Information providing method and information providing apparatus for network

• US 7,174,367 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2001
• Issued: 02/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Koseki, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, THOMAS K
• Application Number:
  US09/829,623
• Publication Number:
  US 20020049758A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,128 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/204, 709/206, 709/217, 709/234, 725/8, 725/5, 705/14, 705/27, 705/52
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A master content generation unit generates information (master content) that is concretized based on the original idea of a content generator. An intermediate content generation unit re-constructs a complete and concrete content that has an adequate amount of information at a lower level, and generates a content to be sold. When a purchaser (a buyer) issues a request for a desired level, such as for the amount of information, to the intermediate content generation unit via the new content requesting unit, the content is re-constructed in accordance with the request. A content retailing unit provides a price for the master content and the content that is generated by the intermediate content generation unit, and collects the requested purchase price from a buyer. The buyer may select content equivalent to the compensation that corresponds to the buyer'"'"'s request, and may purchase it from the content retaining unit.

Claims

1. An information providing method embodied in computer memory for providing, via a network, content based on conditions that are defined in advance, comprising the steps of:

generating a finite number of intermediate documents for content that corresponds to an entire body of information, wherein said intermediate documents are hierarchically structured according to a total number of pages contained in each of the intermediate documents;

assigning each of said finite number of intermediate documents an information level based on the number of pages contained therein;

selecting at least one of said intermediate documents; and

providing the at least one of said selected intermediate document.

2. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein information contained in said entire body of information is employed as said intermediate document.

3. The information providing method according to claim 2, wherein information obtained by changing at least a part of said information included in said document is employed as said intermediate document.

4. The information providing method according to claim 3, wherein a condition determined in accordance with a request from a user is defined as said condition that is defined in advance.

5. The information providing method according to claim 4, wherein an intermediate document is selected at a level that corresponds to said condition determined in accordance with said request from said user.

6. The information providing method according to claim 5, wherein a condition for reducing or increasing the amount of information in said document is defined as said condition that is defined in advance.

7. The information providing method according to claim 6, wherein a condition for extracting an information type that represents said document is employed as said condition determined in advance.

8. The information providing method according to claim 7, wherein price information is provided for said documents, and compensation information based on said price information is provided for each of said intermediate documents at said levels that are generated.

9. The information providing method according to claim 1, further comprising associating a content price for each of the intermediate documents based on the number of pages contained therein.

10. The information providing method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a grammatical description of the amount of information contained in said finite number of intermediate documents.

11. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the entire body of information includes text information.

12. An information providing computer apparatus comprising:

storage means for storing content that constitutes an entire body of information in computer readable memory;

connection means for connecting said content to a network so as to provide said content;

generation means for, based on a condition determined in advance, generating intermediate documents at a finite number of levels relative to said content, wherein said intermediate documents are hierarchically structured according to a total number of pages contained in each of the intermediate documents;

means for assigning each of said finite number of intermediate documents an information level based on the number of pages contained therein;

selecting means for selecting at least one of said intermediate documents; and

outputting at least one of said selected intermediate documents.

13. The information providing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said generation means employs information included in said content to generate intermediate documents at a finite number of levels.

14. The information providing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said generation means employs information obtained by changing at least a part of the information included in said content to generate intermediate documents at a finite number of levels.

15. The information providing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said generation means includes input means for receiving a request from said user, and a condition designated in accordance with said request is employed as said condition determined in advance.

16. The information providing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said output means selects an intermediate document at a level that corresponds to said condition designated in accordance with said request from said user.

17. The information providing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said generation means generates said intermediate documents by defining, as said condition determined in advance, a reduction or an increase in the amount of information contained by said document.

18. The information providing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said generation means generates said intermediate documents by defining, as said condition determined in advance, extraction of an information type that represents said document.

19. The information providing apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising:

price storage means for storing said document in correlation of with price information; and

compensation means for providing compensation information that is based on said price information for each of said intermediate documents at said levels that are generated.

20. The information providing apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a price storage unit configured to associate a content price for each of the intermediate documents based on the number of pages contained therein.

21. The information providing apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising means for providing a grammatical description of the amount of information contained in said finite number of intermediate documents.

22. The information providing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the entire body of information includes text information.

23. A computer program product embodied in computer memory comprising:

computer readable program codes stored in the computer memory for providing, via a network, content that constitutes an entire body of information based on conditions that are defined in advance, the computer readable program codes configured to cause the program to;

generate a finite number of intermediate documents for content that corresponds to an entire body of information, wherein said intermediate documents are hierarchically structured according to a total number of pages contained in each of the intermediate documents;

assign each of said finite number of intermediate documents an information level based on the number of pages contained therein;

select at least one of said intermediate documents; and

provide the at least one of said selected intermediate document.

24. The computer program product according to claim 23, further comprising program codes configured to cause the program to provide a description of the amount of information contained in said finite number of intermediate documents.

25. The computer program product according to claim 23, further comprising program codes configured to cause the program to associate a content price for each of the intermediate documents based on the number of pages contained therein.

26. The computer program product according to claim 23, wherein the entire body of information includes text information.