Title:

TEMPLATE-BASED ELECTRONIC PRESENCE MANAGEMENT

Document Type and Number:

United States Patent Application 20080065974

Kind Code:

Abstract:

A platform provides an intuitive and integrated management tool for disparate communications channels. Media such as web sites, web logs, electronic mail, instant messaging, and short messaging services may be combined and controlled through a single access point. The user interface for the access point may itself be deployed for use with a cellular phone, web client, or the like. While graphical user interfaces are one useful embodiment, a command-oriented interface may similarly be operated telephonically, or using electronic mail, instant messaging, SMS, or any other suitable technique.

Inventors:

Campbell, Tom (Redmond, WA, US)

Plaque It!

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Prov. App. No. 60/825,111 filed on Sep. 8, 2006, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Over the past several decades, numerous communications technologies have become commonplace. This ranges from the Internet, which has provided personalized web sites, weblogs, and the like, to electronic mail, which has migrated from conventional Internet clients such as personal computers over to cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and dedicated wireless electronic mail clients. Other technologies such as facsimiles, voice mail, Short Messaging Service (“SMS”) and the like are also commonplace.

In general, each new medium provides a separate communication channel with its own underlying technology. Tools have emerged to assist non-technical users with each such technology. For example, electronic mail clients have become increasingly sophisticated in their ability to provide services on top of basic messaging, such as organization into folders, archiving, scheduling, forwarding, and filtering. As another example, a number of client-based web design tools are available, and in some cases, a domain hosting service will provide online tools for creation of basic websites.

However, there is no integrated tool to assist consumers in managing multiple communications technologies. There remains a need for intuitive electronic presence management tools suitable for general use.

SUMMARY

A system disclosed herein includes an electronic presence stored in a template that defines at least one feature of the electronic presence in each one of a plurality of different communications mediums; and an interface for remotely modifying the template, thereby updating the electronic presence.

The plurality of different communications mediums may include two or more of the World Wide Web, electronic mail, text messaging, instant messaging, telephonic communications, and cellular telephone communications. The interface may be adapted to receive a control signal to modify the template from at least one of an HTTP post, an SMS message, a telephonic message, an instant messaging message, and an electronic mail. The interface may respond to a defective control signal by requesting additional input from a user that supplied the defective control signal. The defective control signal may be one or more of an unparseable control signal, an ambiguous control signal, and an incomplete control signal. The template may be selected from a group of templates organized by business type. Updating the electronic presence may include adding or removing a service. Updating the electronic presence may include adding or removing content. Updating the electronic presence may include modifying a web site. The system may further include a wizard for creating the template.

A system disclosed herein includes an electronic presence stored in a template that describes at least one feature of the electronic presence; and an interface adapted to receive control signals from a plurality of sources to modify the template, the plurality of sources including two or more of a web browser, an electronic mail client, a text messaging device, an instant messaging client, and a telephone.

The at least one feature may include a visual attribute. The visual attribute may include one or more of a layout, a style sheet, color, a font, and a graphic. The at least one feature may include a service. The service may include one or more of a weblog, a calendar, electronic mail, a mapping service, and instant messenger service, an interactive voice response system, a directory, an image gallery, a weather service, a news service, a social networking service, and a video service. The interface may include a command interpreter that receives control signals from any of the plurality of sources and may convert the control signals into at least one command to modify the template. When the command interpreter is unable to convert one of the control signals into the at least one command, the command interpreter may issue a request for additional information to the one of the plurality of sources that provided the one of the control signals. The system may further include a memory storing a history of control signals from the plurality of sources, thereby permitting an undo of a command with reference to the history. The at least one feature may include content. The interface may respond to an image with a default action of posting the image to a gallery on a web site of the electronic presence.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The system and the following detailed description of certain embodiments thereof may be understood by reference to the following figures:

FIG. 1 depicts a system and method for non-technical people to create, maintain, and update an attractive electronic presence that may be shared with others; and

FIG. 2 depicts a logical view of the system and method of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 depicts an expanded logical view of a command processor.

FIG. 4 depicts an expanded logical view of a client.

FIG. 5 depicts an expanded logical view of an information resource facility and associated methods.

FIG. 6 depicts an interaction method between a client and an information resource.

FIG. 7 depicts a logical view of a common user interface system and method.

FIG. 8 depicts a logical view of an administrative user interface system and method.

FIG. 9 depicts a logical view of a super-user interface system and method.

FIG. 10 depicts a user interface for modifying a minisite.

FIG. 11 depicts a fold-out view for modifying a minisite.

FIG. 12 depicts a user interface for toggling and organizing elements of a minisite.

FIG. 13 depicts a high-level view of communication channels for electronic presence management.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Disclosed herein are techniques for non-technical people to create, maintain, and update an attractive electronic presence that may be shared with others. The electronic presence may consist of various general-purpose, web-based services, such as a website, a blog, a brochure, an image gallery, and so on. The electronic presence may additionally or alternatively consist of various special-purpose, web-based services, such as a restaurant menu, an interactive kennel rate sheet, a business leads group, and so on. The electronic presence may additionally or alternatively consists of various electronic information services that are not web-based, such as SMS-based services, voice-based services, and so on. Access control may be employed to restrict and/or delegate editing rights for a particular electronic presence.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a system 100 may include a number of clients 102 , input signals 104 , help signals 108 , a command processor 110 , resource actions 112 , alerts 114 , an information resource 118 , a client interaction method 122 of the information resource 118 , a server architecture 120 , a user interface 124 , user privileges 128 , a logging aspect 130 , a communication facility 132 , a related technology 134 , and a related feature 138 . The clients 102 may be under the control of a number of users 140 . A client 102 may be a multi-user facility such as a public computer terminal, or a single-user facility owned by or associated with a single, individual user 140 . For example and without limitation, such a client 102 may include a cellular phone that is registered to a particular user 140 . In any case, an object of the present system may be to provide services to the users 140 . Some of these services may be provided generally to all users 140 , while other services may be provided to particular subsets of all users 140 .

The various services described herein may be provided by the command processor 110 and the information resource 118 . The command processor 110 may receive input signals 104 from a client 102 that is associated with a user 140 . The input signals 104 may be generated by the client 102 in response to a control input provided to the client 102 from the user 140 . Various types of control input will be appreciated from the following disclosure and all such control inputs are within the scope of the present system. Perhaps depending upon a user privilege 128 associated with the user 140 , the command processor 110 may process the input signal 104 . In some cases, this processing may be associated with the command processor 110 returning a help signal 108 to the client 102 . In some cases, this processing may be associated with the command processor 110 generating a resource action 112 in response to this processing. In any case, the command processor 100 converts input signals 104 into resource actions 112 , either by generating resource actions 112 based thereupon, or by passing the input signals 104 through as resource actions where appropriate. The command processor 110 may also prompt the client 102 to transmit additional input signals 104 , such as where the facility 110 cannot automatically perform requested action or where additional information is required. The command processor may transceiver the input signal 104 , the help signal 108 , the resource action 112 , and/or the alert via a communication facility 132 .

A method of interaction between a client 102 , a command processor 110 , and an information resource 118 may include the client 102 producing a signal that is received as an input signal 104 by the command processor; the command processor 110 processing the input signal; perhaps in response to or as a result of this processing, the command processor 110 producing any number of resource actions 112 ; receiving the resource actions 112 at the information resource 118 ; and, perhaps asynchronously with respect to the foregoing, the information resource 118 communicating directly with a client 102 , wherein this communication may consist of encoded user 140 actions or interactions that do not require reduction or translation into resource actions 112 because the information resource 118 is able to process them directly. The client 102 that provides the input signal 104 to the command processor 110 (“the input client”) may be the same client 102 that interacts directly with the information resource 118 and any number of clients 102 may be present.

The input client may accept user input associated with an input signal 104 via an input facility such as a microphone, keypad, graphical user interface, and so forth), which may be described herein or elsewhere. The input client may provide the input signal 104 to the command processor 110 by communicating the input signal 104 via an output facility of the input client. The command processor 110 may receive and process the input signal 104 and may optionally generate a client help signal, a resource action, or similar action; the command processor 110 may be described in greater detail herein or in any and all documents included herein by reference. The client help signal 108 may be returned to the input client to request clarification of an input signal. The command processor 110 may process an input signal 104 and deliver a resource action 112 to the information resource 118 . Perhaps dependent on the resource action, the information resource 118 may generate and transmit a help signal 108 to the input client. The information resource 118 may communicate the help signal 108 to the original client 102 or a different client 102 than the input client 102 .

The information resource 118 is a Web server and the client 102 is a Web client or browser, with interaction between the two conducted through a web session, an HTTP request/response, or the like. The content of this interaction is described in greater detail below. The client 102 may be a desktop computer, laptop computer, PDA, handheld computer, portable computer, cellular phone, smart phone, server, client, embedded computer or other computing device, and so forth. The client 102 may function as a client, server, peer, and so on.

