Abstract:
A method substantially as shown and described in the detailed description and/or drawings and/or elsewhere herein. A device substantially as shown and described in the detailed description and/or drawings and/or elsewhere herein.

Description:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       [0001]    For a more complete understanding of embodiments, reference now is made to the following descriptions taken in connection with the accompanying drawings. The use of the same symbols in different drawings typically indicates similar or identical items, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here. 
         [0002]      FIG. 1 , including  FIGS. 1A to 1Y  shows a partially schematic diagram of an environment(s) and/or an implementation(s) of technologies described herein. The figures are ordered alphabetically, first by increasing column from left to right, then by increasing row from top to bottom, as shown in the following table: 
     
    
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                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
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                 FIG. 1A 
                 FIG. 1B 
                 FIG. 1C 
                 FIG. 1D 
                 FIG. 1E 
               
               
                   
                 FIG. 1F 
                 FIG. 1G 
                 FIG. 1H 
                 FIG. 1I 
                 FIG. 1J 
               
               
                   
                 FIG. 1K 
                 FIG. 1L 
                 FIG. 1M 
                 FIG. 1N 
                 FIG. 1O 
               
               
                   
                 FIG. 1P 
                 FIG. 1Q 
                 FIG. 1R 
                 FIG. 1S 
                 FIG. 1T 
               
               
                   
