Patent Abstract:
An embodiment relates generally to a method of organizing information. The method includes providing for a knowledgebase and providing for a first set of tags configured to be applied to items in the knowledgebase. The method also includes providing for a second set of tags configured to be applied to items in the knowledgebase and searching the knowledgebase based on at least one of the first set of tags and the second set of tags. The method further includes ranking result items in a search result favoring the result items tagged with terms for the first set of tags.

Full Description:
FIELD 
       [0001]    This invention relates generally to tagging, more particularly, to systems and methods for community tagging. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART 
       [0002]    A tag can be defined as a keyword or term associated with or assigned to an item of information, e.g., a picture, an article, video file, Wiki page, etc. The tag aids in defining the item of information and enables keyword-based classification of information it is applied thereto. 
         [0003]    Tags are usually chosen informally and personally by either the author and/or user of the item of information. Tags are typically used in dynamic, flexible, automatically generated Internet taxonomies for online resources such as computer files, web pages, digital images, and Internet bookmarks, and current generation of web browsers. 
         [0004]    While tags can be beneficial in organizing information, tagging is not without its drawbacks and disadvantages. For example, the tag does not typically convey any meaning or semantics of the tag. The tag “apple” can refer to the fruit, the computer company, a British music label and/or a female singer. This lack of semantic distinction in tags can lead to inappropriate connection between items. Moreover, the selection of tag terms can be highly user-specific. Different users can use drastically different terms to describe the same concept. As an example, the terms that can be used to tag a version of Apple Computer&#39;s operating system can be “Mac OS X”, “Tiger”, “closed” and many other terms. Accordingly, users of tagging systems are forced to make judgments based on the number of connections and the choices of tag terms, whether possible connections between items are valid for their interest. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]    Various features of the embodiments can be more fully appreciated, as the same become better understood with reference to the following detailed description of the embodiments when considered in connection with the accompanying figures, in which: 
           [0006]      FIG. 1  depicts an exemplary system in accordance with an embodiment; 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary service portal of the system shown in  FIG. 1  in accordance with another embodiment; 
           [0008]      FIG. 3  depicts an exemplary knowledge server of the system shown in  FIG. 1  in accordance with yet another embodiment; 
           [0009]      FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary issue tracker server of the system shown in  FIG. 1  in accordance with yet another embodiment; 
           [0010]      FIG. 5  depicts an exemplary chat server of the system shown in  FIG. 1  in accordance with yet another embodiment; 
           [0011]      FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary diagram of the tagging module in accordance with yet another embodiment; 
           [0012]      FIG. 7  depicts an exemplary flow diagram implemented by the tagging module in accordance with yet another embodiment; and 
           [0013]      FIG. 8  illustrates another exemplary flow diagram implemented by the tagging module in accordance with yet another embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
       [0014]    For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the principles of the present invention are described by referring mainly to exemplary embodiments thereof. However, one of ordinary skill in the art would readily recognize that the same principles are equally applicable to, and can be implemented in, all types of information portals, and that any such variations do not depart from the true spirit and scope of the present invention. Moreover, in the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying figures, which illustrate specific embodiments. Electrical, mechanical, logical and structural changes may be made to the embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. 
         [0015]    Embodiments pertain generally to a method of organizing and accessing a knowledgebase. More particularly, a knowledgebase can be tagged with an approved set of tags as well as a community set of tags. The approved set of tags can be developed from the community set of tags. Users with super privileges can apply a predefined set of tags to knowledgebase items, where the knowledgebase items can be articles, posts, or other similar information useful to the user community. Ordinary users can apply tags to knowledgebase items based on a community set of tags, where the community set of tags can be any term supplied by an ordinary user. The community set of tags can also be configured to show the popularity of any tag within the set. Accordingly, a subsequent user can search the knowledgebase based on the approved set of tags, the community set of tags, or a combination of the two tags. The subsequent user can focus the search by determining the popularity of tag terms within the community set of tags. 
         [0016]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary system  100  in accordance with an embodiment. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the system  100  depicted in  FIG. 1  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed or modified. Moreover, the system  100  may be implemented using software components, hardware components, or combinations thereof. 