FIG. 3 shows a command processor in greater detail. In embodiments, once the command processor 110 receives an input signal 104 , it may transmit the input signal 104 to an input converter 302 where the input signal 104 may be converted into a command 304 . The input signal 104 may encode data in any form suitable for interpretation by the command processor including text, audio (such as and without limitation voice audio, DTMF audio, and so forth), a barcode scan, an image, a video, a selection, a data feed item, a sensor measurement, a clock tick, an alarm, a client context description, user 140 information (e.g. preferences), user privilege 128 information, textual information (e.g. email or SMS message), tabular information (e.g. cell phone UT table or web form), non-textual input, and the like. Commands 304 may be computer-interpretable commands. The command 304 may be in a command language definition (CLD) format or other command language format. The input signal 104 may already be in a command format where, for example, a client 102 can generate corresponding output.

The input signal 104 may include or be associated with a well-formed instruction, a malformed instruction, a longhand instruction, a shorthand instruction, an alternate instruction, or the like. The instructions may control an information resource 118 such as by adding, deleting, or modifying information that is stored in, maintained by, under the control of, or otherwise associated with the information resource 118 . This information may in turn be associated with an electronic presence or a service thereof as generally described herein. The input converter 302 may condition the input signal 104 for further processing. For example, the input converter 302 may evaluate the presence and validity of commands 304 within the input signal 104 . Where no command 304 is present, the command processor 110 may generate a help signal 108 for communication to the client 102 via the communication facility 132 . The help signal 108 may be transmitted to the same client 102 that sent the input signal 104 or may be sent to another client 102 .

In general, a help signal 108 prompts a user 140 for further input or information. This may include, for example: an indication that the input signal 104 was not understood (or was understood to be ambiguous), an interpretation of the received input signal 104 , a request to verify the input signal 104 , a help message with suggested alternative input signals, or any and all other helpful information. The help signal 108 may be provided as part of an interactive sequence in which additional help signals 108 are generated based on a users 140 reply (i.e., input signal) in response to a help signal. The command processor 110 may continue to generate help signals 108 in the interactive sequence until an input signal 104 is correctly interpreted; until the command processor 110 is able to unambiguously understand the input signal 104 that resulted in the commencement of the interactive sequence; until the user 140 explicitly or implicitly terminates the interactive sequence; or the like. Alternatively, the command processor 110 may generate no help signal 108 at all and, instead, may simply drop an input signal 104 whose purpose is not automatically understood.

The command processor 110 may transmit resource actions 112 to the information resource 118 via the communication facility 132 . The information resource 118 may use a command acknowledgement protocol to signal or otherwise indicate to the command processor 110 that the resource actions 112 have been received, processed, accepted, rejected, and so on. The information resource 118 may transmit an alert 114 if the resource actions 112 are not received, cannot be executed, result in or are associated with some kind of failure (such as and without limitation a syntax error, a logical failure, a system failure, and so on), and so forth. In response to the alert, the command processor 110 may reissue the resource action 112 , may issue an alternate resource action 112 , may redirect the resource action 112 to a second information resource 118 (e.g. in a case where the information resource 118 failed), may generate a help signal 108 as appropriate, or may initiate another response that attempts to address, respond to, and/or log the alert 114 .

The alert 114 may include a technical message, which may be provided in a human-readable format. This message may be in accordance with a protocol or other communications method. The alert 114 , which is also described hereinafter and elsewhere, may, without limitation, relate to a success or failure that is associated with a resource action 112 . The resource action 112 and the alert 114 may be provided according to the same protocol. For example and without limitation, a resource action 112 and alert 114 may be provided according to HTTP. In this example, the resource action 112 may include an HTTP POST command and the alert 114 may include an HTTP “404” resource not found message.

The input converter 302 of the command processor 110 may include a compiler. The compiler may include a lexical analyzer, a parser, and/or another kind of input analysis facility.

A parser may conduct syntax analysis and semantic parsing on an expression within the input signal 104 . The expression may be a logical expression, a textual expression, a binary expression, a hexadecimal expression, an octal expression, or any and all other kinds and/or encodings of expression. The syntax analysis may utilize a context-free grammar and may attempt to match an expression to the grammar, wherein an input signal 104 may include the expression. The context-free grammar may be relaxed so as to accept some invalid grammatical constructs. Generally, the syntax analysis may be as forgiving as possible, perhaps accepting a number of invalid grammatical constructs that are close to or can be construed to be equivalent to a valid grammatical construct. The semantic parsing may be directed at working out an intent or implication of an expression that has been accepted by the syntax analysis

For example and without limitation, a client 102 may provide an input signal 104 that is embodied as an SMS message. This message may include a textual string. The string may be “d 153”. In embodiments, “d” may be an abbreviation for “delete” and the number that follows “d” (i.e. “153”) may be interpreted to be an index to something. The syntax analysis may accept this string as valid grammatical construct. Then, the semantic parsing may determine that “d” means “delete” and that “153” refers to the index of a blog posting (e.g. the 153 ^rdentry in a blog). Thus, the intent or implication of the expression, as the semantic parsing determines it here, may be that a blog entry with index “153” should be deleted. Many other such examples will be appreciated and may be described herein and elsewhere. All such examples are within the scope of the present disclosure.

The semantic parsing may be as forgiving as possible, such as by accepting some expressions that fail to parse or that do parse but result in ambiguous results, and may err on the side of issuing commands as opposed to generating a help signal. In other words, the semantic parsing may include making a perhaps educated guess relating to the intent of the input signal 104 . This educated guess may be informed by a preference, a privilege, a history, or any and all information that may inform the educated guess. The semantic parsing may be affected by a context. This context may be associated with a user 140 , a privilege 128 , a skill level of a user, a static or pre-defined skill level of a user, a dynamic or automatically detected skill level of a user, and so forth. In all, the parser may determine an appropriate action given an input signal 104 .

For example and without limitation, consider the foregoing example in which a client 102 provides an input signal 104 that is embodied as an SMS message provides. In that example, suppose that there are multiple blogs from which a blog entry with index “153” could be deleted. Determining what this expression implies may require answering the following question with an educated guess: from which blog should an entry with index “153” be deleted? The educated guess may be informed by the identity of a user 140 , the last blog with which the user 140 had an interaction, a preference or default of the user 140 , and so on. Many other such examples will be appreciated and may be described herein and elsewhere. All such examples are within the scope of the present disclosure.

Regardless of whether the input converter 302 includes a parser, an objective of the input converter may be to determine an appropriate action given an input signal 104 . The appropriate action may be to generate commands. In this case, the meaning or intent of the input signal 104 either was clear or the input converter is making an educated guess as to its meaning. The appropriate action may be to defer the generation of commands. In this case, the meaning or intent of the input signal 104 may be unclear but perhaps subsequent input signals 104 will shed light on the meaning or intent; the input converter may set the unclear input signal 104 aside and revisit it later, after other input signals 104 have been received. The appropriate action may be to delegate the problem of figuring out what the input signal 104 means by transmitting a help signal 108 . This help signal 108 may be directed at the client 102 that provided the unclear input signal 104 . At some point after transmitting the help signal 108 , a second input signal 104 may be received from the client 102 , wherein this input signal 104 may be a response to the help signal 108 . This response may be processed by the input converter as described in this paragraph and elsewhere herein. The appropriate action may be to discard the input signal 104 , perhaps generating a log entry in the process. In this case, the meaning or intent of the input signal 104 may be so completely unclear or ambiguous and there is nothing that the input converter can do better appreciate it.

The input converter 302 may operated with reference to a rules, permissions, and preferences database 310 which may contain rules, permissions, and preferences. The rules, permissions, and preferences may be associated with users 110 and an electronic presence, service, and/or aspect thereof, any and all of which may be provided by the information resource 118 as described in detail hereinafter and elsewhere. The rules, permissions, and preferences may relate to how a particular input signal 104 that is associated with a particular user 140 or set of users 140 ought to be converted into a command 304 (or whether it should be converted into a command 304 at all). A user 140 may set a preference that is associated with himself. For example and without limitation, this preference may specify that one of a number of blogs that is associated with the user 140 is his default blog. One operational effect of this preference may be that input signals 104 that are generally directed at a blog that is associated with the user 140 , but not to a particular blog that is associated with the user 140 , may be, by virtue of the preference, specifically directed at the default blog by the input converter 302 . Many other such examples may be disclosed herein or elsewhere, and still others will be appreciated. All such examples are within the scope of the present system. Permissions may relate to whether a user 140 may be considered a common user, an administrative user, or a super-user, as are described hereinafter with references to FIG. 7, FIG. 8, and FIG. 9 and elsewhere. Permissions may apply to a user 140 generally, in particular circumstances, in relation to particular commands 304 or input signals 104 , or the like. Rules may include any and all rules that may apply to any and all aspects, elements, features, functions, and the like of the present system.

