Group publishing system
First Claim
1. A Group Publishing System (GPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising:
- (a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a GPS administrator;
(b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS;
(c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface;
(d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project;
(e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface;
(f) an editor control interface providing project status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; and
(g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is a Group Publishing System (GPS) for permitting coordinated publishing, assembly and administration of texts by an unlimited number of authors or editors, each of whom may perform word processing, document assembly and editing functions on the same or different portions of a group authored project. Each user of the system also has the capability of electronically communicating through the GPS with any other user of the system working on the same project. The word-processing functions of the GPS are standardized according to pre-defined formats, and e-mail communication links are provided for communication between all users. The system displays the assembled or partially assembled product to all users and operates in multi-media (text, video, CD-ROM, audio and photographic) formats. The output of the GPS is directly viewable, printable or downloadable in publishable format.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A Group Publishing System (GPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising:
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(a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a GPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing project status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; and (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer operating a Group Publishing System (GPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising:
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(a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a GPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing project status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; and (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments and project completion status is achieved.
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15. A multimedia document comprising text data, audio data, video data and combinations of these forms of data, wherein said document is produced by or is part of a GPS, wherein said GPS is a Group Publishing system for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said C7PS comprising:
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(a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a OPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing project status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; and (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved.
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16. A method for achieving the sequential, consistent and controlled production of a multimedia document data object comprising text data, audio data, video data and combinations of such data, wherein said data is included in said data object by a plurality of authors or editors who, as a group and by virtue of their individual contributions of such data to said data object, create said data object, said method comprising implementation on a computer of a Group Publishing System (GPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising;
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(a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a CPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing protect status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; and (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved; such that each author or editor contributing to said data object links to said GPS, downloads text data, audio data, video data or combinations of such data into the GPS residing on said server in an ordered and trackable fashion specified according to the structure defined by said GPS. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A Group Publishing System (CPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising:
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(a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a GPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS, the project selection interface including a hierarchical representation of project sections and subsections of a GPS multimedia document project, each of which representations is a hyperlink to said section or said subsection of said GPS project, such that upon selection by the author or editor, said section or subsection is made available for modification to said author or editor, provided that said author or editor successfully is able to login to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing project status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved; and (h) the GPS further including imbedded electronic mail links at each of the specified interfaces of said GPS to accommodate electronic communication between authors and editors assigned by said administrator to collaboration on a specified GPS project, and between said authors and editors and said administrator, wherein said GPS is implemented on the Internet, and wherein said server hosting said GPS is accessed by each;
contributing author or editor by providing the uniform resource locator (URL) to a browser which then links to said server. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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22. A Group Publishing System (GPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising:
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(a) a server hosting the CPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a GPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface, the login control center including a field for input by the author of the author'"'"'s GPS system username, password, and an executable login command; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project, the author control interface including input, executable or informational fields selected from the group consisting of current topic selection, executable current author e-mail, current author name, current editor name, executable current editor e-mail, a hypertext list of selected topic or subtopic document sections, executable edit selection, executable view (read-only) selection, executable spell check selection, author information input field, a representation of the date and time of the last modification to the selected GPS project section, a representation of the date of completion of the selected GPS project section, a representation of the date of completion of each of a plurality of section editing subtasks, an executable link to search an external database, and a combination of said input, executable or informational fields; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing project status and-control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved; and (h) the GPS further including imbedded electronic mail links at each of the specified interfaces of said GPS to accommodate electronic communication between authors and editors assigned by said administrator to collaboration on a specified GPS project, and between said authors and editors and said administrator, wherein said GPS is implemented on the Internet, and wherein said server hosting said GPS is accessed by each contributing author or editor by providing the uniform resource locator (URL) to a browser which then links to said server.
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23. A Group Publishing System (GPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising:
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(a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a GPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface, the login control center further including a field for input by said editor of said editor'"'"'s GPS system username, password, type of editor, and an executable login command; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing project status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project, the editor control interface further including input, executable or informational fields selected from the group consisting of current topic selection, executable current author e-mail, current author name, current editor name, executable current editor e-mail, a hypertext list of selected topic or subtopic document sections, executable edit selection, executable view (read-only) selection, executable spell check selection, author information edit field, a representation of the date and time of the last modification to the selected GPS project section, a representation of the date of completion of the selected GPS project section, a representation of the date of completion of each of a plurality of section editing subtasks, an executable link to search an external database, and a combination of said input, executable or informational fields; (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved; (h) the CPS further comprising imbedded electronic mail links at each of the specified interfaces of said GPS to accommodate electronic communication between authors and editors assigned by said administrator to collaboration on a specified GPS project, and between said authors and editors and said administrator, wherein said GPS is implemented on the Internet, and wherein said server hosting said CPS is accessed by each contributing author or editor by providing the uniform resource locator (URL) to a browser which then links to said server.
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24. A Group Publishing system (GPS) for asynchronous collaborative publishing and editing of a multimedia document project comprising text data, video data, audio data or combinations of these data forms, said GPS comprising:
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(a) a server hosting the GPS, to which a plurality of contributing authors or editors may link directly by personal computer upon receipt of authorization to link from a GPS administrator; (b) a project selection interface as a top level to which an authorized author or editor initially links upon linking to said GPS; (c) a login control center for verification of an author'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (d) an author control interface providing project status and control of author functions implemented by said author upon successful login to a selected project; (e) a login control center for verification of an editor'"'"'s authority to access a multimedia document project comprising one of text data, video data, audio data and combinations thereof, selected from said project selection interface; (f) an editor control interface providing project status and control of editor functions implemented by said editor upon successful login to a selected project; (g) an administrative control interface whereby overall administration of project selection for inclusion in the GPS, author and editor assignments, and project completion status is achieved, the administrative control interface further including input, executable or informational fields selected from the group consisting of a master editor, a list of all author and editor e-mail addresses, a list of all CPS book or project topics including e-mail addresses of all assigned authors or editors, a list of all GPS projects to which authors or editors have yet to be assigned, a utilities to facilitate maintenance of all aspects of the URL, an executable means to permit deletion of authors or other GPS data, a list of project status, a list of all author passwords and project assignments, a list of all editor passwords and project assignments, a list of all author'"'"'s e-mail addresses and other information, a list of chapter assignments, a statistical interface for tracking of GPS usage, an executable e-mail broadcast permitting email of a given message to all GPS users, a means for entrance of new author e-mail, a means for author information editing, a means for editor assignment to GPS project sections, a means for topic deletion, a means for adding a new topic to the GPS, and a combination of said input, executable or informational fields; and (h) the GPS further including imbedded electronic mail links at each of the specified interfaces of said GPS to accommodate electronic communication between authors and editors assigned by said administrator to collaboration on a specified GPS project, and between said authors and editors and said administrator, wherein said GPS is implemented on the Internet, and wherein said server hosting said GPS is accessed by each contributing author or editor by providing the uniform resource locator (URL) to a browser which then links to said server.
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Specification