         [0017]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , the system  100  includes a service portal  105  coupled to a network  125 . Users  130  can interface with the service portal  105  through the network  125 . The network  125  can be a combination of local area networks, wide area networks, public networks, and private networks such as the Internet. 
         [0018]    The users  130  can interface with the service portal  105  using computing platforms such as personal computers, workstations, private local area networks (e.g., business entity or government entity) or other similar device that can provide network access and interact with the service portal  105 . 
         [0019]    In some embodiments, the service portal  105  can be configured to provide services. As a non-limiting example, the service portal  105  can be configured to provide information for users to research, compare and purchase software, hardware and consulting services in support of the those software and/or hardware purchases. The service portal  105  can also be configured to provide support services by subscription to those same software and/or hardware purchases. The service portal  105  can further be configured to provide a knowledgebase for a user in a community can search for answers regarding issues. The community can comprise of registered and non-registered users. 
         [0020]    The service portal  105  can be configured to provide at least the described services with a service backend  135 . The service backend  135  can comprise at least a knowledge server  110 , an issue tracker server  115  and a chat server  120 . 
         [0021]    The knowledge server  110  can be configured to provide a knowledgebase for the system  100 . The knowledgebase can comprise of Wiki documents, articles, frequently asked questions (FAQs), transcripts of chat sessions and other informational items related to issues deemed worth discussing by the community. The knowledge server  110  can also be configured to search and retrieve requested informational items from its own database but also from third party sites such as Google™, Yahoo™, etc. The knowledge server  110  can then rank and prioritize the search results from internal and external sources for the requesting user, based on a single interface provided by the server portal  105 . In some embodiments, the knowledge server  110  can be implemented on a separate server using open-source technologies. 
         [0022]    The service portal  105  can also be configured to interface with the issue tracker server  115 , which provide support services for the service portal  105 . More particularly, a user may have a problem or issue with a purchased software and/or hardware from the service portal  105 . The user can return to the service portal  105  and request support services based on a purchased service subscription through a user interface generated by the service portal  105 . The service portal  105  can redirect the support request to the issue tracker server  115 . The issue tracker server  115  can open an associated service ticket for resolution by support personnel. The issue tracker server  115  can also be configured to attach transcripts of any chat sessions between the support personnel and the user as well as documenting the solution(s) to the issue of the user. In some aspects, the documented solution can be converted into an article, added to a frequently asked question list, Wiki page, etc., and passed onto the knowledge server  110 . 
         [0023]    The chat server  120  can be configured to couple with the service portal  105 . A user with an issue or question can log into the service portal  105  and search for solutions and/or answers. The service portal  105  can generate a user interface and display an option for requesting assistance via a chat session. If a user selects this option, the service portal  105  can pass the request over to the chat server  120 . The chat server  120  can be configured to provide the chat session to the user via another user interface provided by the service portal  105 . The chat server  120  can also be configured to save the chat sessions for later review. For example, support personnel can turn the chat session into an article or extract discussed solutions in the chat sessions into or add to a frequently asked questions list. 
         [0024]      FIG. 2  illustrates a more detailed block diagram of the service portal  105  in accordance with another embodiment. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the service portal  105  depicted in  FIG. 2  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed or modified. 
         [0025]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , the service portal  105  can comprise a user interface module  205 , a controller module  210 , a broker module  215 , a model module  220 , a database interface module  225 , and a logging module  245 . The user interface module  205  can be configured to generate the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for users to interact with service portal  105 . The user interface module  205  can generate the necessary functionality of the GUIs based on hypertext markup language (“HTML”) code, cascading style sheets (“CSS”) and/or Java Server Pages (JSP). 
         [0026]    The user interface module  205  can be configured with a controller module  210 , which is configured to provide code support for the functionality embedded in the GUIs of the user interface module  205 . More particularly, the controller module  210  can comprise of DWR, Dojo, and a library of JavaScript apps. The controller module  210  can be implemented using direct web remoting (DWR). DWR can be considered a Java and JavaScript open source library which allows a programmer to write Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“Ajax”) web applications or interactive web applications. DWR allows generally JavaScript code in the GUI generated by the user interface module  205  to use Java methods. 
