Business description vocabulary for standardized, extensible interoperation

• US 7,111,235 B1
• Filed: 12/27/2001
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Open Invention Network LLC
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Morgan, Kelly C., Cartwright, Kevin G., Tischner, Steven N., Cartwright, Karl B., Perrella, Ronald
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, PAUL H
• Application Number:
  US10/026,705
• Time in Patent Office: 1,727 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 6, 707/9, 707/10, 707/104, 707/225, 707/200, 715/500.1, 715/523, 715/530, 715/513, 715/522, 715/517, 715/520
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A method of organizing information related to content. A plurality of categories related to the content is identified along with a plurality of elements associated respectively with at least a subset of the categories. The categories and elements are arranged in a hierarchical structure. Then, a computer readable format is encoded with the hierarchical structure as well as with the information related to the content in accordance with the hierarchical structure. The categories and elements relate to a predetermined business.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium encoded with structured information for expressing specific business content, the structured information comprising:

a plurality of categories, wherein each category represents an aspect of a particular business for which an instantiation of at least a portion of the structured information is applied; and

a plurality of elements associated with at least a subset of the plurality of categories,

wherein each element represents a sub-aspect of the particular business for which an instantiation of at least a portion of the structured information is applied,

wherein the structured information is arranged hierarchically such that a particular business for which an instantiation of at least a portion of the structured information is applied is expressed hierarchically by applying an XSL transformation to the information of the XFDF format form such that the information pertinent to one particular business is stored in the instantiation of categories and elements pertinent to that one particular business in accordance with the XFDF and EPS format forms,

wherein a portion of the structured information includes at least one element of at least one category that is flagged as representing voice portal content while another portion of the structured information includes at least one element of at least one category that is flagged as representing text for a wireless pocket pager advertisement,

wherein the advertisement style is identified by a universal directory advertising code (UDAC) selectable from a plurality of predefined UDAC'"'"'s, sub-UDAC'"'"'s and combinations of UDACs.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the structured information is extensible.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the structured information is developed using extensible markup language (XML).

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the structured information expresses an advertising medium.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the structured information expresses the specific business content of a dining guide through an instantiation of at least a portion of the structured information for each of the particular businesses included in the dining guide and where the instantiation for each particular business is unique to the particular business for which the instantiation corresponds.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of categories comprises a graphic, a cover, an index and a map.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the graphic comprises at least one item selected from the group consisting of an advertisement, amenities, advertiser descriptors and payment method.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the advertisement is identified by an ad ID and a copy ID.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the graphic comprises a logo.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the structured information comprises a cuisine code.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein at least some of the structured information is predetermined.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein at least a portion of the structured information in an instantiation for a particular business includes an ad height and width that are predetermined.

13. A method of organizing information of at least one particular business related to content, comprising the steps of:

from the XML format data, identifying a plurality of categories related to the content, wherein the categories are pertinent at a single business level such that at least one of the categories of the plurality is pertinent to a particular business;

from the XML format data, identifying a plurality of elements associated respectively with at least a subset of the categories, wherein the elements are pertinent at a single business level such that at least one of the elements associated with the at least one of the categories is pertinent to the particular business;

receiving content corresponding to the plurality of categories and the plurality of elements into an XFDF format form corresponding to a document type definition (DTD);

arranging the categories and elements in a hierarchical structure defined by a universal directory advertising code (UDAC) that is populated with the content received into the XFDF form by applying an XSLT transformation to the content of the XFDF format to produce extensible markup language (XML) format data having the hierarchical structure in accordance with the DTD;

encoding a computer readable format with the XFDF form having the hierarchical structure;

encoding a computer readable format with an EPS form having the hierarchical structure;

encoding a computer readable format with the XML format data having the hierarchical structure; and

encoding the computer readable format with the XML format data having the hierarchical structure for each particular business that is related to the content.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the hierarchical structure is arranged in accordance with a document type definition (DTD).

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the hierarchical structure is arranged in accordance with extensible markup language (XML) schema.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the encoded information for each particular business that is related to the content and that is in accordance with the hierarchical structure is for generating a dining guide.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises information related to restaurants.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises categories and elements related to advertisements.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises information related to predetermined sizes of advertisements.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises information related to at least one of an anchor listing for a first particular business, a coupon, a listing for a second particular business having a first size, a listing for a second particular business having a size double the first size and a listing for a third particular business having a size triple the first size.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises information related to a graphic.

22. A method of organizing and storing information for at least one particular business, comprising the steps of:

(a) selecting an extensible markup language (XML) format;

(b) analyzing business specific content pertinent to each particular business;

(c) identifying categories and elements related to the business specific content for each of the particular businesses;

(d) organizing the categories and elements related to the business specific content for each of the particular businesses in a hierarchical structure, wherein the hierarchical structure includes a separate instantiation of the categories and elements for each of the particular businesses in accordance with the format selected in step (a), wherein the hierarchical structure corresponds to a document type definition (DTD);

(e) receiving information for each of the particular business via an XFDF format form corresponding to the DTD,

(f) storing information for each of the particular businesses in accordance with the hierarchical structure and the selected XML format by applying an XSL transformation to the information of the XFDF format form such that the information pertinent to one particular business is stored in the instantiation of categories and elements pertinent to that one particular business;

(g) storing information for each of the particular businesses in accordance with the hierarchical structure and the XFDF format form such that the information pertinent to one particular business is stored pertinent to that one particular business;

(h) storing information for each of the particular businesses in accordance with the hierarchical structure and the EPS format form such that the information pertinent to one particular business is stored for printing and

(i) repurposing the stored information of the hierarchical structure in a predetermined format, wherein repurposing the stored information in a predetermined format comprises;

1) applying at least a portion of the stored information to a text-to-voice system of a voice portal

2) sending a text message advertisement including at least a portion of the stored information to a wireless pager, and

3) applying at least a portion of the stored information to automatically creating input screens on a wireless device by plugging in a screen controlling XSL file and a structure file into the application program of the device to control the look and feel of the user interface.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the XML format is a document type definition (DTD).

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the business specific content comprises an advertisement.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the business specific content comprises information related to a dining guide.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the information related to a dining guide comprises advertisement types.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the information related to a dining guide comprises at least one of a category and an element instantiated within the hierarchical structure for a first particular business and for at least one of a half page display advertisement, a full page display advertisement, an inside back cover advertisement, an inside front cover advertisement and an outside back cover advertisement.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the information related to a dining guide comprises a graphic element.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the information related to a dining guide comprises an identification of a plurality of cuisine types.