Comprehensive Information Market Exchange

• US 20100063863A1
• Filed: 09/09/2008
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vleck, Paul van, Gibbon, David C., Begeja, Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,346,594 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

Systems and techniques for collecting information as authorized by information providers and sharing the information with information recipients according to criteria specified by the information providers. Information is collected from one or more of a variety of sources and stored in a provider profile, with the provider profile also specifying criteria for sharing the information, including payment required for sharing the information with particular categories of recipients. An exchange system is maintained allowing recipients to request or to otherwise specify needs for particular categories of information and payments to be provided by the information, and needs or requests of recipients for information are matched with criteria specified by providers, with information being transferred or used to provide results for a recipient and payment being transferred from the recipient to a provider or providers when a match between information needs and criteria for sharing information is identified.

Claims

1. A server for managing the sharing of information between information providers and information recipients, comprising:

data storage for storing data relating to providers of information for sharing, including two or more criteria for sharing of provider information, the criteria including payment required by the provider for sharing of the information;

data storage for storing data relating to recipients of information that may be shared by providers, the data relating to the recipients of the information including specifications of information needs and payment that recipients are willing to provide for the information; and

data processing elements for matching provider information to recipient needs based on matching the recipient needs against the criteria for sharing of provider information, matching including selecting information matching needs specified by recipients and for which the desired payment is in accordance with payment acceptable to the recipient.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the criteria for sharing of provider information include specifications of information that may be shared and classes of recipients with whom information may and may not be shared.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the data processing elements have access to provider information collected from data sources supplying the provider information, with provider information being stored in a provider profile along with the criteria for sharing provider information and to recipient data received from information recipients with the recipient data being stored in a recipient profile.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the data processing elements are operative to periodically survey provider profiles and recipient profiles to match recipient needs against information available from providers.

5. The server of claim 4, wherein the data processing elements are operative, when recipient needs include information from a plurality of providers and wherein information is available from more providers than required, to select information from those providers from whom required payment is lowest until the recipient needs are satisfied.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the data processing elements further manage collection of information including information collected using a mobile device monitoring provider movements and activities.

7. The server of claim 6, wherein the information received from the mobile device includes transactions entered into, the time, date and location of the transactions, and provider ratings of the subjects of the transactions.

8. The server of claim 7, wherein the information received from the mobile device includes transaction information automatically received by the mobile device from a transaction terminal.

9. The server of claim 7, wherein the information received from the mobile device includes transaction information manually entered by the provider.

10. The server of claim 6, wherein the information received from the mobile device includes information and ratings of sites and items of interest encountered by the provider,

11. A method of management of information sharing, comprising the steps of:

collecting provider information associated with one or more of a plurality of information providers, the information being associated with specifications of two or more criteria for sharing of the information, the criteria including payment required by a provider for sharing the information of that provider;

collecting information recipient data from one or more of a plurality of information recipients, the data collected including relating to needs of each recipient for information and payment that each recipient is willing to provide for information meeting those needs;

surveying the information recipient data and the provider information to select provider information meeting specified recipient needs, selection of provider information including matching provider information to recipient needs based on the criteria for sharing of the information, selection of provider information including matching payment amounts required by providers and payment that recipients are willing to provide; and

delivering provider information to recipients based on identified matches between recipient needs and provider information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein collecting provider information includes providing a registration facility allowing a provider to register for information sharing, to specify sources of information relating to that provider, and to specify criteria for sharing of information for that provider.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein criteria for sharing provider information include different criteria for different classes of recipients.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein criteria for sharing provider information include levels of protection based on provider selections.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein criteria for sharing provider information include default levels of protection that apply unless explicitly changed by a provider.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein criteria for sharing provider information include protection of relatively sensitive categories of information from disclosure to recipients that have not been determined with a high degree assurance to be reliable.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein criteria for sharing provider information include sharing information related to an interest of the provider with a provider'"'"'s fellow members of an interest group in exchange for information of those fellow members related to the same interest.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein collecting provider information includes receiving information collected by a mobile device recording a provider'"'"'s movements and activities.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising a step of aggregating information from a plurality of providers and computing results based on that information for delivery to one or more recipients.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising a step of removing provider information before delivery to a recipient.