Content management program, content management apparatus, and content management method

Abstract

To provide a content management program, a content management apparatus, and a content management method configured to suppress a person who receives disclosed content from unnecessarily being upset or feeling a sense of uncertainty.SOLUTION: When disclosing request-share content, a disclosure demand from a receiver is transmitted to a management server 1, and a disclosure request is transmitted from the management server 1 to a target contractor based on the disclosure demand. When no response is made from the target contractor for the disclosure request, the disclosure of the content is permitted. Accordingly, the content is prevented from being disclosed before the receiver is prepared for or motivated to view the content, prior to the demand request from the receiver, thereby suppressing the receiver from unnecessarily being upset or feeling a sense of uncertainty.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a content management program, a content management device, and a content management method. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses that when an applicant registers a message containing parting words that he or she would like to convey to a recipient (family, friends, etc.) after his or her death in a management system that manages messages, the management system periodically notifies the applicant, and if there is no response from the applicant to the management system, the management system delivers the message registered by the contractor to the recipient. This ensures that the message registered by the applicant can be delivered to the recipient after the applicant's death. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2005-141607 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, the notification from the management system to the applicant in Patent Document 1 is sent mechanically to the applicant regardless of the recipient's intentions. This causes the problem that the notification from the management system to the applicant is sent before the recipient is mentally prepared, and the message is disclosed accordingly, causing unnecessary confusion and distrust in the recipient.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a content management program, a content management device, and a content management method that can prevent unnecessary confusion and distrust from being caused to recipients to whom content is disclosed. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to achieve this object, the content management program of the present invention is a program that causes a computer to execute a disclosure process to disclose content registered by a subscriber to a recipient designated by the subscriber at a predetermined disclosure timing, and is configured so that the disclosure timing can be set as a request sharing for disclosing the content to the recipient based on a disclosure request sent from the recipient requesting disclosure of the content, and causes the computer to execute the following steps: a disclosure timing setting step for setting the disclosure timing of the subscriber's content; a disclosure request receiving step for receiving from the recipient a disclosure request for the content for which request sharing has been set as the disclosure timing; a request sending step for sending a disclosure request to a subscriber of the content corresponding to the disclosure request received in the disclosure request receiving step, requesting disclosure of the content; and a disclosure permission step for permitting disclosure to the recipient of the content requested to be disclosed in the disclosure request receiving step if no response to the disclosure request is received from the subscriber within a first period after the disclosure request is sent in the request sending step.

[0007] The content management device of the present invention discloses content registered by a subscriber to a recipient designated by the subscriber at a predetermined disclosure timing, and is configured so that a request sharing for disclosing the content to the recipient can be set as the disclosure timing based on a disclosure request sent from the recipient requesting disclosure of the content, and is equipped with a disclosure timing setting means for setting the disclosure timing of the subscriber's content, a disclosure request receiving means for receiving from the recipient a disclosure request for the content for which request sharing has been set as the disclosure timing, a request sending means for sending a disclosure request to a subscriber of the content corresponding to the disclosure request received by the disclosure request receiving means, requesting disclosure of the content, and a disclosure permission means for permitting disclosure to the recipient of the content requested to be disclosed by the disclosure request receiving means if no response to the disclosure request is received from the subscriber within a first period after the disclosure request is sent by the request sending means.

[0008] The content management method of the present invention is a method for disclosing content registered by a subscriber to a recipient designated by the subscriber at a predetermined disclosure timing, and is configured so that the disclosure timing can be set as a request sharing for disclosing the content to the recipient based on a disclosure request sent from the recipient requesting disclosure of the content, and includes a disclosure timing setting step for setting the disclosure timing of the subscriber's content, a disclosure request receiving step for receiving from the recipient a disclosure request for the content for which request sharing has been set as the disclosure timing, a request sending step for sending a disclosure request to a subscriber of the content corresponding to the disclosure request received in the disclosure request receiving step, requesting disclosure of the content, and a disclosure permission step for permitting disclosure to the recipient of the content requested to be disclosed in the disclosure request receiving step if no response to the disclosure request is received from the subscriber within a first period after the disclosure request is sent in the request sending step. Effect of the Invention

[0009] According to the content management program of claim 1, when the timing of disclosure of the contractor's content is request sharing, in which the contractor discloses the content to the recipient when a disclosure request is made from the recipient designated by the contractor, and when a disclosure request for the content is received from the recipient, a disclosure request is sent to the contractor of the content. When no response to the disclosure request is received from the contractor within a first period after the disclosure request is sent, disclosure of the content to the recipient is permitted.

[0010] That is, since the disclosure of the content to the recipient is performed based on the disclosure request sent by the recipient, it is possible to prevent the content from being disclosed before the recipient has the intention or is mentally prepared to view the content, which has the effect of preventing the recipient to whom the content is disclosed from being unnecessarily upset or distrustful.

[0011] According to the content management program of claim 2, in addition to the effects of the content management program of claim 1, the following effect is achieved. In cases such as poor communication conditions, the subscriber may not be able to receive the transmitted disclosure request. Therefore, by transmitting the disclosure request a predetermined number of times at a predetermined transmission interval, the probability that the subscriber will receive the disclosure request can be improved, resulting in the effect that the subscriber can receive the disclosure request more reliably.

[0012] According to the content management program of claim 3, in addition to the effects of the content management program of claim 2, the following effects are achieved. A transmission interval or number of transmissions is set for each content. Here, the content is disclosed to the recipient when no response from the contractor to the series of disclosure requests is received. Since the time required for a series of disclosure requests is based on the time obtained by multiplying the transmission interval by the number of transmissions, the shorter the transmission interval or the smaller the number of transmissions, the shorter the time required for a series of disclosure requests, and the faster the content can be disclosed to the recipient. Therefore, by setting the transmission interval or number of transmissions for each content, there is an effect that the timing at which the content is disclosed can be set in detail according to the content of the content.

[0013] According to the content management program of claim 4, in addition to the effects of the content management program of claim 2, the following effects are achieved: Since the transmission interval or the number of transmissions is set for each recipient, there is an effect that the timing of content disclosure can be set in detail taking into account the recipient's condition, such as the recipient's age.

[0014] According to the content management program of claim 5, in addition to the effects of the content management program of claim 1, the following effect is achieved. The first period is set to a time when the disclosure request is transmitted by the request transmission step as the start timing of the first period, and a time when the disclosure time difference has passed from the start timing as the end timing of the first period. By setting such a disclosure time difference, there is an effect that the timing when the requested shared content is disclosed can be set in detail.

[0015] According to the content management program of claim 6, in addition to the effects of the content management program of claim 1, the following effect is achieved. The first period is set to a period starting from the timing when the disclosure request is transmitted in the request transmission step and ending from the timing when a predetermined date or time has passed. By setting such a predetermined date or time, it is possible to set in detail the timing when the requested shared content is disclosed.

[0016] According to the content management program of claim 7, in addition to the effects of the content management program of any one of claims 1 to 6, the following effect is achieved: Since the first period is configured to be settable for each piece of content, there is an effect that the timing for disclosing the content can be set in more detail according to the content.

[0017] According to the content management program of claim 8, in addition to the effects of the content management program of any one of claims 1 to 6, the following effect is achieved: Since the first period is configured to be settable for each recipient, there is an effect that the timing for disclosing the content can be set in more detail, taking into account the recipient's condition, such as the recipient's age.

[0018] According to the content management program of claim 9, in addition to the effects of the content management program of any one of claims 1 to 6, the following effect is achieved. When a response to the disclosure request from the contractor not to disclose the content is received within a first period after the disclosure request is sent in the request sending step, the content requested for disclosure in the disclosure request receiving step is prohibited from being disclosed to the recipient. This makes it possible to prevent a situation in which the content is disclosed despite the contractor's intention not to disclose the content. This has the effect of realizing the disclosure of the content in accordance with the contractor's intention.

[0019] According to the content management program of claim 10, in addition to the effects of the content management program of any one of claims 1 to 6, the following effect is achieved. When invitation information created at the request of a contractor is received from a potential recipient, and if the issued invitation information matches the received invitation information, an approval request is sent to the contractor as to whether or not to register the candidate as a recipient. Then, if the contractor's response to the approval request is to permit registration of the candidate as a recipient, the candidate is registered as a recipient.

[0020] In other words, in addition to checking whether the invitation information requested by the contractor to be created matches the invitation information sent by the candidate, if the invitation information matches, the candidate approved by the contractor in response to the approval request sent to the contractor is registered as the recipient, thereby preventing a situation in which a person unrelated to the contractor impersonates someone and is registered as the recipient, such as when the invitation information does not match and the approval request is not approved by the contractor.

[0021] According to the content management program of claim 11, in addition to the effects of the content management program of claim 10, the following effect is achieved. In the invitation information verification step, if the second period or more has passed since the invitation information created in the invitation information issuing step was created, the invitation information is determined to be invalid and does not match. This makes it possible to preferably prevent a situation in which the created invitation information is reused for a long period of time and a person unrelated to the contractor is registered as a recipient.

