US 7,321,860 B2 | ||
Service offering for the delivery of information to the right receivers at the right time | ||
David J. Allard, Boynton Beach, Fla. (US); Robert M. Szabo, Boca Raton, Fla. (US); and James J. Toohey, Boca Raton, Fla. (US) | ||
Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. (US) | ||
Filed on Dec. 27, 2004, as Appl. No. 11/25,823. | ||
Prior Publication US 2006/0143127 A1, Jun. 29, 2006 | ||
Int. Cl. G06Q 10/00 (2006.01); G06Q 50/00 (2006.01) |
U.S. Cl. 705—2 [705/3; 705/1] | 19 Claims |
1. A method for an information service to provide information to requestors at a later designated time comprising the steps
of:
receiving a request for information from a remotely located information requestor, the request associated with information
controlled by an information controller and specifying a designated purpose thereby providing the requested information, the
designated time for providing the requested information, and a request life span for the providing access to the requested
information;
initiating a transaction to handle the request in accordance with the designated purpose, the designated time, and the request
life span, wherein the transaction identifies at least one remotely located information recipient to receive a request result,
wherein the transaction actuates a plurality of tasks to be performed by a plurality of distinct information providers, each
task being performed by a corresponding information provider different from the information requestor and information controller,
and wherein the transaction determines for each task a start time when the task is to be commenced and a delivery time that
determines when a task result that is tailored for information privileges granted to the information recipient by the information
controller in accordance with the designated purpose is to be conveyed from the corresponding information provider to the
information recipient such that the information service sends the plurality of tasks to the plurality of distinct information
providers which process the tasks and subsequently respond to the information service with a plurality of task results that
are then conveyed to the information recipient within the start time and an end time corresponding to the request life span;
generating a plurality of transaction identifiers, each transaction identifier specifying (a) a transaction type, (b) at least
one of the plurality of information providers, (c) a particular task to be performed by a particular information provider,
(d) a time when the particular task is to be performed, (e) a location at which a result of the particular task performed
is to be conveyed, (f) a time at which a particular task result is to be returned to the information service within the request
life span, and (g) a task life span during which the particular task result is valid, the particular task result being disposed
of at an end of the task life span;
querying a record store for information associated with the information controller and associated with the designated purpose,
wherein the information requestor and the information recipient are not authorized to directly access content of the record
store;
generating at least one request result based at least in part upon information returned from the querying step, each request
result corresponding to an information recipient and tailored for information privileges of the information recipient, wherein
the information privileges are established by the information controller; and
conveying the at least one request result to the information recipient proximate to the designated time for providing the
requested information, wherein the conveyed request result has an associated delete time at which time the request result
is deleted from a data store accessible by the information recipient.
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