APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR BROADCASTING MESSAGES TO SELECTED GROUP(S) OF USERS

• US 20110256842A1
• Filed: 06/07/2011
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AI-CORE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: One-12 Group LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: SPECTOR, SHELLY J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,532,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/00 Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

There is disclosed a method and apparatus for transmitting a message to at least one group of users selected from a population of the users. The method comprises the steps of assigning to each member of the one group a common characteristic or indication, collecting from each member of the population an address to which the message may be sent, selecting the common characteristic of a group of message recipients and determining therefrom the users of a particular group or groups based upon the selected common characteristic, whereby messages may be quickly and efficiently sent to all of the users of the selected group(s).

Claims

1. A method of broadcasting messages in response to an occurrence of an event, comprising:

identifying, from a population of individuals preregistered to receive messages associated with one or more predetermined types of events, a group of individuals with a common characteristic, based on information stored in a registration database in relation to the population of individuals, wherein the common characteristic has been preselected based on the occurred event;

generating a message related to the event; and

transmitting the generated message to terminals, preregistered by individuals within the identified group for receiving broadcast messages.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the event has occurred independently of any actions by the individuals within the identified group.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prioritizing the individuals of the identified group into at least a first subgroup and a second subgroup, the first subgroup having a higher priority than the second subgroup,

wherein the transmitting step comprises;

transmitting the message first to terminals preregistered by individuals within the first subgroup; and

transmitting the message to terminals preregistered by individuals within the second subgroup at a later time than to the first subgroup.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the individuals of the identified group are prioritized using one or more of a job rank, a job title, a job function, a region, and a zip code.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the generating step comprises generating a first message related to the event and a second message related to the event different from the first message;

and

wherein the transmitting step comprises;

transmitting the first message to terminals preregistered by individuals within a first subgroup of the identified group; and

transmitting the second message to terminals preregistered by individuals within a second subgroup of the identified group.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the individuals of the first subgroup have higher priority than the individuals of the second subgroup.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is one of a predefined message, a customized predefined message, and a newly created message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is one of a text message, an e-mail, an SMS message, and a voice message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the common characteristic is one of a region, a zip code, a job function, a job title, a job rank, a security ownership interest, and a specific interest of an individual.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

registering an individual with the registration database upon receiving contact information, address identification information for at least one terminal associated with the individual, and at least one characteristic indicative of types of events regarding which the individual desires to receive broadcast messages.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an individual with access to respective information stored in the registration database in association with the individual; and

updating the respective information in response to an instruction received from the individual to change the respective information.

12. A system for broadcasting messages in response to an occurrence of an event, comprising:

a registration database for storing information about a population of individuals preregistered to receive messages associated with one or more predetermined types of events; and

a server configured to;

identify from the population of individuals a group of individuals with a common characteristic, based on the information stored in the registration database, wherein the common characteristic has been preselected based on the occurred event;

generate a message regarding the event; and

transmit the generated message to terminals, preregistered by individuals within the identified group for receiving broadcast messages.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to register an individual with the registration database upon receiving contact information of the individual, address identification information for at least one terminal associated with the individual, and at least one characteristic indicative of events regarding which the individual desires to receive broadcast messages.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to:

provide an individual with access to respective information stored in the registration database in association with the individual via a terminal, pre-registered with the registration database by the individual for receiving broadcast messages; and

update the respective information based on an instruction received from the individual to change the respective information.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

an administrator terminal that enables an administrator to;

select the common characteristic at the server in response to the occurrence of the event;

create the message by performing one of selecting a predefined message, customizing another predefined message, and entering a new message regarding the occurred event; and

indicate that the message is ready to be transmitted to the individuals of the indentified group.