[0022] According to the content management program of claim 12, in addition to the effects of the content management program of any one of claims 1 to 6, the following effect is achieved. By making the content related to the ending note, the disclosure of the ending note to the recipient (for example, the surviving family of the contractor) is performed based on a disclosure request sent by the recipient. This has the effect of preventing the end-of-life note from being disclosed before the recipient is willing or mentally prepared to view the end-of-life note, thereby preventing the recipient to whom the end-of-life note is disclosed from being unnecessarily upset or distrustful.

[0023] According to the content management device of claim 13, the same effect as that of the content management program of claim 1 is achieved. According to the content management method of claim 14, the same effect as that of the content management program of claim 1 is achieved. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0024] [Figure 1] FIG. 2A is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of a content management server and a user terminal, and FIG. 2B is a diagram showing content data in a schematic manner. [Diagram 2] 13A is a diagram showing a shared screen, FIG. 13B is a diagram showing an invitation code issuing screen, FIG. 13C is a diagram showing an invitation code input screen, and FIG. 13D is a diagram showing an invitation result screen. [Diagram 3] FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram of the management server, a user terminal operated by a contractor, and a user terminal operated by a recipient in a process related to registration of a recipient in the management server. [Figure 4] (a) is a diagram showing a content list screen, (b) is a diagram showing a new content creation screen for messages to recipients, (c) is a diagram showing a new content creation screen for account information, and (d) is a diagram showing a sharing settings screen. [Diagram 5]11 is a sequence diagram of the management server, a user terminal operated by a contractor, and a user terminal operated by a recipient in a process related to registration of content in the management server. [Figure 6] (a) is a diagram showing a shared invited account screen, (b) is a diagram showing a shared content list screen, (c) is a diagram showing a sharing approval setting screen, and (d) is a diagram showing an approval result display screen when disclosure is permitted. [Figure 7] 13A is a diagram showing a shared content list screen when disclosure is permitted, and FIG. 13B is a diagram showing an approval result display screen when disclosure is not permitted. [Figure 8] 1A is a sequence diagram of the management server, the user terminal operated by the subscriber, and the user terminal operated by the recipient in the disclosure processing for content sharing by request sharing when the subscriber does not respond to the disclosure request, and FIG. 1B is a sequence diagram of the management server, the user terminal operated by the subscriber, and the user terminal operated by the recipient in the disclosure processing for content sharing by request sharing when the subscriber responds to the disclosure request. [Figure 9] 13A is a flowchart of a main process, and FIG. 13B is a flowchart of an approval process. [Figure 10] 13 is a flowchart of a content registration process. [Figure 11] 13 is a flowchart of a request process. [Figure 12] 13 is a flowchart of a disclosure permission process. [Figure 13] 13 is a flowchart of a content transmission process. [Figure 14] FIG. 13A is a diagram showing a schematic diagram of content data in a modified example, and FIG. 13B is a diagram showing a sharing setting screen in the modified example. [Figure 15] 13 is a flowchart of a disclosure permission process in a modified example. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0025] A preferred embodiment will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1(a) is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of a content management server 1 and a user terminal 20. The content management server 1 (hereinafter abbreviated as "management server 1") is a server (computer) that discloses content registered by a contractor to a recipient designated by the contractor at a predetermined disclosure timing.

[0026] Here, a "contractor" is a person who has contracted for a service to register the content he / she has created in the management server 1 and to disclose the content to a recipient through the management server 1. A "recipient" is a person designated by the contractor to whom the content is to be disclosed (for example, the contractor's spouse, parent, child, grandchild, friend, colleague, etc.).

[0027] The "content" registered in the management server 1 is data consisting of text (character information), audio, images or videos, and the content may consist of only one piece of text, only one piece of audio, only one image or only one video. Also, multiple pieces of content (child content) consisting of text, audio, images or videos may be combined into one piece of content (parent content). Note that the information that constitutes the content is not limited to text, audio, images or videos, and may be other information.

[0028] The contents registered in the management server 1 include an ending note, a school report card, a birthday message, a secret confession, various notices and announcements such as event notices and results of exams, and even a memorandum of the contractor himself. Of these, the ending note is a content that is mainly composed of information that the contractor himself regards as important, such as information (hereinafter referred to as "cancellation information") for canceling a contract for a service necessary for the contractor to maintain his / her life (hereinafter referred to as "life support service"), information on the contractor's property such as the location of the management of money and items owned by the contractor, and the contractor's own career information.

[0029] Examples of "life support services" include newspaper subscriptions, bank accounts, online services such as electronic commerce and music and video streaming subscription services, etc. Examples of "cancellation information" include the telephone number of the newspaper shop that subscribes to a newspaper, the account number of a bank account, and account information (user name, password, etc.) for logging in to online services.

[0030] In the event that a contractor dies, becomes unconscious, or is otherwise unable to communicate adequately, the contents of the Ending Note that the contractor registered in advance in the Management Server 1 are disclosed to the recipient. This allows the recipient to obtain cancellation information for the life support services to which the contractor has contracted, without having to search the contractor's room or look at the contents of the contractor's PC, smartphone, etc., using the disclosed Ending Note, and allows the recipient to smoothly cancel these life support services. Content disclosed to the recipient from the Management Server 1, such as the Ending Note, is called "important content."

[0031] The "information that the contractor considers important" included in the Ending Note is not limited to the above, and may include, for example, parting words to the recipient, or information about other contractors, such as the contractor's favorite images or videos. Important content is not limited to the content of the Ending Note, and may be content other than the Ending Note, such as a report card or a secret confession.

[0032] The management server 1 has a CPU 2, a hard disk drive 3 (hereinafter abbreviated as "HDD 3"), and a RAM 4, which are each connected to an input / output port 6 via a bus line 5. A communication device 7 is further connected to the input / output port 6. The CPU 2 is a calculation device that controls each part connected by the bus line 5.

[0033] The HDD 3 is a rewritable non-volatile storage device that stores programs executed by the CPU 2, fixed value data, etc., and stores a control program 3a and content data 3b. When the control program 3a is executed by the CPU 2, the main process of Fig. 9(a) is executed. The content data 3b is a data table that manages the content transmitted from the subscriber. The content data 3b will be described with reference to Fig. 1(b).

[0034] Fig. 1(b) is a diagram showing a schematic representation of content data 3b. In content data 3b, a contractor, content, and a sharing method, disclosure state, and disclosure time difference for each recipient are stored in association with each other. That is, in content data 3b, content is stored for each contractor, and a sharing method, disclosure state, and disclosure time difference for each recipient (represented as "sharing method / disclosure state / disclosure time difference for each recipient" in the figure) are stored for each content.

[0035] The name of the contractor who registers the content is stored in "Contractor." The content is stored in "Content," and the specific data stored in "Content" includes the title of the content and configuration data. The title of the content is a character string that represents the content of the content.

[0036] The data constituting the content is data that actually constitutes the content. Examples of the data constituting the content include text data containing congratulatory or farewell words, account information, and evaluations on a report card, audio data containing the actual voice of the contractor, image data such as photos of the contractor's memories, and video data, but other data may also be included. The data constituting the content may be a mixture of multiple data, for example, a mixture of text data of farewell words and image data of photos of the contractor's memories.

[0037] Next, the sharing method, disclosure state, and disclosure time difference set in the content data 3b will be described. In this embodiment, the sharing method, disclosure state, and disclosure time difference are set for each content and each recipient registered by the contractor. Specifically, the sharing method of the content is set in the "sharing method". The sharing method is information indicating the disclosure timing, which is the timing at which the corresponding content is disclosed, and in this embodiment, the sharing methods include immediate sharing, request sharing, and non-sharing.

[0038] Among the sharing methods, "instant sharing" is a sharing method in which a subscriber registers the relevant content in management server 1, and as soon as the content is ready for disclosure, the content can be disclosed to a recipient. Among the sharing methods, "request sharing" (abbreviated as "RQ sharing" in the diagram) is a sharing method in which a subscriber registers the content in management server 1, and then the content can be disclosed to a recipient in response to a request from the recipient to management server 1. More specifically, when a recipient wants to view the request-shared content, the recipient sends a disclosure request to management server 1, requesting disclosure of the request-shared content.

[0039] When the management server 1 receives a disclosure request for the requested shared content, it will repeatedly send the disclosure request for that content to the target contractor every 8 hours for a total of 6 times. If the management server 1 receives from the contractor an indication that disclosure is permitted in response to the disclosure request, or if there is no response to the disclosure request from the contractor within the disclosure time difference described below after the management server 1 sent the last (sixth) disclosure request, the content will be made available for disclosure to the recipient.

[0040] In addition, the "non-shareable" sharing method is a sharing method in which the content is not disclosed to the relevant recipient. In other words, content for which "immediate sharing" or "request sharing" is set as the sharing method for any recipient is considered to be the above-mentioned "important content."

