System and method for facilitating interaction with information stored at a web site

• US 6,763,342 B1
• Filed: 07/12/2000
• Issued: 07/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sentar, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sentar, Inc.
• Inventors: Kiss, Peter A., Streeter, Gordon, Leigh, Betsy, Mattern, Bridget T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ramesh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Booker, Kelvin
• Application Number:
  US09/614,284
• Time in Patent Office: 1,462 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45, 706/47, 706/46, 706/50, 706/60, 706/59, 706/53, 706/61, 705/27, 705/1, 707/1, 707/3, 707/5, 704/1, 716/19
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/043 Distributed expert systems; Blackboards

Abstract

Described is a system and method for facilitating interaction with information or knowledge. In one aspect, a knowledge-building component captures knowledge or information and stores it in a knowledge module. The knowledge module is attached to either a Web site or individual Web pages or documents within the Web site. The content and structure of the knowledge module determines the interactive functionality provided to the end user of the Web site. In another aspect, a knowledge serving component facilitates interaction with the information or knowledge. The knowledge serving component provides a user machine with alternative interactions. The knowledge serving component uses selections made by the user machine and the content of the knowledge module to direct the user machine to a specific piece of knowledge or information contained within a site.

Claims

1. A system for interacting with information stored at a Web site, comprising:

a Web server configured to provide information over a wide area network to a user machine in response to a request from the user machine, the Web server further configured to receive information transmitted to the Web server from the user machine in response to a prompt;

a knowledge building component for constructing knowledge modules, the knowledge building component including a graphical interface for displaying relationships between portions of information and for defining the relationships between the portions of information, the graphical interface being further configured to render a simulated display of the knowledge module being constructed,

a knowledge module containing a plurality of nodes, each node in the plurality being either a query node, a response node, or a solution node, each query node having at least one reply node and at least one solution node; and

a knowledge serving component configured to present to the Web server a question node retrieved from the knowledge module and at least one reply node associated with the question node, the knowledge serving component being further configured to, in response to a notification from the Web server of a selected reply node if two or more reply nodes are presented to the Web server, retrieve from the knowledge module another node associated with the selected reply node,

wherein the knowledge serving component and the Web server interact with the user machine providing question nodes and receiving notice of selected reply nodes until the at least one solution node is retrieved from the knowledge module and presented to the user machine.

2. A computer-implemented method for building a knowledge module, comprising:

presenting a user with a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface having a knowledge representation view capable of displaying a knowledge structure having a plurality of nodes, the graphical user interface further having a browser view capable of simulating a display of the knowledge module as it will appear when rendered on a requesting machine;

creating, in response to an indication from the user through the graphical user interface, a first node in the knowledge structure, the first node having a plurality of associated child nodes in the knowledge structure;

creating, in response to another indication from the user through the graphical user interface, a solution node at some location in the knowledge structure under the first node; and

saving the knowledge structure as the knowledge module.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first node is a question node and the plurality of associated child nodes comprise reply nodes.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the knowledge module is represented in an eXtensible Markup Language.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the knowledge module comprises a directed graph.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the knowledge module comprises a non-directed graph.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the knowledge module is rules-based.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the knowledge module is case based.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the knowledge module is predicate logic based.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the knowledge module is neural network based.