Method and system for matching appropriate content with users by matching content tags and profiles

• US 8,386,488 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2004
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Gregory L., Phoenix, Brian N., Tamlyn, Ralph
• Primary Examiner(s): REYES, MARIELA D
• Application Number:
  US10/832,322
• Publication Number:
  US 20050240608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,227 Days
• Field of Search: 707/101, 707/738, 707/739, 707/740
• US Class Current: 707/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2237 Vectors, bitmaps or matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/235 Update request formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A method and system is provided for classifying and labeling information content (e.g., websites, databases, or the like) and also for profiling a user (e.g., interests or responsibilities) for accessing the information content, both using a coordinated labeling technique so that the content from multiple sources may be searched, identified and/or presented to the user according to the user'"'"'s profile. This technique provides an ongoing update of information content and sources while at the same time filtering out unnecessary information that is irrelevant to the user'"'"'s profile, resulting in more focused availability of information to the user. The user profile is matched with content of interest (as tagged by content creators reflective of categories that is also employed by a user profile) and matching content information may automatically be updated and made available to a user, in conformity with the user'"'"'s profile. Content providers may now jointly use a common labeling scheme to improve the experience of their users and to provide content providers a technique to associate users with common facets of classification.

Claims

1. A method for providing information to a user, the method comprising:

acquiring user profile information using a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays selectable categories to the user;

defining one or more user profile vectors (UPVs) based on the user profile information defined by selected ones of the categories;

acquiring content categorization information using a content publishing form that displays selectable content category prompts to a provider of content objects;

defining one or more content tagging vectors (CTVs) based upon the content categorization information;

comparing the one or more UPVs and the one or more CTVs to generate a list of matching content identifiers (MCIs) which is associated with relevant content information;

providing the relevant content information based on a triggering event; and

comparing the list of MCIs with stored content identifiers (SCI) for determining whether the relevant content information is already present on a user workstation

maintaining a table based on the user profile information acquired from the GUI, and wherein each row of the able includes;

a user id;

a classification identifier that denotes classified or unclassified;

an audience identifier;

a geographic identifier;

a row status identifier indicating whether the row is new; and

a last change time identifier including a time stamp defining when a last update to the row occurred; and

wherein each row of the able is indicative of one of the UPVs.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the stored content identifiers (SCIs) in response to transmitting the relevant content information to the user workstation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing step utilizes content time stamps to detect updated content information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile information is a submission of a user profile for compiling the one or more UPVs, the user profile containing information of at least one of the user'"'"'s interests, the user'"'"'s responsibilities, and a security classification.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user profile identifies at least one of a geographic interest, a predefined interest dimension and an industry interest.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising encoding the geographic interest to reflect a hierarchical relationship.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering event is at least one of a user log-on, a scheduled process, a change in user profile, a difference in a time stamp, and a change in relevant content information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the defining a content tagging vector includes defining at least one of an industry category, a geography category, a region category, a security indication, a predefined category, a content type and an audience for the content objects.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the geography category includes defining a geographic hierarchical relationship.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more UPVs and the one or more CTVs employ a substantially common categorization.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating at least one of one of an html file, xml file, and a standard generalized markup language (SGML) file reflective of at least one of the one or more CTVs and the content objects.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising sending the html to a workstation for use in generating navigation pages.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating navigation pages based on the relevant content information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the generating the MCI step, the comparing and the providing steps is initiated periodically.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the generating the MCI step, the comparing and the providing steps is initiated based on a change to a user profile.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the change to a user profile is caused by a proxy entity.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the categories displayed in the GUI are common to the content category prompts displayed in the content publishing form.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising reviewing the list of MCIs to determine whether new updates are required.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the reviewing comprises comparing last-update time stamps on matching tags to determine that a change in the user profile has occurred or a change in the content object has occurred relative to one another.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising triggering an update to the user based on a difference in the time stamps.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising compiling at least one user content update package (UCUP) based on the MCIs with differences in time stamps from the SCI.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the UCUP includes deletion commands to delete information content on a workstation of the user that is out of date.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the UCUP includes deletion commands to delete information content on a workstation of the user that is no longer pertinent to the user.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the compiling the UCUP further comprises performing a check that no confidential information is being sent to the user having an unclassified rating.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising compiling at least one user content update package (UCUP) based on the MCIs that do not appear in the SCI.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the UCUP includes deletion commands to delete information content on a workstation of the user that is out of date.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the UCUP includes deletion commands to delete information content on a workstation of the user that is no longer pertinent to the user.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the compiling the UCUP further comprises performing a check that no confidential information is being sent to the user having an unclassified rating.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI includes a check box for each of the selectable categories.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the content publishing form comprises another GUI that is presented to the provider of content via a content submission tool.