Claims:1. A system for providing information to one or more users, comprising:
a. one or more users to provide to one or more information
b. one or more users an identification of a category to which said information relates
c. user destination address to communicate said information to the user data repository associated with at least one of said users;
d. information is stored in an information pack while being transmitted from said provider to one of said multiplicity of user data repositories
e. an authorization means allows the user to review said provider identifier associated
f. information in a location within the user data repository of said user reserved for information of the identified category
2. A system for providing information as claimed in claim 1, wherein said information is stored in an information pack while being transmitted from said provider to one of said multiplicity of user data repositories
3. A system for providing information as claimed in claim 1, wherein said blocking means comprises, upon said user rejecting said information pack, communicating a rejection signal from said user data repository to a processing station associated with said provider.
, Description:Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the organization of data and, more specifically, to a computerized system and method allowing providers of information to send information to potentially interested parties in a manner wherein the information is automatically organized by category for the interested parties, wherein the potentially interested parties selectively have some level of control over the placement of the data, and establishing a communication link between providers and recipients for their mutual benefit.
Background of the Invention
The proliferation of information and communication methods in the technological society in which we live has made it increasingly difficult for businesses and consumers to collect and organize information. Most businesses, as well as most households, whether inhabited by a single individual or an entire family, are constantly inundated with, and some even overwhelmed by, information taking various forms, such as product and service guides and updates, solicitations, mail (U.S., electronic, and voice), and the like. Businesses and consumers habitually store information in places that are not easily accessible, discard information for which they do not have a present use but almost always will have a later use, fail to transmit information to potentially interested third parties, or simply misplace information which cannot easily be reacquired. For example, warranty information or product manuals may be a very low priority to a retailer interested in a quick sale or to a consumer who first purchases and installs a new electronic item such as a stereo, television, video cassette recorder, DVD player, photocopier, telephone, or computer system. However, several days, weeks, or even years later, if the product has been updated, recalled, or malfunctions, or if questions arise as to its usage or compatibility, the warranty information or product manuals can become extremely useful. Unfortunately, many individuals lack a reliable, easy-to-use, centralized information storage system to keep track of such information.
The storage systems many rely upon to keep track of product and service information today generally are obsolete, cumbersome, decentralized and otherwise inefficient. For example, a filing cabinet or storage drawer, figureheads in every home and business, require categorization and re-categorization, are highly dependent on the accuracy of individuals' placement of the information in the correct file, and provide no convenient way for transmission of updates or communications. Also, most computer software systems that provide for the electronic storage of information are frequently cumbersome to initialize, requiring the user to create the separate categories of information, and, further, to place the information in the proper category, and decentralized, requiring the user to maintain several separate computer programs for the maintenance of relevant information. Moreover, most often it is the case that information desired to be stored is not provided to individuals in digital form, but, rather, in paper, card, or booklet form. Some sophisticated users may resort to existing scanning technology to convert their important documents into digital form for storage purposes, but they still must create their own categories of information and place the information into the proper categories.
Object of the Invention
The object of the present invention is to provide an information organization system and method wherein little or no effort is required on the part of a recipient of information in order to store and manage the information in an organized fashion.
The further object of the present invention for the information organization system and method to have information already categorized, or already designated for association with a category, at the time the information is provided to the recipient.
Another object of the present invention is to create a single program by which all information desired to be electronically stored or accessed by users can be maintained and updated to simplify operations and processes.
Summary of the Invention
The present invention places the burden on the provider of the information to specify the category to which the information corresponds, so that when the information is provided to the recipient, the information is automatically delivered to a proper location within the recipient's or user's personal information storage and retrieval area, or “User Data Repository.” In this disclosure, the words “data” and “information” are considered synonymous and interchangeable. “Recipient” and “User” are also used interchangeably. For purposes of this disclosure of the invention, the following definitions are considered useful
User Data Repository—Personal information storage and retrieval area, in which information is stored in a compartmentalized or categorized format, allowing the user to easily identify, retrieve, and otherwise manage the information stored in locations corresponding to the various categories therein.