[0041] The "disclosure status" is set to the state in which the content will or will not be disclosed to the relevant recipient. Specifically, the disclosure status is set to either disclosure permitted or disclosure prohibited. "Disclosure permitted" (shown as "Permitted" in the diagram) represents a state in which disclosure of the content to the relevant recipient is permitted. "Disclosure prohibited" (shown as "Not permitted" in the diagram) represents a state in which disclosure of the content to the relevant recipient is prohibited, such as when disclosure is not permitted by the contractor in the sharing request.

[0042] In the "disclosure time difference," the time until disclosure to the relevant recipient is permitted when the sharing method of the content is request sharing is set. Specifically, when the sharing method described above is request sharing, if a disclosure permission is received from the contractor in response to a disclosure request, or if there is no response after the last disclosure request is sent from the management server 1, the disclosure status is set to "disclosure permitted" after the disclosure time difference set for each content and each target recipient has elapsed from that timing (the start timing of the first period described later in FIG. 8), and disclosure of the corresponding content to the target recipient is permitted.

[0043] In Fig. 1(b), for example, contents D1 to D4 are registered as contents of the contractor C1. In the content D1, an ending note content in which account information is set is registered, in the content D2, an ending note content in which bank account information is registered, in the content D4, a parting message from the contractor to the recipient is registered, and in the content D5, a memorandum of the contractor himself is registered.

[0044] For content D1, recipient R2 is set to "Request sharing / Allowed / 12h", which means that the sharing method is set to "Request sharing", the disclosure state is set to "Allowed disclosure", and the disclosure time difference is set to "12 hours". Since the sharing method for recipient R2 of content D1 is set to "Request sharing", content D1 is set to "important content" that will be disclosed to the recipient.

[0045] Additionally, "Instant sharing / Allowed / -" is set for recipient R2 of content D2 of contractor C1, which indicates that the sharing method is set to "Instant sharing" and the disclosure status is set to "Disclosure allowed." Note that "-", indicating an invalid value, is set for the disclosure time difference, because the sharing method is set to "Instant sharing," which does not use a disclosure time difference, rather than "Request sharing," which uses a disclosure time difference. Since the sharing method for recipient R1 of content D2 is set to "Request sharing," and the sharing method for recipient R2 is set to "Instant sharing," content D2 is also set to "important content."

[0046] On the other hand, for the content D4 for which a memorandum is set, the sharing method for all recipients is set to "not shareable." This means that the content D4 can only be viewed by the contractor himself and is not disclosed to the recipients (i.e., it is not important content).

[0047] The sharing method, disclosure status, and disclosure time difference set for each recipient are set when the contractor registers the content in the management server 1, and are changed appropriately if the contractor subsequently modifies these settings or if the disclosure status changes in the request sharing. For this reason, like content D4, although the sharing method for all recipients is set to "not shareable" when registered in the management server 1, the contractor can later change the sharing method for some recipients to "immediate sharing" or "request sharing" depending on a change in the contractor's intentions, thereby changing content D4 back to important content.

[0048] Returning to Fig. 1(a), the RAM 4 is a memory in which various work data, flags, etc. are rewritable when the CPU 2 executes a program. The communication device 7 is a device for transmitting and receiving information to and from other computers and devices. The communication device 7 is connected to the Internet N, and communication is performed via the communication device 7 and the Internet N, such as receiving content from the subscriber's user terminal 20 and transmitting content requested to be disclosed to the recipient's user terminal 20.

[0049] Next, the user terminal 20 will be described. The user terminal 20 is a mobile terminal (computer) operated by the contractor or the recipient. The contractor uses the user terminal 20 to register content in the management server 1, and the recipient uses the user terminal 20 to view the content registered in the management server 1.

[0050] The user terminal 20 has a CPU 21, a flash ROM 22, and a RAM 23, which are each connected to an input / output port 25 via a bus line 24. The input / output port 25 is further connected to a communication device 26, an LCD 27 which is a display device for displaying contents and screens such as a shared screen Ks1 described later in FIG. 2(a), a touch panel 28 which is an input device for inputting user instructions, and a speaker 29 which outputs sound when playing audio or video contents.

[0051] The CPU 21 is a calculation device that controls each part connected by the bus line 24. The flash ROM 22 is a rewritable non-volatile memory that stores programs executed by the CPU 21, fixed value data, etc. The RAM 23 is a memory for rewritably storing various work data, flags, etc. when the CPU 21 executes a program. The communication device 26 is a device that transmits and receives information to and from other computers and devices, and is connected to the Internet N. Communication with the management server 1 is performed via the communication device 26 and the Internet N.

[0052] A plurality of user terminals 20 are connected to the Internet N, and a plurality of contractors and recipients each operate a user terminal 20. As a result, contents registered from the user terminals 20 of the plurality of contractors are registered in the management server 1, and the contents registered in the management server 1 are disclosed to the user terminals 20 of the plurality of recipients. Such a system in which contents are registered in the management server 1 from the contractor's user terminal 20 and the registered contents are viewed on the recipient's user terminal 20 is referred to as a "content management system."

[0053] In this embodiment, one management server 1 registers and discloses content for multiple user terminals 20, but the present invention is not limited to this, and content may be registered and disclosed using multiple management servers 1. In this case, a management server 1 that manages content for each subscriber may be assigned from the multiple management servers 1, or content-related processing may be distributed to multiple management servers 1, such that one management server 1 only performs processing to register content and the other management servers 1 perform processing to disclose content.

[0054] Furthermore, the network connecting the management server 1 and the user terminal 20 is not limited to the Internet N, but may be another network such as an intranet (a limited network within a company, etc.).

[0055] Next, an overview of the registration of a recipient in the management server 1, the registration of content, and the disclosure of content will be described with reference to Figures 2 to 8. First, the registration of a recipient in the management server 1 will be described with reference to Figures 2 and 3. Figure 2(a) is a diagram showing a shared screen Ks1, Figure 2(b) is a diagram showing an invitation code issuing screen Ks2, Figure 2(c) is a diagram showing an invitation code input screen Ks3, and Figure 2(d) is a diagram showing an invitation result screen Ks4.

[0056] When a contractor registers a recipient in the management server 1, the contractor first requests the management server 1 to issue an invitation code, which is information (invitation information) for newly registering the recipient. The shared screen Ks1 in Fig. 2(a) is a screen displayed on the LCD 27 when the contractor requests the management server 1 to issue an invitation code and transmits the issuance request. The shared screen Ks1 not only requests the issuance of the invitation code, but also transitions to an invitation code input screen Ks3 (described later in Fig. 2(c)) where the recipient's user terminal 20 inputs an invitation code, transitions to a screen (not shown) that displays information about the recipient invited by the contractor, and displays a list of contractors of content that the contractor can view.

[0057] The shared screen Ks1 displays an invitation code issue button 70, an invitation code input button 71, shared inviting account buttons 72a and 72b, and shared invited account buttons 73a and 73b. The invitation code issue button 70 is a button for instructing a request for issuing the invitation code. When the invitation code issue button 70 is selected via the touch panel 28, the screen displayed on the LCD 27 is changed to an invitation code issue screen Ks2, which will be described later in FIG. 2(b).

[0058] Hereinafter, "selecting the invitation code issuance button 70, etc. via the touch panel 28" will be referred to as "selecting the invitation code issuance button 70, etc.", and "the screen displayed on the LCD 27 is changed to the invitation code issuance screen Ks2, etc." will be referred to as "the screen transitions to the invitation code issuance screen Ks2, etc."

[0059] The invitation code input button 71 is a button for transitioning the screen to an invitation code input screen Ks3, which will be described later with reference to Fig. 2(c). When the invitation code input button 71 is selected, the screen transitions to the invitation code input screen Ks3 in Fig. 2(b).

[0060] The sharing invitation account buttons 72a and 72b are buttons that display the names of recipients of the content invited by the contractor, who is the user of the user terminal 20 displaying the sharing screen Ks1. In the example of FIG. 2(a), since there are two recipients of the invited content, two sharing invitation account buttons 72a and 72b corresponding to each recipient are displayed, but if there are three or more recipients, three or more sharing invitation account buttons corresponding to each recipient are displayed. When the sharing invitation account button 72a or 72b is selected, the screen transitions to a screen (not shown) that displays details of the recipient corresponding to the sharing invitation account button 72a or 72b.

[0061] The shared invited account buttons 73a and 73b are buttons that display the name of the contractor who invited the recipient, who is the user of the user terminal 20 displaying the shared screen Ks1. In the example of FIG. 2(a), since there are two contractors of the invited content, two shared invited account buttons 73a and 73b corresponding to each contractor are displayed, but when there are three or more contractors, three or more shared invited account buttons corresponding to each contractor are displayed. When the shared invited account button 73a or 73b is selected, the screen transitions to the shared invited account screen Ks5 (described later in FIG. 6(a)) of the contractor corresponding to the shared invited account button 73a or 73b.

[0062] In this manner, the shared screen Ks1 has an invitation code issue button 70 and shared inviting account buttons 72a and 72b operated by the contractor, and an invitation code input button 71 and shared invited account buttons 73a and 73b operated by the recipient arranged thereon.