                 FIG. 1U 
                 FIG. 1V 
                 FIG. 1W 
                 FIG. 1X 
                 FIG. 1Y 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0004]    In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, similar symbols typically identify similar or identical components or items, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here. 
         [0005]    With reference now to the Figures and with reference now to  FIG. 1 ,  FIG. 1  shows a partially schematic diagram of an environment(s) and/or an implementation(s) of technologies described herein. It is noted that  FIG. 1  is a high-level environment diagram. As such, some elements of the system illustrated in  FIG. 1  are expressed as circuitries and modules. The various circuitries (e.g., content processor circuitry  1 - 100 , content distributor circuitry  2 - 100 , Tag Providing Circuitry  3 - 100 , and so forth) illustrated in  FIG. 1  may be implemented using a variety of hardware including, for example, customized circuitry such as application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and/or programmable type hardware such as a microprocessor or a controller executing one or more programming instructions or field programmable gate array (FPGA) executing one or more programming instructions. In some cases, the various illustrated circuitries may be implemented at one or more network devices such as one or more network servers. Other elements illustrated in  FIG. 1  are described as modules and the functions they carry out. Such elements (e.g., modules) should be considered to include purely dedicated hardware components (e.g., ASIC), or any combination of hardware and software (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller, or a FPGA executing computer readable programming instructions). 
         [0006]    The environment illustrated in  FIG. 1  includes a system that is able to, among other things, provide different levels of access/fees for accessing content. More particularly, in some implementations, the system illustrated in  FIG. 1  may be capable of providing tiered levels of access latency and fees for accessing content. 
         [0007]    The rapid development of computing and related technologies over the last several decades have resulted in the ever growing demand for content, sometimes in a very timely manner. The word “content” for purposes of this description may be in reference to any one or more of a wide variety of data/information that may be available through today&#39;s computing and/or networking technologies. Some examples of content include news (e.g., business or financial news such as stock or commodities prices, celebrity news, agricultural news, sports news, and so forth), information provided through social media, movies, soundtracks, sporting events, and so forth. In many instances, content receivers  40  (e.g., content consumers  70  such as individual end users, or aggregators  50  such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) may want to pay a premium in order to be able to be the first ones to access a particular content or be able to access the particular content before anyone else has a chance to access such content. Well-known examples of such scenarios can be found, for example, in the financial markets where early knowledge of certain financial information may provide huge advantages for those gaining such early knowledge. 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  depicts one or more raw content providers  10  that provide raw content data  12 , which in some implementations may be provided to a content processor circuitry  1 - 100 . Examples of raw content providers  10  include, for example, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, New York Times, HBO, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, NBC Universal, Walt Disney Pictures, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Twitter or other social media such as Facebook, Police or Fire Department Channels, and so forth. In various embodiments, the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  may be designed to, among other things, initially analyze the received raw content data  12  in order to identify and/or categorize the received raw content data  12  (e.g., determining what type of information is the raw content data  12  including whether it is news, and if it is news, whether it is, for example, business, financial or celebrity news for example). 
         [0009]    In various implementations, the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  may further be designed to process the raw content data  12  in order to, for example, provide a more usable or digestible form of content data  14  that may be referred to herein as simply “content.” In other cases, however, the raw content data  12  received by the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  may be minimally processed. In such situations, the content data  14  provided by the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  may be the same or substantially the same as the raw content data  12  that was received by the content processor circuitry  1 - 100 . In embodiments where the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  processes the raw content data  12  in order to generate the content data  14 , the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  may supplement the raw content data  12  with additional data such as contextual data in order to generate the resulting content data  14 . For example, in some embodiments, the content processor circuitry  12  may add background information including historical data to the raw content data  12  in order to generate the content data  14  (e.g., in the case where the raw content data  12  relates to financial market data, adding historical market data to provide context to the raw content data  12 ). 
         [0010]    As further illustrated in  FIG. 1 , in some implementations, the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  may include one or more logic modules including, for example, a raw content data acquiring module  1 - 102 , a raw content data processing module  1 - 104  (which may further include a content analyzing module  1 - 105 , a content formatting module  1 - 106 , and/or a content supplementing module  1 - 107 ), and/or a content data relaying module  1 - 108 . In various implementations, the content data  14  that may be provided by the content processor circuitry  1 - 100  may be relayed to the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0011]    As further illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be designed to perform various functionalities including, for example, further distributing the received content data  14  to a tag providing circuitry  3 - 100  and/or content receivers  40  (e.g., aggregators  50 , platform/browser  60 , and/or content consumers  70 ). In various implementations, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be able to distribute the content data  14  in at least two alternative ways. For example, in some implementations, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be designed to actively send or deliver the content data  14  while in other implementations the content data  14  may simply be made available (e.g., accessible). In some implementations, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be, prior to distributing the received content data  14 , designed to modify and/or supplement with additional data the received content data  14 . 
