System and method for community centric resource sharing based on a publishing subscription model

Abstract

The invention provides a Web service which enables a publisher to share his digital resources such as an address card or a calendar with a number of subscribers based on different sharing relationships. The Web service includes a host-based interface called “My Community”, for example, with which the publisher manages the share-relationships with his community members. The community members are organized into different groups. Each group includes a number of community members who have a common sharing relationship with the publisher with respect to one or more views of the shared resources. A resource may have multiple views. Each of the views has Metadata describing sharing-styles, as well as version, creation date, size, and the like. Each sharing style corresponds to a specific sharing relationship between a community member and the publisher.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 606,021, filed Jun. 24, 2003, which Application is incorporated as if fully set forth herein by this reference thereto.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Technical Field[0003]The invention relates generally to Internet based information sharing technology. More particularly, this invention relates to a system and method for providing a scheme for dynamic Web service which enables registered users to interactively share their digital resources with other registered users and non-registered users based on categorized sharing relationships with respect to different views of the digital resources.[0004]2. Description of the Prior Art[0005]The development of Internet technology has provided a vast new world of resource sharing. Digital files, such as text, photos, and audio / video programs, can be shared with almost any number of designated recipients in just a few second...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0023]In an equally preferred embodiment, an address card service is incorporated with the existing address book technology, which enables automatic sharing and updates of address book information. Members, i.e. registered users, can share (“publish”) personal contact information, work information or / and personal notes with the people they want to stay in touch with. Those members can “subscribe” to automatically receive changes when the information is updated. The address card provides a link between members to help them stay in touch, and to keep their address books up-to-date with all the right information. The service ensures that the members always have the right contact information for their friends and family whenever they need it.

[0024]The address book is a central way for the user to share personal information and automatically keep it up-to-date. All his friends and family can always have his current contact information whenever he updates it and he never has to worry about mistyping a friend's new phone number or e-mail address to copy it into his address book because they can share it with him automatically.

[0025]Members can easily create an address card of personal and contact information. Even they can include self-expression elements such as Buddy Icon, personal / business logo, stationery, etc. Further, the member can create his address cards with different views for different audiences.

[0033]A similar mechanism can enable sharing among a group, such as a Family, to which members can easily publish and subscribe to share updates among all members of the group.

[0035]The address card system disclosed herein has numerous advantages. For example: the publisher is in control of who receives which view of the address card; users have flexible preferences for automatically publishing or automatically subscribing address cards; unlike any prior art system which focuses on a “pull” model of soliciting other users' contact information, the address card system taught herein focuses on a “push” model of sharing publishers' information, allowing recipients to simply accept; it propagates automatic updates within an existing network of registered users; furthermore, it enables the users to easily choose groups or categories with which to share.

Problems solved by technology

The major weakness of Plaxo's solution is that until people download and use Plaxo, requests for contact information arrive in the form of e-mail, which may be construed as spam because it simply asks people for their information.

It does not store users' address books and thus unauthorized persons cannot access a user's address book and send spam to the user's contacts.

The major weakness of the GoodContacts solution is its lower level automation because it has a very complicated setting feature, offering a suite of options for frequency of update requests, privacy settings, and sending requests to alternate e-mail addresses.

Further, like Plaxo, until people download and use the software, requests for contact information arrive in the form of e-mail, which may be treated as spam.

The primary weakness of this system is in privacy and control.

While this may be effective for a business application, it is not conducive to sharing personal information.

The critical weakness in Scout's model is that, although some limited restrictions can be set, it allows anyone with the user's e-mail address to get the rest of the data from the user's business card.

The approaches introduced above have many problems.

For example, if a user wants to have a multiple-group sharing business, he has to set up many different groups manually and he has to spend a lot of time to manage these groups.

Further, when the shared resource is updated, the local copies cannot be automatically updated.

Further more, the group members cannot interactively share a centric resource such as a calendar.

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