WO2003019426A1 - Method and system for secure information and publication - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for secure information publication and subscription achieved through the creation of an intermediary through which individuals and organisations can publish and subscribe to information to and from a nominated third party. The specified published information is accessible only by the third parties who have been nominated by the author/owner and have accepted the offer to subscribe. Subscribers to the information can access the specific information through the intermediary. Information is actively published, with the subscribers to the information automatically accessing the latest entry by the author. Parties can represent themselves as both the source and destination of information.

Description

'Method and system for secure information and publication'

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

'Method and system for secure information publication and subscription' achieved through the creation of an intermediary through which individuals and organisations can publish and subscribe to information to and from a nominated third party. The specified published information is accessible only by the third parties who have been nominated by the author/(owner) and have accepted the offer to subscribe. Subscribers to the information can access the specific information through the intermediary.

Information is actively published, with the subscribers to the information automatically accessing the latest entry by the author.

The basis of the service is the Party model and the Secure Information Publication and Subscription model (SIPS). The Party model implementation allows parties - people and organizations alike, to represent themselves as both the source and destination of information. Individuals can publish information by defining the content (personal information, contact points, demographic, medical etc), before selecting the individual or organisation they wish to publish to and selecting the specific information they wish to publish.

Organisations and individuals may use the intermediary to advertise and promote themselves to the public by opting to publish specific content to the public. Information published by members to the public will be accessible to all members via the intermediary in the form of a directory. Members of the intermediary may also transfer listing in the directory they use regularly to their Personal or Business folder. Organisations may use the intermediary to advertise subscription to their mailing list or to become members of their loyalty programs by publishing an invitation and related information to the public. Members of the intermediary who wish to subscribe to a particular organisation's content may accept the invitation by authorising the intermediary to publish the requested details to the third party (the organisation). Subscription to mailing lists and loyalty programs offered by other organisations through the intermediary is beneficial to members as they will not have to update their details with the organisation if they change. The development of a mailing list or loyalty program through the intermediary is beneficial for the organisation as it will always be current.

Members of the intermediary can access their information and information they have subscribed to via a web browser to the intermediary's website or alternative gateways e.g. voice and WAP.

Security is crucial to the service and instrumental for privacy. This is a very new and unique model which, enables parties to actively share information in a flexible but secure manner. Secure information and publication and subscription model (SIPS) allows parties to connect and link contact points and information channels in a secure way.

The publish/subscribe nature of the service will provide a constant source of up- to-date information that will evolve constantly. This is best highlighted by the Party Contact Points, which allow the subscriber to obtain the most up-to-date contact information (address or phone number) from the source, instead of the last known record. This alone will provide many people and organisations with a very efficient and cost effective way of maintaining contact details and customer database records. Although the methods and systems of the present invention have been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is not intended that the invention be limited to this embodiment. Modifications within the spirit of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The scope of the present invention is defined only by the claims that follow.

Background of the Invention

Organisations and individuals alike constantly need to update the personal details of their friends, family, business contacts, customers and members. Currently existing databases store static details in that they are entered and remain constant until the creator of the address book or database updates the information. Thus resulting in the need for the creator of the address book or database to continually check with the owner of the contact details and related information whether the information is still current and then up date their records.

On an individual and personal level this is annoying, inconvenient and time consuming. However, for many organisations, who mail or email newsletters or promotional material, this can result in a large amount of returned mail when the recipients contact details have changed. Currently organisations spend large amounts of time and money checking with the owners of the details to ensure they are still current and re entering new details and accepting many contacts are lost due to the inconvenience of changing contact details.

Our approach to this problem is to establish an intermediary which enables a party to store their information (contact details or otherwise). They may then offer to publish, through subscription, all or selected aspects of their information with a specific third party through the intermediary. Third parties may then register as members with the intermediary so they can access the contact details (or information) via the intermediary. As the individual's details are stored with the intermediary the owner may access their details or any other related information they have chosen to store with the intermediary and change it at their convenience. Thus third parties when they subsequently access the owners details will access whatever details the owner has recently provided.

Members may then collect numerous subscriptions to other parties' contact details (or other information) and store them in a folder in their profile with the intermediary. Individuals on a personal level are thus able to collate names and addresses (similar to a names and address book) and organizations are able to collate names and address on a larger scale to create databases.

Individuals and organisations will be able to access their information, information they have subscribed to and lists of who they have published to, via the intermediary. The intermediary will be accessible via numerous gateways. For example the intermediary will have a website, which is accessible to all via a web browser, and voice and wap technology.

The ability to access the information will include the ability to view, download and listen to the content.

Unique Benefit

The benefit of creating an address book or database through an intermediary is that the content third parties have subscribed to remains current because the owner of the content continues to have access to the information enabling them to update it as necessary.

The other major benefit of organisations creating their databases online through such an intermediary is the offer and acceptance to subscribe feature. Organisations will be able to create a database of authentic members or customers as the individuals are offering their information of contact details and are continuing to demonstrate their interest in remaining in contact by up dating their details with the organization.

The offer and acceptance subscription feature also ensures an individual's privacy as they retain control of their details.

For the individual the benefit is enormous. An individual member can ensure that by keeping the information they have stored with the intermediary up to date that all their friends and family who they have offered subscription to their information will have their current details. Also an individual by keeping their details current with the intermediary will ensure that every organisation they have accepted the invitation to subscribe to will have their current details even when they change.

