As shown, the process begins with block 1465, where schedule manager 514 receives a publication from land allocation manager 516 and performs an initial load balancing calculation. According to one implementation, the page assignment manager 516 provides the schedule manager 514 with an estimated scheduling time from which the schedule manager 514 plans the publication to optimally utilize the resources of the publishing agent 504. . Estimated organization time may be a quantitative value (eg, the time of placement assignment manager 516 for publication of a publication), or a qualitative value (eg, an indication that the publication is of low, medium or high complexity). Can be.

According to another implementation, the schedule manager 514 identifies designated recipients (and associated printing devices) to determine print status, print media, total number of media, and the like. In one embodiment, this information is retrieved from the printing module 380 associated with the user and / or the identified printer. In an alternative embodiment, this information is provided by asking the printing device directly. Using this information, along with edit time information, schedule manager 514 can best identify which jobs can be completed in a given time-frame and further optimize the publishing schedule. The schedule manager 516 then identifies the optimal publication start time based, for example, on the relative complexity of the other planned publications relative to the received publication. According to one embodiment, schedule manager 514 maintains a queue of publication jobs that indicates the start time and estimated processing time for each publication.

At block 1469, schedule manager 514 determines whether it is time to complete the publication and send the queued publication. If so, at block 1471, schedule manager 514 uses an internal clock to monitor the organization time. As described above, the measurement of organizational time is useful for estimating the schedule manager 514 processing time for jobs with similar complexity, thus iteratively developing more accurate schedule management 514.

At block 1473, schedule manager 514 obtains any last-minute, time-sensitive information included in the publication, and completes the page assignment of the publication containing such content.

In block 1475, the schedule manager 514 constantly monitors whether the publisher agent 504 is on a schedule and completes the publication within the allotted time. This is particularly important during the publication of large quantities of documents, for example. In this case, the schedule manager constantly determines whether a publication of all documents can be generated. Assuming the publisher is on the current schedule, schedule manager 514 determines in block 1477 whether the publication is complete.

Once the publication is complete, at block 1479, schedule manager 514 records the information used to estimate and schedule the publication in the future, eliminating the intervention of an internal clock to measure the organization time. In block 1481, the schedule manager 514 generates a document to be delivered to the printing module 380 and sends the document to the sending module that sends the document to the printing module 380.

In block 1475, if the schedule manager 514 determines that the publisher is unlikely to complete the publication according to the schedule, in block 1483, the schedule manager 514 does not perform the publication, so that it By moving to a publication, you can maintain its publishing schedule. In this implementation, at block 1485, schedule manager 514 notifies system administrator to adjust the heuristic data and report the failed publication. At block 1487, a default publication occurs and is provided to the printing module 380 of block 1451. In an alternative implementation, rather than defaulting to the current publication 1483, the schedule manager 514 re-optimizes the publication schedule and shifts the publication work within the queuing as needed to ensure the publication of the current document.

Referring to FIG. 21, shown is a flowchart of a method for tracking the distribution, receipt, and placement of individual content objects that make up a personalized publication, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. As described above, whenever the editing module 120 receives content (artistic or advertising), the editing module classifies the content object and encapsulates the object in a trace wrapper. Trace wrappers are the only identifiable markers associated with an object in a document delivery system. Embedded virtual sensors throughout the document delivery system (e.g., printing modules) identify and interact with objects encapsulated in the wrapper, determine which objects are of interest to a particular user, distribution of content objects, etc. Provide useful feedback on the document delivery system implicitly.

As used herein, trace wrappers are non-invasive markers. That is, they do not change the content of the content object. An exemplary personalized publication 6000 consisting of Content Objects embedded in trace wrapper 6002 (A) ... (N), which is for illustrative purposes only and is not limited thereto, is provided with reference to FIG. As shown, the content object 6004 is encapsulated with a "tag" in the trace wrapper 6002 (A), or a "marker" 6006 stored in the content provider information data structure to uniquely identify the content object.

According to the exemplary embodiment shown, the method of FIG. 21 begins with block 5002, where the content manager 518 of the virtual editor 506 reports that a Content Object has been sent or received by the identified user. Receive from one or more virtual sensors. In response, the appropriate content manager 518 updates the appropriate user profile (block 5004) and content provider information data structure (block 5006) to reflect the distribution, receipt and / or placement of the content object. At block 5008, contract manager 524 of content manager 518 periodically initiates financial transactions with content provider 50, advertisement provider 80, and subscription user.

