WO2008020436A2

WO2008020436A2 - Email service with automatic access rights

Info

Publication number: WO2008020436A2
Application number: PCT/IL2007/001014
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ary Tebeka
Original assignee: Emailbased Ltd.
Priority date: 2006-08-14
Filing date: 2007-08-14
Publication date: 2008-02-21
Also published as: WO2008020436A3

Abstract

A system allowing automatic access rights to a database (110) of messages and message contents. The system allows users (10a-n) to send textual and image media by email as in the prior art, and have the emailed information published on the Web in various forms, with default access rights for each piece of information being exactly equal to the sender and recipient(s) of the email that contained the information. The system comprises a personal email data system (100) that can dynamically update the personal sub-database (112a-c) of each participant and their access rights with the information disclosed in an email sent to the server.

Description

EMAIL SERVICE WITH AUTOMATIC ACCESS RIGHTS

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 USC 1 1 9(e) from US provisional application 60/837,299 filed Aug 14^th, 2006, the disclosure of which is included herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method allowing automatic access rights to a database of messages and message contents, based on the sender and recipients of each individual message.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART

There are currently many tools allowing people to easily publish information on the Web, in message form (blogs, forums etc.) or media (photo albums etc.). The publishing information tools are adequate to give public access to the published information, or give specific access to a group of people.

Electronic mail (email) is a very widely used Internet application but in some situations it is not very convenient. For example: it is difficult to manage discussions among a variable group of people, as it is difficult to manage the list of contributors and readers of the discussion. There is also a lack of an "official" archive of the specifics of a discussion that can enable the participants to focus and control the discussion.

Blogs, on the other hand, are a good tool to manage discussions among a variable size group of people, however, blogs are complex to setup, subscribe and manage for most users, so people prefer to go on using email for most of their discussion needs.

Hence, people continue to use email to send information and media to other people, as for each message, an email allows a user to select exactly who will receive the message, and thus, the group of people having access to the message is dynamic and can change for each message according to user's needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the intention of the present invention to provide a system and method that will allow users to send textual and image media by email as in prior art and have the mailed information published on the Web in various forms, with default access rights for each piece of information being exactly equal to the sender and recipient(s) of the email that contained the information.

The service uses a personal email data server and a mail processor to retrieve all emails sent to the server. Each email that the sender wants to publish in the sender and the recipients' personal email data space, is sent to a designated email address of the service, to be processed by the personal email data system. It can also be concurrently sent to individual recipients as is done in prior art.

The mail processor extracts all required pieces of information from each incoming email (text, photos, videos etc.) and adds the extracted information to a database along with the sender and all recipients of the email and optionally, any other information such as time and date.

Then, a dynamic Web rendering engine enables each user to display the data in various forms (blogs, photo albums, Wiki of files, etc.). Each user has access exactly and only to information contained in emails sent to the participant or by the participant.

According to embodiments of the present invention, each user can extend the rights of access to the information that the user has the right to see, to any other user (this is equivalent to forwarding part or all of an email he has sent or received). According to embodiments of the present invention, a method for uploading new information to a personal email data space includes sending an email to the personal email data system of the present invention, with the target user listed in the recipient field of the same email. If no user is listed in the recipient field of the same email, only the sender's personal email data space is updated by the personal email data system of the present invention.

According to embodiments of the present invention, the system of the present invention comprises a special personal email data server that can dynamically create a session in which the personal email data server controls the participants and the participants access rights.

According to embodiments of the present invention, a method for using an internet service that sets up and manages email discussions, the method including the following steps:

• a sender sends, as usual, an email to selected recipients, and adds as one of the recipients, a special email address to a service ("the service") provided by operators of the system of the present invention, for example: "record@2pad.com". • all recipients receive the email as usual.

• the service, upon receiving a copy of an email, processes the email to extract all significant pieces of information (sender, recipients, date, subject, text, attachments) and stores the extracted information in a designated database. • optionally (at the first time and at any other pre-selected time), the service sends all users instructions explaining the users how to access their unique personal web space.

• the service sets access rights for each piece of information as intended by the sender, for example, a list of all recipients and the sender of the email received.

• each user has his own personal web space showing web rendering of the data in various ways, for example:

- blog style for the history of messages; - photo album for photo attachments;

- Document management for office documents;

- etc.

• in the Web space, a user is able see all the data to which he has rights to, and nothing else.

Hence, by sending an email to some recipients, the sender does not post classified information to his regular blog, which can be read by anyone, but instead, the sender posts the classified information to the personal private data space of each recipient (and to his own web space on the server).