         [0027]    The Dojo component can be considered an open-source JavaScript Toolkit to construct the dynamic web user interfaces. As such, the controller module  210  can dynamically generate user interfaces to pass along to the user interface module  205  for display to a user. 
         [0028]    The library of JavaScript apps can define a list of pre-determined functionality that users are likely to call. For example, one JavaScript can be “Get Price of Product X”. 
         [0029]    The controller module  210  can also be coupled with the broker module  215 . The broker module  215  can be configured to provide a high-level business logic for the service portal  105 . More particularly, the business logic can generally filter and direct an incoming request to the appropriate server of the service backend  130  (see  FIG. 1 ). For example, the broker module  215  can receive a request for delivery terms on a selected piece of hardware. The broker module  215  can identify the server that can satisfy the request, e.g., service portal  105 , and forward the request. Similarly, a request for technical support can be identified by the broker module  215  and be forwarded to the issue tracker server  115  to be serviced. 
         [0030]    The broker module  215  can also be coupled with model module  220 , which is configured to provide a schema for inquiries to the databases  230 . The databases  230  can, abstractly, contain two databases: a user profile database  235  and a product catalog  240 . The databases  230  can be implemented using any type of database systems provided by vendors such as MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, International Business Machines, etc. The model module  220  can provide the schema to formulate queries to pass to the databases  230  through the database interface module  225 . The model module  220  can be implemented using an open source lightweight framework such as Spring Application Framework supported by data access objects, beans, and manager. 
         [0031]    The database interface module  225  can be configured to provide an abstraction between the databases  230  and the model module  220 . The database interface module  225  can be implemented with Hibernate or other similar abstractions. The database interface module  225  provides object relational mapping and persistence management with the databases  230 . 
         [0032]    The modules  205 - 225  of the service portal  105  can also be implemented using be implemented using an open source servlet container and webserver such as Tomcat™ in some embodiments. Other embodiments could use proprietary servlet container and webserver technologies. 
         [0033]    The logging module  245  can be configured to couple with the user interface module  205 , the controller module  210 , the broker module  215 , the model module  220  and the database interface module  225 . The logging module  245  can also be configured to provide logging and exception handling for all the coupled modules ( 205 - 225 ). The aforementioned module can provide functions which may be commonly called by the rest of the modules ( 205 - 225 ) of the service portal  105 . The logging module  245  can be implemented using aspect-oriented programming as known to those skilled in the art. 
         [0034]      FIG. 3  illustrates a more detailed block diagram of the knowledge server  110  in accordance with another embodiment. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the knowledge server  110  depicted in  FIG. 3  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed or modified. 
         [0035]      FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3  share some common components. As such, the description of the common components is being omitted and the description of these components with respect to the  FIG. 2  is being relied upon to provide adequate description of the common components. 
         [0036]    As shown in  FIG. 3 , the knowledge server  110  can comprise at least a user interface module  305 , a controller module  310 , a broker module  315 , a model module  320  and a database interface module  325 . 
         [0037]    Similar to the service portal  105 , the user interface module  305  of the knowledge server  110  can be configured to provide the GUIs for users to interact with the knowledge server  110 . The functionality for selected actions by the users is provided by the controller module  310 . The controller module  310  can be configured to provide the associated code for the requested functionality of the selected action in the GUI. The broker module  315  can be configured to provide high-level business logic for the knowledge server  110 . More particularly, the broker module  315  can provide filtering for the requests entering the knowledge server  110 . For these requests, the broker module  315  can receive these requests from the service portal  105  through the server interface  335 . The server interface  330  can be implemented using simple object access protocols, web services, etc. The knowledge server  110  can also use the server interface  335  to return requested information to the service portal  105 . Unlike the service portal  105 , the knowledge server  110  can be configured to prevent direct access to the knowledge server  110  but can only be accessed through the service portal  105 . 
         [0038]    The broker module  315  of the knowledge server  110  can also be coupled to the model module  320 , which is configured to provide a schema for queries into the knowledge database  330 . The database interface module  325  can be configured to provide a level of abstraction between the queries from the broker module  320  to the actual physical implementation of the knowledge database  330 . As previously described, the knowledge database  330  can be implemented with database architectures provided by vendors such as MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, International Business Machines, and other similar manufacturers. 