[0063] Here, the user who operates the user terminal 20 may be a contractor who registers the content, or a recipient who views the content. By arranging buttons 70, 72a, and 72b operated by the contractor and buttons 71, 73a, and 73b operated by the recipient on the shared screen Ks1, the user can seamlessly perform operations according to their respective positions without switching the screen from the shared screen Ks1.

[0064] In addition, the shared screen Ks1 displays a content list button NL for transitioning the screen to a content list screen Ns1 (described later in FIG. 4A) and a share button NS for transitioning the screen to the shared screen Ks1. These are displayed not only on the shared screen Ks1 but also on other screens. However, even if the share button NS is selected on the shared screen Ks1, no particular screen transition occurs.

[0065] Now, when the contractor selects the invitation code input button 71, a notice to that effect is sent to the management server 1, and the management server 1 issues an invitation code and sends it to the contractor's user terminal 20. Then, the invitation code received by the contractor's user terminal 20 is displayed on the invitation code issuing screen Ks2 in FIG. 2(b).

[0066] As shown in FIG. 2(b), the invitation code issuance screen Ks2 displays an invitation code display area 74, and the above-mentioned content list button NL and share button NS. The invitation code display area 74 is a display area that displays the invitation code received from the management server 1. In this embodiment, the invitation code displayed in the invitation code display area 74 is composed of a string of a predetermined number of characters (for example, 20 characters). Note that the invitation code is not limited to a string, and may be composed of information other than a string, such as an image, audio, or video. When the invitation code is composed of an image, it may be, for example, a two-dimensional barcode that encodes the invitation code of a string.

[0067] The contractor transmits the invitation code displayed in the invitation code display area 74 to the candidate he / she wishes to designate as the recipient. There are various methods for transmitting the invitation code to the candidate, for example, an email or SMS (Short Message Service) containing the invitation code may be sent to the candidate, or the invitation code may be directly transmitted orally or by telephone.

[0068] To input the invitation code, the candidate who has received the invitation code from the contractor changes the screen displayed on the LCD 27 of the user terminal 20 to the shared screen Ks1 in Fig. 2(a) and selects the invitation code input button 71. This displays the invitation code input screen Ks3 in Fig. 2(c) for inputting the transmitted invitation code.

[0069] As shown in Fig. 2(c), the invitation code input screen Ks3 displays an invitation code input area 75, an input completion button 76, and the above-mentioned content list button NL and share button NS. The invitation code input area 75 is an input area for inputting an invitation code input by a subscriber. The invitation code may be input into the invitation code input area 75 using a software keyboard (not shown) or other means such as voice input using a microphone (not shown).

[0070] The input completion button 76 is a button that confirms the input of the invitation code in the invitation code input area 75 and instructs sending the confirmed invitation code to the management server 1. The invitation code sent to the management server 1 by selecting the input completion button 76 is compared with invitation codes previously issued by the management server 1. If the result of the comparison shows that the received invitation code matches an invitation code previously issued, the contractor who issued the invitation code is asked whether he or she would like to approve the candidate who entered the invitation code on the invitation code input screen Ks3 as a recipient.

[0071] When the contractor approves the candidate as a recipient, the invitation result screen Ks4 of Fig. 2(d) is displayed on the LCD 27 of the user terminal 20 operated by the candidate who transmitted the invitation code to the management server 1. The invitation result screen Ks4 displays a message that the contractor approved the recipient, and a contractor content button 77 that transitions the screen to a shared content list screen Ns5 (described later in Fig. 6(b)) that displays a list of the contractor's contents. Note that the invitation result screen Ks4 is also displayed when the contractor does not approve the candidate as a recipient, and in that case, a message is displayed that the contractor did not approve the candidate as a recipient.

[0072] Next, referring to Fig. 3, an overview of the processing of the management server 1 and the user terminal 20 regarding the registration of a recipient in the management server 1 will be described. Fig. 3 is a sequence diagram of the management server 1, the user terminal 20 operated by the contractor, and the user terminal 20 operated by the recipient in the processing regarding the registration of a recipient in the management server 1. Of these, details of the processing in the management server 1 will be described later in the approval processing (S1) in Fig. 9(b).

[0073] In the sequence diagram of the process related to the registration of a recipient in the management server 1, first, in the user terminal 20 of the contractor, the invitation code issue button 70 on the shared screen Ks1 is selected, thereby instructing the management server 1 to issue an invitation code (T1). As a result, the issue request is transmitted from the user terminal 20 of the contractor to the management server 1 (A1).

[0074] When the management server 1 receives an issuance request from the user terminal 20 of the contractor, it issues an invitation code (T2). The issued invitation code is then sent to the user terminal 20 of the contractor who requested the issuance of the invitation code (A2). The contractor transmits the invitation code received from the management server 1 by the user terminal 20 of the contractor and displayed on the invitation code issuance screen Ks2 to the user terminal 20 of the potential recipient via email, SMS, etc. (A3).

[0075] The candidate inputs the invitation code transmitted from the contractor on the invitation code input screen Ks3 displayed on the candidate's user terminal 20 (T3). The input invitation code is transmitted to the management server 1 (A4).

[0076] The management server 1 compares the invitation code sent from the candidate's user terminal 20 with the invitation code issued in the past processing of T2 (T4). If the sent invitation code matches the invitation code issued in the past, an approval request is issued to the user terminal 20 of the contractor who sent the request to issue the invitation code, requesting the contractor to respond as to whether or not to approve the candidate as a recipient (T5), and the approval request is sent from the management server 1 to the user terminal 20 of the contractor (A5).

[0077] In the user terminal 20 of the contractor that has received the approval request, the approval result, which is the contractor's response to the approval request, is entered (T6), and the entered approval result is transmitted from the user terminal 20 of the contractor to the management server 1 (A6).

[0078] The management server 1 receives the approval result from the contractor's user terminal 20, and if the approval result is to designate the candidate as a recipient, it registers the candidate as a recipient in the content data 3b (T7). On the other hand, if the approval result from the contractor's user terminal 20 is to not designate the candidate as a recipient, the management server 1 does not register the recipient in the content data 3b.

[0079] Thereafter, the management server 1 transmits the approval result to the user terminal 20 of the target candidate (A7), and the user terminal 20 of the target candidate (recipient) displays the invitation result screen Ks4 based on the approval result (T8).

[0080] In this manner, in this embodiment, the registration of a recipient in the management server 1 is performed by transmitting an invitation code issued by the management server 1 at the request of the contractor to the potential recipient, and then transmitting the invitation code transmitted from the potential recipient to the management server 1. The management server 1 compares the invitation code transmitted from the potential recipient with invitation codes issued in the past, and if they match, the management server 1 transmits an approval request to the contractor, and if the approval result in response to the approval request is to make the target candidate the recipient, the target candidate is registered as the recipient.

[0081] In other words, by registering a target candidate as a recipient based on, in addition to comparing the invitation code, a request for approval from the contractor made after comparing the invitation code and the approval result of that request, it is possible to prevent a situation in which a person unrelated to the contractor who does not match the invitation code and has not been approved by the contractor in response to the approval request is registered as a recipient by impersonating the contractor.

[0082] Next, the registration of content in the management server 1 will be described with reference to Figures 4 and 5. Figure 4(a) is a diagram showing a content list screen Ns1, Figure 4(b) is a diagram showing a new content creation screen Ns2 for messages to recipients, Figure 4(c) is a diagram showing a new content creation screen Ns2 for account information, and Figure 4(d) is a diagram showing a sharing setting screen Ns4.

[0083] The content list screen Ns1 in FIG. 4(a) displays a list of contents registered by the contractor who operates the user terminal 20, and is a screen for instructing the creation of new contents. As shown in FIG. 4(a), the content list screen Ns1 displays content buttons 80a and 80b, a new content creation button 81, the above-mentioned content list button NL, and share button NS. The content buttons 80a and 80b are buttons that display the titles of the contents registered by the contractor who operates the user terminal 20. In the example of FIG. 4(a), the contractor has registered two contents, so two content buttons 80a and 80b are displayed, but even if the contractor has registered three or more contents, three or more content buttons corresponding to the respective contents are displayed.

[0084] The title of the corresponding content is displayed on the content buttons 80a and 80b, so that the subscriber can see at a glance the list of the contents registered by the subscriber. In addition, by selecting the content button 80a or 80b, the screen transitions to an editing screen (not shown) where the configuration data of the corresponding content can be modified or added.

[0085] The new content creation button 81 is a button for instructing the creation of new content. Based on the selection of the new content creation button 81, a transition to a new content creation screen Ns2, Ns3 is made. In this embodiment, a screen (new content creation screens Ns2, Ns3 described later in Fig. 4(b) and (c)) according to the type of content to be created is displayed, such as content related to a message to the recipient, such as a farewell message, or content related to account information for an online service, etc.

[0086] When the new content creation button 81 is selected, the screen transitions to a screen for selecting a content type (not shown), and transitions to a screen for creating content according to the content type displayed on that screen. In this embodiment, a new content creation screen Ns2 (FIG. 4(b)) for creating content related to a message to a recipient, or a new content creation screen Ns3 (FIG. 4(c)) for creating content related to account information for an Internet service or the like is displayed.