More specifically, contract manager 524 initiates a royalty payment for the distribution and receipt of content objects provided by the selected content provider, in accordance with contractual obligations established between the document delivery system and the content provider. In this regard, the contract manager identifies the use of the content object associated with the content provider 50 to determine accurate royalties payments and to complete the financial transaction through one of a number of electronic financial services networks. ). In this example, transaction agent 526 initiates an amount of payment confirmed by contract manager 524 to a financial services network account associated with content provider 50. Alternatively, transaction agent 526 initiates the printing of a check payable to content provider 50 by an amount specified by contract manager 524, where the printed check is mailed to content provider 50.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the degree of accuracy in which content distribution and arrangement is monitored within the document delivery system 10 facilitates "micro-transactions". That is, electronic transactions that occur automatically with each system action (as defined in contract management information) that trigger financial obligations. According to one embodiment, whenever a Content Object associated with Content Provider 50 is (re) distributed, the financial account associated with Content Provider 50 receives a royalty payment. This can reach hundreds, thousands, or millions of micro transactions for one content provider for one day. Transaction agent 526 may initiate a financial transaction as accrued lump sums that are periodically traded or based on reaching a monetary threshold. Although payment of royalties to the content provider 50 has been described, the financial transaction agent 526 may pay a certain amount of payment periodically or in a lump sum to the advertising provider 80, or subscribers, as described above, upon the occurrence of a micro-transaction. You can claim in the same way.

Similarly, contract manager 524 periodically calculates ad usage for ad provider 80 and identifies identified ad provider 80 based on advertising usage, placement, associations, and the like. Instruct transaction agent 526 to send the bill. As described above, the transaction agent 526 may forward this bill through the electronic financial network, but may initiate printing and mailing of the physical bill to the advertiser 80.

Referring to FIG. 22, illustrated is a method of generating a publication using an innovative set of publishing tools in the editing module 120, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As described above, the innovative set of publishing tools 512 allows a user to create a publication by simply creating a publishing profile 640. The document generation facility of the innovative document server 100 (e.g., the publishing agent 504 and the virtual editor) uses the information provided in the publication profile to retrieve content objects appropriate for the subject / genre of the publication and to automatically publish the publication on behalf of the producer. To create. It will be appreciated that the innovative set of publishing tools 512, together with the document server's automatic document generation facility, allows a single producer to create, market and distribute professionally-viewed publications. As described above, although depicted as a functional element of the editing module 120, the publishing toolset 512 may be located outside of the document server 100, and may actually transmit documents without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It may be located outside the system 10.

According to the embodiment shown, the method begins with block 5502, where an instruction is received to invoke a set of publishing tools. At block 5504, the user interface (UI) of the publishing toolset 512 is called to register and create / update a publishing profile for the requesting producer. As described above, the UI allows the producer to create / update a publication profile 640 that defines the scope, content, and schedule of the publication. An exemplary user interface is provided with reference to FIG. 23.

Referring briefly to FIG. 23, an exemplary user interface (UI) suitable for using a publishing tool set 512 is shown, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, as described above, the UI 6000 may be used to create / update a user profile and / or a publishing profile. As shown, the UI 6000 requests a producer name and password for registration and also requests information related to the scope and content of the publication, publication space assignment, and publication schedule. In addition, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a user may also designate a first content provider as well as a method of handling duplicate / dual content. As shown, the user / publisher can choose to include all publications in the publication, whether duplicated / dual or not. Alternatively, the user / publisher may choose to use the most recent content, regardless of the provider, may use content from only the first source, and from the introductory paragraph introducing the second provider content. All content is available by providing a link to the provider content, and a link from the title / center to the second provider content to the first provider content. This information is received and maintained in the publication profile data structure 640, as described above.

Referring to FIG. 22, the automatic document generation facility of the document server 100 sets a publication schedule using information stored in a publication profile. At block 5506, a determination is made as to whether a publication instruction is received from the document generation facility, for example based at least in part on the publication profile 640. If such an indication has been received, the virtual editor 120 obtains the content object from the content provider according to the publishing profile 640. According to one embodiment, once the virtual editor 120 retrieves a publication configured according to the page allocation criteria of the content object and publication profile, usage requirements of contract management information, and other key donors, the publishing agent 504 is invoked to Plan for the publication and transmission of documents organized as described.

According to the illustrated embodiment, at block 5510, once the virtual editor retrieves the content object, an initial publication is created and provided to the producer for editing input. Initial publications, sometimes referred to as editorial mock-ups, are generated based on publication profile page assignment criteria, contract management information, content provider usage criteria, key donor information, etc., as observed by the producer. According to one implementation, the editorial model is sent to the producer via an e-mail message, while in another implementation, the producer is able to handle the content / format / space assignment of the model's publication during the predetermined editing period. Logs into the document server 100.