         [0039]    The modules  305 - 325  of the service portal  105  can also be implemented using be implemented using an open source servlet container and webserver such as Tomcat™ in some embodiments. Other embodiments could use proprietary servlet container and webserver technologies. 
         [0040]      FIG. 4  illustrates a more detailed block diagram of the issue tracker server  115  in accordance with another embodiment. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the issue tracker server  115  depicted in  FIG. 4  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed or modified. 
         [0041]    As shown in  FIG. 4 , the issue tracker server  115  can comprise of a user interface module  405 , a controller module  410 , a database interface module  415 , and a server interface  425 . Similar to the service portal  105  and the knowledge server  110 , the user interface module  405  of the issue tracker server  115  can be configured to generate GUIs for the service portal  105  to interface thereto. As with the knowledge server  110 , the service portal  105  provides a unified interface to the issue tracker server  115 . The service portal  105  can be configured to receive requests from users to access the issue tracker server  115 . The received requests are processed by the issue tracker server  115  and any information is returned using the issue tracker server&#39;s GUIs as generated by the user interface module  405 . The service portal  105  reformats any returning information from the issue tracker server  115  and the other servers in a unified GUI generated by the user interface module  205  of the service portal  105 . In some instances, the service portal  105  can generate an overlay for data arriving from the other servers ( 110 - 120 ). Accordingly, a user can be presented with information in a consistent format. 
         [0042]    The user interface module  405  can be implemented using HTML code, CSS sheets, Hyptext Pre-Processor (“PHP”) code and/or Ruby on Rails (ROR) code. The controller module  410  can provide the associated code for the functionality provided by the GUIs generated by the user interface module  405 . 
         [0043]    The controller module  410  can be configured to communicate with the service portal  105 , the knowledge server  110  and the chat server through a communication interface  425 . The communication interface  425  can use SOAP or web service protocols over the Internet to provide the communication conduit. 
         [0044]    The controller module  410  can also be configured to interface with the database  420 . The database  420  can be configured to store the open and closed service tickets. The database  420  can also be configured to store links to or the actual articles and/or chats sessions used to resolve the issue. In some embodiments, the database  420  can be implemented using MySQL 5.x database or other open source database. Other embodiments, the database  420  can be implemented proprietary databases such as Oracle, Sybase, IBM, etc. 
         [0045]    Although  FIG. 4  depicts the user interface module  405 , controller module  410 , and the database interface module  415  as separate components, these modules ( 405 - 415 ) can be implemented using LAMP, which is an open source Web development platform based on Linux, Apache, MYSQL, and PHP. 
         [0046]      FIG. 5  illustrates a more detailed block diagram of the chat server  120  in accordance with another embodiment. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the chat server  120  depicted in  FIG. 5  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed or modified. 
         [0047]    The chat server  120  can be configured to provide chat services for users. The chat server  120  can provide a communication link between users and a group of support personnel. The chat server  120 , can also provide a communication link between users of the service portal. The users can request access to support through a GUI of the service portal  105 . Some embodiments can use Openfire to provide group and instant messaging service using the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (“XMPP”). 
         [0048]    As shown in  FIG. 5 , the chat server  120  can comprise a user interface module  505 , a controller module  510 , a database interface module  515  and a database  520 . The user interface module  505  of the chat server  120  can be configured to generate GUIs for the service portal  105  to interface thereto. The user interface module  505  can be implemented using HTML code, CSS, and/or Java Server pages. 
         [0049]    As with the knowledge server  110  and the issue tracker server  115 , the service portal  105  provides a unified interface to the chat server  120 . The service portal  105  can be configured to receive requests from users to access the chat server  115 . The received requests are processed by the chat server  120  to start a chat session with someone from a group of technical support personnel. 
         [0050]    The received requests for chats can be processed by the controller module  510 , which contains the associated code for the selected function in the GUI by a user. The controller module  510 , in some embodiments, can be implemented using DWR. 
