SPIRITUAL RESEARCH SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20140279924A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ambient Consulting, LLC
• Original Assignee: Ambient Consulting, LLC
• Inventors: Grossman, Andrew, Krutsch, Kenneth F., Monson-Haefel, Richard, Darwin, Clayton
• Granted Patent: US 9,430,518 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/661
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/33 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

A computerized system and method are presented that provide access to a research archive for researching fundamental texts of a variety of spiritual and religious domains. The research archive is oriented around ideas having snippets from the fundamental texts. Each idea is associated with a single life issue tag and a religious or spiritual domain. Each idea is further associated with a fixed number of commentaries that comment on the snippet from the point of view of the religious domain and its relationship to the associated life issue tag. The fixed number of commentaries are each written with respect to a particular role.

Claims

1. A server computing machine for spiritual research comprising:

a) a network interface providing data and a user interface to a remote computing device over a computerized network;

b) a processor that is controlled via programming instructions;

c) a non-transitory computer readable memory;

d) database programming stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory and performed by the processor, the database programming managing an archive database that is transformed during operation by the database programming, the archive database having;

i) a plurality of life issue tag database entities each having a life issue tag that identifies a life issue,

ii) a plurality of idea database entities each having an excerpt from a spiritual document and at least one commentary about that excerpt, and

iii) first database relationships between the idea database entities and the life issue tag database entities wherein the first database relationships establish an association between each idea database entity and a single life issue tag database entity.

e) user interface programming stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory and performed by the processor, the user interface programming providing a user interface to remote user devices over the network interface across a wide area network, the user interface providing to an identified user access to the archive database by;

i) selecting a life issue tag, and

ii) presenting over the user interface data associated with the idea database entities that are in turn associated with the selected life issue tag.

2. The server computing machine of claim 1, wherein the server computing machine comprises a plurality of separate physical devices with separate processors, separate network interfaces, and separate non-transitory computer readable memories, the separate physical devices acting in concert as a single server computing machine according to the programming instructions.

3. The server computing machine of claim 1, wherein the at least one commentary about the excerpt relates to the associated life issue tag database entity.

4. The server computing machine of claim 3, wherein the archive database further comprises:

iv) a plurality of synonym database entities each identifying a synonym for a selected life issue tag, and

v) second database relationships between each synonym database entity and a selected life issue tag database entity that identifies the selected life issue tag.

5. The server computing machine of claim 3, wherein the archive database further comprises:

iv) a plurality of commentary database entities each containing a commentary, and

v) second database relationships between the idea database entities and the commentary database entities;

wherein each idea database entity has the at least one commentary through the second database relationship with at least one commentary database entity.

6. The server computing machine of claim 5, wherein the archive database further comprises:

vi) a plurality of subject matter expert database entities each identifying a subject matter expert, and

vii) third database relationships between the commentary database entities and the subject matter expert database entities, wherein each of the third database relationships establishes a subject matter expert author for the commentary in the associated commentary database entity.

7. The server computing machine of claim 6, wherein the archive database further comprises:

viii) a plurality of domain database entities each identifying a spiritual domain, and

ix) fourth database relationships between the idea database entities and the domain database entities;

wherein each commentary in the commentary database entities comments about the excerpt in its associated idea database entity not only in the context of the associated life issue tag database entity for that idea database entity but also in the context of the associated spiritual domain for that idea database entity.

8. The server computing machine of claim 7, wherein the archive database further comprises:

x) a plurality of snippet database entities each having a snippet from a spiritual document, and

xi) fifth database relationships between the idea database entities and the snippet database entities;

wherein each fifth database relationship identifies the excerpt for each idea database entity by associating the idea database entity with the snippet database entity having the excerpt as the snippet for that single snippet database entity.

9. The server computing machine of claim 8, wherein the archive database further comprises:

xii) a plurality of document database entities each identifying a complete spiritual document, and

xiii) sixth database relationships between the snippet database entities and the document database entities;

wherein each sixth database relationship identifies a source spiritual document in the document database entity for the snippet in each snippet database entity.

10. The server computing machine of claim 9, wherein the archive database further comprises seventh database relationships between the domain database entities and the document database entities, wherein all of document database entities associated with one domain together comprise a corpus of spiritual documents for the one domain.

11. The server computing machine of claim 10, wherein the plurality of life issue tag database entities are organized in a life issue tag hierarchy with ancestor and progeny entities, further wherein a particular first database relationship between a particular idea database entity and a particular life issue tag database entity also establishes a relationship between the particular idea database entity and all ancestors of the particular life issue tag database entity.

