Information system and method for disseminating technology information

• US 20030163463A1
• Filed: 02/24/2003
• Published: 08/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Robert Cain
• Original Assignee: John Robert Cain
• Inventors: Cain, John Robert
• Granted Patent: US 7,333,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

An informational system for disseminating technology information between requestors and purveyors as well as a method for using the system for this purpose. The informational system generally includes requestor and purveyor servers as well as a host system having a data structure, a search engine communicating with the data structure, and an application server communicating with the data structure and search engine. The data structure includes a plurality of data arrays for storing, among other information, a plurality of data entries each with technology and purveyor data as well as requestor data including requestor registered external informational sources. The application server is configured to receive a search request having a technology parametric from a requestor, to cause the search engine to conduct a search in one of the data arrays, and communicate a search report to the requestor. The application server optionally includes a number of search modules for identifying suitable available technology as well as accessing external informational sources for further exploring the suitability of technology for the requestor'"'"'s application or industry.

Claims

1. An information system for disseminating technology information between requestors and purveyors, comprising:

a host system having a data structure, a search engine communicating with the data structure, and an application server communicating with the data structure and search engine, the data structure includes a first data array, a second data array, and a third data array, the first data array containing a plurality of data entries each with technology and purveyor data, the second data array containing links to a plurality of available external informational sources, and the third data array containing requestor data including requestor registered external informational sources, said requestor registered external informational sources being a subset of the available external informational sources, the application server being configured

to receive a search request submitted by a requester, the search request including a technology parametric;

to cause the search engine to conduct a search in one of the first data array or one or more of the available external informational sources to identify data entries in the first array or documents in the external informational sources that closely match the technology parametric; and

to communicate a search report to the requester.

2. The information system of claim 1 wherein the application server is further configured to permit the requestor to selectively add informational sources included in the plurality of available informational sources to the requester registered external informational sources.

3. The informational system of claim 1 wherein the second data array includes links to published media informational sources.

4. The informational system of claim 3 wherein the published media informational sources include purveyor servers and web sites.

5. The informational system of claim 1 wherein the second data array includes links to production data informational sources.

6. The informational system of claim 5 where the production data informational sources including consultant servers and web sites.

7. The information system of claim 1 further including a requestor server and a purveyor server and wherein the application server is configured to access purveyor data associated with one or more of the identified data entries in the first array and send a search request notice to one or more of the identified purveyors using the purveyor data.

8. The information system of claim 7 wherein the application server is further configured to send to the requestor server a search report providing technology and purveyor data from the identified data entries in the first data array and a request for the requester to select one or more of the identified purveyors, to receive selection information from the requester server, and to send the search request notice to only the selected purveyors.

9. The information system of claim 7 wherein the search engine identifies data entries closely matching the search request by conducting a parametric search of the data structure for data entries having technology data closely matching the technology parametric.

10. The information system of claim 7 wherein the application server is further configured to:

conduct an available technology search based on the search request by causing the search engine to identify data entries in the first data array that closely match the search request;

send an available technology report to the requestor identifying technology and purveyor information for the data entries matching the search request; and

prompt the requester server to indicate whether the requestor wishes to continue searching using external informational sources.

11. An information system for disseminating technology information between requestors and purveyors, comprising:

a requestor server;

a purveyor server; and

a host system having a data structure containing a plurality of data entries each with technology and purveyor data, a search engine communicating with the data structure, and an application server communicating with the data structure and the search engine, wherein the application server is configured to

receive a search request from the requestor server, said search request including a technology parametric,

cause the search engine to identify data entries having technology data closely matching the technology parametric,

access purveyor data associated with one or more of the identified data entries, and

send a search request notice to one or more of the identified purveyors using the purveyor data.

12. The information system of claim 11 wherein the application server is further configured to send to the requestor server a search report providing technology and purveyor data from the identified data entries and a request for the requester to select one or more of the identified purveyors, to receive selection information from the requester server, and to send the search request notice to only the selected purveyors.

