Electronic media for communicating information among a group of participants

• US 6,496,849 B1
• Filed: 10/25/1999
• Issued: 12/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: MetricStream, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Zaplet, Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hanson, Mike, Axe, Brian, Miller, Graham
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Application Number:
  US09/427,378
• Time in Patent Office: 1,149 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/202, 709/217, 709/218, 709/227, 709/225, 709/238, 707/104, 707/10, 713/200
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/34 Betting or bookmaking, e.g. Internet betting
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3288 Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

An electronic medium is described that can be used to communicate information among a group of participants. The electronic medium includes a transport envelope having a plurality of network address. An encoding layer may be contained in the transport envelope to support a plurality of content-types. Each of the plurality of content-types may include a plurality of dynamic and static content. An interface region may be configured in the electronic medium to accept input from at least a user of the electronic medium or from an external source in data communication with the electronic medium. The dynamic content may be dynamically asynchronously updated based on the input from at least the user or the external source.

Claims

1. An electronic medium that is stored in a database of a server and that facilitates communicating information among participants, the electronic medium comprising:

a transport envelope having a plurality of network addresses;

a body comprising one or more elements of dynamic content, one or more elements of static content, and all updates thereto;

an encoding layer contained in the transport envelope and identifying locations in the body of a plurality of content-types, wherein each of the plurality of content-types comprises one or more of the elements of dynamic and static content;

an interface region; and

an association to one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of;

receiving input from at least one of a user of the electronic medium and an external source in data communication with the electronic medium;

asynchronously dynamically updating one or more of the dynamic content elements based on the input from at least one of the user and the external source;

communicating a message associated with the electronic medium to each of the participants from the server;

in response to an open action by any of the participants receiving the message

parsing the message received by each of the participants from the sever in response to the open action by any of the participants receiving the message; and

serve the electronic medium with then current dynamic content stored in the server; and

automatically providing the updated dynamic content to each of the participants.

2. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein each of the dynamic content elements is delimited in the message associated with the electronic medium by one of IFRAME and ILAYER tags associated with the dynamic content.

3. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the message associated with the electronic medium is configured using a MIME construct, wherein a first MIME multipart/alternative portion comprises a first set of dynamic content compatible with a first type of client, and wherein a second MIME multipart/portion comprises a second set of dynamic content compatible with a second type of client.

4. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the message associated with the electronic medium tier comprises a command identifying the dynamic content.

5. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the electronic medium is configured to display a plain text message corresponding to the dynamic content as part of the message associated with the electronic medium, when the user of the electronic medium cannot support one of the content-types identified in the electronic medium.

6. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the dynamic content comprises one of images, audio content, video content, binary content, executable content, and text.

7. The electronic medium of claim 1, further comprising one of an advertising region, a region detailing a subject matter of the electronic medium, and a forwarding region that can receive user input to forward the electronic medium to one or more additional recipients.

8. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the input from the external source comprises one of news feeds and stock quotes.

9. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein th input from the user or the external source comprises text.

10. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the dynamic content is served to the user asynchronously relative to the updating of the dynamic content.

11. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the message associated with the electronic medium further comprises control data including a header for an Internet protocol.

12. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the message associated with the electronic medium further comprises control data including a header for an electronic mail protocol.

13. The electronic medium of claim 1, wherein the electronic medium is configured for use over one of a communications channel and a data channel.

14. An electronic medium that is stored in a database of a server and that facilitates communicating information among participants, the electronic medium comprising:

a transport envelope having a plurality of network addresses of recipients of the electronic medium;

an encoding layer contained in the transport envelope and that identifies a plurality of content-types within the electronic medium, wherein each of the plurality of content-types identifies and is associated with one or more dynamic content elements and static content elements;

an interface region configured to accept input from a first recipient among the plurality of recipients;

one or more dynamic content elements and one or more static content elements stored in association with the transport envelope, encoding layer, and interface region, wherein the dynamic content elements are configured to dynamically retrieve, in response to receiving input in the interface region from the first recipient, dynamic content from a server over a network, wherein the dynamic content is updated by any of the plurality of recipients at any time relative to the input from the first recipient; and

an association to one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of;

receiving input from at least one of a user of the electronic medium and an external source in data communication with the electronic medium;

asynchronously dynamically updating one or more of the dynamic content elements based on the input from at least one of the user and the external source in response to an open action by any of the participants receiving the message;

communicating a message associated with the electronic medium to each of the participants from the server.

15. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the electronic medium provides a transportable application for collaborative communication among the recipients, wherein the transport envelope comprises a plurality of e-mail addresses of the recipients.

16. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the dynamic content elements are delimited in the message by one or more commands that identify the dynamic content.

17. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the message further comprises one or more control instructions that identify the dynamic content and invoke retrieval of the dynamic content from the server over the network.

18. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, wherein each of the dynamic content elements a delimited in the message by one or more control instructions that identify the dynamic content and invoke retrieval of the dynamic content from the server over the network, and wherein each of the control instructions comprises one or more IFRAME and ILAYER tags.

19. An electronic medium a recited in claim 14, wherein the message comprises a MIME e-mail message, and wherein each of the dynamic content elements is delimited in the message by one or more IFRAME and ILAYER tags.

20. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, further comprising a forwarding region that accepts user input requesting forwarding the electronic medium to a new recipient.

21. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, wherein each of the dynamic content elements are delimited in the message by one or more control instructions that identify the dynamic content and invoke retrieval of the dynamic content from the server over the network, and wherein the control instructions comprise one or more identifiers for virtual images that map to the dynamic content in the server.

22. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, wherein each of the dynamic content elements are delimited in the message by one or more control instructions that identify the dynamic content and invoke retrieval of the dynamic content from the server over the network, wherein the message is a MIME e-mail message having an HTML portion, and wherein the control instructions comprise one or more image source tags and identifiers for virtual images that map to the dynamic content in the server.

23. An electronic medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the recipients comprise individuals, computer systems, or computer programs.