Method and system for calculating cost of a compilation of content

• US 8,589,777 B1
• Filed: 01/21/2000
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Pearson Education Incorporated (Pearson plc)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Pearson Education Incorporated (Pearson plc)
• Inventors: Baer, William J., Barker, James A., Hanapole, Edward, Hartman, Robert C. Jr., Johnson, Eugene Jr., Kao, I-Ming, Murray, Janet L., Robertson, Jerry D. III, Walkus, Richard W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Queler, Adam M
• Application Number:
  US09/489,143
• Time in Patent Office: 5,051 Days
• Field of Search: 715530-531, 715513-515, 715255-256, 715200-202, 705 1- 28, 705/52, 705400-418
• US Class Current: 715/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• 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 40/114 Pagination

Abstract

A web-based system, method and program product are provided for adding content to a content object stored (e.g., a custom compilation or prepublished work) in a data repository as a group of hierarchically related content entities. Each noncontainer content object is preferably stored as a separate entity in the data repository. Each content entity is also stored as a row in a digital library index class as a collection of attributes and references to related content entities and containers. As the user selects desired objects for inclusion in a content object, the system arranges the objects hierarchically, e.g., into volumes, chapters and sections according to the order specified by the user. The system then creates a file object (e.g., a CBO) defining the content object that contains a list or outline of the container and noncontainer entities selected, their identifiers, order and structure. This file object is stored separately in the data repository. An aspect of the invention is the calculation of the compilation'"'"'s cost by estimating the amount of content it contains and determining a content cost based upon the content estimate. Optionally, a cost is assigned to each content entity in the data repository and these actual costs are summed as part of the cost estimation procedure.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining the cost of and producing a user-defined content object comprising:

defining said content object in accordance with user selection and arrangement of a plurality of content entities for said content object, wherein the content object is a digital object within the computer in the form of one of a book, a collection of images, an album, a video and a multimedia object, and the content entities each include content comprising digital data, are stored within a data repository as a plurality of individually accessible file objects, and are selectively associated with an actual content count representing the quantity of content within that content entity; and

generating a price for the user to produce the user-defined content object, wherein said price is one of an actual price and an estimated price selected based on a parameter setting and said price generation includes;

generating an estimated content count for the selected content entities that represents an estimated quantity of content within the content object, wherein the digital data within the selected content entities are utilized to determine the estimated content count representing the estimated quantity of content within the content object, and generating from the estimated content count the estimated price to serve as the price for the user to produce the user-defined content object with the selected content entities in response to said parameter setting indicating the estimated price, wherein the estimated price is determined based on a price per unit of content, and wherein the unit of content represents a predetermined quantity of content and the estimated content count indicates an estimated quantity of said units of content for the selected content entities; and

generating the actual price to serve as the price for the user to produce the user-defined content object from the actual content counts of the selected content entities in response to said parameter setting indicating the actual price.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating an estimated content count further comprises the steps of determining an estimated content count for each selected content entity, and summing the entity content counts to obtain the estimated content count for the content object.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the step of determining an estimated content count for entities containing characters further comprises the step of determining a character count for the entity.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the step of determining an estimated content count further comprises the step of determining a page count from the character count.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the step of determining a character count further comprises at least one of:

counting the number of content characters in the content entity; and

determining the content entity type, and determining an average character count for content entities of that type.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the step of generating a content object price further comprises multiplying the page count with a predetermined price per page value.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content object further comprises user-provided content, and wherein generating a price for the content object further comprises the steps of separately determining a price for user-provided content and generating the selected estimated or actual price by summing the user-provided content price with the price determined for the remaining selected content entities of the content object.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the price for user-provided content is determined in a first manner if the content count of the user-provided content exceeds a predefined content count maximum, and is determined in a second manner if the content count does not exceed the predefined maximum.

9. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for determining the cost of and producing a user-defined content object, the method comprising:

defining said content object in accordance with user selection and arrangement of a plurality of content entities for said content object, wherein the content object is a digital object in the form of one of a book, a collection of images, an album, a video and a multimedia object, and the content entities each include content comprising digital data, are stored within a data repository as a plurality of individually accessible file objects, and are selectively associated with an actual content count representing the quantity of content within that content entity; and

generating a price for the user to produce the user-defined content object, wherein said price is one of an actual price and an estimated price selected based on a parameter setting and said price generation includes;

generating an estimated content count for the selected content entities that represents an estimated quantity of content within the content object, wherein the digital data within the selected content entities are utilized to determine the estimated content count representing the estimated quantity of content within the content object, and generating from the estimated content count the estimated price to serve as the price for the user to produce the user-defined content object with the selected content entities in response to said parameter setting indicating the estimated price, wherein the estimated price is determined based on a price per unit of content, and wherein the unit of content represents a predetermined quantity of content and the estimated content count indicates an estimated quantity of said units of content for the selected content entities; and

generating the actual price to serve as the price for the user to produce the user-defined content object from the actual content counts of the selected content entities in response to said parameter setting indicating the actual price.

10. The program storage device of claim 9, wherein the step of generating an estimated content count further comprises the steps of determining an estimated content count for each selected content entity, and summing the entity content counts to obtain the estimated content count for the content object.

11. The program storage device of claim 10, wherein the step of determining an estimated content count for entities containing characters further comprises the step of determining a character count for the entity.

12. The program storage device of claim 11, wherein the step of determining an estimated content count further comprises the step of determining a page count from the character count.

13. The program storage device of claim 12, wherein the step of generating a content object price further comprises the step of multiplying the page count with a predetermined price per page value.

14. The program storage device of claim 11, wherein the step of determining a character count further comprises at least one of:

counting the number of content characters in the content entity; and

determining the content entity type, and determining an average character count for content entities of that type.

15. The program storage device of claim 9, wherein the content object further comprises user-provided content, and wherein the step of generating a price for the content object further comprises the steps of separately determining a price for user-provided content and generating the selected estimated or actual price by summing the user-provided content price with the price determined for the remaining selected content entities of the content object.

16. The program storage device of claim 15, wherein the price for user-provided content is determined in a first manner if the content count of the user-provided content exceeds a predefined content count maximum, and is determined in a second manner if the content count does not exceed the predefined maximum.

17. A computer-implemented system for determining the cost of and producing a user-defined content object comprising:

a computer system including a processor configured to;

define said content object in accordance with user selection and arrangement of a plurality of content entities for said content object, wherein the content object is a digital object within the computer system in the form of one of a book, a collection of images, an album, a video and a multimedia object, and the content entities each include content comprising digital data, are stored within a data repository as a plurality of individually accessible file objects, and are selectively associated with an actual content count representing the quantity of content within that content entity; and

generate a price for the user to produce the user-defined content object, wherein said price is one of an actual price and an estimated price selected based on a parameter setting and said generating a price includes;

generating an estimated content count for the selected content entities that represents an estimated quantity of content within the content object, wherein the digital data within the selected content entities are utilized to determine the estimated content count representing the estimated quantity of content within the content object, and generating from the estimated content count the estimated price to serve as the price for the user to produce the user-defined content object with the selected content entities in response to said parameter setting indicating the estimated price, wherein the estimated price is determined based on a price per unit of content, and wherein the unit of content represents a predetermined quantity of content and the estimated content count indicates an estimated quantity of said units of content for the selected content entities; and

generating the actual price to serve as the price for the user to produce the user-defined content object from the actual content counts of the selected content entities in response to said parameter setting indicating the actual price.

18. The computer-implemented system of claim 17, wherein the generating an estimated content count further comprises determining a content count for each selected content entity, and summing the entity content counts to obtain a content count for the content object.

19. The computer-implemented system of claim 18, wherein the determining an estimated content count for entities containing characters further comprises determining a character count for the entity.

20. The computer-implemented system of claim 19, wherein the determining an estimated content count further comprises determining a page count from the character count.

21. The computer-implemented system of claim 20, wherein the generating a content object price further comprises multiplying the page count with a predetermined price per page value.

22. The computer-implemented system of claim 19, wherein the determining a character count further comprises at least one of a) counting the number of content characters in the content entity;

and b) determining the content entity type, and determining an average character count for content entities of that type.

23. The computer-implemented system of claim 17, wherein the content object further comprises user-provided content, and wherein the generating a price for the content object further comprises separately determining a price for user-provided content and generating the selected estimated or actual price by summing the user-provided content price with the price determined for the remaining selected content entities of the content object.

24. The computer-implemented system of claim 23, wherein the price for user-provided content is determined in a first manner if the content count of the user-provided content exceeds a predefined content count maximum, and is determined in a second manner if the content count does not exceed the predefined maximum.