Patent Publication Number: US-2007118394-A1

Title: Value synthesis infrastructure and ontological analysis system

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      The priority to and benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/735,365 of Kyle A. Cahoon, filed Nov. 12, 2005, is hereby claimed, and the specification thereof is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field OF Invention  
      This invention generally relates to methods and processes of creating reciprocal value for commercial entities and consumers of economic goods, specifically to a consumer-based value network Value Synthesis Infrastructure (VSI) and ontological analysis system.  
      2. Prior Art  
      The idea of strategically creating reciprocal value between purveyors and consumers of marketable goods and services is a new concept in the fields of marketing and business management in general.  
      Traditionally, means and methods of marketing products have relied on age old promotional techniques such as advertising, where advertisers create messages and storylines around a product to get and keep their brand in the mind of consumers. The advent of advertising industry in the U.S. can be trace back to the year 1841 when Volney B. Palmer started the first advertising agency in Philadelphia and other aspects of marketing such as sales promotions go back nearly as far, for instance C. W. Post issued the first manufacturers coupon in 1909. These traditional approaches to marketing worked well for advertisers and their utilization grew into mass marketing strategies as the mass media channels of national newspapers, magazines, radio and television reached wider and wider audiences.  
      Out of these initial approaches to marketing goods and services, came more direct and “targeted” approaches of getting to the consumer. These approaches stemmed from advertisers having access to a plethora of information about individual consumers through the utilization of powerful computers and gigantic databases. Some examples of these marketing approaches are direct mailings and telephone solicitation. Other forms are slightly more interactive, like music and movie clubs.  
      The emergence of the internet and the advent of email and the hyperlinked super-structure of the World Wide Web with the vast and awe inspiring achievements in communication have brought little to the table in regards to new methods of creating reciprocal value between commercial entities and their customers. In fact, the low relative cost of communication in these new media channels has resulted in marketing programs and methods that we can all live without. Everyone knows what spam is and everyone hates it in their inbox. Pop-up advertisements, spyware and malware are also very problematic. Even seemingly successful new methods of advertising, such as Google&#39;S™ AdWordS™ search keyword advertising, it&#39;s AdSense™ contextual webpage advertising campaigns, and Kontera&#39;S™ in-text advertising are still the old “targeted” advertising concept in a new digital format. These methods become jumbled and chaotic when mixed with the multitudes of other advertising systems on the Net as web publishers try to increase revenue on their websites.  
      Others have realized that the most powerful method of getting a product message across to consumers is through direct and honest communication among those whom have knowledge of the product&#39;s benefit or use and those who don&#39;t. This simple concept has been hijacked by “targeted” advertising professionals and has been mutated into hybrid concepts of “targeting by word of mouth”, “viral marketing”, and “stealth marketing” in attempts to boost the effectiveness of the concept. I have a better idea.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION—OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES  
      Retailers have initiated global data synchronization programs as a way to eliminate communication errors with suppliers to increase supply chain efficiency and reduced costs. These commercial entities are also now starting to see the end consumer in a whole new light, where product quality, relationship building and reciprocal value are the focus, not simply targeted advertising. These enlightened companies, however, lack a concrete method. The platform, method, and tools to create strong relationships and reciprocal value with prospective consumers are presented in the following invention for “A Value Synthesis Infrastructure and Ontological Analysis System “, which from herein will be referred to as the VSI.  
      Accordingly several objects and advantages of the invention are:  
      a) For participating commercial entities, the VSI provides a unique way of un-intrusively marketing products and services, effectively acquiring quality business intelligence, and gaining a complete picture of individual or bundled product value propositions. The VSI facilitates business strategies to build mutually beneficial relationships with receptive pre-qualified consumers through the company&#39;s active involvement in and analysis of self-organizing niche groups and developing ontological patterns within an expanding and evolving value network.  
      b) For participating consumers, the VSI is a vehicle to articulate, generate, and contribute instructional content, receive remuneration for their contributions, save money from promotional incentives or group buying opportunities, and review digital receipt information on all their purchases. The instructional content and purchase data is made exponentially more socially useful and valuable to all consumers through ongoing aggregation, statistical calculations of fair value or price trends, and seamless integration with precisely germane globally synchronized product data and supplementary value-added information services.  
      c) The VSI, when expanded globally, can easily be intertwined with charitable initiatives to bring internet communication and wealth to the poorest regions of the earth. A person from a developing country can contribute content and receive remuneration from promotional sponsorship dollars paid from American companies to market to American consumers who are interested in instructional content contributed by the participant in the developing country.  
      Further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.  