At block 5512, document delivery server 100 receives the edit (if any) from the producer and, if so, modifies the publication to reflect the producer's editorial input. At block 1445, the document is sent to a publishing agent 504 to publish the publication in accordance with the producer's editorial input, and a final publication is generated. An exemplary publication generated in accordance with publication profile 640 is shown in FIG. 24.

As described above, the virtual editor 506 of the editing module 120 includes a document / wrapper agent 522 that analyzes and reduces duplicate / dual occurrences of content objects from the publication, in accordance with user preferences. A method of reducing the occurrence of duplicate / dual content objects is shown in FIG. 25.

25 shows a flowchart of a method for reducing the occurrence of duplicate / dual content objects in a publication, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. According to the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 25, the method 700 begins with block 7002, where the virtual editor 506 receives a content object associated with multiple publication sections and / or multiple content providers. As described above, the virtual editor 506 optionally invokes an example of the analysis / wrapper module 522 to generate one or more data structures from received objects organized from sections or providers. According to one implementation, a two-dimensional matrix is used where sections of each provider and / or publication are assigned to rows occupied (or linked to) by content objects associated with columns and providers / sections in the matrix. Examples of such matrices are provided with reference to FIG. 26.

Referring briefly to FIG. 26, an exemplary sort matrix 8000 is provided, with columns assigned to specific content providers (or sections of a publication), with each row for a title, key word, or individual content object. Include other links. According to the illustrated example of FIG. 26, four (4) columns are shown, representing four content providers, four sections of a received publication, or a combination of the two, with each section having six (6) contents. It includes (or links to). It will be appreciated that the number of columns and rows is determined at least in part by the articles per content provider / section and the content provider / section. That is, matrices with greater or smaller complexity are envisioned within the scope and spirit of the present invention.

Returning to FIG. 25, in particular, at block 7006, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 prioritizes the columns and / or rows of the matrix according to the order of provider / section preferences. According to the illustrated implementation of FIG. 26, the upper left corner represents the highest priority of the matrix, and the relative priority drops as it descends to the lower right of the matrix.

At block 7008, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 examines the content object in detail to identify duplicate / dual content objects. According to the illustrated implementation of FIG. 25, analysis / wrapper 522 analyzes objects from higher preferences to lower preferences to overlap and / or similar content objects within the matrix and between columns (ie, providers / sections). Identifies At block 7010, if there is a match, at block 7072, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 determines whether the publication profile preference allows for lower priority occurrences.

As described above, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 does not simply remove all duplicate / dual content objects that occur, but applies intelligent editing conventions to each situation to best reflect the user's publication preferences. In this regard, a number of factors are used to determine how best to handle identified duplicates. According to one implementation of the invention, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 is a demandable duplication that determines how to handle one or more (1) column preferences, (2) articles per section, and / or (3) duplicates. Use the level.

The column preference parameter indicates that the highest grade of column (which reflects the provider or section preference) has the option of using the "trump" priority during the comparison and reduction algorithm of FIG. In other words, if there is a double, the article's rating is not used, but rather the article of the higher rank in the matrix is selected. According to one implementation, this is an optional preference rule that can be enabled / disabled on a per-section basis. According to one implementation, this attribute is optionally enabled / disabled by selection of a first source in the dual source solution field of the UI 6000.

The attribute for articles per section creates the number of articles that need to be published from each provider and / or in each section of the publication. This attribute can be defined by the user / publisher setting up the publication profile. Alternatively, the virtual editor 506 may dynamically create articles per section property based at least in part on the number of received content objects. According to one implementation of the invention, any article below the article threshold for the section in the matrix column after the matrix sort is completed is ignored for publication purposes.

Dual levels enable the user / publisher to set the minimum level for copying. According to one implementation, the dual level reflects the number of ranked articles that can be placed in any section before considering copying. If the duplex level is zero, duplex is not allowed. However, if the dual level is one (1), the top classified articles in each column can be published without considering the duplicate (ie the header can be copied). Although the dual level is set to 1, it should be understood that additional user and / or publication profile preferences regarding the publication format may edit the manner in which such dual content appears. In one embodiment, for example, a dual article from a second source that has a link to content from the first source is provided in the title and / or introductory paragraph.

In block 7014, given the settings, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 of the virtual editor 506 determines whether publishing of duplicate / similar content objects is allowed. If so, depending on the user and / or publication profile preferences, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 in conjunction with the page assignment manager 526 may format the lower priority one to refer to the higher priority one. If copying is not allowed at block 7014, analysis / wrapper agent 522 removes the occurrence of lower priority from the matrix.

