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

• US 9,519,911 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2016
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• 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:
  US15/195,052
• Publication Number:
  US 20160307217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 168 Days
• 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 first compute device of an organization, a request to update content associated with the organization and assigned to a category from a plurality of categories;

update, at the first compute device and not any remaining compute devices of the organization, the content to produce updated content;

identify, based on the updated content and the category to which the content is assigned, each compute device of the organization that stores the content and is assigned to receive the updated content, to produce identified compute devices; and

send to the identified compute devices a signal representing the updated content.

2. 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 updated content without receiving a request for the updated content from any of the identified compute devices.

3. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the content associated with the organization and assigned to the category includes at least one of product information or logo information, both the product information and the logo information being authored by the organization.

4. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the content associated with the organization and assigned to a category is first content, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify second content (1) published by a party from a plurality of parties within a computer network, and (2) associated with the organization and the category from the plurality of categories, to produce identified second content;

quantify a market presence within the computer network and of the party who published the second content based on the identified second content; and

assign the party who published the second content to receive the updated content based on the market presence of the party when the market presence of the party meets a predefined criterion.

5. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the predefined criterion is a predefined market presence criterion, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

detect an attitude within the identified second content and towards the organization to produce an attitude identifier assigned to the party who published the second content;

the code to cause the processor to assign includes code to cause the processor to assign the party who received the first content associated with the organization and associated with the category based on the attitude when the attitude meets a predefined attitude criterion.

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 to the identified compute devices in response to receiving from the identified compute devices a request for the updated content.

7. 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 to the identified compute devices such that a website associated with each identified compute device is updated automatically based on the updated content.

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

identify second content (1) published by a party within a computer network, and (2) associated with the organization to produce identified second content;

compare the identified second content with the first content to detect outdated content within the identified second content to produce an update identifier; and

send, to a compute device of the party who published the second content based on the update identifier, a signal representing the update identifier.

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

identify second content (1) published by a party within a computer network, and (2) associated with the organization to produce identified second content;

compare the identified second content with the first content to detect outdated content within the identified second content to produce an update identifier;

define updated content based on the update identifier; and

send, to a compute device of the party who published the second content, a signal representing the updated content.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a first compute device to be included within a plurality of compute devices of an organization, a request to update content associated with the organization and assigned to a category from a plurality of categories, the content being stored at each compute device from the plurality of compute devices;

updating, at the first compute device and not any remaining compute devices from the plurality of compute devices, the content to produce updated content;

identifying, based on the updated content and the category to which the content is assigned, each compute device from the plurality of compute devices that stores the content and is assigned to receive the updated content, to produce identified compute devices; and

sending to the identified compute devices a signal representing the updated content based on identifying each compute device and not based on receiving from any of the identified compute devices a request for the updated content.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the content associated with the organization and assigned to the category includes at least one of product information or logo information, both the product information and the logo information being authored by the organization.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the content associated with the organization and assigned to a category is first content, the method further comprising:

identifying second content (1) published by a party from a plurality of parties within a computer network, and (2) associated with the organization and the category from the plurality of categories, to produce identified second content;

quantifying a market presence within the computer network and of the party who published the second content based on the identified second content; and

assigning the party who published the second content to receive the updated content based on the market presence of the party when the market presence of the party meets a predefined criterion.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the predefined criterion is a predefined market presence criterion, the method further comprising:

detecting an attitude within the identified second content and towards the organization to produce an attitude identifier assigned to the party who published the second content,

the assigning including assigning the party who received the first content associated with the organization and associated with the category based on the attitude when the attitude meets a predefined attitude criterion.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the sending includes sending to the identified compute devices such that a website associated with each identified compute device is updated automatically based on the updated content.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the content is first content, the method further comprising:

identifying second content (1) published by a party within a computer network, and (2) associated with the organization to produce identified second content;

comparing the identified second content with the first content to detect outdated content within the identified second content to produce an update identifier; and

sending, to a compute device of the party who published the second content based on the update identifier, a signal representing the update identifier.

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:

define, at a compute device of an organization and at a first time, updated content associated with the organization and assigned to a category from a plurality of categories;

identify, in response to defining the updated content and based on the category to which the updated content is assigned, a plurality of parties assigned to receive the updated content associated with the organization and associated with the category, the plurality of parties being assigned to receive the updated content associated with the organization and associated with the category prior to the first time; and

send, to a compute device of each party from the plurality of parties after the first time in response to identifying the plurality of parties, a signal representing the updated content, such that a website of each party from the plurality of parties is updated automatically based on the updated content, the updated content not being defined by any compute device of any party from the plurality of parties.

17. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 16, wherein the updated content includes at least one of updated product information or updated logo information, both the product information and the logo information being authored by the organization.

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

identify content (1) published by a party from a plurality of parties within a computer network and (2) associated with the organization and the category from the plurality of categories, to produce identified content;

quantify a market presence within the computer network and of the party who published the content within the network based on the identified content; and

assign the party who published the content within the network to receive the updated content based on the market presence of the party when the market presence of the party meets a predefined criterion.

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

identify content (1) published by a party within a computer network and (2) associated with the organization, to produce identified content;

compare the identified content published by the party with the updated content to detect outdated content within the identified content published by the party to produce an update identifier; and

send, to a compute device of the party who published the content based on the update identifier, a signal representing the update identifier.

20. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the code to cause the processor to send includes code to cause the processor to send the signal representing the updated content without receiving a request for the updated content from a compute device of any party from the plurality of parties.