Method and apparatus for collecting and disseminating information over a computer network

• US 9,251,265 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2015
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: mBlast, Inc.
• Original Assignee: mBlast, Inc.
• Inventors: Briere, Daniel D., Pritchard, Paul W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eskandarnia, Arvin
• Application Number:
  US14/719,082
• Publication Number:
  US 20150278363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 257 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• 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: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6236 between heterogeneous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2129 Authenticate client device independently of the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 : for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 : Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 : Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

The apparatus comprises at least one database for storing digital information associated with at least a first user and a second user, at least one links module for the first user and for the second user, at least one manipulations module and at least one display device for respectively displaying at least said linked digital information wherein said linked digital information associated with said first user is automatically updated on at least said display device of said second user when that information is manipulated, and wherein said linked digital information associated with said second user is automatically updated on at least said display device of said first user when that information is manipulated.

Claims

1. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

receive, at a topic extraction module implemented in at least one of a memory or a processing device, a signal representing a plurality of content published within a computer network and retrieved by a spider engine;

identify, at the topic extraction module, first content (1) from the plurality of content, (2) authored by a party from a plurality of parties, (3) published within the computer network by a first publisher, and (4) associated with a predetermined topic;

identify, at the topic extraction module, second content (1) from the plurality of content, (2) authored by the party, (3) published within the computer network by a second publisher different than the first publisher, and (4) associated with the predetermined topic;

quantify an assessment identifier associated with the party and the predetermined topic based on both the first content and the second content; and

send, to a compute device, a signal representing the assessment identifier.

2. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the code to cause the processor to quantify the assessment identifier includes code to cause the processor to quantify the assessment identifier based on a match between (1) both a portion of the first content and a portion of the second content, and (2) a predetermined keyword from a set of predetermined keywords associated with the predetermined topic.

3. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the code to cause the processor to quantify the assessment identifier includes code to cause the processor to quantify the assessment identifier based on a quantity of publishers used to publish within the computer network content authored by the party and associated with the predetermined topic.

4. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the party is a first party, the assessment identifier is a first assessment identifier, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify third content (1) authored by a second party, (2) published within the computer network by a third publisher, and (3) associated with the predetermined topic;

quantify a second assessment identifier associated with both the second party and the predetermined topic based on the third content; and

quantify a comparison order associated with the first party and the second party based on the first assessment identifier and the second assessment identifier.

5. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

detect an attitude from a plurality of predefined attitudes based on at least one of the first content or the second content, the attitude being associated with both the party and the predetermined topic.

6. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the code to cause the processor to send includes code to cause the processor to send the signal representing the assessment identifier to a display module such that an indication of the assessment identifier is displayed on the display module.

7. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the party is a first party, the signal representing the assessment identifier is a first signal, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

receive, from a second party, a second signal representing the predetermined topic including a set of keywords, the predetermined topic defined at least in part by the second party, the first content and the second content including at least one keyword from the set of keywords, the compute device being associated with the second party.

8. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

define a relationship identifier based on (1) a first party identifier associated with the first publisher, (2) a second party identifier associated with the second publisher, and (3) identification of the party as being associated with both the first party identifier and the second party identifier,

the code to cause the processor to identify the first content includes code to cause the processor to identify the first content based at least in part on the relationship identifier,

the code to cause the processor to identify the second content includes code to cause the processor to identify the second content based at least in part on the relationship identifier.

9. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the assessment identifier is based at least in part on a match between a set of metadata associated with the party and a set of metadata associated with the predetermined topic.

10. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the party is a first party, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify third content (1) published within the computer network by a second party, and (2) associated with the first content authored by the first party; and

quantify an influence score associated with the first party based at least in part on both the first content and the third content.

11. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

provide access within the computer network to at least one of the first content, the second content, or the assessment identifier, via an application programming interface (API).

12. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the code to cause the processor to retrieve the plurality of content includes code to cause the processor to automatically periodically retrieve the plurality of content from a plurality of compute servers within the computer network.

13. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the plurality of content is retrieved by the spider engine based on retrieval settings defined (1) by a user, and (2) during a first time period, the plurality of content being retrieved during a second time period after the first time period and without user-intervention during the second time period.

14. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the topic extraction module is operably coupled to a notification module, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

send, automatically and based on user-defined settings assigned to the predetermined topic, from the notification module and to the compute device, the signal representing the assessment identifier.

15. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the party is a first party, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

select the first party to be contacted (1) within the computer network, and (2) regarding the predetermined topic, based on a comparison between the assessment identifier associated with the first party and a assessment identifier associated with a second party from the plurality of parties.

16. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

receive, at a topic extraction module implemented in at least one of a memory or a processing device, a signal representing a plurality of content published within a computer network and retrieved by a spider engine;

identify, at the topic extraction module, first content (1) from the plurality of content, (2) authored by a first party, (3) published within the computer network, and (4) associated with a predetermined topic;

identify, at the topic extraction module, second content (1) from the plurality of content, (2) authored by a second party, (3) published within the computer network, and (4) associated with the predetermined topic;

quantify a first assessment identifier associated with both the first party and the predetermined topic based on the first content;

quantify a second assessment identifier associated with both the second party and the predetermined topic based on the second content;

compare the first party relative to the second party based on the first assessment identifier and the second assessment identifier to produce a comparison order, the comparison order being associated with the predetermined topic; and

send, to a compute device, a signal representing the comparison order.

17. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, wherein:

the first assessment identifier is based on a match between a portion of the first content and a predetermined keyword from a set of predetermined keywords associated with the predetermined topic.

18. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first content is published within the computer network at a first time by a first publisher, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify at least a portion of the first content published within the computer network at a second time by a second publisher,

the code to cause the processor to quantify the first assessment identifier includes code to cause the processor to quantify the first assessment identifier based on (1) the identification of the first content published by the first publisher, (2) and the identification of the at least the portion of the first content published by the second publisher.

19. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

detect an attitude from a plurality of predefined attitudes based on the first content, the attitude being associated with both the first party and the predetermined topic.

20. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, wherein:

the code to cause the processor to send include code to cause the processor to send the signal representing the comparison order to a display module such that an indication of the comparison order is displayed on the display module.

21. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first content is published within the computer network by a first publisher, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify third content (1) authored by the first party, (2) published within the computer network by a second publisher, and (3) associated with the predetermined topic; and

define a relationship identifier based on (1) a first party identifier associated with the first publisher, (2) a second party identifier associated with the second publisher, and (3) identification of the first party as being associated with both the first party identifier and the second party identifier,

the code to cause the processor to identify the first content authored by the first party includes code to cause the processor to identify the first content authored by the first party based at least in part on the relationship identifier,

the code to cause the processor to identify the third content authored by the first party includes code to cause the processor to identify the third content authored by the first party based at least in part on the relationship identifier.

22. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify third content (1) published within the computer network by a third party, and (2) associated with the first content authored by the first party; and

quantify an influence score associated with the first party based at least in part on both the first content and the third content.

23. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

provide access within the computer network to at least one of the first content, the second content, or the comparison order, via an application programming interface (API).

24. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

receive, at a topic extraction module implemented in at least one of a memory or a processing device, a signal representing a plurality of content published within the computer network;

identify, at the topic extraction module, first content (1) authored by a first party, (2) published within a computer network, and (3) associated with a predetermined topic;

identify, at the topic extraction module, second content (1) authored by a second party, (2) published within the computer network, and (3) associated with the predetermined topic;

quantify a first relevance value associated with the first party and the predetermined topic based on a match between a portion of the first content and a first predetermined keyword from a set of predetermined keywords, the set of predetermined keywords being associated with the predetermined topic;

quantify a second relevance value associated with the second party and the predetermined topic based on a match between a portion of the second content and a second predetermined keyword from the set of predetermined keywords;

compare the first party relative to the second party based on the first relevance value and the second relevance value to produce a comparison order; and

send, to a compute device, a signal representing the comparison order.

25. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the code to cause the processor to compare the first party relative to the second party includes code to cause the processor to compare the first party relative to the second party based on a comparison between the first keyword and the second keyword.

26. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

detect an attitude from a plurality of predefined attitudes based on the first content, the attitude being associated with both the first party and the predetermined topic.

27. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 24, wherein:

the code to cause the processor to send includes code to cause the processor to send the signal representing the comparison order to a display module such that an indication of the comparison order is displayed on the display module.

28. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the first content is published within the computer network by a first publisher, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify third content (1) authored by the first party, (2) published within the computer network by a second publisher, and (3) associated with the predetermined topic; and

define a relationship identifier based on (1) a first party identifier associated with the first publisher, (2) a second party identifier associated with the second publisher, and (3) identification of the first party as being associated with both the first party identifier and the second party identifier,

the code to cause the processor to identify the first content authored by the first party includes code to cause the processor to identify the first content authored by the first party based at least in part on the relationship identifier,

the code to cause the processor to identify the third content authored by the first party includes code to cause the processor to identify the third content authored by the first party based at least in part on the relationship identifier.

29. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

provide access within the computer network to at least one of the first content, the second content, the first relevance value, the second relevance value, or the comparison order, via an application programming interface (API).