[0087] First, a description will be given of the new content creation screen Ns2 for creating content related to a message to a recipient. As shown in Fig. 4(b), the new content creation screen Ns2 displays a title input area 82, a message input area 83, an image / video selection button 84, and a content registration button 85. The title input area 82 is an input area for inputting a character string for the title of the content.

[0088] The message input area 83 is an input area for inputting a character string in the content, for example, a character string of a message to be conveyed to the recipient, such as words of congratulations or farewell. The image / video designation button 84 is a button for displaying a data designation screen (not shown) for designating an image or video to be added to the content. On the data designation screen, an image or video may be designated from among images and videos stored in the user terminal 20 of the subscriber who registers the content, or an image or video acquired from another device via the communication device 26. Moreover, the data that can be designated on the data designation screen is not limited to images and videos, and other data such as audio may also be designated.

[0089] The character string (text) entered in the message input area 83 and the data of the image or video designated based on the selection of the image / video designation button 84 are regarded as constituent data of the content.

[0090] The content registration button 85 is a button for instructing registration of the content title set in the title input area 82 and the content configuration data based on the message input area 83 and image / video designation button 84 in the management server 1. When the content registration button 85 is selected, the title and configuration data of the created content are registered in the management server 1, and the screen transitions to the sharing setting screen Ns4 in FIG. 4(d).

[0091] Next, a description will be given of the new content creation screen Ns3 for creating content related to account information. As shown in Fig. 4(c), the new content creation screen Ns3 displays a title input area 82, an image / video designation button 84, a content registration button 85, an ID input area 86, a password input area 87, and a login screen URL input area 88, similar to those of the above-mentioned new content creation screen Ns2.

[0092] The ID input area 86 is an area for inputting an ID or a user name used for logging in and authenticating the target internet service etc. to be registered in the content, and the password input area 87 is an input area for inputting a password used for logging in and authenticating the target internet service etc. Also, the login screen URL input area 88 is an input area for inputting a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to a web page for logging in and authenticating the target internet service etc.

[0093] The character strings entered in the ID input area 86, password input area 87, and login screen URL input area 88, and the image and video data designated based on the selection of the image / video designation button 84 are regarded as the constituent data of the content. When the content registration button 85 is selected, the title and constituent data of the created content are registered in the management server 1, and the screen transitions to the sharing setting screen Ns4 in Fig. 4(d).

[0094] In the above, new content creation screen Ns2 for a message to the recipient and new content creation screen Ns3 for account information are given as examples of screens for creating content, but the screens for creating content are not limited to these, and it is also possible to display screens for creating other types of content, such as a screen for creating content related to a bank account or a screen for creating content related to a report card.

[0095] Furthermore, the new content creation screen Ns2 is not necessarily limited to inputting a message to the recipient, and for example, an ID, user name and password for an Internet service or the like, a URL to a login screen, or other information may be input in a message input area 83 of the new content creation screen Ns2. Similarly, the new content creation screen Ns3 is not necessarily limited to inputting information regarding login and authentication for an Internet service or the like, and for example, a bank name and account number may be input in an ID input area 86 of the new content creation screen Ns3, and a PIN for the cash card of that bank account may be input in a password input area 87, or other information may be input.

[0096] Furthermore, when the content registration button 85 is selected, the user may be able to choose whether to register the content created on each of the content creation screens Ns2 and Ns3 in the management server 1 as a single piece of content, or as a child content of another content (parent content) already registered in the management server 1.

[0097] The sharing setting screen Ns4 in Fig. 4(d) is a screen for setting the sharing method and disclosure time difference for each recipient of the content registered on the new content creation screens Ns2 and Ns3 in Fig. 4(b) and (c). The sharing setting screen Ns4 displays, for each recipient registered by the contractor, instant sharing buttons 89a and 89b, request sharing buttons 90a and 90b, disclosure time difference input areas 91a and 91b, non-sharing buttons 92a and 92b, and a setting completion button 93.

[0098] The instantaneous sharing buttons 89a and 89b are buttons for specifying "instantaneous sharing" as the sharing method. In Fig. 4(d), the instantaneous sharing buttons 89a and 89b are displayed for each recipient, with the instantaneous sharing button 89a being displayed for the recipient "AAA-san" and the instantaneous sharing button 89b being displayed for the recipient "BBB-san."

[0099] The request share buttons 90a, 90b are buttons for specifying "request share" as the sharing method, and the request share button 90a is displayed for the recipient "AAA", and the request share button 90b is displayed for the recipient "BBB." The disclosure time difference input areas 91a, 91b are input areas for inputting the above-mentioned disclosure time difference in request sharing, and the disclosure time difference input area 91a is displayed for the recipient "AAA", and the disclosure time difference input area 91b is displayed for the recipient "BBB."

[0100] The non-shareable buttons 92a and 92b are buttons for designating "non-shareable" as the sharing method, and the non-shareable button 92a is displayed for the recipient "AAA", and the non-shareable button 92b is displayed for the recipient "BBB".

[0101] The instant share button 89a, the request share button 90a, and the non-shareable button 92a are configured so that only one of the buttons can be selected, and similarly, the instant share button 89b, the request share button 90b, and the non-shareable button 92a are configured so that only one of the buttons can be selected.

[0102] In the example of Figure 4(d), the contractor has invited two recipients, so two instant share buttons 89a, 89b, request share buttons 90a, 90b, disclosure time difference input areas 91a, 91b and non-shareable buttons 92a, 92b are displayed corresponding to each recipient. However, if there are three or more recipients, three or more instant share buttons, request share buttons, disclosure time difference input areas and non-shareable buttons are displayed corresponding to each recipient.

[0103] The setting completion button 93 is a button that sets the sharing method and disclosure time difference for each recipient set using the immediate sharing buttons 89a, 89b, request sharing buttons 90a, 90b, disclosure time difference input areas 91a, 91b, and non-sharing buttons 92a, 92b as the sharing settings for the corresponding recipient, and instructs the sending of these sharing settings to the management server 1.

[0104] 4(d), the sharing method corresponding to the selected button among the instant sharing button 89a, the request sharing button 90a, and the non-sharing button 92a, and the disclosure time difference input in the disclosure time difference input area 91a are set as the sharing settings for the recipient "AAA." Similarly, the sharing method corresponding to the selected button among the instant sharing button 89b, the request sharing button 90b, and the non-sharing button 92b, and the disclosure time difference input in the disclosure time difference input area 91b are set as the sharing settings for the recipient "BBB."

[0105] At this time, when the request share button 90a, 90b is selected, the time input in the corresponding disclosure time difference input area 91a, 91b is set as the disclosure time difference. On the other hand, when the immediate share button 89a, 89b or the non-shareable button 92a, 92b is selected, "-" is set as the disclosure time difference regardless of the time input in the corresponding disclosure time difference input area 91a, 91b. When the setting completion button 93 is selected, the sharing settings for each recipient that have been set are sent to the management server 1 all at once.

[0106] Next, an overview of the processing of the management server 1 and the user terminal 20 regarding the registration of content in the management server 1 will be described with reference to Fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a sequence diagram of the management server 1, the user terminal 20 operated by the contractor, and the user terminal 20 operated by the recipient in the processing regarding the registration of content in the management server 1. Of these, the details of the processing of the management server 1 will be described later in the content registration processing (S2) in Fig. 10.

[0107] First, the contractor's user terminal 20 creates content using the new content creation screens Ns2 and Ns3 (T10), and transmits the title and configuration data of the created content by selecting the content registration button 85 to the management server 1 (T11, A10).

[0108] The management server 1, which has received the title and configuration data of the content from the subscriber's user terminal 20, stores the received title and configuration data of the content in the content data 3b (T12), and transmits a sharing setting request to the user terminal 20 that sent the content, requesting the setting of sharing settings, i.e., the sharing method and disclosure time difference for each recipient (T13, A12).

[0109] The subscriber's user terminal 20, which has received a sharing setting request from the management server 1, displays the sharing setting screen Ns4 and sets the sharing method and disclosure time difference for each recipient (T14, T15), and by selecting the setting completion button 93, sends the sharing setting based on the set sharing method and disclosure time difference for each recipient to the management server 1 (T16, A13).

[0110] The management server 1, which has received the sharing settings from the user terminal 20 of the contractor, stores the sharing method and disclosure time difference for each recipient of the sharing settings in the content data 3b (T17). Then, it transmits a registration completion notice to the user terminal 20 that sent the sharing settings, which is a notice that the registration of the content and its sharing settings has been completed (A14). The user terminal 20 of the contractor, which has received the registration completion notice from the management server 1, displays the content list screen Ns1 (T18).

[0111] In this manner, the content created by the contractor at the user terminal 20 and the sharing method of the content are registered in the content data 3b of the management server 1.