         [0012]    In various embodiments, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be designed to distribute (e.g., make available or transmit) a particular content data  14  to, for example, one or more content receivers  40  in accordance with a listing of delivery time delays. For example, a particular content receiver  40  (e.g., an aggregator  50 , a platform/browser  60 , and/or a content consumer  70 ) that is designated for receiving a particular content data  14  may only be able to access such content data  14  only after a specified amount of delivery time delay (e.g., a time delay that is specifically associated with the particular content receiver  40  with respect to the particular content data  14 ) has passed. The specified amount of delivery time delay may be as a result of the particular content receiver  40  agreeing to pay for such access (e.g., paying a higher fee for earlier access). Thus, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  in some cases may be designed to “release” a particular content data  14  to different groups of content receivers  40  at different points in time based, for example, on a listing of delivery time delays that were obtained based on the various accesses and fees agreed to by the different groups of content receivers  40 . In various embodiments, the delivery time delays may be acquired from, in some cases, a billing circuitry  5 - 100 . Alternatively the delivery time delays may be acquired from a bidding circuitry  4 - 100 . 
         [0013]    In some implementations, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be designed to distribute view tags  22  along with content data  14 . In various embodiments, the view tags  22  that may be distributed may provide information related to content receivers  40  who may have previously accessed (e.g., viewed) the content data  14  to be distributed. Among other things, view tags  22  may indicate when/who/how many content receivers  40  may have previously accessed a particular content data  14 . For example, suppose there are two groups of content receivers  40  that are designated for receiving a particular content data  14  at two different points in time: a first group of content receivers  40  and a second group of content receivers  40  who will be receiving the particular content data  14  at a second point time that is later than a first point in time that the first group of content receivers  40  will be receiving the particular content data  14 . In this example scenario, the second group of content receivers  40  may receive view tags  22  that may indicate who and how many content receivers  40  (e.g., the first group of content receivers  40 ) have already received the content data  40 . Such information may be particularly useful in, for example, the business/financial industry. 
         [0014]    In some cases, the view tags  22  may be generated based on read information  23  provided by the content receivers  40  who have already accessed content data  14 . In some cases, read information that may be received from the one or more content receivers  40  may essentially be the same as the information included in view tags  22  distributed by the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100 . In some cases, the read information  23  may be collected by the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  and may then be relayed to the tag providing circuitry  3 - 100  in order to generate view tags  22 . 
         [0015]    In various embodiments, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be designed to have various other functionalities. For example, in some implementations, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be able to deny access of certain content data  14  to particular content receivers (e.g., an aggregator  50 ). Alternatively or additionally the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be designed to degrade the content data  14  that may be distributed (e.g., providing a degraded version rather than the full version of the content, or provide or attach a warning related to the content data  14  to be distributed). In some cases, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be able to make a particular content (e.g., a particular content data  14 ) available for free after a maximum delivery time delay has passed. In some implementations, a particular content (e.g., particular content data  14 ) may be distributed to various content receivers  40  using different communication links (e.g., communication lines) having different bandwidth and latency. In some implementations, the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may be designed to provide advertisements along with content. In some cases, by providing one or more advertisements before providing a particular content, latency requirements for the content may be realized. 
         [0016]    As further illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100  may include one or more logic modules including, for example, a content data acquiring module  2 - 102 , a delivery time delay acquiring module  2 - 104  (which may further include a soliciting module  2 - 106  and/or a receiving module  2 - 108 ), and/or a content data relaying module  2 - 110  (which may further include a view information relaying module  2 - 112 ). 
         [0017]    In various embodiments, the tag providing circuitry  3 - 100  illustrated in  FIG. 1  may receive content data  14  and/or read information  23  in order to provide one or more bidding tags  20  and/or one or more view tags  22 . The bidding tags  20  that may be generated by the tag providing circuitry  3 - 100  may be relayed to, for example, content receivers  40  in order to solicit bids (e.g., bids for accessing content data  14 ) from the content receivers  40 . The bidding tags  20  may provide non-specific generic information related to the content (e.g., content data  14 ) that is being bid on. That is, bidding tags  20  may be generated in order to solicit bids for content that may or may not already exist. For example, in some cases, bidding tags may provide general non-specific information related to content that is yet to exist (e.g., a bidding tag  20  that identifies the type and date of a financial report that is to be published on a future date, or a name of a celebrity “Lindsey Lohan” and the type of future news, e.g., criminal, related to that celebrity that is of interest). 