     SUMMARY  
      In accordance with the invention, a virtuous circle is formed through the emergence of positive network effects, development of beneficial interdependencies and correlational user empowerment within the value network. Utilizing the VSI all agents, whether labeled as Sponsors, content Contributors, or everyday Consumers of economic goods, become both consumers and contributors of valuable integrated information and services. All participants, information, services and their relationships within the VSI are dynamically connected within developing domain specific ontologies to their current role, their focused explicit interests and knowledge, their implicit collaborative contexts and concurrent activities, the germane product niches, and regional marketplaces involved within larger industry domains and the global marketplace in general. 
    
    
     DRAWINGS—FIGURES  
       FIG. 1  is an overview of the value network showing the participants as well as the main VSI service and data components.  
       FIG. 2  is a diagram of a VSI Contributor and the interactive services provided to them through the VSI System.  
       FIG. 3  is a diagram of a VSI Sponsor and the interactive services provided to them through the VSI System.  
       FIG. 4  is a diagram of a VSI Consumer and the interactive services provided to them through the VSI System.  
       FIG. 5  is a diagram of a specific niche group instance utilizing the VSI within the value network involving a recipe Contributor, a plurality of food industry corporate Sponsors, and an everyday Consumer.  
       FIG. 6  is a diagram of processes of data input, collection, encoding, storage, federation, and presentation within the VSI system.  
       FIG. 7  is a diagram of the VSI Sponsors&#39; auction and bidding process for trade item&#39;s GPC brick attribute or GDD functional name.  
       FIG. 8  is a diagram of an exemplary scenario where a consumer receives a group buy alert from the VSI Messaging Service. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION  
       FIG. 1  is an overview of the value network showing the participants as well as the main Value Synthesis Infrastructure (VSI) service and data components. The participants in the VSI network are a global collection of Contributors  20  of instructional content, Sponsors  60  (suppliers and retailers of goods and services), and everyday Consumers  10 . Participants interact with the system through rich internet applications (RIAs) which communicate with services via the enterprise service bus (ESB)  300 . The ESB is composed of 10 core service components which are each composed of and interrelate with specialized sub-services. The list service components include: VSI Contributor Data Services  30 , VSI Financial Transaction Services  31 , VSI Trade Item Data Collection and Cataloging Services  32 , VSI Sponsor Promotional Data Services  33 , VSI Sponsor Analysis Services  34 , VSI Consumer Content Services  35 , VSI Consumer Financial Services  36 , VSI Market Price Aggregation and Statistical Calculation Services  37 , VSI Data Integration and Ontology Development Service  38 , and VSI Messaging Services  39 . The services store inputted and collected data in the VSI Operational Data Stores  50  for fast service fulfillment and all data is further stored in the VSI Decision Support Data Stores  90  for in-depth analysis. Trade item information is collected from a connection to a certified Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) data pool  100 . The data pool may also be a component data source of the legal embodiment of the VSI. Other supplementary data may be collected from specialized data services for added informative value and language translation  101 .  
       FIG. 2  is a diagram of a VSI Contributor  20  and the interactive services  30 ,  31  and  32  provided to them through their participation in the VSI System. VSI Contributors  20  access the VSI through a distributed computing network or telecommunications network such as the internet through a network connected device such as a computer, cellular phone, regular phone, PDA, etc. . . . The participants communicate with VSI contributor data services  30  and financial transaction services  31  by their interaction with a plurality of rich internet application interface portlets  21 ,  23 ,  24 ,  25 ,  26  which communicate extensible markup language (XML) encoded data, ensuring well-formedness and structural syntax of the data, to and from the provided services  30  and  31 . The Contributor  20  first registers  21  as a participant of the network where an account and a global service relation number (GSRN) is created for them and stored in the operational data stores  50  for later identification by the VSI Contributor Data Services  30  and the VSI Financial Transaction Services  31 . The Contributor  20  is now free to create input and edit instructional content of a marketable good, like goods, or related goods using the Xforms application portlet and editing toolset  22 . The application may also utilize Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) and video editing features. This application will act as a sandbox allowing the Contributor  20  to create, edit, and add supporting content before submitting the document  23  for public use. This content will comprise procedural information substantially regarding the utilization of goods, or scientifically determined knowledge, experiential knowledge, tacit knowledge, intangible knowledge, knowledge of process, method of assembly, technical know-how, artistry, screenplays, scripts, CGI or digital image metadata. For example, a certain contributor  20  may share a favorite recipe with an ingredient list and a video or audio file showing how to prepare the cuisine. The contributor  20  receives guidance in developing their content through the service&#39;s  30  xml schema constrictions and an auto-suggest feature that accesses a cache of proper functional names for trade items that have been collected and cataloged  32  from communication with a data pool (which may be incorporated into the embodiment of the VSI) of the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN)  100 . The service  30  also retrieves their previously inputted content so the participant may edit the original content, link supporting content to their instructional content, restrict the listed trade items to certain branded products, or view specialized data that will be federated will the content when a query accesses it. When they submit  23  the content to be experienced by the general public it will be encoded with resource description framework (RDF/XML) for serialization and later RDF processing. This further allows for domain specific ontologies to be created. For example, if directions for a do-it-yourself (DIY) craft project are contributed, all the related attributes will be recorded in an RDF graph. This will included the project title, estimated time of completion, if it is suitable for a child, functional names for the required materials and tools, the contributors name or nickname, etc. . . . Contributors  20  can read feedback or answer questions  24  asked of consumers via the VSI Messaging Service  39  and then review their accounts and their sponsored earnings details  25  to see what content has been experienced and sponsored (these relations are also included in the ontology) and their total earnings. When their earnings are sufficient for a payout, they may request payment  26  via the VSI Financial Transaction Services  31 .  