A command processor 110 may accept input signals 104 from a number of different clients 102 . The input signals 104 may be received through a wired network, wireless network, cell network, or other network connection to the command processor 110 . The clients 102 may be a cell phone, a smart phone, a personal computer, a handheld computer, a data feed agent, an SMTP agent, a laptop computer, or other device capable of providing an input signal 104 to the command processor 110 . The input signal 104 may be a text file, an email, a voice command, a data feed, SMS message, an image, or the like. The input signal 104 may be any signal from a user 140 that may be interpreted as a command for electronic presence 223 construction, format, design, or the like.

The command processor 110 may be implemented as server architecture, executable software, scripted software, firmware, hardware, and the like, or any combination thereof.

A client 102 may be a telephone, a cell phone, a smart phone, a personal computer, a handheld computer, a data feed agent (such as and without limitation, an RSS reader, a feed reader, a feed aggregator, a news reader, and so forth), an SMTP agent, a laptop computer, or other hardware and/or software facility capable of communicating a signal between a user 140 and an automatic system, wherein the communication may involve encoding a signal from a user 140 into a binary representation and/or decoding a signal from a binary representation to a format suitable for presentation to a user 140 . The clients 102 may be user-controlled (e.g. cell phone, personal computer, and the like) or automatic (e.g. data feed agent and the like). The client 102 may be operated as an interactive device, end-user device, administration device, a combination of any and all of the forgoing, and so on. The clients 102 may be operatively coupled to the command processor 110 and/or the information resource 118 using the Internet, short message service center (SMSC), PSTN gateway, or the like to provide input, receive output, or otherwise interact with the command processor 110 and information resource 118 .

Referring now to FIG. 4, embodiments of the client 102 may include a CPU 402 , memory 404 , a network facility 408 , an input facility 410 , an output facility 412 , a data bus 414 , or the like.

The CPU 402 may provide a computing or information processing capability that is associated with receiving input from a user 140 , providing output to a user 140 , communicating with a command processor 110 , and so on. For example and without limitation, the CPU 402 may consist of the following: a CISC processor, a RISC processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a DSP, a memory management facility, a display driver, a CODEC, a peripheral interface, a memory interface, a power interface, a clock, a clock interface, and so on.

The memory 404 may consist of the following: a static memory, a dynamic memory, a write-once memory, a read-only memory, random-access memory, an EPROM, a EEPROM, a Flash memory, an electrical memory, a magnetic memory, a quantum memory, a chemical memory, fixed memory, removable memory, and any and all other types of memory. The memory 404 may include a CD drive, a DVD drive, a hard drive, a zip drive, a tape or tape drive, a memory chip, a memory card, memory on a wafer, any and all combinations of the foregoing, and the like. The memory types may be used individually or may be used in combination; some of the clients 102 may have more than one memory type.

The network facility 408 may include, support, or be associated with a physical network connection, such as may provide an operative coupling for communication between the client 102 and a command processor 110 . Without limitation, the network facility 408 may be wired, wireless, IR, or any and all other types of physical network connections. The client 102 may include network facilities, each of which may include types of network facility.

The input facility 410 may include of the following facilities for receiving input: a keyboard, mouse, microphone, phone keypad, phone receiver, joystick, camera, touchpad, stylus, and the like. Any and all input received by the input facility 410 may be deliberately generated by a user 140 , may be inadvertently generated by a user 140 , may be a feature of a physical environment of the user 140 (such as and without limitation a background noise, light level, a magnetic orientation, a global or geographic position, an altitude, a depth, and so on), and so forth.

The output facility 412 may include a display screen, speakers (such as and without limitation computer speakers, a telephone speaker, and so on), a force feedback facility (such as and without limitation a vibrator and so on), a light, and the like.

The data bus 414 may provide information communication within the client 102 , between the elements of the client 102 .

A cell phone client 102 may have input facilities 410 that may include a keypad, a microphone, a camera, directional scroll facility, selection indicators (e.g. buttons), function indicators, or the like. A cell phone client 102 may have output facilities 412 that may include a speaker, an LCD screen, a vibrator, a network facility, head phone jack, short distance communication facility (e.g. Bluetooth), an ear receiver/microphone connection facility, and the like.

A client 102 may be a personal computing facility. The client 102 may have input facilities 410 that may include a keyboard, a microphone, a mouse, a camera, a joystick, and the like. The client 102 may have output facilities 412 that may include a display, at least one speaker, a network facility, and the like. The personal computing facility may include devices such as a handheld client 102 , a tower computer, a laptop computer, a Blackberry, a tablet PC, and the like.

A client 102 may be an automatic computer. The client 102 may have input facilities 410 such as a data feed, a sensor, a timer, and the like. For example and without limitation, the automatic computer may include outputs such as a network facility, an LED indicator, a speaker, an ambient indicator, a display, and the like.

Referring again to FIG. 3, in embodiments, an input signal 104 to the command processor 110 may include information such as and without limitation text, audio, an image, a video, a selection, a data feed item, a sensor measurement, a clock tick, an alarm, a client context description, user information (e.g. preferences), user privilege 128 information, textual information (e.g. email or SMS message), tabular information (e.g. cell phone UT table or web form), selection information, and the like. The input signal 104 may be associated with a text message, an SMS message, an instant message, a voice message, a sequence of inputs received via a keypad or keyboard, any and all combinations of the foregoing, and so forth. The selection information may consist of a click, tap, or other such user input. The client context description may include the client 102 model, type, brand, identity, location, language, locale, software version, hardware version, user-agent string, and the like.

A help signal 108 may be directed to any and all clients 102 . The help signal 108 may be directed to a client 102 that provided an input signal 104 that is associated with the help signal 108 . The help signal 108 may be transmitted by the command processor 110 , the information resource 118 , a combination of the foregoing, or any and all other facilities. The help signal 108 may include an instruction, a suggestion, a feedback, a hint, a combination of any and all of the foregoing, or any other signal. The help signal 108 may be used to clarify the input signal 104 before or after providing a resource action 112 to the information resource 118 . The help signal 108 may be a result of a resource action 112 being received, rejected, accepted, and/or processed at the information resource 118 .

The help signal 108 may include data that is directed at, includes, or is associated with a JavaScript client, a text message, a web page, a voice mail message, an email message, a media file, a media file trigger, a SOAP message, an XML-RPC command, an XML message, an RSS message, or the like. The media file of the help signal 108 may include an audio file, a video file, an image file, a light show, a vibration sequence, or the like. The media file trigger may indicate to the administrative client that it is time to render a media file that may already be stored in administrative client and may have been delivered in a previous help signal 108 .

In embodiments, resource actions 112 may be received by the information resource 118 and may provide, indicate, specify, suggest, define, imply, or otherwise be associated with features, functions, or methods of the information resource 118 that produce useful, concrete, and tangible results. These features, functions, methods, and results may be executed, conducted, invoked, revoked, initiated, halted, completed, reversed, undone, interpreted, compiled, provided, retracted, and so on, by the information resource 118 . The resource action 112 may include a query, an enterprise function or related directive, a content function or related directive, a template function or related directive, a command or related directive, or any and all other functions, commands, or related directives.

The query may be a database query, such as and without limitation an SQL query, which may be communicated according to ODBC. In such embodiments, the information resource 118 may include a database management system.

The enterprise function may be any resource action 112 associated with an administration action such as adding a user; deleting a user; adding new data; deleting data; processing password information; defining, deleting, or updating a file, a preference, or any other data, or any and all other administration activities. The client 102 requesting the enterprise function may have administrator privileges on the system; the system may deny, ignore, or otherwise set aside an enterprise function arriving from a client that does not have administrator privileges.

The content function may be any resource action 112 that requests new or modified content information. The content function may include posting content, deleting content, modifying content, retrieving content, or the like. Content may include text, images, audio, video, sentence formatting, paragraph formatting, page formatting, text formatting, image formatting, audio formatting, video formatting, color mix and choice, and the like.

The template function may be any resource action 112 that interacts with a template of a design. A resource action 112 may activate a template element, deactivate a template element, select a template, remove a template, alter a template appearance, or the like.

The information resource 118 may be controlled by resource actions 112 from the command processor 110 . The information resource 118 may generate an alert 114 in response to the resource action 112 , such as an alert 114 to the command processor 110 upon which a help signal 108 is generated. The help signal may 108 notify the client 102 (and thereby the user 140 ) that the information resource 118 failed to operate in some manner (either requested or otherwise), or that a requested operation succeeded.

The information resource 118 may communicate with clients 102 . These clients may be associated with and/or under the control of users 140 who are receiving services provided by the system 100 . The communication between the information resource 118 and the clients 102 may adhere to standard communication protocols and methods, many of which are described hereinafter, still more of which will be appreciated from this disclosure, and all of which are within the scope of the present system. This communication may be unidirectional, bidirectional, full duplex, half duplex, simplex, and so on. In some embodiments, this communication may be affected by a user privilege 128 that is associated with the user 140 that is associated with the client 102 that is engaged (or attempting to become engaged) in said communication. In any case, this communication may be directed by or in accordance with a client interaction method 122 of the information resource 118 . This method 122 may support general interactions between the client 102 and the information resource 118 , which may include any and all possible communications in support of any and all services provided by the present system 100 . This will be appreciated from a detailed description that appears hereinafter.