Portal—A collection of User Data Repositories for all Users.
Provider—Any provider of information, such as a seller or distributor of goods or services (e.g., retailer, pharmacist, vendor, supplier, or a physician).
Manufacturer—A source or producer of information about a product.
Quarantine Area—An area in or associated with a User Data Repository, in which information is first received by the recipient before passing through a Firewall/Filter.
Firewall/Filter—A barrier that separates the Quarantine Area from a preferably secure or private area of the User Data Repository in which information is stored and managed.
Network—A communications system allowing the transmission of information between Providers and Recipients, e.g., the Internet.
Recipient (or User)—A person (or other entity) that receives information from various Providers.
Reverse Communication Link (or “Feedback”)—The transmission of information or data back from a Recipient's User Data Repository to a Provider.
User Destination Address—A protocol, code, or other identifier uniquely associated with each individual Recipient, which is utilized by the Provider for sending information to the intended Recipients via the Network.
Dynamic Information—Information that a Provider or Manufacturer can revise or manipulate subsequent to delivery to Recipients.
Static Information—Information that, to protect the interests of the Recipients, cannot be revised or manipulated by a Provider or Manufacturer after it is sent to Recipients. In the system and method of the present invention, a Recipient communicates his or her User Destination Address to the Provider. Using this User Destination Address, the Provider sends information to the Recipient's User Data Repository via the Network. The information is encoded, labelled, or tagged by the Provider, via an identification means, with a Provider Identifier that can list such information about the provider as, for example, its name, type of business, street address, phone number, e-mail address or website, and the date of a transaction between the Provider and Recipient, as well as a brief summary of the provided information. This Provider Identifier allows the Recipient to quickly assess the identity of the Provider and/or the nature of the information.
Brief Description of Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of possible configurations of a preferred embodiment of the data organization and management system of the present invention
Detailed Description of Invention
The FIG. 1, the system utilizes a Network, such as the Internet, for communicating information from the Provider to the Recipient. The User Destination Address may be an e-mail address, or some other identifier uniquely associated with the Recipient.
The provider sends information to the desired Recipient's User Destination Address in an Information Pack, consisting of Static Information and/or Dynamic Information, a First Identifier, also called a Provider Identifier, used to identify the Provider of the information contained in the Information Pack, and a Category Identifier used to identify a generic category to which the information contained in the Information Pack pertains. The system also includes address means for the Provider to connect or associate the desired User Destination Address with the Information Pack. The system further includes means for the Provider to associate the Provider Identifier with the Information Pack. Alternatively the system may include means for automatically associating the Provider Identifier with any Information Pack coming from a given Provider, such as recognition means that allows the system to recognize each Provider, and in response to any Provider sending an Information Pack; the recognition means associates the appropriate Provider Identifier with the Information Pack.
At some point before, during, or after passing through the Network, with these various alternate configurations being represented by broken lines in FIG. 1, the Information Pack preferably passes first through a Processing Station , where any or all of the User Destination Address, Provider Identifier , and the Category Identifier associated with the Information Pack can be analysed.
The Information Pack is delivered to the intended Recipient's User Data Repository by reading the User Destination Address associated with the Information Pack and delivering the Information Pack to the appropriate User Data Repository associated with that particular User Destination Address. Such reading of the User Destination Address can be performed at the Processing Station, which preferably has its own data storage means and data processing means for analysing the User Destination Address associated with any given Information Pack and matching it to the proper corresponding User Data Repository.
In addition to reading the User Destination Address, the present invention advantageously includes means for reading the Category Identifier associated with a given Information Pack , and for automatically placing at least the Static Information and/or Dynamic Information stored inside the Information Pack in a location of the User Data Repository that is reserved for information in the category to which the Static Information and/or Dynamic Information pertains, as identified by the Category Identifier .