According to embodiments of the present invention, a method for using an internet service that automatically sets up and manages blog style (and blog compatible) email discussions, the method including the following steps:

• an email is sent to the service requesting the creation of a Blog-Mail. The service returns a confirmation email to confirm the creation and the options selected;

• an email then invites others to contribute to the discussion or give them with read-only access rights;

• sending an email to a personal email data server email address will post the subject and content of the email to the personal email data space; • users can select to receive all posts immediately, or digest (hourly, daily, weekly...). Digests of several personal email data users can be grouped into a single thematic email message (such as "work, family, etc.); and • the service uses email fields to automatically decide the action to take (in a way similar to some mailing lists managers).

Users of the service of the present invention, get the benefits of publication on the Web (persistent shared storage, various rendering options, etc.) while keeping the simplicity and flexibility of email and in particular in selecting who gets access to information of a message, on message basis. Users of the service of the present invention, use the service from within the regular email application (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.).

The present invention provides easier management of subscribers to an email thread (instead of having to manually select all the "to:" and "cc:"). Subscribers can control if and how to receive emails from a thread.

Optionally, a user can select the language that will be used in the mail/discussion session.

Optionally, a thread history can be centrally stored and accessed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of illustration and example only and thus not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIC. 1 is a schematic illustration of a personal email data system web communication network, according to embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a personal email data system, according to embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustration of a personal email data service provided to a user, according to embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustration, of a mail data extraction by a personal email data system, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an example block diagram illustration of a method for creating a personal email data session by a system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustration, which exemplifies the information flow in a personal email data session by the system according to embodiments of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The methods and examples provided herein are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting. The main object of the present invention is to provide a system and methods that allow users to send media by email and have the information published on the Web in various forms, with default access rights for each piece of information being exactly equal to the sender and recipient(s) of the email that contained the information.

Referring now to the drawings, FIC. 1 is a schematic illustration, which shows a personal email data system 100 web communication network, according to embodiments of the present invention. In the example shown in FIG. 1 , n personal email data users 10 are connected to a personal email data system 100 via network 50. Reference is also made to FIG 2, which is a schematic illustration of a personal email data system 100, according to embodiments of the present invention. System 100 includes a database 1 10 of personal email data individual spaces, a web user interface 120 to manage sending and receiving mails, a mail server 130 to manage personal email data system 100 activities, a back-office unit 140 to manage administrative activities and a processing unit 1 50. Processing unit 1 50 includes a mail processor 1 52 for extracting information from an incoming email, a media processor 1 54 for handling image media and a mail generator 1 56 for sending acknowledgment messages. The media processor 1 54 can process data selected from the group of media data including images, video data and audio data.

Reference I also made to FIG 3, which 3 is a block diagram illustration of a personal email data service provided to a sender 10 and recipients 30, and to FIG 4, which is a block diagram illustration, of a mail data extraction method 300 by a personal email data system 100, according to embodiments of the present invention. A sender 20 sends an email to m recipients 30. A copy of the mail is also addressed to a personal email data system 100 (as one of the recipients of a standard email). Textual, image and other data is extracted in step 310 from the email sent by sender 20, which is a registered user 10. In step 320, the extracted information is stored in the personal data spaces 1 12 of sender 20 and each registered recipient 30. An acknowledgment message can optionally be sent in step 330, by mail generator 1 56, to sender 20 and/or one or more recipients 30.

It should be noted that a personal data spaces 1 1 2 can be created by back-office unit 140, when a user 1 0 is registered, upon receiving the first mail or at any other pre selected event. It should also be noted that mail server 1 30 is capable of communication with any known email applications such as MS Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.

Example 1 :

The service address is: "2pad.com"

A user 1 0 activates the service by sending an email to John Smith about a visit to that zoo and attaches some pictures, and also sends the email to the service address. The email, for example, includes the lines: From: ary@tebeka.com To: iohn_smith@yahoo.com; zoo@2pad.com The attached pictures are stored in the database, accessible only by the sender ("Ary") and by the recipient ("John Smith"). In addition the pictures are stored in the "zoo" album file of the sender (this album file is auto-created if needed).

[End of example 1 ]

It should be noted that physically, a personal data space 1 1 2 can be shared by multiple users that have access to exactly the data in that personal data space 1 12.

It should be further noted that user 10 is able to see (and manipulate) the data stored in his personal data spaces 1 1 2 in various sorts and "views", for example:

• A general blog/Webmail view - basically showing all the email exchanges accessible by user 10; • photo album/gallery view for images;

• Document management for office documents;

• etc.