Referring now to FIG. 5, an information resource 118 may provide and/or enable client I/O 502 that is associated with information services (or simply “services”), which themselves may be elements of an electronic presence. Both the electronic presence and the services may be described in greater detail hereinafter with reference to FIG. 2 and elsewhere. This client I/O 502 may include signal, which may be provided and/or received from to a client 102 such as a cell phone, a smart phone, a personal computer, a handheld computer, a data feed agent, an SMTP agent, a laptop computer, or other device capable of receiving the signal from the information resource 118 . The signal may be provided as a message or sequence of messages, which may be associated with a one-way or two-way communication between the information resource 118 and the client 102 . In the case of a one-way communication, one example of the message may be an SMS or MMS message that is transmitted from the information resource 118 to the client 102 . In the case of a two-way communication, one example of the message may be an HTML page that is transmitted from the information resource 118 to the client 102 , in response to a HTTP GET request that was first received by the information resource 118 from the client 102 . One example of a sequence of messages may be a series of SMS text messages or MMS multimedia messages, each of which may embody a fragment of a textual message, wherein the textual message is too large to be transmitted in a single SMS text message or MMS multimedia message and so it is (perhaps completely) transmitted as the fragments.

The information resource 118 may receive input from the command processor. The input may include the resource actions 112 . The information resource 118 may include at least one communication facility 132 , a resource controller 504 , interactive information server 508 , content database 510 , template database 512 , enterprise database 514 , or other similar component.

The information services may be directed at and/or adapted for a particular client 102 . In one example, the client 102 may include a Web browser and the information services may be formatted and/or encoded for viewing via the Web browser and/or processing by the Web browser. In another example, the client 102 may include a cell phone display for displaying an SMS message. In this case, the information services may be formatted and/or encoded for viewing via the cell phone and/or processing by the cell phone. In still another example, the client 102 may include a Web browser with limited capabilities, such as a small screen size, a limited color depth, and so forth. In this case, the information services may be formatted in accordance with those limited capabilities. Many other information services are described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 2 and elsewhere. Still other information services will be appreciated. Any and all such information services are intended to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

The information resource 118 may be implemented as a server architecture, executable software, scripted software, firmware, hardware, and the like, or any combination thereof.

The information resource 118 may contain a resource controller 504 that may accept resource actions 112 from the command processor, generate alerts 114 back to the command processor, modify databases (such as and without limitation 510 , 512 , 514 ), access databases (such as and without limitation 510 , 512 , 514 ), or the like.

The information resource 118 may contain an interactive information server 508 for interaction with the user's client 102 . The interactive information server 508 may provide information services to the user 140 , perhaps using sessions such as web sessions, WAP sessions, IVR sessions, IM sessions, and the like. Such a communication session may be compatible with a communication capability of the client 102 . The interactive information server 508 may allow users 140 to access databases such as the content 510 , template 512 , and enterprise databases 514 . The information resource 118 may include a database management system, a Web server, a WAP server, an IVR server, am IM server, or any other software or hardware server.

The interactive information server 508 may automatically generate tags to be used for search engine optimization (e.g. SEO); the tags may be associated with a Web page that is served by the interactive information server 508 . The tags may be generated automatically, individually, based on startup information, by any and all other methods for generating metadata tags, or any and all combinations of the foregoing. The administrator, user, or other entity of a minisite (which may be a website embodiment of an electronic presence) may apply the individually assigned metadata tags. The tags may be assigned based on startup information, which may be gathered from a user 140 .

For example and without limitation, the user 140 may sign up for an account that is associated with the information resource facility 118 . This account may allow the user 140 to create a minisite or other website that is served by the interactive information server 508 , information resource 118 , or any and all servers and facilities of the present system 100 . As the user 140 is signing up for the account, he may report that he lives in Boston and that his name is John Doe. In this example, the interactive information server 508 may insert “Boston” and “John Doe” tags into some or all of the webpages of his website. These tags may serve an SEO function. The tags may be applied to an image, page title, URL, comments, text, or any and all other components of a minisite. Without limitation, the tags may be embodied in or as image alt text, a title of a page, a metadata tag, a description metadata tag, a keyword metadata tag, a URL, a comment tag, body text, or any other part of an HTML document, XML document, or any and all other types of document.

The information resource 118 may have a content database 510 that may contain text, audio, video, multimedia, interactive programs, or any and all other types of content. Without limitation, the interactive programs may include a game, a JavaScript application, an AJAX application, or the like. The content database 510 may contain any website content, which may be combined with a website template, to produce a webpage of a website that may be communicated to the user 140 as instances of client I/O.

The information resource 118 may include a template database 512 that may provide, contain, and/or accept a website template, website designs, user-interface layouts, website styles, help pages, text fonts, formatting, and other specification or definition of a website perceptual or functional design quality. The template, specification, or definition may embody, include, or be associated with a service of an electronic presence (again, as described in detail hereinafter with reference to FIG. 2 and elsewhere). The template, specification, or definition may include a model, view, or controller, any and all of which may relate to a feature, function, or method of the interactive information server 508 . The model may include a data model, a data or state that populates a data model, domain logic, and the like. The domain logic may add meaning to the data or state or draw inferences from the same. For example and without limitation, the data may specify that “today is January 1” and that “John's birthday is January 1”; the domain logic may relate this data so as to determine that “today is John's birthday.” The view may be associated with the model and may be a view of the model. For example and without limitation, the view may include a user-interface layout or style (including visual aspects of the same); other perceptual qualities of the user-interface (visual or non-visual); a help message (that is, a view of a state that is associated with an error); and so on. The view may be implemented as CSS or any other style-sheet definition, markup language, or specification.

The controller may be associated with the model and may include functions of the template that are made available to the user 140 and that allow the user 140 to interact with and perhaps modify the view and/or model. For example and without limitation, the controller may allow the user 140 to select a view, modify a data or state, perform or participate in an interactive process (which may relate to a visual layout, a logical flow, and so on); and so forth. In any case, the template may define or specify a set of commands (perhaps referred to herein and elsewhere as a “command set”) that the resource controller 504 may process. Apart from these commands, the resource controller 504 may, additionally or alternatively, be able to process a default or built-in command set. The command set may consist of event/action pairs and associated alerts, which may be generated in response to certain resource actions 112 , events, other actions, and so on. The command set may include relatively low-level commands that operate on data, state, enterprise data, the contents of any and all of the databases ( 510 , 512 , 514 , and so on), and so forth. These commands may include or be associated with resource actions 112 . Without limitation, the command set may provide a layer of abstraction between the resource action 112 and the underlying databases 510 , 512 , 514 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate the utility of this and will appreciate that this may be an optional software/system design feature.

The information resource facility 118 may include an enterprise database 514 that may maintain enterprise information such as company name, branding graphics and text, customer information, supplier information, authorized user information, user information, passwords, access-control information, logs, data backups of any and all of the databases, stored procedures, actions or event/action pairs associated with an enterprise, zone information (relating to DNS), template configuration information (including, without limitation, information and settings related to templates; active/inactive toggle states of template elements; preferred visual arrangement of template elements; website style selection; website field sizes; website color palette selection; website formatting selection or setting; and the like.

The enterprise database 514 may include template configuration information, which may, without limitation, relate to a preference, default, selection, or the like. This may specify, define, or otherwise indicate a preferred or default visual arrangement and/or feature set of a template-defined website for a particular enterprise; provide standards, defaults, preferences, or selections associated with a template that is associated with an enterprise, and the like. In other words, whereas the template database may contain a template that defines the domain of visual and functional properties of a website, the enterprise database may contain indications of which elements and options within that domain ought to be used. When the indications are combined with the template by the interactive information server, it may produce a particular view or instance of a website from within the domain of the template. This view or instance may be include HTML pages, JavaScript code, images, tags, metadata tags, hyperlinks, audio, text, style sheets, any other element of a website, or any and all of the foregoing.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a client interaction method 122 supports interaction between an information resource 118 and a client 102 . This method 122 may begin with the client generating client I/O 502 . This I/O 502 may include a client context 602 , a get/put/post/delete command 608 or equivalent, data 610 , and so forth. The I/O 502 may be generated in response to an input received by the client 102 from a user 140 through a user interface 124 . The user interface 124 may, for example, be embodied in a website or webpage provided by the information resource 118 . Alternatively or additionally, the I/O 502 may be generated in response to an input received by the client 102 from an automatic client process 604 . In any case, the information resource 118 may receive and process the client I/O 502 . In response to or as a result of this processing, the information resource 118 may generate a client I/O 502 . This client I/O 502 may include a get/put/post/delete command 608 or equivalent, data 610 , and so forth. The client 102 may receive this client I/O 502 , which may encode, command, and/or be associated with the user interface 124 . The client 102 may render the client I/O 502 as or in the context of the user interface 124 . This rendition may, without limitation, include of the following: an input field, a roll-over, a hyperlink, an image, video, audio, text, and so on. Additional input from the user 140 may be received via the user interface 124 , which may lead to the client 102 generating additional client I/O 502 , which may be received by the information resource 118 , and so on.