[0112] Next, disclosure of content whose sharing method is request sharing will be described with reference to Figs. 6 to 8. Fig. 6(a) is a diagram showing a sharing invited account screen Ks5, Fig. 6(b) is a diagram showing a shared content list screen Ns5, Fig. 6(c) is a diagram showing a sharing approval setting screen Ks6, and Fig. 6(d) is a diagram showing an approval result display screen Ks7 when disclosure is permitted. Fig. 7(a) is a diagram showing a shared content list screen Ns5 when disclosure is permitted, and Fig. 7(b) is a diagram showing an approval result display screen Ks7 when disclosure is not permitted.

[0113] When the recipient wants to view the content requested by the invited contractor, the recipient selects the shared invited account button 73a or 73b on which the name of the contractor is displayed among the shared invited account buttons 73a or 73b on the shared screen Ks1 in Fig. 2(a) described above. This causes the screen to transition to the shared invited account screen Ks5.

[0114] As shown in Fig. 6(a), the shared invited account screen Ks5 displays a shared content button 95, a sharing request button 96, and the above-mentioned content list button NL and share button NS. The shared content button 95 is a button for transitioning the screen to a shared content list screen Ns5, which will be described later with reference to Fig. 6(b).

[0115] 6(b), the shared content list screen Ns5 is a screen that displays a list of contents that a target subscriber (hereinafter referred to as "target subscriber") selected with the shared invited account buttons 73a and 73b has permitted to be disclosed to a recipient (hereinafter referred to as "recipient") operating the user terminal 20. Content buttons 97a and 97b, as well as the above-mentioned content list button NL and share button NS are displayed on the shared content list screen Ns5.

[0116] The content buttons 97a and 97b are buttons that display the titles of the contents that the target contractor has permitted the recipient to disclose. In the example of Fig. 6(b), the recipient has permitted disclosure of two pieces of content, so two content buttons 97a and 97b are displayed, but if the recipient has permitted disclosure of three or more pieces of content, three or more content buttons corresponding to the respective pieces of content are displayed. When the content button 97a or 97b is selected, the screen transitions to a screen (not shown) that displays and plays the corresponding content.

[0117] Returning to Fig. 6(a), the share request button 96 is a button for instructing transmission of a disclosure request to the management server 1, requesting permission to disclose the requested shared content of the target contractor. When the share request button 96 is selected, a disclosure request is transmitted to the management server 1. In response, the management server 1 transmits a disclosure request to the target contractor, requesting a response of permission or prohibition to disclose the requested shared content to the recipient.

[0118] When the disclosure request is received at the user terminal 20 of the target contractor, the screen transitions to a sharing approval setting screen Ks6. As shown in FIG. 6(c), a disclosure permission button 98 and a disclosure refusal button 99 are displayed on the sharing approval setting screen Ks6.

[0119] The disclosure permission button 98 is a button for instructing transmission of the disclosure result, for which "permitted" has been set to indicate that disclosure is permitted in response to the disclosure request, to the management server 1. The disclosure refusal button 99 is a button for instructing transmission of the disclosure result, for which "not permitted" has been set to indicate that disclosure is not permitted in response to the disclosure request, to the management server 1. Only one of the disclosure permission button 98 and the disclosure refusal button 99 can be selected.

[0120] When the disclosure permission button 98 is selected on the sharing approval setting screen Ks6 displayed on the LCD 27 of the user terminal 20 of the target subscriber in response to a disclosure request from the management server 1 based on a disclosure request from the recipient, or when the disclosure time difference has elapsed since the recipient sent a disclosure request and the management server 1 sent the last disclosure request from the recipient, the management server 1 determines that disclosure of the requested shared content of the target subscriber has been permitted.

[0121] The management server 1 transmits the disclosure result received from the contractor to the recipient's user terminal 20. Note that, even if the disclosure of the requested shared content of the contractor is permitted due to the passage of the first period from the start of transmission of the disclosure request from the contractor to the management server 1, "permitted" is set as the disclosure result.

[0122] When the recipient's user terminal 20 receives the disclosure result, the screen transitions to an approval result display screen Ks7. As shown in Fig. 6(d), when the disclosure result is "Allowed", the approval result display screen Ks7 displays a message indicating that the request sharing has been permitted, and a shared content button 100 for transitioning the screen to a shared content list screen Ns5.

[0123] As shown in Fig. 7(a), when the received disclosure result is "Allowed", the shared content list screen Ns5, which is transitioned to by selecting the shared content button 100, displays content buttons 97a to 97c that show the added content that has become newly viewable by the recipient. In the example of Fig. 7(a), the newly added requested sharing content corresponds to "AAA account information" in the content button 97b.

[0124] On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 7(b), when the disclosure result is "Not allowed", the approval result display screen Ks7 displays a message indicating that the request sharing is not allowed. The shared content button 100 is also displayed together with this message, but when the shared content button 100 is selected, the shared content list screen Ns5 displayed does not include the requested sharing content of the target contractor, i.e., the content buttons 97a and 97b similar to those in Fig. 6(b) are displayed.

[0125] Next, an overview of the disclosure process of content whose sharing method is request sharing will be described with reference to Fig. 8. First, the disclosure process in the case where the contractor does not respond to the disclosure request will be described with reference to Fig. 8(a). Fig. 8(a) is a sequence diagram of the management server 1, the user terminal 20 operated by the contractor, and the user terminal 20 operated by the recipient in the disclosure process of content whose sharing method is request sharing and in the case where the contractor does not respond to the disclosure request. Of these, details of the process in the management server 1 will be described later in the request processing (S3) in Figs. 11 and 12.

[0126] First, the recipient's user terminal 20 transmits a disclosure request for the requested shared content to the management server 1 by selecting the sharing request button 96 on the shared invited account screen Ks5 in Fig. 6(a) (T30, A30). When the management server 1 receives the disclosure request, it transmits a disclosure request to the target contractor specified on the shared invited account screen Ks5 (T31, A31). Specifically, the disclosure request is repeatedly transmitted from the management server 1 to the user terminal 20 operated by the target contractor every eight hours, a total of six times.

[0127] Then, if the management server 1 does not receive a response to the disclosure request from the subscriber's user terminal 20 during the period from the time when the last disclosure request was sent until the disclosure time difference for the content of the target subscriber in the content data 3b whose sharing method is request sharing for the recipient (hereinafter referred to as the "requesting recipient") who sent the disclosure request in the processing of T30, A30 has elapsed (this period is referred to as the "first period"), the management server 1 sets the disclosure status of the corresponding request-shared content in the content data 3b and the requesting recipient to "disclosure permitted" and transmits a disclosure result to the user terminal 20 of the requesting recipient indicating that disclosure of the corresponding request-shared content has been permitted ("permitted") (T32, A32).

[0128] More specifically, the timing of sending the last disclosure request is set as the "start timing" of the first period. Furthermore, the disclosure time difference of the content for which the sharing method of the requesting recipient is request sharing among the contents of the target subscriber in the content data 3b is acquired. Then, the time difference ΔT between the start timing of the first period and the current time is acquired, and if the acquired time difference ΔT is equal to or greater than the acquired disclosure time difference, the disclosure status of the content for the requesting recipient in the content data 3b that corresponds to that disclosure time difference is set to "disclosure permitted."

[0129] At this time, if there are multiple requested shared contents obtained, the time difference ΔT is compared with each disclosure time difference, and when the time difference ΔT becomes equal to or greater than the disclosure time difference, the disclosure status of the content corresponding to that disclosure time difference for the requesting recipient in the content data 3b is set to “disclosure permitted.”

[0130] Then, the disclosure result is transmitted by the processing of T32 and A32, and the recipient's user terminal 20 that has received the disclosure result displays an approval result display screen Ks7 (T33) to notify the recipient that the disclosure of the requested shared content has been permitted. Note that the transmission of the disclosure result by the processing of T32 and A32 may be performed at the timing of transmitting the final disclosure request without waiting for the lapse of the disclosure time difference, or the disclosure result for the content for which the time difference ΔT has passed the disclosure time difference may be transmitted at the timing when the time difference ΔT has passed the disclosure time difference.

[0131] In this way, when disclosing requested shared content, first a disclosure request from the recipient is sent to the management server 1, and based on the disclosure request, the management server 1 sends a disclosure request to the target subscriber. If there is no response to the disclosure request from the target subscriber, disclosure of the content is permitted. This makes it possible to prevent the content from being disclosed before the recipient makes a disclosure request, before the recipient has the intention or mental preparation to view the content. This makes it possible to prevent the recipient of the content, especially the ending note, from being unnecessarily upset or distrustful.

[0132] Furthermore, the disclosure request is repeatedly transmitted from the management server 1 to the contractor's user terminal 20 six times every eight hours. If communication conditions deteriorate due to a communication failure or the like of the Internet N used for communication between the management server 1 and the contractor's user terminal 20, the disclosure request transmitted by the management server 1 may not be received by the contractor's user terminal 20. Therefore, by transmitting the disclosure request six times every eight hours from the management server 1, the probability that the contractor's user terminal 20 will be able to receive the disclosure request is improved, and the contractor's user terminal 20 can receive the disclosure request more reliably.