       FIG. 3  is a diagram of a VSI Sponsor  60  and the interactive services provided to them through the VSI System. VSI sponsors will usually be a purveyor, supplier, manufacturer, marketer, vendor, merchant, or retailer of tangible goods, intangible goods, or service goods, consisting of a commercial entity operating within a specific industry segment, such as the food industry, hardlines (DIY) industry, or other industry domain and will have trade item data published  60   a  to their preferred certified Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) data pool  100 . The GDSN  100  may also be used to notify potential Sponsors  60  that the VSI can provide them with an unprecedented marketing opportunity to acknowledge their brand and purchase incentives in quality instructional content contributed by VSI participants. Once notified a Sponsor  60  may register  61  to bid  62  for the rights of inclusion of their brand acknowledgment or purchase incentives  63  into matched contributed content and the exclusion of other brands and promotions in the same content for that particular functionally named item. The bidding process is guided through the Xforms bidding and purchase incentive application portlets  62  and  63  by communication of schema constraints and caches of trade item data and previous bid amounts through the VSI Sponsor Promotion Data Services  33 . The bidding process is automated to receive via an incorporated web service. Once the bids and incentives are confirmed  64  the brand names and incentives are linked to germane content via a direct mapping with the generic functional names included in the required item lists within instructional content. The promotions can then be tracked  65  and payments are requested  66  through the VSI Financial Transaction Services  31 . All data communicated in the system is encoded with XML and RDF for added structure and semantic value. A special feature of the system is the VSI Sponsor Analysis Services  34 . Sponsors  60  can request quality business intelligence  67  gaining a complete picture of individual or bundled product value propositions and the self-organizing niche group instance dynamics and patterns emerging from the expanding and evolving value network of which they are active members. The Sponsor Analysis Services  34  provides an OLAP service that connects to the decision support data stores  90  document and data warehouses as well as the dynamically generated OWL ontologies database created from the RDF repository and other data within the operational data stores  50 . The data may compiled and presented in graphical form utilizing scalable vector graphics (SVG).  
       FIG. 4  is a diagram of a VSI Consumer  10  and the interactive services provided to them through the VSI System. Interested Consumers  10  can be anyone in the general public who access the VSI Consumer Content Services  35  with any kind of internet connected device and a way to experience content such as through a web browser, television channel, movie screen, etc. . . . Consumers  10  submit queries  11  to locate contributed instructional content, products, fair price or price trend estimates and to experience  12  the value of the integration of this information with complementary data and supporting content. These queries  11  could be described using text entered into an Xforms RIA form, incorporating checkbox selections, radio buttons, range, a combination of these and other controls, pre-configured query filters, and graphical representations of pre-configured filters, or simply involve channel selection or paid access to content. For example, the consumer  10  may hunger for an exotic recipe. Her query  111  could be for a desired type of cuisine or recipes containing certain foods. She may add as many levels of filtering to her query  11  as she wishes, such as health requirements (text), number of calories (integer or range), exclusion of certain foods (text), organic foods only (pre-configured filter), or vegetarian foods only (pre-configured filter graphic of an green encircled V), something a child could prepare (pre-configured filter graphic of a child), time constraints (integer or range), etc. . . . She may also have food allergies or have concerns about adverse medication and food interactions. Such a query is then guided by the systems developing domain specific ontology relating recipes and their contributors, local branded food products, their suppliers and retailers, the consumers location, and other referenced information. The consumer  10  could then receive recipe content  12  and a preparation video from a contributor in Mozambique with information on local products and purchase incentives that can be used to prepare the dish. Consumers  10  who register  13  with the VSI will receive a unique VSI global service reference number (GSRN) and experience the added benefits of the VSI Consumer Financial Services  36 . These specialized services are provided to clients through a set of rich internet application portlets  15 ,  16 , and  17 . Customers who have registered  13  are provided a whole host of new and exiting services, such as a purchase log  17  where all items purchased from merchants  14  that issue digital receipt data can be reviewed and implemented in personal accounting and budgeting software programs. Nearly all retailers, especially with regard to the food industry will provide secure privacy protected digital receipt information to their customers as a value-added service in the very near future, perhaps in the form of web feeds that can be encrypted for security reasons and decrypted when reviewed by the Consumer  10  with the correct password or key. Consumers  10  who have registered  13  may also receive group buy opportunity alert messages through Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) or similar technology via the VSI Messaging Services  39  as they browse the VSI catalog  15  for products. The group purchase  16  will be facilitated by the VSI and the Consumer  10  can request a purchase log  17  of all their purchases with the complete details. From all secure privacy protected digital-receipt data collected from merchants, with permission from register consumers, a subset of the data suitable for public use is retrieved and fair price and price trend estimates are then calculated via the VSI Price Aggregation and Statistical Calculation Services  37 . This price data is federated with queried  11  content and trade item data, for greater informative value and a richer experience  12  for all consumers  10 .  