In space 1 1 2, a user 10 can see all the data to which user 10 has rights to, and nothing else. Hence, by sending an email to some recipients 30, a sender 20 posts the classified information to the personal private data space 1 1 2 of each recipient 30 (and to sender 20 own web space 1 1 2), on database 1 10. Reference is now made to FIGs. 5 and 6, which illustrate another embodiment of a personal email data system 101. FIG. 5 is an example block diagram illustration of a method 200 for creating a personal email data session 220 by a system according to embodiments of the present invention. A personal email data session 220 is initiated by a user 10 by sending a creation mail 210 to the personal email data system 101. Personal email data system 101 can optionally return an acknowledgment 230 upon receiving request 210. Once personal email data system 100 creates personal email data session 220, personal email data system 100 sends a mail 240 to user 10 informing user 10 that he can initiate the session. Once personal email data session 220 has been created, user 10 can invite participants to participate in session 220. User 10 can give some participants the right to read and write and to others to read only.

Reference is now made, which is an example block diagram illustration of the data flow of a personal email data session 220 operatively controlled by a system according to embodiments of the present invention. In the example shown in FIG. 6, one group of users 260 can read and write to session 220, and another group of users 270 can only read mails of session 220.

Referring back to FIG. 3, a sender 20 of an email selects recipients 30 to the email to be sent, and adds as one of the recipients, a special email address of service provided by operators of a system 101 according to the present invention. The special email address can be, for example: "record@2pad.com". System 101 , upon receiving a copy of the email, processes it to extract all significant pieces of information (sender, recipients, date, subject, text, attachments) and store the extracted information in database 1 10. All recipients 30 receive the email as usual. Optionally (at the first time and at any other pre- selected time), system 101 sends all users instructions explaining the users how to access their unique personal web space 1 12. System 101 sets access rights for each piece of information as intended by sender 20, for example, a list of all recipients and the sender of the email received.

A user 10 can accesses his personal data space 1 1 2 and see all the data to which user 10 has rights, such as: emails that user 10 sent, emails user 10 has received and from rights extended to user 10 by other users 10.

Example 2:

The service address is: "2pad.com" A user 10 activates the service by sending an email such as: From: ary@tebeka.com To: record@2pad.com

Optionally, user 1 0 can auto-select the mail language, by selecting an appropriate email address of the service, for example: record@2pad.com — > English language blog enregistre@2pad.com — > French language blog

[End of example 2] Optionally, a user 10 can customize the account on system 101 . For example: user 10 defines his own "mailing lists", in which case the process is slightly different:

• user 10 defines a mailing list called, for example, "friends", the list including selected email addresses;

• user 10 sends an email to friends@2pad.com;

• system 101 receives and processes the email as before, and in addition, system 101 dispatches the email to the recipients listed in the mailing list "friends" of user 10; • Each recipient 30 in the mailing list "friends" of user 10 receives an email as if sent directly by user 10 to each recipient 30.

Optionally, when using the mailing list feature, user 10 has the option to opt for summary/thumbnails emails sent to recipients 30, instead of the original email user 10 sent to the system 101. For example, if user 10 sends an email to friends@2pad.com, an email with 5 relatively large photos, system 101 will send to recipients 30, included in the list, a small size email with only clickable thumbnails of the photos. To view a photo, a recipient 30 clicks on the corresponding thumbnails and the photo opens from database 1 10. In addition, each user 10 can choose if and how often he wants to receive emails from the system 101 and in what form (normal, digest, etc.).

Example 3:

The service address is: "2pad.com"

User 10 wants to discuss a contract with Google. User 10 creates a session 220 by sending the following email:

From: ary@tebeka.com To: create@2pad.com cc: userl @WebSite.com, user2@WebSite.com, user3@WebSite.com, mycontact@google.com

Subject: Google Contract

Con tent: "This is a personal email data session to discuss our contract. All of you will receive shortly an email from 2pad service that will confirm you as participants of this discussion (that means you can invite other people as needed, to contribute or read-only)."

Server 1 01 of service 2pad sends user 10 an acknowledgment email: From: create@2pad.com To: ary@tebeka.com Subject. Google Contract

Content. "Your personal email data session

"GoogleContract.arytebekacom@2pad.com" is ready to be created, just reply to this message to confirm its creation."