         [0051]    The controller module  510  can also interface with a database interface module  515 . The database interface module  515  can be configured to translate queries from the controller module  510  to appropriate format of the database  520  to store and retrieve information. The information stored in the database  520  can comprise of chat sessions between users and support personnel. In some embodiments, the database  520  can be implemented with a MySQL database. Returning to the database interface module  515 , this module  515  can be implemented using plain old Java objects as known to those skilled in the art. 
         [0052]    Although  FIG. 5  depicts the user interface module  505 , controller module  510 , and the database interface module  515  as separate components, other embodiments can implement the functionality of these modules can be implemented using Tomcat Servlet container and web server from Apache Software Foundation. 
         [0053]    Returning to  FIG. 3 , the knowledge server  110  can be configured with a tagging module  340  embedded in the controller module  310 . The tagging module  340  can be configured to permit the user community of the service portal  105  to tag items in the knowledgebase. More particularly, the tagging module  340  can be configured to provide a predefined set of tags as well as a community set of tags. The predefined set of tags can be developed from the community set of tags by a group of users with super privileges (such as support personnel, verified experts, etc.). An example of the predefined set of tags can be a support-team tags. These tags would be used by the support personnel to tag items in the knowledgebase that are helpful, authoritative, or other high value. Accordingly, the predefined set of tags are given much more weight. 
         [0054]    These users can apply the predefined set of tags to knowledgebase items, where the knowledgebase items can be articles, posts, or other similar information useful to the user community. Ordinary users can apply tags to knowledgebase items based on a community set of tags, where the community set of tags can be any term supplied by an ordinary user. The community set of tags can also be configured to show the popularity of any tag within the set. Accordingly, a subsequent user can search the knowledgebase based on the predefined set of tags, the community set of tags, or a combination of the two tag sets. The subsequent user can also narrow the search by determining the popularity of tag terms within the community set of tags. 
         [0055]      FIG. 6  illustrates a block diagram of the tagging module  340  in accordance with yet another embodiment. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the tagging module  340  depicted in  FIG. 6  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed or modified. 
         [0056]    As depicted in  FIG. 6 , the tagging module  340  comprises of a manager module  605  and a memory  610 . The manager module  605  is configured to implement the functionality of the tagging module  340  as previously described and described in greater detail below with respect to  FIGS. 7-8 . The manager module  605  can be implemented in software code (Java, C, C++, etc.), hardware device (application specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, microprocessor, etc.) or combination thereof. 
         [0057]    The manager module  605  can also be configured the memory  610 . The memory  610  can store a set of community tag terms  615  as well as a predefined set of tag terms  620 . The set of community tag terms  615  can be developed by the users of the community interfacing with the service portal  105 . The users can freely add additional tags to the set of community tag terms  615 . 
         [0058]    The predefined set of tag terms  620  can be derived from the set of community tag terms  615  approved from the group of users with super privileges (such as support personnel, verified experts, etc.). Moreover, this group of users can only be permitted to add additional tag terms to the predefined set of tag terms  620 . 
         [0059]    A user can view the popularity of a term in the set of community tag terms  615 . More particularly, a user, through a GUI of the service portal  105 , can view the list of terms in the set of community tag terms  615 . The service portal  105  formulates a request to the knowledge server  110 , which then returns the requested information to the service portal  105 . The requested information is presented in a list showing the popularity of each term in the set of community tag terms  615  by font size in some embodiments, i.e., the more popular the term, the larger the font. 
         [0060]      FIG. 7  illustrates a flow diagram  700  implemented by the tagging module  340 . It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the flow diagram  700  depicted in  FIG. 7  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other steps may be added or existing steps may be removed or modified. 
         [0061]    As shown in  FIG. 7 , a user can be reviewing a knowledgebase item, in step  705 . More particularly, the user may have accessed the service portal  105  through their local computer via a web browser such as Opera, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, or other similar web browser applications. The service portal  105  presented a GUI for the user to search for items in the knowledgebase. The service portal  105  can be configured to process the request for the selected query to the controller module  215  of the service portal  105  and forward the request to the knowledge server  110  through the server interface  335 . The knowledge server  110  can be configured to process the request through the broker module  315  of the knowledge server  315 , which passes the request through the model module  320  and database interface module  325 . The items matching the request are returned form the database  330  and possibly other third-party source can then be returned to the service portal  105 . 