       FIG. 5  is a depiction of a specific niche group instance created via the VSI within the value network and the appropriate data integration and financial transactions involved. This niche group instance comprises a recipe Contributor, several food industry corporate Sponsors, and a Consumer. The contributor has created a recipe  22  entitled “Chocolate Nut Bars”, provided photos of the dessert, and submitted the recipe  24  to the VSI. Several sponsors have also submitted bids for brand acknowledgement and purchase incentive inclusion with regard to certain food items  62  and  63  than may be contained in such a recipe. The Consumer enters a query  13  for a recipe with chocolate, coconut, and condensed milk, or a query  13  for a dessert containing chocolate chips, raisins, but not cookies, or a query  13  specifically naming a recipe for “Chocolate Bars”, or a query for new recipes from this particular contributor, etc. . . . The Consumer decides to check out the “Chocolate Nut Bars” recipe and receives the recipe federated with value-added information. The recipe ingredients, the winning bidders&#39; brands acknowledgments and incentives, and a fair price estimate for each brand named product are federated via the VSI Data Integration Service  38  with complementary data  101  such as nutrition facts and drug interaction warnings. The data from these complementary data services  101  can also be incorporated into the original query to filter unwanted recipes from being selected. When the federated content is received by the Consumer the VSI Financial Transaction Service  31  debits the Sponsors&#39; accounts and rewards the Contributor for contributing the tasty recipe and photos.  
       FIG. 6  is a diagram of processes of data input, collection, encoding, storage, federation, and presentation within the VSI system. The preferred embodiment of the VSI has suppliers that want to market products through the VSI, first publish their trade item data  60   a  to a certified GDSN data pool  100 . This allows the VSI system to collect new and changing trade item information from a multitude of commercial entities from one access point. This also allows for the serialization of the information in the preferred XML encoded format for easy indexing, cataloging, and storage  32  in the VSI Operational Data Stores  50  and subsequent persistent storage within the VSI Decision Support Data Stores  90  document and data warehouses. For purposes of integration with contributed content, a subset of the trade items&#39; description such as brand, functional name, and target market, are encoded in an RDF/XML serialization format and stored  32   a  for quick access. The submitted content  22  instructional document with a list of required ingredients, utensils, implements, materials, equipment, or tools used to create the specific dish, product, building, craft, product placement, and supporting content are time stamped and given reference ID&#39;s such as a Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI); with which references the contributors global service relation number (GSRN). The content is then also encoded in the RDF/XML serialization format and stored  23 . Other specialized data sources or services  101  are also called and the data to be included is encoded in RDF/XML serialization format  38   a . With regard to recipes, a nutrient database is called to add relevant nutritional and caloric information to the contributed content and another database is called to add information of adverse food reactions with certain medications. Sponsors&#39; bids for brand acknowledgement and purchase incentives are also encoded in RDF/XML; these also contain time-to-live values and explicit promotional constraints implemented at the time of confirmation  64 . Participating consumers who have registered can review collected purchase logs of aggregated digital-receipt from retailers than issue secure privacy protected purchase details as a customer service  14 . A subset of this data suitable for public use is taken and statistical calculations are made, such as fair price or price tend estimates, for inclusion in queried content for added informational value  37 . Consumers can now submit queries for content, products, and price information  11 ; the response will be fast and contain accurately federated information to experience. The Xforms RIA user interface and content services with which the consumer may interact will transform consumer generated queries into an RDF or XML query language, such as SPARQL or Xquery statements for processing. The integration of the data occurs by using a Turing-complete query or document transformation language such as XML query (Xquery) or Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT). The disparate sources of data are mapped to each other via their explicit XML Schema element names. For example, the &lt;ingredient&gt; element in the recipe schema is mapped to a &lt;functionalName&gt; element in the trade item schema, for auto-suggestions during creation and edited by the Contributor, or to a &lt;brandName&gt; element in the trade item schema when brands are acknowledged and presented to the Consumer. The data is federated at the element node level of granularity where the string values containing brand names of goods are added to the document or replace the string values of generic “functional names” of products expressed in the recipe. When a qualified query is matched and the contributor&#39;s content is federated with brand acknowledgment and presented to the consumer, the consumer&#39;s location is recorded and the RDF/XML graph of niche group instance is added to the greater domain ontology  38 . The RDF serialization will also include web ontology language (OWL) and reference an RDF/XML schema.  