Once confirmed by user 10, system 1 Ol of service 2pad sends user 10 a confirmation email:

From: create@2pad.com To: ary@tebeka.com

Subject. Google Contract Content "Your personal email data session is now created. To post an article to your personal email data space just send an email to GoogleContract.arytebekacom@2pad.com. Note: to invite people to contribute, just send an email to "contribute@2pad.com" with "Google Contract" as the subject. To invite people to read-only, just send an email to "invite@2pad.com" with "Google Contract" as the subject." ite people to contribute, user 10 sends an email as follows:

From: ary@tebeka.com To. contribute@2pad.com cc. john@WebSite.com, jack@WebSite.com

Subject Google Contract

Content "I just created a personal email data session to discuss our contract project with Google. All of you will receive shortly an email from the 2pad service to confirm you as contributors of this discussion (that means you can send email to)." ite people to read only, user 10 sends an email as follows:

From: ary@tebeka.com To: invite@2pad.com cc. bill@WebSite.com, bob@WebSite.com Subject Google Contract

Content "I just created a personal email data session to discuss our contract project with Google. All of you will receive shortly an email from the 2pad service to confirm you as readers of this discussion so that you'l be informed on what we say on the subject"

To post an article, user 10 sends an email as follows: From: ary@tebeka.com

To. GoogleContract.arytebekacom@2pad.com

Subject. Let's start!

Content. "Our personal email data session is now setup; let's start talking about our contract "

[End of example 3]

The next example shows, by way of example, how to start a session in French. Similarly, Sessions can be created in any language.

Example 4:

The service address is: "2pad.com"

User 10 wants to discuss a contract with Google. User 10 creates a session 220 by sending the following email: From: ary@tebeka.com

To: creer@2pad.com cc: userl @WebSite.com, user2@WebSite.com, user3@WebSite.com, [End of example 4]

Personal email data system 101 , according to the present invention, accepts, for example, all emails sent to *@.2pad.com", such as: create@2pad.com xxxxx@invite.2pad.com etc.

Personal email data system 101 may use all the email conventional fields

(from, to, cc, subject, body text, attachments) to decide of adequate actions.

Personal email data system 101 may comprise other sub units do the following:

• Handle incoming emails. • Create and administrate biogs.

• Administrate all transactions.

• Others.

The invention being thus described in terms of embodiments and examples, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art, are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1 . A personal email data system, for extracting and storing information from an email message, the system comprising: a) a mail server comprising a processing unit; b) a database; and c) at least one communication interface unit, wherein said mail server communicated with a user using said communication interface unit, to receive an email message and operatively engages a mail processor of said processing unit to extract predefined data segments from said received email message and store one or more of said extracted data segments in said database, allowing access only to the sender and recipients of said received email.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one communication unit connects said server to an internet service provider capable of providing email services.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein said processing unit further comprises a media processor for processing data selected from the group of media data including images, video data and audio data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein portions of said database are used to store personal data of multiple users allowed to access said portions.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising: d) a back office sub system, wherein said back office sub system for managing administrative activities;

6. A method for extracting and storing information from an email message by a system as in claim 1 , the method comprising the steps: a) establishing communication with a user; b) receiving an email message from a sender; c) extracting predefined data segments from said received email message; d) storing one or more of said extracted data segments in said database; and e) assigning access only to the sender and recipients of said received email.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said server is capable of interpreting and executing an email message, sent by a user, having a structure with a syntax complying one of the following syntax forms: a) command mail: <command name>@<personal email data server name>; or b) session mail: <personal email data session name>@<personal email data server name>.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein said server is capable of identifying and executing a said command mail received from said user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said command is identified by said server by a unique mail address.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said command is a command for creating a personal email data session.

1 1. The system of claim 9, wherein said command is a command for inviting users to read and write to said created personal email data session.

1 2. The system of claim 9, wherein said command is a command for inviting users to read information from said created personal email data session.

1 3. The system of claim 9, wherein said server is capable of managing said created personal email data session.

14. In a data processing system for managing one or more personal email data sessions, a method of creating and managing a personal email data session, the method comprising the steps: a) identifying a personal email data session create command received from a user, through an email service; b) creating a personal email data session upon receiving a create command from a user, over through an email service; c) identifying the users allowed to participate in said created personal email data session; d) identifying the read/write access rights of each of said participating users of said created personal email data session; and e) assigning access rights to each of said participating users of said created personal email data session, according to said identifying of access rights.

1 5. The method of claim 14, wherein said creating of a personal email data session, comprises creating a personal email data spaces to one or more of said participating users.

16. The method of claim 1 5, upon receiving a new mail message of said personal email data session, further comprising the steps: f) extracting information from said new mail message; g) sorting said information according to said participants access rights; and h) updating said personal email data spaces of one or more of said participating users with some or all of said information.

1 7. The method of claim 14, wherein a user groups receiving users in one or more groups and assigns each group a unique name, wherein participants of each group have the same read /write access rights, thereby when said user sends a create command mail to said server, said server translates said group name to individual participants.

1 8. The method of claim 14, wherein a user selects the language of a personal email data session by selecting the language of the said command sent to said server.