12. The server computing machine of claim 11, wherein the plurality of domain database entities are organized in a domain tag hierarchy with ancestor and progeny entities, further wherein a particular fourth database relationship between the particular idea database entity and a particular domain tag database entity also establishes a relationship between the particular idea database entity and all ancestors of the particular domain database entity.

13. The server computing machine of claim 12, wherein each of the second database relationships indicates a role, wherein each commentary in the commentary database entities comments about the excerpt in its associated idea database entity not only in the context of the associated life issue tag database entity for that idea database entity and not only in the context of the associated spiritual domain for that idea database entity, but also in the context of the role indicated in the second database relationship.

14. The server computing machine of claim 1, wherein the user interface selects the selected life issue tag by allowing the identified user to traverse a hierarchy of life issue tags through the user interface and select the selected life issue tag from the hierarchy.

15. The server computing machine of claim 14, wherein the user interface selects the selected life issue tag by:

i) accepting a search request from the identified user, and

ii) identifying life issue tag database entities by comparing the search request to the life issue tags and to synonyms associated with the life issue tags.

16. The server computing machine of claim 15, further comprising:

f) analysis programming stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory and performed by the processor, the analysis programming directing the processor to;

i) monitor actions of a plurality of users through the user interface relating to interaction with the database programming,

ii) record the monitored actions of the users, and

iii) analyze the monitored actions;

wherein data from additional idea database entities are displayed after the search request from the identified user, wherein the additional idea database entities are not associated with the identified life issue tag database entities, wherein the additional idea database entities are identified using the analysis of the monitored actions.

17. A method of providing access to data in a database over a network relating to spiritual research comprising:

a) at a server computer, providing access to an identified user to the database via a user interface;

b) at the server computer, providing access through the user interface to an archive database of

i) life issue tags, and

ii) ideas, with each idea associated with a single life issue tag, the ideas each having;

(1) an excerpt from a spiritual document, and

(2) at least one commentary reflecting on the excerpt in the context of the associated life issue tag;

c) at the server computer, receiving via the user interface a search request from the identified user;

d) at the server computer, identifying a found life issue tag based on the search request; and

e) at the server computer, presenting through the user interface data associated with a plurality of ideas associated with the found life issue tag.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

f) at the server, presenting through the user interface a hierarchy of life issue tags along with the plurality of ideas associated with the found life issue tag;

g) at the server, accepting via the user interface a traversal input allowing the identified user to traverse the hierarchy of life issue tags;

h) at the server, accepting via the user interface a selection of a new life issue tag from the hierarchy of life issue tags; and

i) at the server, updating the user interface to present a second plurality of ideas that are associated with the new life issue tag.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

f) at the server, receiving via the user interface a selection of a selected idea that was presented through the user interface; and

g) at the server computer, presenting through the user interface;

i) the excerpt from the spiritual document associated with the selected idea, and

ii) the at least one commentaries reflecting on the excerpt.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising identifying a spiritual domain for the identified person, wherein the plurality of ideas associated with the found life issue tag are sorted to prioritize ideas associated with the identified spiritual domain.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising identifying a spiritual domain for the identified person, wherein the plurality of ideas associated with the found life issue tag include a first subset of ideas that are associated with the identified spiritual domain and a second subset of ideas that are not associated with the identified spiritual domain, further wherein the second subset of ideas are filtered out and not presented.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

f) analyzing actions of a plurality of users that have researched the found life issue tag;

g) identifying a useful idea that is not associated with the found life issue tag based on the analysis of the actions of the plurality of users; and

h) presenting the useful idea through the user interface along with the plurality of ideas associated with the found life issue tag.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

f) identifying related life issue tags that are related to the found life issue tag; and

h) presenting related ideas associated with the related life issue tags through the user interface along with the plurality of ideas associated with the found life issue tag.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the related life issue tags are related to the found life issue tag when the related life issue tags are ancestors of the found life issue tag in a life issue tag hierarchy.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the found life issue tag is identified by comparing the search request to synonyms previously assigned to the found life issue tag.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

g) monitoring actions of the identified user through the user interface after receiving the search request;

h) identifying a desired life issue tag different from the found life issue tag based on the monitored actions; and

i) assigning the search request as a synonym to the desired life issue tag.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of assigning the search request as a synonym further comprises:

i) suggesting the search request as a synonym to a subject matter expert through a subject matter interface, and

ii) receiving confirmation of the synonym assignment through the subject matter expert interface.