In block 7020, the analysis / wrapper agent 522 determines whether the limit of articles per section has been reached. If so, the process ends. Otherwise, the process continues to block 7008, and the analysis / wrapper agent 522 analyzes additional objects in the order of preference to identify duplicate / dual content. In this regard, FIG. 25 provides a repeating matrix sort of received content to reduce and / or eliminate duplicate material in accordance with user / publisher preferences presented in one or more user profiles, publishing profiles, and the like.

In accordance with the teachings in this aspect of the present invention, FIGS. 26-30 illustrate a number of iterations of the method 7000 applied to the example matrix 8000 of key-words representing the characteristics of the Content Object. For illustration purposes, S1 has column priority and a dual level of one (1) is applied to the matrix. Therefore, during the initial pass of column 1, analysis / wrapper agent 522 identifies the double key words Peace 8002,8004 (copy italicized). Usually, if S1 has column priority, the S3 Peace Content Object 8004 can be removed. However, in this case, the dual level is set to one (1), so the copy between the highest class of Content Objects among the columns is ignored.

In FIG. 27, the analysis of the second row of the matrix 8000 is performed, so the analysis / wrapper agent 522 identifies copies of the key words Barak 8006 and 8008 between columns S1 and S3. Because of column priority, S3 content object Barak 8008 is removed from the matrix, and the lower priority content objects in column S3 are each advanced one step. The lowest priority step in S3 consists of NULL values / pointers (FIG. 28).

As long as the articles-per-section threshold has not yet been reached (we will simply consider the entire matrix for illustrative purposes), the analysis continues. In FIG. 29, collisions between key words Bosnia 8010, 8012 are identified by analysis / wrapper agent 522 between columns S1 and S3. In this example, column priority means that Bosnia 8010 is removed from column S3. Again, analysis / wrapper agent 522 modifies column S3 to increase the effective ratings of all the lower priority content of the column, and duplicate / dual by inserting a NULL value / pointer at the lowest priority level of the column. To reflect the removal of the content (Bosnia 8010).

Referring to FIG. 30, another analysis of the matrix 8000 identifies duplicates associated with Bush content objects 8014 and 8016. Again, since the dual level is set to one (1), the highest rated article in the column of the matrix 8000 will not be removed. However, the column priority specification means that the S1 Content Object can be left over all other duplicates. According to the illustrated embodiment, the dual levels determine the priority of the column priority (ie, the Bush content object is more relevant to column S2, and therefore can represent a section of the publication as described above). Therefore, in Fig. 30, in Fig. 30, the content object 8014 is removed from S1 and replaced with a NULL object.Another analysis of the matrix 8000 does not reveal another overlapping part and analyzes it. Is complete.

However, if the article value per section is set to three (3), for example, the analysis of the content would have stopped after each column and at least three rows of unique content objects (of course, depending on the dual level). In this case, if S1 did not publish a Bosnia Content Object, it may be preserved in column S3. That is, the analysis can be terminated before the overlap between S1 and S3 is identified.

According to one implementation, the generated document is published according to a publishing schedule, wherein a user can search for and select a publication of interest that can be downloaded and / or subscribed to.

Claims (10)

Receiving a plurality of content objects, Identifying overlapping and / or duplicate content objects; Reducing the duplicate and / or duplicate content objects in accordance with user preferences. Way. The method of claim 1, The plurality of content objects are received from a plurality of content providers Way. The method of claim 2, Constructing the received content object in a matrix according to a content provider, wherein each column of the matrix includes a row of content objects associated with a particular content provider; Way. The method of claim 3, wherein Prioritizing a content object within a column of the matrix based at least in part on a user preference of the content provider; Way. The method of claim 3, wherein Receiving the content object Subscribing to at least a subset of the content object; Identifying a keyword characterizing the content object; Constructing each cell of the matrix using a keyword characterizing a related content object. Way. The method of claim 5, Identifying duplicate / dual content objects includes detecting multiple occurrences of keywords in the cells of the matrix. Way. The method of claim 5, Reducing the occurrence of the duplicate / dual content object Identifying which duplicate / dual content object has priority as the first content object, Maintaining the first content object while removing or reducing other duplicate / dual content objects according to user preferences. Way. The method of claim 7, wherein User preferences are maintained in one or more user profiles, publishing profiles, etc. Way. The method of claim 5, The subset of the content object includes one or more titles, first paragraphs, and / or metadata of the content object (one more of a title, a first paragraph, and / or meta of the content object) Way. The method of claim 5, Wherein each column of the matrix is organized according to priority based at least in part on content provider preferences Way.