In embodiments the client 102 may generate client I/O 502 by combining the client context 602 , appropriate command 608 (e.g. get, put, post, delete), data 610 , and the like.

The information resource 118 may generate client I/O 502 for display on the client 102 by combining the generated command 502 (e.g. get, put, post, delete) with information stored in a database. The client 502 may include a display for rendering the user interface 124 or an aspect thereof.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the command processor 110 and/or the information resource 118 may be implemented according to server architecture 120 . This architecture 120 may, without limitation, provide redundancy, failover, high availability, backup, recovery, rapid response times, or other such features. Various kinds of server architectures 120 are described in detail hereinafter (or elsewhere) and still other kinds will be appreciated from this disclosure. All such server architectures 120 are intended to fall within the scope of the present system.

Servers may be arranged according to a server architecture 120 . The servers may include a rack-mount server, a tower server, a desktop server, an embedded server, an HTML server, an XML server, a Java-enabled server, a database server, a firewall server, a Web server, an application server, a backup server, a distributed server, a replicated server, a shared server, a dedicated server, a cluster computer, a load-balancing server, a proxy server, a client-side application, a client-side applet, a client-side script, a server-side application, a server-side applet, a server-side script, any and all combinations of the foregoing, any and all hardware server types, any and all software server types, and so on. The server architecture 120 may include a standalone server arrangement, a client/server arrangement, a three-tier server arrangement, a distributed server arrangement, a replicated server arrangement, a shared server arrangement, a dedicated server arrangement, a cluster computer arrangement, any and all combinations of the forgoing, any and all other architecture types, and so on. Methods and systems of configuring the server architecture 120 and/or or the servers arranged according to the server architecture 120 may be implemented as completely local to the server architecture 120 and/or the servers, completely remote with respect the server architecture 120 and/or the servers, a combination of local and remote with respect to the server architecture 120 and/or the servers, or any and all other methods of configuring the server architecture 120 and/or the servers.

The server may implement, rely upon, support, or be associated with the Ajax programming technique.

The three-tier server arrangement may include a server facility, database facility, firewall facility, and the like. The three-tiered architecture may also be distributed and/or replicated. The servers may be arranged according to a replicated three-tier architecture and distributed geographically and across ISPs, and the servers may be configured in a replicated/failover configuration. For example, one three-tier arrangement of servers may be designated as “primary” and may be replicated at other physical sites, any and all of which may be associated with different ISPs. Each of the replicas may replicate the logic and functionality of the primary servers, although the physical arrangement of hardware servers that constitute one replica may be identical to that of another replica or that of the primary servers. These embodiments may allow a replica to take over within seconds or less if the primary servers were to fail or otherwise become unavailable, off-line, hindered, malfunctioning, damaged, or the like.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, a client 102 may render help signals 108 for a user 140 , such as by providing visual content in a user interface 124 or rendering other media such as audio, tactile, and so forth. The user interface 124 may also receive user input using any of the techniques described herein, or any other input techniques suitable for use with the client 102 device.

The user interface 124 may provide various levels of access. These levels of access may include common-user's level, an administrator's level, a super-user's level, and the like. The user interface 124 may be referred to as a common user interface 124 when it provides the common-user's level of access. Likewise, the user interface 124 may be referred to as an administrator user interface 124 or a super-user interface 124 for administrator's access and super-user's access, respectively. In any case, various user interfaces 124 may provide different levels of access to the various features of a minisite, website, or any and all aspects of an electronic presence. Such features and aspects may, without limitation, include designs, processes, databases (such as and without limitation the content database 510 , the template database 512 , the enterprise database 514 , and so on), templates (such as and without limitation those in the template database 512 ), information (of a user, of an enterprise, and so on—perhaps any and all information in any and all of the databases 510 , 512 , 514 , etc.), and so forth. A user interface 124 may be embodied as a website, IVR dialog, IM correspondence, e-mail message, and the like. The website may include webpages, which may be presented to a user 140 according to a privilege or preference. In some cases, the privilege or preference may be accessed and set via the user interface 124 .

Referring now to FIG. 7, perhaps of all the user interfaces 124 , the common user interface 124 may be provide or be associated with the fewest privileges for modifying information in the databases 510 , 512 , 514 . Via the common user interface 124 , a user 140 may receive information from the content database 510 . For example and without limitation, the common user 140 may be able to update text, images, audio, and other content in the content database 510 . The common user interface 124 may also be associated with and subject to access restrictions that limit modifying and/or accessing certain content types or certain instances of content. The common user interface 124 may have read access to some, any, or all of the contents of the databases 510 , 512 , 514 . The common user interface 124 may be subject to an access control such as, without limitation, a username/password access control. The access control may discern which user 140 , in particular, is accessing the common user interface 124 . Each user 140 may be associated with a privilege or preference for accessing the common user interface 124 .

Each user 140 may have a privilege or preference associated with of the features or services of an electronic presence.

Referring now to FIG. 8, in embodiments, the administrative user interface 124 may be accessed by a user 140 with administrative privileges (an “administrative user”) to some or all of the features or services of an electronic presence. In embodiments the administrative user interface 124 may also have, provide, or be associated with access to the common user interface 124 . Using the administrative user interface 124 , the administrative user 140 may be able to access and modify the content database 510 and enterprise database 514 . By accessing and modifying the enterprise database 514 , the administrative user 140 may be able to influence the look of part or all of an electronic presence, website, minisite, service of an electronic presence, and so on by modifying the aspects of the enterprise database 514 that interface with or are associated with the template database 512 . The user 140 may be able to modify information in the enterprise database 514 that influences the look of an electronic presence, website, minisite, service of an electronic presence, and so on such as colors, titles, field widths, and the like. The administrative user 140 may be able to edit content via a foldout view of a webpage, which may feature a simplified rendition of a page that may be a “consumer-level” technical representation of a website of an electronic presence. The administrative user interface 124 may be protected by a username/password or other such access control that serves to limit which user 140 or users 140 may access the administrative user interface 124 . A number of users 140 may have access to the administrative user interface 124 via pairs of usernames and passwords. When there are more than one username/password pairs, each pair may be associated with a particular set of preferences and privileges. In other words, while two or more users 140 may have their own username and password with which to access the administrative user interface, each of the two or more users 140 may have access to different aspects of the administrative user interface 124 according to a privilege or preference; may receive the administrative user interface 124 in different formats according to a privilege or preference; and so forth.

Referring now to FIG. 9, in embodiments, the super-user interface 124 may have, provide, or be associated with access to all aspects of any and all of the electronic presences 223 , databases, templates, and the like. A user 140 may be required to provide a username and password to gain a super-user level of access. In embodiments of the super-user interface, the user 140 may issue commands directly to elements of the system via a graphical user interface, a command-line interface, or any other command interface.

In embodiments, users 140 may be provided privileges that are associated with individual aspects of an electronic presence 223 , such as and without limitation site-wide privileges, minisite-wide privileges, per site section privileges, per site page privileges, per feature privileges, or the like. The user's access levels and privileges may be associated with a password control. A super user 140 may set permissions and privileges for any and all users 140 , an administrative user 140 may set permissions for himself and common users, and a common user 140 may set permissions of other common users 140 , if he has been granted permission to do so.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the command processor 110 and/or the information resource 118 may be incorporated or associated with a logging aspect 130 . This aspect 130 may log any and all communications between the command processor 110 and the information resource 118 ; any and all communications between the command processor 110 and the clients 102 ; any and all communications between the clients 102 and the information resource 118 ; and any and all internal error codes, status messages, log messages, or other indicia of the performance or actions of any and all elements, sub-elements, features, functions, systems, methods, or embodiments of the present system 100 .

Logging data may be saved from received information, transmitted information, processed information, or other information associated with any and all elements of a command processor, information resource 118 , or client (collectively, “the system”). The logging data may be stored a server, which may be the server that originated or generated the logging data. The system may be able to log any and all steps in the processing of a command from the input received from a user 140 by the client 102 , to the communication of client I/O associated with that input, to the communication of client I/O that is generated by the information resource 118 in response to the foregoing client I/O, to the rendering on the client 102 of a user interface, website, or webpage that is associated with client I/O. The system may log implicit commands such as when a mouse rolls over a certain location on a website, webpage, and so on.

Communication of input signals 104 , help signals 108 , resource actions 112 , and alerts 114 may be enabled or conducted through a communication facility 132 . Likewise, communication between clients 102 and the information resource 118 may be enabled or conducted through a communication facility 132 . Various kinds of communication facilities 132 are described hereinafter and still other kinds will be appreciated from this disclosure. All such communication facilities 132 are intended to fall within the scope of the present system.

