Electronic discussion system for exchanging information among users

• US 6,094,675 A
• Filed: 08/04/1997
• Issued: 07/25/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Takahashi, Noriyuki, Ohno, Tetsuji, Komatsuzawa, Atsushi, Sunaga, Yoshiaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Hieu C.
• Application Number:
  US08/904,552
• Time in Patent Office: 1,086 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.35, 395/200.33, 709/204, 709/203, 709/219, 709/312, 707/512, 707/10, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/104
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

An electronic discussion system of the client/server structure for an electronic exchange of messages which are presented by a plurality of users and shown on a display of a client computer, wherein the servers comprise at least one storage server for holding detailed contents of respective pieces of opinion information, and at least one discussion server for holding opinion indexes showing the storage locations of opinion contents of respective pieces of opinion information, wherein the clients comprise an opinion writing client for transferring and writing the opinion index created from a newly presented piece of opinion information and the opinion content into the discussion server and the storage server, and a reading client for referring to opinion indexes and opinion contents recorded and managed in the discussion server and the storage server.

Claims

1. An electronic discussion system including servers for writing and managing opinion information, and a client for accessing the servers through a network, wherein said servers comprise:

at least one storage server for holding contents of opinions;

at least one discussion server for holding opinion indexes showing the locations of the contents of the opinions corresponding to said opinion indexes, and wherein said client comprises at least one of an opinion writing client and an opinion reading client;

the opinion writing client for transferring and writing an opinion index made from newly received opinion information and the content of the newly received opinion itself into said discussion server and said storage server, respectively; and

the opinion reading client for referring to the opinion indexes and the contents of the opinions which were recorded respectively in said discussion server and said storage server;

wherein said opinion reading client, responding to a specified reading instruction, searches said discussion server for the opinion indexes in said list files, which corresponds to a specific topic as the reading object, and displays those opinion indexes, and searches said storage server for an opinion content corresponding to a specific opinion index selected from the displayed opinion indexes and displays that opinion;

wherein said opinion reading client is either a participating discussion reading client, for which at least one of the topics of discussion has been specified as a steady reading object, or a non-participating discussion reading client without any specified steady topic for reading, and

wherein said discussion server holds a discussion participants list including information about the discussion topics specified as the steady reading objects by each said participating discussion reading client, additionally records the opinion indexes sent from said opinion writing client onto the related opinion list files, and allots, according to said discussion participants list, the opinion indexes to all of said participating discussion reading clients, for which topics have been specified as steady reading objects.

2. An electronic discussion system according to claim 1, wherein a user division server holding multiple kinds of list files of allotted opinion indexes sent from the discussion server and classified by topics is provided for each group of participating discussion reading clients, each group including at least one of said participating discussion reading clients,

wherein said participating discussion reading client, according to a specified reading instruction, searches for the opinion indexes in an allotted opinion list file from a corresponding user division server, and displays the opinion indexes, and searches for an opinion content corresponding to a specific opinion index selected from the displayed opinion indexes, and displays the opinion.

3. An electronic discussion system according to claim 1, wherein said opinion contents include multi-media data, such as still images, sounds, and moving images in addition to character text data.

4. An electronic discussion system according to claim 1, wherein said opinion contents include multi-media data, such as still images, sounds, and moving images in addition to character text data.

5. An electronic discussion system according to claim 2, wherein said opinion contents include multi-media data, such as still images, sounds, and moving images in addition to character text data.

6. An electronic discussion system comprising:

a storage server for holding contents of opinion information;

a discussion server for holding opinion indexes, each index including an opinion title and a location of the contents of an opinion; and

a client having;

at least one of a reading authority and a writing authority,

(i) said reading authority including means for requesting from the discussion server a storing title of the opinion and a location of the contents of the opinion included in the opinion index, and

means for requesting from the storage server the contents of the opinion, and

(ii) said writing authority including means for referring to the opinion index in the discussion server, and

means for sending to the storage server the contents of the opinion,

wherein the reading authority is either a participating discussion reading client, for which at least one of the topics of discussion has been specified as a steady reading object, or a non-participating discussion reading client without any specified study topic for reading, and

wherein said discussion server holds a discussion participants list including information about the discussion topics specified as the study reading objects by each said participating discussion reading client, additionally records the opinion indexes sent from said opinion writing client into the related opinion list files, and allots, according to said discussion participants list, the opinion indexes to all of said participating discussion reading clients, for which topics have been specified as steady reading objects.

7. The electronic discussion system of claim 6 wherein said reading authority comprises an opinion reading client.

8. The electronic discussion system of claim 6 wherein said writing authority comprises an opinion writing client.

9. The electronic discussion system of claim 6, wherein said reading authority, responding to a specified reading instruction, searches said discussion server for the opinion indexes in said list files, which corresponds to a specific topic as the reading object, and displays those opinion indexes and searches said storage server for an opinion content corresponding to a specific opinion index selected from the displayed opinion indexes and displays that opinion.

10. The electronic discussion system of claim 6, wherein a user division server holding multiple kinds of list files of allotted opinion indexes sent from the discussion server and classified by topics is provided for each group of participating discussion reading clients, each group including at least one of said participating discussion reading clients,

wherein said participating discussion reading client, according to a specified reading instruction, searches for the opinion indexes in an allotted opinion list file from a corresponding user division server, and displays the opinion indexes, and searches for an opinion content corresponding to a specific opinion index selected from the displayed opinion indexes, and displays the opinion.

11. The electronic discussion system of claim 6, wherein said opinion contents include multimedia data, such as still images, sounds, and moving images in addition to character text data.