System, program product, and methods to enhance media content management

• US 20070050366A1
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HBC Solutions Incorporated (AEG Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: McCulloch, Andrew, Bugir, Taras
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,051 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

Embodiments of systems, program products, and methods to enhance and more effectively manage media content are provided. An embodiment of a method, for example, can include analyzing a user assigned role to allow access to specific data in a database in response to the user assigned role, capturing and storing metadata from multiple sources accessible by a plurality of different types of users, and tracking access to and changes in data in a database in response to user database access to thereby form transaction activity trails describing access and changed data to enhance digital file management and allow a plurality of media content management services to be performed.

Claims

1. Program product stored in a computer readable medium to manage media content through an enterprise level content management platform, the program product including:

a configuring module positioned to provide a repository of data associated with system behavior including system settings and switches and user-defined value lists;

a security module positioned to analyze a user assigned role to allow access to specific data in the database responsive to the user assigned role;

an auditing module positioned to track access and changes to data in the database responsive to user database access to thereby form transaction activity trails describing access and changed data;

a search engine module positioned to receive user input and positioned to search indexed and non-indexed data and structured and non-structured data in the database;

a logical content module positioned to capture and store metadata from a plurality of sources accessible by a plurality of different types of users;

a physical contact module positioned to manage material container usage to thereby manage checking-in and checking-out of physical media; and

a library management module positioned to capture basic, core, applied, and context metadata and to tie content metadata to physical media to thereby provide content form control.

2. Program product as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a rights module positioned to capture rights and rules metadata and positioned to track how rights are managed and inherited via content relationships;

a contact module positioned to create and maintain contacts and establish contact relationships including business contact hierarchies to thereby form contextual relationships to form a media and content centric function;

a scheduling module positioned to provide both long-range and short-range context based scheduling views and to create and manage content delivery formats; and

a research module positioned to provide qualitative research data including international requirements for both commercial and non-commercial content.

3. Program product as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a sales module positioned to track media negotiations and contract approvals across trading partners;

a content acquisition module positioned to determine profitability of a single program or series responsive to sales, ratings, and sellout assumptions to thereby provide estimates on projected return-on-investments under different purchase scenarios;

a content budgeting module positioned to receive and analyze budget data classified by media, channel, genre, and season and to provide data to graphically display spending according to each classification; and

a regulatory reporting module positioned to provide children'"'"'s and political media content related regulatory reporting.

4. Program product as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a royalty management module positioned to form a financial trail of currency related to an original contract or content owner responsive to basic rights or financial relationships between trading partners to thereby enhance royalty management.

5. Program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the auditing module is further positioned to support data change transaction reporting for regulatory compliance and positioned to provide an outbound activity alert responsive to system-initiated outbound activity.

6. Program product as defined in claim 1, further comprising an agent module positioned to implement auditing module functions responsive to the auditing module, the agent module supporting a plurality of types of agents including:

an agent positioned to monitor properties of an object for an addition, change, or deletion and to monitor manual changes made to security permissions to define a watcher agent;

an agent positioned to evaluate sales to provide an alert indicating substantial deviation from a predetermined rate card setting to define an analyzer agent; and

an agent positioned to guide a user through unfamiliar tasks, step-by-step to define an assistant agent.

7. Program product as defined in claim 6, wherein the watcher agent provides an alert indicating an order or spot cancellation by a user.

8. Program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the security module is further positioned to attach permissions to roles, users to roles, and roles to organizational units

9. Program product as defined in claim 1, wherein the logical content module is further positioned search for source, usage, and context metadata responsive to user query input and positioned to group non-familial pieces of logical content together to establish financial or contractual rights to thereby facilitate ease of entry, scheduling, and tracking.

10. Program product as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

an identification manager positioned to provide material container batch numbering and to provide appended or prepended identification numbers to provide language distinction identification responsive to the physical content module.

11. A method of managing media content through an enterprise level content management platform, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a repository of data associated with system behavior;

analyzing a user assigned role to allow access to specific data in a database responsive to the user assigned role;

capturing and storing metadata from a plurality of sources accessible by a plurality of different types of users; and

tracking access to and changes in data in the database responsive to user database access to thereby form transaction activity trails describing accessed and changed data.

12. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein the steps of capturing and storing metadata includes the steps of:

capturing basic, core, applied, and context metadata;

tying the metadata to physical media to thereby provide content form control;

capturing rights and rules metadata; and

tracking how rights are managed and inherited via content relationships.

13. A method as defined in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

creating and establishing contact relationships including business contact hierarchies to thereby form contextual relationships to form a media and content centric function;

tracking media negotiations and contract approvals across trading partners; and

determining profitability of a single program or series responsive to sales, ratings, and sellout assumptions to thereby provide estimates on projected return-on-investments under different purchase scenarios.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

analyzing budget data classified by media, channel, genre, and season to thereby provide data to graphically display spending according to each classification; and

forming a financial trail of currency related to an original contract or content owner responsive to basic rights or financial relationships between trading partners to thereby enhance royalty management.

15. A method as defined in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

searching indexed and non-indexed and structured and non-structured data in the database responsive to user input;

providing both long-range and short-range context based scheduling views to thereby create and manage content delivery formats; and

providing an outbound activity alert responsive to system-initiated out-bound activity.

16. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein the step of tracking access to and changes in data in a database includes the steps of:

providing data change transaction reporting for regulatory compliance; and

managing material container usage to thereby manage checking-in and checking-out of physical media.

17. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the step of managing material container usage includes the steps of:

providing material container batch numbering; and

providing appended or prepended identification numbers to thereby provide language distinction identification.

18. A method as defined in claim 11,

wherein the step of tracking access to and changes in data in the database includes the steps of:

attaching permissions to roles, users to roles, and roles to organizational units, and

monitoring properties of an object for an addition, change, or deletion and to monitor manual changes made to security permissions; and

wherein the method further comprises the steps of;

evaluating sales to provide an alert indicating substantial deviation from a predetermined rate card setting to define an analyzer agent, and

providing an alert indicating an order or spot cancellation by a user.

19. A method as defined in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

providing qualitative research data including international requirements for both commercial and non-commercial content;

searching for source, usage, and context metadata responsive to user query input; and

grouping non-familial pieces of logical content together to establish financial or contractual rights to thereby facilitate ease of entry, scheduling, and tracking.

20. A method of managing media content through an enterprise level content management platform, the method comprising the steps of:

analyzing a user assigned role to allow access to specific data in a database responsive to the user assigned role;

capturing and storing metadata from a plurality of sources accessible by a plurality of different types of users; and

tracking access to and changes in data in a database responsive to user database access to thereby form transaction activity trails describing access and changed data.