A communication facility 132 may be part of the client, the command processor, the information resource 118 , or the like. The communication facility 132 may communicate using protocols such as HTTP, IM, IVR, mobile communication (e.g. SMS or WAP), SMTP, RSS, socket, pipe, ODBC, or other method of communicating between at least to computing facilities.

Any number of related technologies 134 may be supplied along with or in association with a command processor, an information resource 118 , or a client 102 . Without limitation, the related technologies 134 may include a style-sheet generator, a tool to design a style-sheet, an abstraction layer for SMS, a micropayment, and so forth. The style-sheet generator may generate style-sheets (for example and without limitation, as CSS or the like) that are representative of associated with the production of a representation of a miniature webpage by a web browser or the like. Alternatively or additionally, the style-sheet generate may generate a representation of a miniature webpage (for example and without limitation, as DHTML or the like). The micropayment may be generated according to a bid points mechanism, which may be described elsewhere herein or in documents included herein by reference.

The command processor 110 and/or the information resource 118 may include a related technology 134 and/or a related feature 138 . These technologies 134 and feature 138 may be associated with a system or method of the present system 100 and may enable, assist, improve, modify, alter, constrain, expand, or in any and all ways affect a function, capability, feature, system, or method of the command processor 110 and/or the information resource 118 . The related technology 134 and/or related feature 138 may be added to an implementation of the command processor 110 or information resource 118 at the time the implementation is instantiated; after the implementation is instantiated; from time to time; in accordance with a maintenance schedule; in accordance with an upgrade schedule; after a bug fix is implemented; after a new feature is implemented; or at any and all other times when the command processor 110 or information resource 118 may receive such technologies 134 and/or features 138 . Various implementations of the related technology 134 and related feature 138 are described hereinafter and still other implementations will be appreciated from this disclosure. All such related technologies 134 and related features 138 are intended to fall within the scope of the present system.

Any number of related features 138 may be supplied along with or in association with a command processor 110 , an information resource 118 , or a client 102 . These related features 138 may be provided by the command processor 110 , the information resource 118 , the client 102 , and so on. Alternatively or additionally, the features may be provided via a tie-in, hook, link, or other operative coupling or association to another system. Without limitation, the features may be related to of the following: a sale, access control, a firewall, intrusion protection, content filtering, a supply chain, an affiliate, human resources, accounting, payment processing, data management, data backup, data recovery, electronic commerce, zone management (such as DNS, zone file, and so on), e-mail (such as SMTP server configuration, primary/secondary mail servers, and so on), and so forth.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the present system 100 may include a number of electronic presences 223 . Each electronic presence 223 may include any number of services 261 , provided individually or in any combination. Without limitation, these services 261 may include a brochure 202 , a blog service 204 , a calendar of events 208 , an image gallery 210 , a download site 212 , a contact page 214 , a social bookmark 218 , a multi-user calendar or event planner 220 , an online store or catalog 222 , a user directory 228 , an electronic address book 229 , a leads group 230 , a user group 232 , a business rating 234 , a question/answer forum 240 , digital storage space 242 , a business service 244 , a personal ad 248 , a calendar 250 , a classified ad 252 , a domain 254 , an image 258 , a web design 260 , a horoscope 262 , an imaging facility 263 , email 264 , a map 268 , an instant messenger 270 , a mobile application 272 , news 274 , a notes share 278 , online audio 280 , information searching 282 , online video 284 , weather 288 , electronic presence hosting 290 , a computer desktop 292 , mobile media 298 , a universal login 201 , a translation service 203 , software development 207 , a greeting card 209 , an interest group 211 , a job posting 213 , a fee-based service 217 , a future service or beta service 219 , advertising 221 , a splash page 225 , and so on. A user 140 may access these services 261 using any of the clients 102 described herein. In general, it will be understood that each service will have an associated communication channel. For example, many services such as classified ads, domains, images, web designs, horoscopes, maps, and the like may be accessed using web-based communications. Other services, such as mobile media or a mobile application may employ the same underlying technology (e.g., the Internet) or an entirely separate network, along with a WAP/WML interface. Electronic mail, as another example, may employ a web-based mail system or a POP3 or other server for electronic mail clients.

An electronic presence 223 may include any number of services 261 and may be embodied as a domain application, website, minisite (i.e. an aspect of a website), interactive voice response system, instant messaging system, text messaging system, multimedia system, any other suitable system for sending and receiving communications as described herein. The term “page” as used herein refers to any unit of information provided by the electronic presence 223 , such as and without limitation a webpage, an interactive voice response prompt, an instant message, a text or multimedia message, and so forth. The term “site” may refer to any and all collections of such pages, such as and without limitation a website, an interactive voice response script or session, an instant messaging script or session, a collection of text or multimedia messages, and so forth. References to a “look,” “appearance,” and so forth of an electronic presence 223 or an aspect thereof may refer to example embodiments of the same, provided for the purpose of illustration and not limitation. It will be appreciated, for example, that while one embodiment may have a “look” another, analogous embodiments may have a “sound,” a “feel,” and so on. Likewise, descriptions of an electronic presence 223 (or an aspect thereof) as “visual,” “readable,” and so on may refer to example embodiments of the electronic presence 223 , provided for the purpose of illustration and not limitation. It will be appreciated, for example, that while one embodiment may be “visual” another, analogous embodiment may be “audible,” “touchable,” and so on. The term “web” may refer broadly to any and all sets of electronic presences 223 . This “web” may additionally include any and all information facilities in the world, whether or not they are electronic and whether or not they are operatively coupled to a communications medium that is shared or associated with the electronic presences 223 . It will be appreciated that these information facilities may include, without limitation, Internet resources (including files, websites, servers, clients, web services, news feeds, and so on), telephones and telephony systems, instant messengers and personal communications systems, libraries, books, magazines, articles, and so forth. The term “network” may refer broadly to any and all communications networks, including, without limitation, the Internet, an intranet, a LAN, a WAN, a cell phone network, a pager network, a satellite communications network, a public network, a proprietary network, or the like. References to the Internet may provide examples, for the purpose of illustration and not limitation, of an embodiment of the present system in which the network is the Internet. It should be appreciated that the present system is not restricted to embodiments in which the network is the Internet.

The electronic presence 223 may provide and/or present the service 261 to a user 140 . To avail the user 140 of the service 261 , the user 140 may purchase a product, a timeshare of the product, operational access to the product, and so forth. The product may be an aspect or element of the present system and may, without limitation, include of the following: the command processor 110 , the information resource 118 , the client 102 , a related feature 138 , a related technology 134 , a logging aspect 130 , a client interaction method 122 of the information resource 118 , a user interface 124 , a privilege 128 , a communication facility 132 , a resource action 112 , a help signal 108 , an input signal 104 , a server architecture 120 , and so on. The service 261 and/or product may be supplied to the user 140 according to a business method. The business method may, without limitation, include an application service provide (ASP) model 247 , an enterprise software model 251 , a service oriented architecture (SOA) model 257 , a pricing model 249 , and the like. The pricing model 249 may include a minimum base price and/or fees for particular services. The minimum base price may, without limitation, include: a one-time fee, a recurring or periodic subscription fee, a service package fee, a fee for an individual service or an a la carte fee, and so on. The minimum base price may be based on the number of minisites associated with a particular user, the types of those minisites, the bandwidth usage of a minisite (or extraordinary usage thereof), use of a telephony feature or other telephony activity (or extraordinary usage or activity thereof), a quantity of items sold via the product or service, a percentage of revenue generated from a sale of items via the product or service, and so forth. The pricing model 249 may include a fee for payment processing; advertising; featuring a minisite in a directory of minisites; a custom minisite application, feature, or design; a premium application, feature, or design of a mini-suite; and so on.

The pricing model 249 may be associated with a micropayment facility 224 . This facility 224 may deduct an amount from a financial account of the user 140 and deposit that amount (or some portion thereof) into financial accounts that may be associated with electronic presence 223 and/or service 261 providers. This amount may be converted into bid points. Each bid point may include a discrete and fungible instrument or voucher that may have a cash value. The bid points may be stored in a bid-point account of the user 140 . The bid-point account may include entries in a database. The prices and/or fees associated with the pricing model 249 may be expressed in terms of bid points. As the user 140 utilizes systems, methods, functions, features, services, and the like, some number of bid points may be deducted from the user's 140 bid points account. As the decreasing number of bid points in the account reaches or transitions past a minimum value, the user 140 may be required or requested to add bid points to his account. The adding of bid points to the account may be automatic (e.g., an automatic “top off” that brings the number of bid points up to a particular target value); manual (e.g., a reminder to top off a bid points account may be transmitted to the user 140 and an instruction to top off the account may be received from the user); or according to any and all other methods of top-up, top-off, replenishment, and so forth. In any and all cases, increasing the number of bid points in the account may be associated with the deducting the amount from the financial account of the user 140 and depositing that amount (or some portion thereof) into the financial accounts that may be associated with the electronic presence 223 and/or service providers.