[0133] Furthermore, if no response to the disclosure request is received from the contractor's user terminal 20 during the period from the transmission of the final disclosure request until the disclosure time difference has elapsed (i.e., the first period), "disclosure permission" is set for the target content and the requesting recipient. That is, the timing until the disclosure of the target content is permitted to the requesting recipient can be delayed by the disclosure time difference from the transmission of the final disclosure request. Such a disclosure time difference allows the timing until the target content is disclosed to the requesting recipient to be set in detail.

[0134] The transmission interval for transmitting the disclosure request is not limited to 8 hours, and may be more than or less than 8 hours. The number of times the disclosure request is transmitted is not limited to 6 times, and may be more than or less than 6 times.

[0135] Next, the disclosure process when the contractor responds to the disclosure request will be described with reference to Fig. 8(b). Fig. 8(b) is a sequence diagram of the management server 1, the user terminal 20 operated by the contractor, and the user terminal 20 operated by the recipient in the disclosure process when the contractor responds to the disclosure request, in which the sharing method is request sharing. The processes of T30, T31, A30, and A31 in Fig. 8(b) are the same as those in Fig. 8(a) above.

[0136] In Fig. 8(b), when the user terminal 20 of the target contractor receives a disclosure request from the management server 1 (A31), the sharing approval setting screen Ks6 of Fig. 6(c) is displayed on the contractor's user terminal 20. When the disclosure permission button 98 or the disclosure refusal button 99 is selected on the sharing approval setting screen Ks6, the disclosure result according to the selected button is input (T40), and the disclosure result is transmitted from the contractor's user terminal 20 to the management server 1 (A40).

[0137] Then, the management server 1 that has received the disclosure result transmits the disclosure result to the user terminal 20 of the recipient that sent the disclosure request (T41, A41). The user terminal 20 of the recipient that has received the disclosure result displays the approval result display screen Ks7 of Figs. 6(d) and 7(b) (T42) to notify the recipient that disclosure of the requested shared content has been permitted or has not been permitted.

[0138] Among these, if the disclosure result received from the management server 1 is "Allowed," after the management server 1 receives the disclosure result and the disclosure time difference for the content of the target subscriber in the content data 3b for which the sharing method of the requesting recipient is request sharing has elapsed (this period is also referred to as the "first period"), the disclosure status of the corresponding request sharing content in the content data 3b and the requesting recipient is set to "Disclosure Allowed."

[0139] More specifically, when the management server 1 receives a disclosure result that is "permitted," that timing is set as the "start timing" of the first period. Furthermore, the disclosure time difference of the content for which the sharing method of the requesting recipient is request sharing among the contents of the target subscriber in the content data 3b is acquired. Then, the time difference ΔT between the start timing of the first period and the current time is acquired, and when the acquired time difference ΔT is equal to or greater than the acquired disclosure time difference, the disclosure status of the content for the requesting recipient in the content data 3b that corresponds to that disclosure time difference is set to "disclosure permitted."

[0140] At this time, if there are multiple requested shared contents obtained, the time difference ΔT is compared with each disclosure time difference, and when the time difference ΔT becomes equal to or greater than the disclosure time difference, the disclosure status of the requesting recipient in the content data 3b for the content corresponding to that disclosure time difference is set to "disclosure permitted." This allows the recipient to view the requested shared content for which disclosure has been requested.

[0141] In this way, when the target contractor gives permission for disclosure as a response to a disclosure request sent to the target contractor based on a disclosure request for the requested shared content from the recipient, the disclosure of the content to the recipient is permitted without waiting for the transmission of the final disclosure request. This allows the recipient to view the content quickly.

[0142] On the other hand, even if a recipient requests disclosure of the requested shared content, if the target contractor sends a disclosure denial in response to the disclosure request before the first period has elapsed, the recipient will remain prohibited from viewing the content, and disclosure of the content will remain prohibited. In other words, as long as the target contractor continues to indicate that the content is not disclosable, the recipient will be prohibited from viewing the content, which prevents the content from being disclosed despite the contractor's intention not to disclose the content. This allows the content to be disclosed according to the contractor's intention, and the contractor can safely entrust the content to the management server 1.

[0143] Furthermore, when the disclosure time lag has elapsed (i.e., the first period has elapsed) after the management server 1 receives the disclosure result of "permitted", "disclosure permitted" is set for the target content and the requesting recipient. In other words, the timing until the disclosure of the target content is permitted to the requesting recipient can be delayed by a further disclosure time lag from the timing when the management server 1 receives the disclosure result of "permitted". This disclosure time lag allows the timing until the target content is disclosed to the requesting recipient to be set in detail.

[0144] Furthermore, the disclosure time difference is set for each content and each recipient (see Figure 1(b)). For example, if the content is an ending note based on account information, the disclosure time difference is set to 24 hours. On the other hand, if the content is a secret confession, the disclosure time difference is set to 240 hours (10 days), which is longer than that of an ending note. As a result, the account information, which is the cancellation information for the life support service mentioned above, is disclosed earlier than the secret confession, and the recipient can quickly cancel the services that the subscriber has subscribed to, which require monthly and annual fees, based on the account information.

[0145] In this case, the disclosure time difference is set to 24 hours, and a certain grace period is provided before the Ending Note via account information is disclosed. This prevents the Ending Note via account information from being disclosed before the recipient is ready or willing to view the Ending Note via account information, and prevents the recipient from being unnecessarily upset or distrustful of the Ending Note via account information.

[0146] On the other hand, the contents of the secret confession are disclosed later than the contents of the ending note based on the account information. That is, the contents of the contractor's secret confession, which may be more upsetting to the recipient than the ending note based on the account information, are disclosed later than the ending note based on the account information. This allows the recipient who will be viewing the secret confession to fully prepare themselves mentally.

[0147] For example, if the content is a secret confession, the disclosure time difference is set to 120 hours (5 days) for recipients of the content who are adults over the age of 20, and 240 hours for recipients who are minors under the age of 20. This allows the secret confession content to be disclosed to minor recipients later than to adult recipients, thereby reducing the emotional upset that impressionable minors may feel when viewing the contractor's secret confession. In this way, by setting the disclosure time difference according to the content and the recipient, the contractor can allow the recipient to view the content at a time that is appropriate for the recipient.

[0148] Next, the processing executed by the CPU 2 (see FIG. 1(a)) of the management server 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 13. FIG. 9(a) is a flowchart of the main processing. The main processing of the management server 1 is processing that is executed after the power of the management server 1 is turned on.

[0149] The management server 1 first executes approval processing (S1, described later in FIG. 9(b)). After the approval processing of S1, it executes content registration processing (S2, described later in FIG. 10), executes request processing (S3, described later in FIGS. 11 and 12), and executes content transmission processing (S4, described later in FIG. 13). After the content transmission processing of S4, it executes other processing of the management server 1 (S5), and repeats the processing from S1 onwards.

[0150] The main process is not limited to being executed in the order of S1 approval process, S2 content registration process, S3 request process, S4 content transmission process, and S5 process, and may be executed in parallel (simultaneously), for example. In this case, a plurality of S1 approval processes may be executed in parallel, and similarly a plurality of S2 to S5 processes may be executed in parallel. This allows processes requested by a plurality of contractors or recipients to be executed simultaneously, thereby improving the response of the management server 1.

[0151] The approval process of S1, the content registration process of S2, the request process of S3, and the content transmission process of S4 will be described in detail with reference to Figures 9(b) to 13. First, the approval process of S1 will be described.

[0152] Fig. 9(b) is a flowchart of the approval process. The approval process is a process for registering a recipient, and corresponds to the process executed by the management server 1 in the sequence diagram of Fig. 3. The approval process first checks whether a request for issuing an invitation code has been received from the user terminal 20 of the contractor (S10).

[0153] In the process of S10, if a request for issuing an invitation code is received (S10: Yes), an invitation code is created and transmitted to the user terminal 20 of the subscriber who requested the issuance of the invitation code in the process of S10 (S11). Note that the invitation code may be created each time the process of S11 is executed, or the invitation code may be created in advance and stored in the HDD 3 (see FIG. 1(a)), and the invitation code may be read from the HDD 3 when the process of S11 is executed.

[0154] In the process of S10, if a request to issue an invitation code has not been received (S10: No), skip the process of S11. After the processes of S10 and S11, it is confirmed whether an invitation code has been received from the user terminal 20 of the candidate recipient (S12). In the process of S12, if an invitation code has been received from the user terminal 20 of the candidate (S12: Yes), the received invitation code is compared with the invitation code previously created in the process of S11 (S13). In the process of S13, it is confirmed whether the types of characters and their order of the characters completely match between the received invitation code and the invitation code created in the process of S11.

[0155] After the process of S13, it is confirmed whether the received invitation code matches the invitation code previously created in the process of S11 as a result of the comparison in the process of S13 (S14). In the process of S14, if the received invitation code matches the invitation code previously created in the process of S11 (S14: Yes), the user terminal 20 of the contractor that sent the invitation code previously created in the process of S11 that matches the received invitation code is identified, and the approval request described above in FIG. 3 is sent to the user terminal 20 of the contractor (S15).