Preferably, there is a plurality of generic categories, namely “Category D”, “Category E” “Category n”, used in the system of the present invention. Locations in each Recipient's User Data Repository are initially reserved for each of these generic categories. Alternatively, to save to accommodate future generic categories, to avoid the need for Recipients to look in multiple empty categories for information, and for other considerations that are understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the system can be configured to only create a location in a given Recipient's User Data Repository for a particular category, “Category E” for example, when an Information Pack is first delivered to that User Data Repository with information pertaining to that category. In other words, once an Information Pack is delivered to that User Data Repository with a Category Identifier indicating “Category E”, a location E is created within the User Data Repository for information pertaining to “Category E”.
When an Information Pack is received in the User Data Repository, the Information is preferably in a Quarantine Area of the User Data Repository. It is recognized that the Information Pack may be placed in the appropriate location within the User Data Repository corresponding to the Category Identifier either when the Information Pack is first delivered to the User Data Repository, or alternatively, after the Recipient has authorized the information to pass through the Firewall/Filter. Recipient preferably has the ability to further process the information stored in the Information Pack. First, the Recipient can analyse the Provider Identifier and decide whether the Information Pack should be accepted or refused.
Another example of the Recipient's ability to further process the information stored in the Information Pack is the ability to forward the Information Pack, or portions of the information stored therein, to the User Destination Addresses of other Recipients. For example, a purchaser of a gift may receive in his or her User Data Repository an Information Pack from a Provider which is a retailer that sold him or her gift, the Information Pack including warranty information about the gift. Although that purchaser is a Recipient, the person for whom the gift was purchased should have the warranty information. Thus, the system of the present invention advantageously allows the purchaser to forward the Information Pack to the User Data Repository associated with a User Destination Address of the person for whom he or she purchased the gift. Alternatively, it is recognized that the Recipient could e-mail the Information Pack, or at least some contents thereof (such as Dynamic Information and Provider Identifier only, so that the Recipient does not see static information that would include the price of the gift) to the person to whom the gift is given.
Turning back to the first processing means available to a Recipient, a refusal to allow the Information Pack is either sent to the Provider, or more preferably, to the Processing Station. The system can be configured so that a refusal by a particular intended Recipient to allow a single Information Pack from a particular Provider will establish a block, preventing all future Information Packs from being sent by that Provider to that Recipient, until the Recipient sends instructions to remove the block. One manner in which such a block could operate is as follows: Upon delivery of a given Information Pack from a given Provider to the User Data Repository of a particular Recipient, the Recipient has an opportunity to review at least minimal descriptive information about the Information Pack to facilitate the Recipient in deciding whether to allow or refuse the Information Pack.
The Provider Identifier associated with the Information Pack may be enough, but the Recipient may, if desired, also be permitted to review additional information associated with the Information Pack, such as the Category Identifier. Additional identifiers, such as a short title, may be placed in the Information Pack by the Provider to further assist the Recipient in readily determining the nature of the substantive information included in the Information Pack. In the event the Recipient refuses to accept the Information Pack, the Information Pack is deleted or removed from the Recipient's User Data Repository.
If the system is configured to block the Recipient from receiving any future Information Packs from a Provider upon the Recipient's refusal of an Information Pack from that Provider, such refusal is echoed back, with the Provider Identifier, either to the Provider (for example via a reverse communication link, discussed in greater detail below) or more preferably, to a data storage and processing location remote from the Provider, such as the Processing Station. If the location to which the refusal is echoed is remote from the Recipient's User Data Repository, then the Recipient's User Destination Address is also echoed back with the refusal and the Provider Identifier. Thus, such a Processing Station could centrally store refusal information for all Recipients as to all Providers.
Alternatively, the refusal information can be stored locally for each Recipient, such as in an Analyse Information step, where a record is stored of refusals of any Providers in association with each Recipient's User Data Repository, and an Authorize Passage step can allow an Information Pack into the User Data Repository , or even through the Firewall/Filter , in accordance with the Recipient's instructions (it is recognized that the Analyse Information and Authorize Passage can occur in the Processing Station). This would eliminate the need for sending the User Destination Address back from the User Data Repository and lowers risk that a memory loss at the Processing Station would detrimentally globally affect the future operation of the system.