The micropayment facility 224 may enable the use of a coupon, pre-paid financial instrument, promotional code, or any and all other forms of alternate payment in lieu of or in addition to the deducted amount from financial account of the user 140 . In this way, some or all of the amount may be defrayed by the alternate payment. The user 140 may be able to redeem bid points in order to receive a coupon, pre-paid financial instrument, promotional code, and the like, which may be transferable to another user 140 . The user 140 may be able to redeem bid points in order to receive an amount deposited into his financial account. An administrator or operator of a system that is implemented according to the present system may be able to manually deposit or configure the automatic depositing of bid points into the user's 140 bid-point account. For example and without limitation, the administrator or operator may issue a refund of bid points to the user 140 . For another example and also without limitation, the administrator or operator may configure the automatic depositing to occur periodically, perhaps as an incentive to the user to use bid points. The administrator or operator may configure a promotion in which the user 140 automatically receives a certain number of bid points in response to a trigger and/or an action of the user 140 . For example and without limitation, the promotion may be a frequent flier promotion in which the user 140 automatically receives bid points in response to the user's 140 completion of air travel. Many other such examples may be described herein or elsewhere, and still others will be appreciated. All such examples are within the scope of the present system.

The electronic presence 223 may be accessible via a URL. The application may include a default set of things that people see or otherwise receive when they visit the URL. The URL may include the construct www.easyonme.com/user_name; user_name.easyonme.com; www.user_name.com; and so on, wherein easyonme may be the name of a company providing the electronic presence 223 , user_name may be the name of a customer of the company on whose behalf the company is providing the minisite. The electronic presence 223 may relate to, be associated with, or provide any and all of the services 261 . For example and without limitation, an electronic presence 223 may include a brochure 202 , a blog service 204 , a calendar of events 208 , an image gallery 210 , a download site (from which, for example and without limitation, a user 140 may download and/or upload a music file, an image file, a data file, an MP3 file, a PowerPoint file, and so on); a contact page 214 (or an “About Me” page) for providing the name, address, phone number, e-mail address, URL, or other contact information about a user; social bookmarks 218 (a la de.licio.us); a multi-user calendar or event planner 220 ; an online store or catalog 222 ; and so on. In embodiments and without limitation, an electronic presence 223 may be directed at a governmental agency; a Web master; an educator or teacher; a business organization (such as and without limitation a chamber of commerce); a restaurant; a veterinarian; and so on. When the electronic presence 223 is directed at a restaurant, it may include a restaurant menu creation tool, which may allow a user 140 to modify a restaurant menu of the minisite by sending an e-mail message to a product or service of the present system. When the electronic presence 223 is directed at a veterinarian, it may include a feature for setting prices that depend upon the size of an animal, whether the animal requires boarding, whether the animal is a farm animal, and so on. The electronic presence 223 may be associated with or provide compliance with a federal accessibility law, which may apply to the appearance or layout of a minisite, or to a disclaimer, notice, capability, or other aspect of the minisite. The electronic presence 223 may provide or be associated with rebranding the minisite. For example and without limitation, a minisite may appear to be completely owned and operated by a user 140 , perhaps without reference to the company that is actually providing the minisite.

Additionally or alternatively, the present system 100 may include any number of facilities that may provide complementary or auxiliary systems and methods in association with the electronic presence 223 . These systems and methods, without limitation, may include a domain name suggestion facility, 227 ; a backup/archive facility 231 ; a system usage method 233 ; a resume processing facility 237 ; an electronic presence creation wizard 239 ; an export facility 241 , a site improvement agent 243 ; an application service provider (ASP) model 247 ; a pricing model; an enterprise software model 251 ; an accessibility facility 253 ; a service oriented architecture (SOA) model; and so on.

A universal login 201 service may allow a user 140 to log into many different electronic presences 223 using one account ID. A user 140 may log into the universal login 201 service once during a session to establish a time limited ID that may be used for logging into other web sites.

A global authorization cookie may be saved to the users' client 102 when logging onto the universal login 201 service. When the user 140 may be asked for authorization at a new electronic presence 223 , the global authorization cookie may be transmitted to the electronic presence 223 as the user's authorization.

The global authorization cookie may be perishable or be valid for a finite period of time or a finite number of authorizations. The global authorization cookie may be removed from the user's 140 client 102 once the user 140 logs off of the universal login 201 service.

The universal login 201 information may include the user's ID, user's password, password question reminder, or the like.

The translation service 203 may be a web based service, client 102 based application, or the like. A user 140 may wish to translate a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, webpage, website, or the like into another language such as English, German, French, Spanish, or the like. The translation service 203 may operate on input text using, e.g., a text box or other input field to receive a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, or the like for translation into another language. The translation service 203 may have a limit on the number of words, characters, or the like that will translate for a user. The translation service 203 may provide for independent selection of a “to” and “from” language, or may receive selection of a specific to-from pair according to the capabilities of the translation service. The service 203 may also, or instead, operate on entire web pages or the like by receiving a reference to a source for translation and providing, in response, a web page or other translated rendering of the source. The translation service 203 may also, or instead, output text or audio of the translated material. The translation service 203 may allow the user 140 to view the webpage in the original language by selecting a button, link, or the like.

The blog service 204 (e.g. web log or, in the common parlance, a “blog”) may be a personal electronic presence 223 where a user 140 publishes information that could include opinions, news, personal diary entries, collaboration with other users, images, video, audio, user interactions, or the like. A blog service 204 may be a public blogging electronic presence 223 (for example, such as Slashdot) where a collection of users 140 may publish information. The user 140 may have complete control of the contents of the blog service 204 . The blog service 204 may allow the user 140 to publish information to the Internet that may be read or viewed by anyone connected to the Internet. As a user 140 adds new information to a blog service 204 , the new information may be added to the top of the blog service 204 and/or may be published in a news feed (such as and without limitation, an RSS feed). In this manner, it may be easy for other users 140 to view the new information that may have been posted to the blog. An administrative user or super user (or, perhaps, any user) may configure the blog service 204 to allow the posting and/or deletion of any and all comments, to allow the posting and/or deletion of certain comments, to block comments from certain users 140 , or the like. A user 140 of the blog service 204 may respond to comments. The received comments may be displayed in the order they were received/responded to, thereby providing a sort of conversation for users 140 to follow and, perhaps, to provide further comment.

The blog service 204 may be provided on a group-access basis, whereby families, teams, groups, organizations, and the like may share information, images, video, or the like to members of a group (that is, users 140 that are associated with the group). Access to the group-access blog service 204 may be limited to the members of the group. A blog profile may be published to allow other blog users 140 to find blogs of interest. The blog profile may include the type of information kept in the blog service 204 , access to the blog service 204 , if comments are permitted, samples of blog text, tags or metadata associated with the blog, or the like. Text, images, video, or any content may be shared on a blog service 204 by uploading a file containing the content to the blog service 204 . An audio file may be posted to a blog service 204 . The audio file may be uploaded from a client 102 , posted using a phone, or the like.

Software development 207 services may be implemented as any service to aid electronic presence 223 developers in the development of electronic presences 223 . The software development 207 service may provide various electronic presence 223 enhancement tools, services, APIs, and the like. A user 140 may be able to associate the various electronic presence 223 enhancements with electronic presences 223 that are being developed by the software developer. The software development 207 services may provide the user 140 with a user interface 124 (UT) to search for the available enhancements. The UT may also be used to create, edit, store, or the like the users 140 new or existing electronic presence 223 . The UT may be a complete electronic presence 223 development interface. The enhancements may include maps, shopping, product search, location search (e.g. businesses close to an entered location), electronic presence 223 developer language support (e.g. PHP), electronic presence 223 templates, RSS feeds, audio feeds, business promotion, business checkout, travel planners, and the like APIs. The user 140 may download the API to a local client 102 , access the APIs on the software development 207 service, upload an electronic presence 223 to the software develop service for enhancement, or the like. Once the user 140 has access to one of the APIs, the user 140 may be able to access the functionality of the APIs for use on the users 140 electronic presence 223 . For example and without limitation, the user 140 may gain access to a map API and may be able to use the map API functionality to place directions to the business location on the electronic presence 223 .

The software development 207 service may also provide an interactive interface for the user 140 for electronic presence 223 design suggestions. The user 140 may use a wizard to develop an electronic presence 223 by answering questions related to the design of the electronic presence 223 . The user 140 may interact with the wizard as the electronic presence 223 is developed.

The software development 207 service may be a free service, a paid service, a subscription service, or the like. A free service may provide a limited access to the API functionality. A fee or subscription service may provide access to all API functionality.

An electronic calendar 250 service may allow a user 140 to view and manage a calendar event 208 service on a client 102 . The client 102 may include a desktop computer, laptop computer, server, web server, handheld computer, smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like. The electronic calendar 250 may display user 140 defined time periods that may include hours, a single day, more than one day, a week, a month, a year, or the like. In embodiments the calendar 250 may provide controls to advance to the next defined time period.

The defined time periods may be further divided into user 140 defined time intervals. For example and without limitation, the user 140 may have each day of the calendar divided into 15 minute time intervals.

