Methods, systems, and software for automated growth of intelligent on-line communities

Abstract

To address problems related to interface differences and disunity among on-line services, such as newsgroups message boards and forums, the present inventors devised systems, methods, and software for automating the posting and retrieval of content across different on-line services as well as encouraging growth of active on-line communities. One exemplary system includes a posting module, a retrieval module, and a web server. The posting module allows users to create and initiate data postings that are sent automatically to several newsgroups, message boards, and/or other on-line information sources. The retrieval module automatically retrieves replies to the postings at each of the on-line sources and presents them through the webserver for user review and further reply, eliminating the need for users to repeatedly visit posting sites in search of reply messages. In addition to the retrieved replies, the retrieval module automatically finds and retrieves content based on stored search or fitness criteria, ultimately enabling its integration into the content of one or more websites or databases for convenient user access.

1 . A computerized system for automatically posting and retrieving information to and from databases on a computer network, the system comprising: 
 means for posting one or more first documents stored at a first database to one or more second databases in the computer network;    means for automatically collecting at the first database one or more second documents posted at one or more of the second databases in reply to one or more of the posted first documents; and    means for providing access at the first database to one or more of the automatically collected second documents, including means for excluding one or more of the second documents, based on user- or administrator-defined criteria.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the first and second documents concern medical or health information.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first and second documents concern knees, hearts, lungs, allergies, HIV, specific diseases, specific body parts, cancer, lost children, cooking, sports, entertainment, celebrities, politics, law, restaurants, consumer products, motion pictures, videos, music recordings, corporations, government officials, criminal activity, schools, science, wines, beers, foods, professional service providers, colleges, alumni of educational institutions, genealogy, gossip, or sex.  
     
     
         4 . A computerized system comprising: 
 a first database accessible via a computer network;    means for incorporating data, based on user- or administrator-defined criteria, from one or more other databases into the first database; and    means for updating the user- or administrator-defined search criteria based on user interaction with data at the first database.    
     
     
         5 . A computerized system for automatically posting and retrieving information to and from sites on a computer network, the system comprising: 
 means, responsive to user-defined keywords or parameters, for automatically searching and retrieving documents from one or more first sites on the computer network on a periodic, scheduled, or event-driven basis, including:    means for using results of past searches to improve search results;    means for posting one or more of the retrieved documents to a second site;    means for allowing users of the second site to post documents to one or more of the first sites; and    means, responsive to users of the second site posting documents to one or more of the first sites, for automatically retrieving and collecting reply documents that are associated with the posted documents on the one or more first sites, including means for excluding one or more of the reply documents based on user- or administrator-defined criteria.    
     
     
         6 . The computerized system of  claim 5 , wherein the means for posting one or more of the retrieved documents, includes: 
 means, responsive to an adjustable threshold, for including or excluding documents from the second site.    
     
     
         7 . The computerized system of  claim 5 , wherein the means for allowing users of the second site to post documents to one or more of the first sites, includes: 
 means for associating one or more of the posted documents with one or more of the retrieved documents.    
     
     
         8 . The computerized system of  claim 5 , further including means for allowing a user of the second site to define or select the keywords and parameters and/or the first sites.  
     
     
         9 . The computerized system of  claim 5 , wherein one or more of the posted documents is sponsored by a commercial entity.  
     
     
         10 . The computerized system of  claim 5 , wherein one or more of the posted documents concerns an offer to sell merchandise or other private property.  
     
     
         11 . The computerized system of  claim 5 , wherein one or more of the retrieved or posted documents comprises a hyperlink.  
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 5  wherein one or more of the recited means is implemented as a set of machine-executable instructions carried on an electronic, optical, or magnetic medium.  
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 5  wherein the first and second documents concern medical or health information.  
     
     
         14 . A computerized method of automatically posting and retrieving information to and from sites on a computer network, the method comprising: 
 automatically searching and retrieving documents, based on user-defined keywords or parameters, from one or more first sites on the computer network on a periodic, scheduled, or event-driven basis;    posting one or more of the retrieved documents to a second site;    receiving commands from users of the second site to post documents to one or more of the first sites; and    in response to the posting documents to one or more of the first sites, retrieving and collecting at the second site reply documents that are associated with the posted documents on the one or more first sites, including excluding one or more of the reply documents based on user- or administrator-defined criteria.    
     
     
         15 . A machine-readable medium comprising instructions for: 
 automatically searching and retrieving documents, based on user-defined keywords or parameters, from one or more first sites on the computer network on a periodic, scheduled, or event-driven basis;    posting one or more of the retrieved documents to a second site;    receiving commands from users of the second site to post documents to one or more of the first sites; and    in response to the posting documents to one or more of the first sites, retrieving and collecting at the second site reply documents that are associated with the posted documents on the one or more first sites, including excluding one or more of the reply documents based on user- or administrator-defined criteria.    
     
     
         16 . A website or server including the computer-readable medium of  claim 15 .  
     
     
         17 . A personal computer system or other access device including the computer-readable medium of  claim 15 .  
     
     
         18 . A server comprising: 
 means for receiving data submissions from a plurality of users;    means for measuring the quality, relevance, or quantity of the received data submissions relative to a specified criteria;    means for automatically retrieving data from a first network accessible database, based on a specified criteria and storing the retrieved data in a second network accessible database associated with the server; and    means for granting one or more of the users access rights to data in the second database based on the measured quality, relevance, or quantity of the received data submissions.    
     
     
         19 . The server of  claim 18 , wherein receiving data submission includes receiving data for posting to one or more network accessible databases.  
     
     
         20 . A computerized method comprising: 
 automatically posting one or more first documents stored at a first database in a computer network to one or more second databases in the computer network;    automatically collecting at the first database one or more second documents posted at one or more of the second databases in reply to one or more of the first posted documents; and    automatically granting users access rights to documents stored on the first database in return for their data contributions to the first database.    
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the access rights to documents stored on the first database are granted based on the quantity, quality, or relevance of the data contributions.  
     
     
         22 . A system comprising: 
 a first database accessible via a computer network;    means for granting users access rights to the first database based on their respective data contributions to the database;    means for posting one or more first documents stored at the first database to one or more second databases accessible via the computer network; and    means for automatically collecting at the first database one or more second documents posted at one or more of the second databases in reply to one or more of the first posted documents.    
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein the access rights are granted to users based on quantity, quality, or relevance of their respective data contributions.  
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 means for excluding one or more of the second documents from the first database, based on user- or administrator-defined criteria.    
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 22 , further comprising means for serving data from the first database to at least a first user, based on a first query and access rights associated with the first user.  
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 means for receiving a first data contribution or a first query from a first user of the first database and receiving a second data contribution or a second query from a second user of the first database; and    means, responsive to similarities of the first data contribution or first query to the second data contribution or second query, for facilitating a relationship between the first and second users.    
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 22  wherein the data contributions concern medical or health information.  
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein the means for facilitating a relationship between the first and second users includes means for communicating address information for the first user to a device associated with the second user.  
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 28  wherein the means for communicating address information for the first user to the second user comprises means for determining whether the first user has granted permission for providing the address information.