         [0018]    In other cases, bidding tags  20  may provide non-specific information related to an already existing content (e.g., a bidding tag  20  related to news of a particular celebrity without identifying specifically what the news was about or the identity of the celebrity, or news related to a price for a particular stock or commodity without identifying what that price is). In embodiments where content (e.g., content data  14 ) already exists, a bidding tag  20  may be generated based on content data  14  provided by the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100 . In alternative embodiments where content data  14  does not yet exist, a bidding tag  20  may be generated based on preexisting information (e.g., name of a celebrity or stock of interest, date of interest, type of news, etc.). In some embodiments, a bidding tag  20  may be based on one or more keywords (e.g., IBM, price, stocks, commodities, arrest, Lindsey Lohan, etc.), perceived importance of the corresponding content (e.g., content data  14 ), metadata that may have been provided (e.g., as provided by the raw content provider  10 ) with the content, and so forth. In various embodiments, the bidding tags  20  provided by the tag providing circuitry  3 - 100  may be provided to a bidding circuitry  4 - 100  as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0019]    The view tags  22  that may be generated by the tag providing circuitry  3 - 100  may be generated based on read information  23  provided by content receivers  40  or by the content distributor circuitry  2 - 100 . As further illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the generated view tags  22  may be relayed to content distributor circuitry  2 - 100 . In various embodiments, the generated view tags  22  may be based on who and what are the content receivers  40 , the number of content receivers  40  who had previous access to the content, and the number of times that the content (e.g., content data  14 ) has been accessed. In many cases, the “exclusivity” of information may be valuable to certain content consumers  70 . For example, for certain content consumers  70 , such as traders, may want to know at least blind versions of who/when were content (e.g., financial market news) was viewed or accessed. Also, such features may be socially valuable when the content originates from social networking channels (e.g., Twitter feeds). 
         [0020]    In various embodiments, the tag providing circuitry  3 - 100  may include one or more logic modules (including, for example, a content receiving module  3 - 102 , a read information receiving module  3 - 103 , a bidding tag providing module  3 - 104 , and/or a view tag providing module  3 - 106 . 
         [0021]    In various embodiments, the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  illustrated in  FIG. 1  may be designed to relay the modified or unmodified versions of the bidding tags  20  received from the tag providing module  3 - 100  to content receivers  40  in order to solicit or obtain one or more bids  24  from the content receivers  40  for accessing content (e.g., content data  14 ). After transmitting the bidding tags  20 , the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may receive one or more bids  24  from one or more content receivers  40 . 
         [0022]    In some alternative implementations, the one or more bids  24  that may be received by the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  from one or more content receivers  40  may be received without the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  having had to initially transmit bidding tags  20  that were based on the existing content data  14 . For example, such bids  24  may be received without the bidding tags  20  (e.g., bidding tags  20  that are based on already existing content data  14 ) being previously transmitted if the content receivers  40  are bidding for future content that does not yet exist but that will exist in the future (e.g., a regularly generated market or commodities report, release of a movie, etc.), or are bidding for a future content (e.g., a news event that is yet to occur such as a particular celebrity getting arrested) that although not guaranteed to occur will likely or predictably occur and/or can be characterized and generalized (e.g., “celebrity arrest news”). In such cases, the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may be designed to receive bids  24  without first relaying bidding tags  20  (since the content receiver  40  may already know what they want to bid for), or alternatively may relay bidding tags  20  that are not based on content data  14  that already exists (e.g., such bidding tags  20  may be based on already known parameters such as “celebrity arrest news” or “financial market news on Apr. 1, 2016”). 
         [0023]    In various implementations, the bids  24  that may be received by the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may be processed by the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  in order to determine (e.g., identify as well as assign), for example, one or more delivery time delays for one or more content receivers  40  who are or will be given access to the content data  14  based on their bids  24 . That is, in various implementations, the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may be designed to, upon receiving the bids  24 , first determine which content receivers  40  are to have access/receive the content data  14 , and second, determine the type of access (e.g., the delivery time delay) that each of the content receivers  40  (who were determined to be getting access to the content data  14 ) will actually be getting. Obviously those content receivers  40  who provide the highest bids will, in many instances, receive the greatest access (e.g., shortest delivery time delay) to the content data  14 . Note that in some embodiments, greater access to content data  14  may mean that in addition to having a shorter delivery time delay for accessing the content data  14  greater contextual data (e.g., background information) may be provided with the content data  14 . 
         [0024]    In various embodiments, the bids  24  that may be received by the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may be for a fixed delivery time delay at a fixed price. In other words, the bids  24  that may be received may be in response to a solicitation (e.g. which may be in the form of a bidding tag  24 ) from the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  soliciting for accessing content data  14  for a fixed price and with a fixed delivery time delay. In some cases, the bids  24  that are received may be sorted and resolved in auction style (e.g., higher bids with greater monetary values getting greater access to content). 
         [0025]    In some embodiments, the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may be designed to receive bids  24  from certain content receivers  40  for increasing the delivery time delays for other content receivers  40  who may also be bidding to receive the same content. For example, suppose two content receivers  40  are bidding to access a particular content, then one or both of the content receivers  40  may submit bids to have the delivery time delay of the other content receiver  40  be increased. 
         [0026]    As further illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may include one or more logic modules including, for example, a bidding tag receiving module  4 - 102 , a bid soliciting module  4 - 104  (which may further include a bidding tag relaying module  4 - 105 ), a bid receiving module  4 - 106 , a bids processing module  4 - 108 , an access level providing module  4 - 110 , and an access level (delivery time delay) providing module  4 - 112 . 
         [0027]    Referring now to the billing circuitry  5 - 100  of  FIG. 1 , which may be designed to receive certain information from the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  in order to, for example, generate billings. The information that may be received from the bidding circuitry  4 - 100  may include information that at least identifies those content receivers  40  who have been allowed or given access to content (e.g., content data  14 ). The information provided to the billing circuitry  5 - 100  may additionally or alternatively include access levels (e.g., delivery time delays) for each content user (e.g., content receiver  40 ) who have been given access to content (e.g., content data  14 ). The amount of fees that each content user will be charged may depend on, of course, the level of access that they have been given for accessing the content. In some cases, the billing or bills generated by the billing circuitry  5 - 100  and that are sent to content users (e.g., content receivers  40 ) may be based on read information  23  provided by the content users themselves. In various implementations, the read information  23  that is provided by one or more content users (e.g., content receivers  40 ) may at least indicate which content (e.g., content data  14 ) has been accessed by the one or more content users. 