13. The information system of claim 11 wherein the search engine identifies data entries closely matching the search request by conducting a parametric search of the data structure for data entries having technology data closely matching the technology parametric.

14. The information system of claim 11 wherein the search request further includes an industry parametric, wherein each data entry further includes industry data, and wherein the search engine identifies data entries matching the search request by identifying data entries having industry data closely matching the industry parametric.

15. The information system of claim 11 wherein the application server is further configured to:

cause the search engine to identify data entries in the data structure matching the search request,

send an available technology report to the requestor identifying technology and purveyor information for the data entries matching the search request.

16. The information system of claim 11 wherein the application is further configured to prompt the requestor server to indicate whether the requestor wishes to continue searching in external informational sources.

17. A method of disseminating technology information between requester servers and purveyor servers using a host system having a data structure, a search engine communicating with the data structure, and an application server communicating with the data structure and search engine, the data structure including one or more of a first data array, a second data array, and a third data array, the first data array containing a plurality of data entries each with technology and purveyor data, the second data array containing links to a plurality of available external informational sources, and the third data array containing requestor data including requestor registered external informational sources, said requestor registered external informational sources being a subset of the available external informational sources, said method comprising the steps of:

providing the requestor with the option of conducting an available technology search to identify closely matching data entries in the data structure or an external informational search including one or more of a requested technology search, published media search, and a production data search.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein upon requestor selection of a requested technology search, the method further includes the steps of:

receiving a search request from the requestor server, the search request including a technology parametric;

identifying data entries having technology data closely matching the technology parametric;

accessing purveyor data associated with one or more of the identified data entries; and

sending a search request notice to one or more of the identified purveyors using the purveyor data.

19. The method of claim 18 further including sending a search report to the requester server and a request for the requestor to select one or more of the identified purveyors, receiving selection information from the requestor server selecting one or more of the identified purveyors, and sending the search request notice to only the selected purveyors.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein upon requestor selection of a published media search, the method further includes the steps of:

receiving a search request from the requestor server, the search request including a technology parametric;

conducting a parametric search in each of the available external informational sources to identify published media documents having information pertaining to the technology parametric; and

communicating a published media search report to the requestor.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the published media search report includes a copy of each of the identified published media documents from the requestor registered external informational sources and wherein the method further includes:

providing the requester with information on the available external informational sources containing an identified published media document that are not included in the requestor registered external informational sources; and

permitting the requester to add available external informational sources to the requester registered external informational sources.

22. The method of claim 17 further including prompting the requestor to create the requestor registered external informational sources by selecting from the stored list of available external informational sources and storing the requestor registered external informational sources in the data structure.

23. The method of claim 22 further including prompting the requestor to identify additional sources not included in the available external informational sources and selectively adding an additional source to the available external informational sources.

24. The method of claim 17 wherein, upon the requestor selection of a published media search, the method further includes the steps of:

receiving a search request from the requestor server, the search request including a technology parametric;

conducting a parametric search in each of the requestor registered external informational sources to identify published media documents having information pertaining to the technology parametric; and

communicating a published media search report to the requestor.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the published media search report includes a copy of each of the identified published media documents from the requestor registered external informational sources and wherein the method further includes:

determining whether the requestor wishes to conduct a published media search in any of the available external informational sources not included in the requester registered external informational sources; and

permitting the requestor to add available external informational sources to the requester registered external informational sources.

26. The method of claim 17 wherein upon the requestor selection of a production data search, the method further includes the steps of:

receiving a search request from the requestor server, the search request including a technology parametric;

conducting a parametric search in one or more of the available external informational sources to identify production data having information pertaining to the technology parametric; and

communicating a production data search report to the requestor.

27. The method of claim 17 further including the step of performing an available technology search prior to providing the requestor with the option of conducting an external informational search and wherein the performance of an available technology search includes receiving a search request from the requester, the search request including a technology parametric,

searching the first data array to identify data entries having technology data closely matching the technology parametric, and

sending an available technology search report to the requestor.