Service offering for the delivery of information with continuing improvement

• US 7,469,276 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2004
• Issued: 12/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Toohey, James J., Allard, David J., Szabo, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu; Jinsong
• Application Number:
  US11/022,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,457 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/203, 709/218, 709/219, 709/226, 707/3, 707/4
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A method for providing information to a receiver can include the step of receiving a request from a remotely located information requestor that specifics an information receiver: initiating a transaction to handle the request utilizing previously recorded information that can be specific to the information requestor or receiver to determine at least one adjustable condition used by the transaction: the transaction generating at least one result for the information receiver, which is tailored for information privileges granted to the information receiver by an information controller: conveying the result to the information receiver: receiving feedback concerning the result from the information requestor or receiver; adjusting one of the at least one adjustable condition in accordance with the feedback: changing the recorded information to include the adjusted condition; and using the adjusted condition in handling a subsequent request by the information requestor that specifies the information receiver.

Claims

1. A method for providing information to a receiver comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a remotely located information requestor that specifies an information receiver;

initiating a transaction to handle the request utilizing previously recorded information to determine at least one adjustable condition used by the transaction, said previously recorded information being specific to at least one of the information requestor and the information receiver;

the transaction generating at least one result for the information receiver, wherein said generated result is tailored for information privileges granted to the information receiver by an information controller;

conveying the result to the information receiver;

receiving feedback concerning the result from at least one of the information requestor and the information receiver;

adjusting one of the at least one adjustable condition in accordance with the feedback;

changing the recorded information to include the adjusted condition; and

using the adjusted condition in handling a subsequent request by the information requestor that specifies the information receiver.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the previously recorded information is associated with at least one of the information requestor-information receiver pair.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

the transaction initiating a plurality of tasks, each task producing a task response used to generate the result.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one adjustable condition includes a weight used to prefer one task response over another task response when generating the result.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one adjustable condition determines whether a selectable task will be one of said plurality of tasks used to generate the result.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one of said tasks includes a configurable parameter that affects the task response produced by at least one of said tasks, said at least one adjustable condition including said configurable parameter.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request specifies a designated purpose, wherein information available to the information receiver is limited to the designated purpose.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining the designated purpose is satisfied; and

responsive to the determining step, automatically deleting the result from a data store accessible by the information receiver.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction accesses data in generating the result that neither the information requestor nor the information receiver are permitted to access directly.