         [0028]    Referring now to the content receivers  40  illustrated in  FIG. 1 . In various embodiments, the content receivers  40  may comprise of aggregators  50 , platform/browsers  60 , and content consumers  70  (e.g., end users). Aggregators  50  may be any (network) entity who may aggregate various content. Examples of aggregators include, for example, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Huffington Post, MarketWatch, and so forth. Typically aggregators  50  will not be the end point for the content that they have collected. That is, aggregators  50  will often pass on the content that they have acquired to content consumers  70  via platform/browsers  60 . In some cases, aggregators  50  may detect and record when, who, and how many platform/browsers  60  and/or content consumers  70  have accessed (e.g., read) content that was provided by the aggregators  50 . 
         [0029]    In many cases, content consumers  70  will access content through platforms/browsers  60  (e.g., platforms and/or browsers). Examples of platforms and browsers include, for example, Apple TV, Google TV, tablet computers (e.g., Kindle Fire, iPad, or Samsung Galaxy), a smartphone such as an iPhone or an Android, Bloomberg terminal, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and so forth. In various implementations, the aggregators  50  and/or the platform/browsers  60  may be capable of independently providing tiered levels of access (e.g., tiered levels of latency) to content (e.g., content data  14 ) at different levels of fees/pricing. For example, some current platforms have the ability to provide access to movies once a certain amount of time following the initial release of the movies has passed (e.g., the ability to watch a movie several months after the theatrical movie through iTunes for a fixed fee). But such conventional systems do not give an individual end user an option to have early access to content (e.g., a movie) by paying a higher fee. 
         [0030]    In contrast, the platforms/browsers  60  as well as the aggregators  50  illustrated in  FIG. 1  may be capable of independently providing multiple levels of access (e.g., providing multiple levels of latency such as one day, one week, one month, two month, and so forth of latency after theatrical release of a movie) to content that are associated with multiple levels of fess or costs. That is, these platform/browsers  60  and/or aggregators  50  may be capable of providing to an end user (e.g., content consumer  70 ) an option to get earlier access to content if the end user chooses to pay higher fees for such early access. In order to facilitate such functionalities, the illustrated platform/browsers  60  may include certain logic modules including an access level selection presenting module  6 - 102 , an access level selection receiving module  6 - 104 , and/or a content access level providing module  6 - 106  (which may further include an access level selection receiving module  6 - 107 ). As further illustrated in  FIG. 1 , aggregators  50  may also include similar logic modules (e.g., an access level selection presenting module  7 - 102 , an access level selection receiving module  7 - 104 , and/or a content access level providing module  7 - 106  that may further include an access level selection receiving module  7 - 107 ) in order to perform similar functionalities. 
         [0031]    Ultimately, the final consumers of content in the illustrated environment of  FIG. 1  may be content consumers  70 . Examples of content consumers  70  include, for example, individual end user such as individual persons, or companies such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, PIMCO, DE Shaw, Exxon Mobile, BP, Sinopec, or government agencies such as FBI and Homeland Security Administration. In some cases, content consumers  70  may select the type of fees and access to content that they may wish to access using a convenient slider interface.  FIG. 1  illustrates an example “slider” (e.g., example slider  90 ) for selecting a particular access level (e.g., latency level) for a particular fee. The example slider  90  may be moved by an individual end user using, for example, a mouse or by a finger if it is being displayed on a touchscreen. Such a “slider” tool may be particularly useful for selecting different levels of content access (e.g., different levels of latency) and fees. Note that in alternative implementations, a knob, a dial, or other devices may be employed in order to select different levels of access (e.g., different amounts of latency) and fees. The slider  90  may provide a wide range of access/fee levels from two or three different access/fee levels to continuous different levels of access/fees (e.g., 10, 100, 1000, and so forth, levels of access/fees). 
         [0032]    For example, imagine if all subscriptions on the Internet were expressed in the form of a slider  90 . An individual end user could then go to the Internet page of, for example, a well-known New York based Newspaper and may get free access to its content by sliding the slider  90  all the way to the left. However, if the individual end user wishes slighter greater access (e.g., quicker access and/or additional data) to the content, then the individual end user may slide the slider slightly to the right (e.g., for every millimeter that you slide to the right, the charge/fee may increase incrementally). 
         [0033]    In some instances, an individual end user may be charged in accordance with the movement/position of the slider  90  as well as the individual end user&#39;s connection capabilities. For example, if the individual end user is a trader with fiber optic connection, then the trader may be charged relatively higher fees than others particularly if the others don&#39;t have the same type of connections and can&#39;t get the type of access (e.g., very quick or low latency) that the trader has. In some cases, the top access or greatest access (e.g., shortest latency) through the slider  90  (e.g., if the slider  90  is moved all the way to the right) may be prohibitively expensive and may only be affordable to certain customers such as government agencies or financial institutions. 
         [0034]    Although not illustrated in the example slider  90  of  FIG. 1 , other options other than access/fee levels may be selected by the slider  90 . For example, in some implementations, the slider  90  may be used in order to select the type of content to be accessed, the mode of delivery of the content, and/or follow on things regarding the way the content (e.g., content page) is presented (e.g., such as if the slider  90  is moved all the way to the right, then presenting a page with the latest updates, a blog that requires manual click of users in real time updates might instead get automatically presented in real time).