Invention

The invention and creation of a web site that acts as an intermediary is new and unprecedented. Currently the Internet (World Wide Web) provides a party, organisation or individual, with the ability to:

i) publish to general public through the creation of their own web site

ii) create a web site to which parties can subscribe to the whole or parts of the web site

iii) post information on a third parties web site to which access is open to the public or restricted by the owner of the web site No service exists which by acting as an intermediary enable one party to publish information over the internet to a nominated party or parties of their choice without restriction or influence from the web sites owners.

No other service provides the ability for registered users (members) to access information they have subscribed to from a third party.

No other service provides a registered user with the ability to maintain complete control over what information specifically is accessible (published) to a specific nominated third party.

Claims

Claims:

We Claim:

1 he following method consisting of;

■ registration,

■ publishing content to third parties,

■ accepting subscription offers to content from existing members,

■ declining subscription offers to content,

^■ updating published content,

■ accessing information subscribed to,

■ publishing content to the public,

■ transferring content published to the public to a members private view,

■ publishing an invitation to subscribe to the public,

■ members accepting a third party's invitation to subscribe,

which enables a party to offer and accept subscription to specific information to or from a nominated third party or the public via an intermediary.

2. The method of Claim 1 , further comprising the steps of registration, which consists of an applicant entering an email address on the first page of the registration process on the intermediary's site and subsequently receiving a verification code via email generated by the intermediary to ensure authenticity.

3. The method of Claim 2, further comprising the step of the applicant entering their authentification code into the intermediary's internet site to enable them to create their security profile.

4. The method of Claim 2, further consisting of the applicant selecting a user name and password to create their security profile for their account.

5. The method of Claim 2, further comprising of the applicant creating a personal identity for their account by entering their title, first name, last name, middle name, country and language via the registration pages of the intermediary's site and thus creating their membership with the intermediary.

6. The method of Claim 2, further comprising of the new member storing their personal characteristics (contact points, employer, income etc) or other content with the intermediary via its site.

7. The method of Claim 6 further comprising of the intermediary creating default folders (Deleted Items, Inbox, Personal, Business).

8. The method of Claim 2 further compromising of the member accepting or rejecting pending offers of subscription to content from existing members stored in their Inbox.

9. The method of Claim 1 , further comprising of the steps of publishing personal content to third parties, which consists of a member of the intermediary entering the email address of a nominated third party to whom they want to offer subscription to their content.

10. The method of Claim 9, further comprising of the step of the member selecting the personal content they wish to publish to the nominated subscriber.

11. The method of Claim 10, further consisting of the member requesting the offer is sent to the nominated third party.

12. The method of Claim 9, further comprising of the intermediary storing the offer in the nominated subscriber's inbox if they are a member or sending the third party an invitation with a verification code enabling them to register with the intermediary.

13. The method of Claim 1 , further comprising of the step of accepting offers of subscription to personal content from existing members, which consists of members viewing offers to subscribe to other members content in their inbox.

14. The method of Claim 13, further comprising the step of the member accepting the offer by organizing/moving the published content to any other folder (Business, Personal) other than deleted items.

15. The method of Claim 1 , further comprising of the steps of Declining Offers of subscription to personal content from existing members, which consists of members viewing offers to subscribe to other members content in their inbox.

16. The method of Claim 15, further comprising the step of the member declining the offer by organizing/moving the published content to their deleted items' folder.

17. The method of Claim 1 , further comprising the steps of updating published content, which consists of the member accessing their personal content stored in one of their personal details folders, selecting the content to be updated, updating the content and saving it into the intermediary's database via the intermediary.

18. The method of Claim 17, further comprising of the intermediary updating all subscribers to the member's information, folders with the members updated information.

19. The method of Claim 1 , further comprising of the steps of publishing to the public, which consists of a member nominating public for whom they want to offer subscription to their content.

20. The method of Claim 19 further comprising of the steps of the member selecting the content they wish to publish to the public

21. The method of Claim 19, further consisting of the member requesting the content is sent to the public.

22. The method of Claim 19, further comprising of the intermediary publishing the information in a directory, accessible via the intermediary.

23. The method of Claim 1 , further comprising of the steps of transferring content published to the public to a members private view, which consists of the member selecting content in the directory and accepting the published content by organising it into their private view folders (Business, Personal).

24. The method of Claim 19, further comprising of the steps of publishing an invitation to subscribe to the public, which consists of the organisation or individual entering the content of the invitation to subscribe and specifying the details needed from a member to subscribe.

25. The method of Claim 24, further consisting of the intermediary publishing the offer to subscribe in the intermediary's directory.

26. The method of Claim 25, further consisting of a member accepting the invitation and authorising the intermediary to publish the requested details to the invitee.

27. The method of Claim 1 further comprising the steps of members accessing their content, content they have subscribed to and content published to the public, which consists of members being able to access the intermediary via numerous gateways - internet, voice, WAP.

28. The method of Claim 27, further comprises of the intermediary having an html interface which is accessible through a web browser to the general public, a website.

29. The method of Claim 27, further comprises of the ability to access content including the ability to view, download and listen, depending on the gateway employed.

30. The method of Claim 1 , further comprises the restriction that members only can access their account, their personal profile and the content they have saved in the intermediary's database (via their personal folders).