       FIG. 7  is a diagram of the VSI Sponsors&#39; auction and bidding process for trade item&#39;s global product classification (GPC) brick code or functional name element value described in the global data dictionary (GDD). The VSI sends notification to potential sponsors that their branded product names and target market may now be integrated with instructional content replacing chosen generic functional names germane to their particular products  70 . Sponsor registers to bid on functional name mappings in a secure real-time second price auction  71 . Bids are submitted manually or algorithmically via the VSI web service API with an xml encoded message  72 . Bids are then ordered from highest to lowest and the sum is recorded  73 . The highest bidders receives the right to have their brand acknowledged by being matched to a number of qualified queries where the ratio of their bid price to the sum of all bid prices for the specific functional name equals (if possible) the ratio of matched queries to the sum of all queries germane to the specific functional name  74 . The bidders pay that of the next highest bid respectively for each matched consumer query for the rights of inclusion of their brand and the exclusion of that of their competitors from the content for the particular item  75 . The VSI collects a certain commission and rewards the Contributor of the instructional content for their contribution  76 . The Sponsors&#39; accounts are debited and the Contributors&#39; accounts are credited accordingly  77 .  
       FIG. 8  is a diagram of an exemplary scenario where a consumer receives a group buy alert from the VSI Messaging Service. A registered consumer browses the catalog for products to purchase  80 . The registered VSI Consumer has register to receive alerts when other Clients are browsing the same products if substantial savings from a group buying opportunity can be arranged  81 . This particular VSI Consumer has his/her alert limit set  82  for items over $200.00. The VSI detects that several Consumers from a particular geographic zone are browsing the same product document  83 . An alert message is sent to each Consumer via the VSI Messaging Services instant messaging and presence system  84 . The savings details are sent to each Consumer  85 . It is left to the Consumers to workout a “purchase pact” by a plurality of them accepting the offer  86 . The Consumers agree to make a bulk-purchase  87 . The purchase is initiated through the VSI Consumer Financial Services  88 . Each consumer receives notification of the fulfillment details and can review their individual purchase log  89 .  
     CONCLUSIONS, RAMIFICATIONS, AND SCOPE  
      Accordingly the reader will see that, according to the VSI and ontological analysis system described, I have show that it provides a unique way for participating commercial entities to un-intrusively marketing products and services, effectively acquire quality business intelligence, and gain a complete picture of individual or bundled product value propositions. The VSI facilitates business strategies to build mutually beneficial relationships with receptive pre-qualified consumers through the company&#39;s active involvement in and analysis of self-organizing niche groups and developing ontological patterns within an expanding and evolving value network. Contributed instructional content and purchase data is made exponentially more socially useful and valuable to all consumers through ongoing aggregation, statistical calculations of fair value or price trends, and seamless integration with precisely germane globally synchronized product data and supplementary value-added information services.  
      While the above description contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but as exemplifications of the presently preferred embodiments thereof. Many other ramifications and variations are possible within the teachings of the invention. For example, future uses of the invention may involve automatic auction based brand placements in movies and video games with incorporated metadata or virtual reality simulations combining visual elements, tactile elements, phonetic elements, and any elements consistent with expressions of real world communication. A recipe might be tasted before it is even made. The can of soda shown in the movie might change as the movie ages or when it is shown in difference countries. The system may also be incorporated into automated ordering systems and cooking appliances.  
      Thus the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, and not by the examples given.