Managing content resources

Abstract

Content resources are managed. A request is received from a user for access to a source of content resources. It is determined that the user is authorized for access to the source. A portal Web page is generated based on a set of content element data applicable to the subscriber. The portal Web page is returned to the user. A system for use in managing content resources has a switch for receiving requests from Web browsers, a content resource management engine in communication with the switch, and a billing system in communication with the content resource management engine.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 918,972, filed on Jul. 31, 2001, Publication No. US 2002 / 0066033, published on May 30, 2002, which is incorporated herein by this reference in its entirety, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 222,038, entitled “DIRECTORY-ENABLED BROADBAND SERVICE NETWORK,” filed on Jul. 31, 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference. This application is also related to U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 917,866, filed on Jul. 31, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,956, issued on Mar. 21, 2006.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to managing resources and, more particularly, to managing content resources.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Many types of content resources are available. Examples include news, entertainment, and business content, advertising, movies, sportscasts, legal databases, medical journals, weather forecasts, and restaurant menus.[000...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides a system and method for managing content resources. The system allows subscribers and administrators to manage and direct content resources effectively. The system can determine a subscriber's category and apply a content access rule to the request. The system can also allow subscribers to configure and manage their desktop and the content they want to consume. The network provider can control the rendering of the desktop and can specifically select premium content for the subscriber. The system can also provide self-service for subscribers and automated methods for determining whether a subscriber is allowed to access specific content resources. The system utilizes an organized subscriber profile definition and data organization objects to manage and provision subscriber and application profiles. The policy enforcement occurs in the switch that processes all subscriber traffic, making the solution suitable for managing access to low and high bandwidth content."

Problems solved by technology

However, in the case of a onetime charge, it may be difficult to find consumers willing to pay for the content, primarily because they probably are not aware that the content may be provided from this resource.

In the case of fixed recurring charges, the challenge is making the content available when the user wants to enjoy it.

On those occasions when it is necessary to rewrite the HTML text each time a new piece of content is added, the effort required to incorporate all possible combinations of available content will be beyond the abilities and resources of substantially all providers.

However, it can be challenging to attempt to ensure that the advertising is seen and to gauge the size of the audience.

A challenge in the case of a captive portal is to help the portal to scale to support not only a large number of system users, but also high bandwidth applications.

Images