Electronic Content Management and Delivery Platform

• US 20130124972A1
• Filed: 10/04/2012
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chegg Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vincent Le Chevalier
• Inventors: Le Chevalier, Vincent, Geiger, Charles F., Tworetzky, Brent S., Joshi, Ashit, Eckenberg, Dax, Desai, Rahul Ravindra Mutalik
• Granted Patent: US 9,542,538 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/128 involving web programs, i.e. using technology especially used in internet, generally interacting with a web browser, e.g. hypertext markup language [HTML], applets, java
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]

Abstract

An education digital reading platform provides aggregation, management, and distribution of digital education content and services. The platform ingests content from a variety of content sources, transforms the content for web-based publication, and distributes the content to connected end-user devices via a network. The transformed content preserves the original page structure of the content document regardless of the original format of the content file. As the user experiences the content, the user'"'"'s web browser regularly communicates with the platform for updating reading content and connected services. User-generated content such as notes are uploaded to the platform so that the user'"'"'s user-generated content can be accessed from any of the user'"'"'s registered devices. Moreover, the platform enables the user-generated content and other user activities to be optionally shared among friends, classmates, campus, or other groups, as part of an education social platform.

Claims

1. An electronic content management and delivery platform, the platform comprising:

an ingestion system configured to receive a document;

a publishing system configured to extract document structure metadata based on content from the ingested document, wherein the document structure metadata identify the location and composition of elements of information of the ingested document and are stored connection with the ingested document, the publishing system further configured to format the elements of information from pages of the ingested document into markup language page elements that collectively preserve page fidelity of the document; and

a distribution system configured to deliver, via a network to end-user devices, markup language page elements to construct one or more pages of the document.

2. The platform of claim 1, wherein the document comprises a textbook.

3. The platform of claim 1, wherein the publishing system comprises a correlation sub-system configured to render each page of content from the respective markup language page elements and compare each rendered page to a respective page of the document.

4. The platform of claim 1, wherein the distribution system encrypts the markup language page elements into a digital rights management (DRM) layer prior to delivery to end-user devices.

6. The platform of claim 1, wherein markup language page elements that collectively preserve page fidelity of the document comprise page elements that preserve the pagination of the document, number of columns and arrangement of paragraphs, placement and appearance of graphics, titles, and captions, and the fonts used.

7. The platform of claim 1, wherein the markup language page elements comprise HTML5 page elements.

5. The platform of claim wherein the document structure metadata identify the part of the document from a group consisting of title, subtitle, chapter, caption, image, and sample questions.

8. A method of electronic content management and delivery, the method comprising:

ingesting a document;

extracting document structure metadata based on content from the ingested document, wherein the document structure metadata identify the location and composition of elements of information of the document;

storing the document structure metadata in connection with the ingested document;

formatting the elements of information from pages of the ingested document into markup language page elements that collectively preserve page fidelity of the document; and

distributing the markup language page elements to construct one or more pages of the document.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the document comprises a textbook.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

rendering each page of content from the respective markup language page elements; and

comparing each rendered page to a respective page of the document.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

encrypting the markup language page elements into a digital rights management (DRM) layer prior to distributing the markup language page elements.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the document structure metadata identify the part of the document from a group consisting of title, subtitle, chapter, caption, image, and sample questions.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein markup language page elements that collectively preserve page fidelity of the document comprise page elements that preserve the pagination of the document, number of columns and arrangement of paragraphs, placement and appearance of graphics, titles, and captions, and the fonts used.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the markup language page elements comprise HTML5 page elements.

15. A computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions for electronic content management and delivery, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

ingesting a document;

extracting document structure metadata based on content from the ingested document, wherein the document structure metadata identify the location and composition of elements of information of the document;

storing the document structure metadata in connection with the ingested document;

formatting the elements of information from pages of the ingested document into markup language page elements that collectively preserve page fidelity of the document; and

distributing the markup language page elements to construct one or more pages of the document.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the document comprises a textbook.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for:

rendering each page of content from the respective markup language page elements; and

comparing each rendered page to a respective page of the document.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for:

encrypting the markup language page elements into a digital rights management (DRM) layer prior to distributing the markup language page elements.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the document structure metadata identify the part of the document from a group consisting of title, subtitle, chapter, caption, image, and sample questions.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein markup language page elements that collectively preserve page fidelity of the document comprise page elements that preserve the pagination of the document, number of columns and arrangement of paragraphs, placement and appearance of graphics, titles, and captions, and the fonts used.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein markup language page elements comprise HTML5 page elements.