The calendar 250 may allow a user 140 to increase or decrease the duration of the time periods displayed to show more or less detail on the calendar 250 . For example and without limitation, the user 140 may initially display a month; the user 140 may be able to change the viewed calendar to multiple months or to a week. The user 140 may be able to continue to increase or decrease the time periods displayed until a desired time period is displayed. Even if appointment detail cannot be displayed (e.g. a month is displayed), the calendar 250 may provide an indication that there are appointments on a day. For example and without limitation, the month calendar may indicate there are appointments by a color indication, shading, or the like.

The user 140 may be able to store activity information via the electronic calendar 250 into the calendar of events 208 that may include personal appointments (e.g. doctor), business appointments, social appointments, vacation time, meetings, important personal dates, or the like. The electronic calendar 250 may allow the user 140 to enter an appointment and then indicate that the appointment is a recurring appointment. The electronic calendar 250 may schedule the appointment for the same time period using a user 140 defined repeating time period. For example and without limitation, the user 140 may set a meeting for a Tuesday at 12:00 pm. If the user 140 indicates that the meeting recurs once a week, the calendar 250 may schedule the meeting every Tuesday at 12:00 pm.

The electronic calendar 250 may enable or be associated with sharing the calendar of events 208 . The calendar of events 208 may be stored on a first client 102 from which a second client 102 may access it over the network. The calendar of events 208 may include a shared calendar of events 208 with more than electronic calendar 250 accessing the calendar of events 208 at the same time, at different times, or the like.

The electronic calendar 250 may provide a user 140 with reminders that a meeting time is approaching. When the user 140 is entering an appointment on the electronic application 250 , the user 140 may indicate that the calendar 250 should send a reminder that the appointment is approaching; the user 140 may be able to indicate the time period to send the appointment. For example and without limitation, a user 140 may set a meeting for 12:00 pm and set the reminder for 15 minutes before the meeting. The electronic calendar 250 may provide the user 140 with a reminder at 11:45 am. The reminder may be displayed by a pop-up window, flash window, on an operating system activity bar, as an email, an instant message, a phone call, a text message, or the like.

An electronic card 209 service may enable a user 140 to create and send electronic cards 209 to other users. Electronic cards 209 may be invitations to an event, reminder of an event, thank you cards 209 , business related notes, personal cards 209 , greeting cards 209 , or the like. The electronic card 209 service may have templates for a number different events 208 , topics, cards 209 , or the like. For example and without limitation, the user 140 may want to send invitation cards 209 to an open house. The user 140 may be able to select an appropriate template from a list of available templates. The templates may have backgrounds and color schemes that the user 140 may add the particular information for the open house.

The user 140 may be able send the electronic card 209 to a distribution. For example and without limitation, the user 140 may have a list of businesses that the user 140 wishes to invite to a grand opening of a business. The user 140 may send the invitation and may be able to set a reminder of the grand opening. For example and without limitation, the invitation may be sent on week one with a reminder of the open house to be sent on week two. The reminder may be sent automatically. The reminder may user 140 the same template, other template, or the like.

The user 140 may be able to merge the electronic card 209 with the list of business to send the electronic card 209 to the businesses. The list may include a name, email address to send to, business, business type, or the like. The list may be a database, relational database, a table, a file, a spreadsheet, a document, or the like.

The electronic card 209 may be sent to an individual person. The individual card 209 may be a business card, greeting card, or the like. The user 140 may be able to enter the email address of the person that will receive the electronic card.

The electronic card 209 may contain static images such as a picture, contain animated images, contain video, contain an audio file, or the like. The user 140 may select from an available audio file, video file, or the like or the user 140 may be able to create a custom file.

The electronic card 209 may be sent using conventional hardcopy mail.

An imaging facility 263 may be a service 261 that allows a user 140 to access, catalog, organize, annotate, or modify image characteristics; share images across a network; store images; sort images; or the like. The images may be captured with a digital camera, digital video camera, cell phone, PDA, scanned image, or other device capable of creating an electronic image file.

The imaging facility 263 may be web based, network based, individual client 102 based, or the like. The client 102 may include a desktop computer, laptop computer, server, web server, handheld computer, smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like.

The user 140 may use an image interface to view images, sort images, share images, modify images, organize images, or the like. The images may be viewed as a thumbnail image, a filmstrip, an icon, or the like. The images may be shown as a grid of images, on a tree of images, images within a directory tree, a combination of views, or the like.

The imaging facility 263 may allow the users 140 to modify the image characteristics by modifying color, contrast, lighting, zoom, crop, straighten, remove red eye, apply image effects (e.g. black and white or Sepia), sharpen, tint, or the like.

The imaging facility 263 may provide a presentation capability where images may be viewed in a sequence. The sequence may be automatic, user 140 defined, a subset of images, all the images, or the like. The user 140 may be able to indicate the timing between each image, transitions between the images, or the like.

The imaging facility 263 may allow a user 140 to share the images across the network. The sharing may allow other users 140 to view images from other client 102 s connected to the network. The user 140 may be able to define the other user 140 access permissions, define the users 140 with image access, define access to all images, define access to a subset of images, or the like.

Interest groups 211 may be implemented as a service by providing an aspect of an electronic presence 223 for users 140 to share a common interest. The aspect of the electronic presence 223 may be a website, webpage, minisite, chat room, any and all forms of electronic presence 223 , or the like. An interest group 211 may be a business group, community group, family group, political group, hobby group, sport group, religious group, education group, computer group, game group, health group, personal group, support group, or the like.

In embodiments, users 140 that are already part of an interest group 211 may invite other people to become part of a user group. For example and without limitation, a user 140 that is part of a flower group may send an email, text message, phone message, pager message, or the like to invite another person to attend the next group meeting. The group may not meet at regular times. The group space may always be open with users 140 entering and leaving as their schedules permit. The users 140 may interact live, interact by posting messages, interact with a text messaging application, or the like. For example and without limitation, the user groups may use a chat room type application to communicate in the group. In another example, the users 140 may communicate by posting a question, statement, or the like to which other users 140 may respond. The interest group 211 service may maintain a history of the posted information.

The interest group 211 service may provide a conversation history for the group, allow shared images, allow shared video, have a calendar for planning, have polling for users 140 to vote on topics of interest, may have links to electronic presences 223 of interest to the group, or the like.

There may be a search capability within the interest group 211 service to find groups that may interest the user. For example and without limitation, the user 140 may be interested in dog training and may be able to search all the groups to find the groups related to dog training. The user 140 may then be able to join one of the listed groups. Job posting 213 may be implemented as a service for a user 140 to find a job, businesses to post job openings, or the like. The job posting 213 service may be similar to an advertising site where jobs are advertised to perspective users. The job posting 213 service may provide tools for a business to present a job opening, search capability for the user 140 to find a job, tutorials on resume writing, tutorials on interviewing skills, salary calculators to determine a starting salary, or the like.

The business may be provided with tools to create a job posting 213 that will attract a user. For example and without limitation, the job posting 213 service may, depending on the job type, suggest keywords, images, presentation, provide templates, or the like to the business. There may be a job posting 213 wizard that may guide the business through the job posting 213 creation process. For example and without limitation, the business may indicate the type of business they are and the wizard may present a questionnaire for that type of business. The answers to the questionnaire may create the job posting 213 .

There may be job search capabilities for the user 140 to find a job. The user 140 may be able to enter keywords, indicate a city to search, indicate a distance from the city to search, select a particular job type (e.g. engineering), or the like. The job search service may return a list of jobs matching the search terms that user 140 entered. In addition to the returned list, sponsored links may be returned that may be related to the returned list. For example and without limitation, if the job search was for “engineering”, a list of available engineering jobs may be returned along with advertisements for engineering firms that may be looking for new employees.

The job posting 213 service may post jobs by category. The user 140 may be able to browse categories of jobs that the job posting 213 service has grouped. The category may also have sub-categories. For example and without limitation, the user 140 may browse Engineering and there may be civil, electrical, chemical, mechanical, computer, and the like listed for the sub-categories. The browse listing may include a brief description of the job, a detailed description of the job, the company name, the company location, the date the job was posted, and the like. Additionally, the user 140 may be able to search for jobs by state; each state category may also have sub-categories of the cities within the state that have jobs.

If the user 140 finds any of the jobs listed interesting, the user 140 may be able to send a response to the interesting job. The response may include sending personal information, an ID provided by the job search service, request for an interview, a resume, contact information, or the like.

There may be a resume builder 252 service for the user 140 to create, modify, maintain, update, or the like a resume. The resume builder 252 may have a number of templates that the user 140 may use to create the resume. The templates may be by type of job desired. There may be a resume creation wizard that may present a questionnaire to the user. Answer to the questions may build the users 140 resume. The user 140 may edit the resume by re-entering the wizard, manually editing, or the like.

The job posting 213 service may provide help in job interviewing. The job posting 213 service may provide tips to a good interview, g