         [0062]    In step  710 , the user can tag a knowledge item with a tag term from either the set of community tag terms  615  and the predefined set of tags. More particularly, after reviewing a knowledge item, the user can select at least one term from either one of both the set of community tag terms  615  and the predefined set of tag terms  620  that the user would like to associate with the knowledge item. As previously mentioned, the knowledge item can be an article, a FAQ, a Wiki page or other written description. Multiple tag terms can be associated with the knowledge item. 
         [0063]    In step  715 , the tagging module  340  can be configured to associate the selected tag terms with the knowledge item. More particularly, the selected tag terms become part of the metadata associated with the knowledge item. Accordingly, subsequent users can search for the knowledge item based on the associated tags as well as search terms within the knowledge item. 
         [0064]    In step  720 , the tagging module  340  can be configured to store the knowledge item with the associated tags within the database  330  to be searched by subsequent users of the service portal  105 . 
         [0065]      FIG. 8  illustrates a flow diagram  800  implemented by the tagging module  340  in accordance with yet another embodiment. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the flow diagram  800  depicted in  FIG. 8  represents a generalized schematic illustration and that other steps may be added or existing steps may be removed or modified. 
         [0066]    As shown in  FIG. 8 , in step  805 , a user can enter search terms in a GUI generated by a service portal  105  to search for items in the knowledge server  110 , i.e., search the knowledgebase. The user can enter terms from the set of community of tag terms  615  and/or the predefined set of tag terms  620  to search for information items from the knowledge server  110  onto the selected GUI. 
         [0067]    The controller module  210  of the service portal  105  can be configured to format a request packet to the knowledge server  110 , which is passed to the broker module  210  through the server interface  335  and the broker module  315  of the knowledge server  110 . 
         [0068]    The broker module  315  of the knowledge server  110  can be configured to formulate a query based on the model module  320  to pass the database  330  through the database interface module  325 , in step  810 . In some embodiments, the knowledge server  110  can be configured to work with third party web sites with the selected tag terms. The third party web site results can be grouped and ranked with the results from the knowledge server  110 , in step  815 . 
         [0069]    In step  820 , the broker module  315  of the knowledge server  110  can forward the search results in a ranked fashion. More particularly, the list of results can be ordered by the popularity of the tag terms associated with each result, a ranking or rating associated with each result or other criteria. Since items tagged with the tag terms from the predefined set of tag terms  620  are given more weight, these items are ranked higher and should float to the top of the results list. The results are passed onto to the service portal  105  where the results are displayed by another GUI generated by the controller module  210  of the service portal  105 . 
         [0070]    Certain embodiments may be performed as a computer program. The computer program may exist in a variety of forms both active and inactive. For example, the computer program can exist as software program(s) comprised of program instructions in source code, object code, executable code or other formats; firmware program(s); or hardware description language (HDL) files. Any of the above can be embodied on a computer readable medium, which include storage devices and signals, in compressed or uncompressed form. Exemplary computer readable storage devices include conventional computer system RAM (random access memory), ROM (read-only memory), EPROM (erasable, programmable ROM), EEPROM (electrically erasable, programmable ROM), and magnetic or optical disks or tapes. Exemplary computer readable signals, whether modulated using a carrier or not, are signals that a computer system hosting or running the present invention can be configured to access, including signals downloaded through the Internet or other networks. Concrete examples of the foregoing include distribution of executable software program(s) of the computer program on a CD-ROM or via Internet download. In a sense, the Internet itself, as an abstract entity, is a computer readable medium. The same is true of computer networks in general. 
         [0071]    While the invention has been described with reference to the exemplary embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art will be able to make various modifications to the described embodiments without departing from the true spirit and scope. The terms and descriptions used herein are set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant as limitations. In particular, although the method has been described by examples, the steps of the method may be performed in a different order than illustrated or simultaneously. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these and other variations are possible within the spirit and scope as defined in the following claims and their equivalents.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6