Multi-functional communication and aggregation platform

• US 6,250,930 B1
• Filed: 05/29/1998
• Issued: 06/26/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Picante Communications Corp.
• Original Assignee: Picante Communications Corp.
• Inventors: Mintz, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Martin-Wallace, Valencia
• Assistant Examiner(s): Harris, Chanda
• Application Number:
  US09/087,819
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 434/322, 434/350, 434/118, 434/323, 434/353, 434/362, 705/14, 707/501
• US Class Current: 434/323
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A system and method for conducting opinion surveys using electronic mail (e-mail) as the transport mechanism is disclosed. A multimedia-enhanced e-mail message is created using an authoring tool in conjunction with a web command launcher. The enhanced e-mail message is distributed to a select set of recipients using a communication engine. The recipients individually review and respond to the questions and issues posed in the enhanced e-mail message. The responses from the various recipients are collected automatically, filtered and stored in one or more databases using a proprietary aggregation engine. The stored responses are then analyzed using an analysis engine to generate one or more reports for distribution under the direction of a user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for surveying the opinions of a plurality of computer users, comprising:

an authoring and editing engine for creating an enhanced multimedia e-mail message comprising a survey questionnaire interlaced with multimedia objects;

a web command engine capable of launching multiple Internet browsers within a single enhanced multimedia e-mail message;

a communications engine for distributing said enhanced multimedia e-mail message to a plurality of recipients and seeking individualized responses from said recipients to said survey questionnaire;

an aggregation engine for aggregating said individualized responses received from recipients of said enhanced multimedia e-mail message; and

an analysis engine for analyzing said aggregated individualized responses and generating a report therefrom.

2. The system of claim 1 for the computer-implemented surveying of the opinions of a plurality of computer users wherein said authoring and editing engine facilitates the creation of multiple layers of multimedia objects.

3. The system of claim 1 for the computer-implemented surveying of the opinions of a plurality of computer users wherein said authoring and editing engine incorporates said multimedia elements directly in said enhanced e-mail message rather than as attachments.

4. The system of claim 1 for the computer-implemented surveying of the opinions of a plurality of computer users wherein said enhanced multimedia e-mail message is distributed to said plurality of recipients over the Internet.

5. The system of claim 1 for the computer-implemented surveying of the opinions of a plurality of computer users wherein said enhanced multimedia e-mail message is distributed to said plurality of recipients over a computer network.

6. The system of claim 1 for the computer-implemented surveying of the opinions of a plurality of computer users wherein said enhanced multimedia e-mail message is distributed to said plurality of recipients using floppy disks.

7. The system of claim 1 for the computer-implemented surveying of the opinions of a plurality of computer users wherein said enhanced multimedia e-mail message is distributed to said plurality of recipients using a peer-to-peer communications protocol.

8. The system of claim 1 for the computer-implemented surveying of the opinions of a plurality of computer users wherein results of analyzing said aggregated individualized responses are interfaced with a generic decision engine that generates a recommendation for an optimal decision based on the aggregated responses to each multimedia object that was the subject of the enhanced multimedia e-mail message.