[0156] On the other hand, in the process of S14, if the received invitation code does not match the invitation code previously created in the process of S11 (S14: No), there is a possibility that the candidate who is the sender of the received invitation code may have made a mistake in inputting the invitation code transmitted from the contractor, so error information including the fact that an incorrect invitation code was input is sent to the user terminal 20 of the candidate (S16). Although not shown, a message to the effect that an incorrect invitation code was input and a message prompting the user to input the invitation code again are displayed on the LCD 27 of the user terminal 20 of the candidate who received the error information (not shown).

[0157] In the process of S12, if an invitation code has not been received from the candidate's user terminal 20 (S12: No), skip the processes of S13 to S16. After the processes of S12, S15, and S16, it is confirmed whether the approval result described above in Fig. 3 has been received from the contractor's user terminal 20 (S17). In the process of S17, if an approval result has been received from the contractor's user terminal 20 (S17: Yes), it is confirmed whether the approval result indicates that the target candidate is to be the recipient (S18).

[0158] In the process of S18, if the approval result indicates that the target candidate will be the recipient (S18: Yes), the target candidate of the approval result is registered in the content data 3b as the recipient of the contractor who transmitted the approval result received in the process of S17 (S19). To register the recipient in the content data 3b, specifically, the target candidate is added as a recipient to the "sharing method, disclosure status, and disclosure time difference for each recipient" of the content data 3b. Then, the "sharing method, disclosure status, and disclosure time difference for each recipient" of the added recipient is set to "disclosure permitted" for the content of the contractor whose sharing method is "instant sharing".

[0159] On the other hand, the content of the contractor that is "Request Shared" or "Not Shareable" will be set to "Not Discloseable". In this case, the "Disclosure Time Difference" of the added recipient of the "Request Shared" content may be set to the time obtained from the target candidate, or a predetermined time (for example, 12 hours) may be uniformly set as the initial value of the "Disclosure Time Difference" and the target candidate may later be able to reset it.

[0160] In the process of S18, if the approval result does not indicate that the target candidate is to be the recipient (S18: No), the process of S19 is skipped. After the processes of S18 and S19, the approval result is transmitted to the user terminal 20 of the candidate who is the target of the approval result (including the candidate who became the recipient in the process of S19) (S20). On the user terminal 20 of the candidate who received the approval result, the invitation result screen Ks4 described above in FIG. 2(d) is displayed.

[0161] In the process of S17, if the approval result has not been received from the user terminal 20 of the contractor (S17: No), the processes of S18 to S20 are skipped. After the processes of S17 and S20, the approval process is terminated.

[0162] Next, the content registration process of S2 will be described with reference to Fig. 10. Fig. 10 is a flowchart of the content registration process. The content registration process is a process for newly registering content, and corresponds to the process executed by the management server 1 in the sequence diagram of Fig. 5.

[0163] The content registration process first checks whether new content has been received from the user terminal 20 of the contractor (S30). If new content has been received from the user terminal 20 of the contractor in the process of S30 (S30: Yes), the received content is stored in the content data 3b in association with the contractor who sent the content (S31). After the process of S31, the sharing setting request described above in FIG. 5 is sent to the user terminal 20 of the contractor who sent the content (S32).

[0164] In the process of S30, if no new content has been received from the user terminal 20 of the contractor (S30: No), the processes of S31 and S32 are skipped. After the processes of S30 and S32, it is confirmed whether the sharing setting requested from the user terminal 20 of the contractor in the process of S32 has been received from the user terminal 20 (S33).

[0165] At this time, information for identifying the content to which the shared settings are applied is also transmitted from the contractor's user terminal 20 together with the shared settings. Hereinafter, the "content to which the shared settings are applied" is referred to as the "target content." Note that the target content includes not only the content newly saved in the content data 3b in the immediately preceding process of S31, but also content that has already been saved in the content data 3b and to which the shared settings have been applied. When the shared settings are transmitted in the process of S33 for content that has already been saved in the content data 3b and to which the shared settings have been applied, the newly transmitted shared settings are used to update the existing shared settings.

[0166] In the processing of S33, if sharing settings are received from the subscriber's user terminal 20 (S33: Yes), the sharing settings of the target content of the content data 3b, i.e., the "sharing method, disclosure status, and disclosure time difference for each recipient" of the target content of the content data 3b, are applied with the sharing method and disclosure time difference for each recipient contained in the received sharing settings (S34).

[0167] After the process of S34, the registration completion notification shown in Fig. 5 is transmitted to the user terminal 20 of the recipient of the content saved in the process of S31 (S35). If the sharing setting has not been received from the user terminal 20 of the contractor in the process of S33 (S33: No), the processes of S34 and S35 are skipped. After the processes of S33 and S35, the content registration process is terminated.

[0168] Next, the request processing of S3 will be described with reference to Figs. 11 and 12. Fig. 11 is a flowchart of the request processing. The request processing is a process for disclosing the request-shared content, and corresponds to the process executed by the management server 1 in the sequence diagram of Fig. 8.

[0169] The request process first checks whether the disclosure request described above in FIG. 8 has been received from the user terminal 20 of the recipient (i.e., the requesting recipient described above in FIG. 8) (S40). At this time, information for designating the "target subscriber" of the requested shared content to be disclosed is also received from the user terminal 20 of the requesting recipient together with the disclosure request. In the process of S40, if a disclosure request has been received from the user terminal 20 of the requesting recipient (S40: Yes), 1 is set to a counter variable M indicating the number of times the disclosure request has been sent (S41).

[0170] After the process of S41, the disclosure request described above in Fig. 8 is sent to the user terminal 20 of the target contractor specified together with the disclosure request (S42). After the process of S42, it is confirmed whether the disclosure result described above in Fig. 8 has been received from the user terminal 20 of the target contractor (S43). In the process of S43, if the disclosure result has not been received (S43: No), it is confirmed whether eight hours have passed since the disclosure request was sent in the process of the previous S42 (S44).

[0171] In the process of S44, if eight hours have not passed since the disclosure request was sent in the immediately preceding process of S42 (S44: No), the processes from S43 onwards are repeated. On the other hand, in the process of S44, if eight hours have passed since the disclosure request was sent in the immediately preceding process of S42 (S44: Yes), it is confirmed whether the counter variable M is 6 or more (S45).

[0172] In the processing of S45, if counter variable M is smaller than 6 (S45: No), 8 hours have passed since the previous disclosure request was sent to the subscriber's user terminal 20, and the number of times the disclosure request has been sent (counter variable M) is smaller than 6. Therefore, in order to send the next disclosure request, 1 is added to counter variable M (S46), and the processing from S42 onwards is repeated.

[0173] On the other hand, in the process of S45, if the counter variable M is 6 or more (S45: Yes), the transmission of the disclosure request to the user terminal 20 of the contractor has been repeated 6 times every 8 hours, which means that the start timing of the first period described above in FIG. 8(a) has arrived. In this case, the disclosure permission process of S47 is executed. The details of the disclosure permission process will be described later in FIG. 12.

[0174] In the process of S43, if a disclosure result is received (S43: Yes), the received disclosure result is transmitted to the user terminal of the requesting recipient (S48). After the process of S48, the disclosure result received in the process of S43 is confirmed (S49). In the process of S49, if the received disclosure result is "permitted" (S49: "permitted"), the start timing of the first period described above in FIG. 8(b) has arrived, so the disclosure permission process of S47 is performed. On the other hand, in the process of S49, if the received disclosure result is "not permitted" (S49: "not permitted"), the disclosure permission process of S47 is skipped. Here, the disclosure permission process will be described with reference to FIG. 12.

[0175] Fig. 12 is a flowchart of the disclosure permission process. The disclosure permission process is a process for permitting the disclosure of requested shared content. The disclosure permission process first sets the current time to the start timing of the first period described above in Fig. 8 (S60). The current time may be obtained from a clock installed in the management server 1, or may be obtained from an external device such as an NTP (Network Time Protocol) server via the communication device 7.

[0176] After the process of S60, a counter variable P indicating the order of the content of the target contractor in the content data 3b is set to 1 (S61). After the process of S61, the sharing method, disclosure status, and disclosure time difference of the requesting recipient (i.e., the recipient who sent the disclosure request in the process of S40 in FIG. 11) of the Pth content of the target contractor is obtained from the content data 3b (S62).

[0177] After the process of S62, it is confirmed whether the acquired sharing method is "request sharing" and the acquired disclosure status is "disclosure not allowed" (S63). If the acquired sharing method is "request sharing" and the acquired disclosure status is "disclosure not allowed" in the process of S63 (S63: Yes), it is confirmed whether the time difference ΔT between the current time and the start timing set in the process of S60 is equal to or greater than the acquired disclosure time difference (S64).

[0178] In the process of S64, if the time difference ΔT is equal to or greater than the acquired disclosure time difference (S64: Yes), the disclosure status of the P-th content of the target contractor in the content data 3b for the requesting recipient is set to "disclosure permitted" (S65). This allows the recipient to view the requested shared content requested for disclosure by the requesting recipient.

[0179] After the processes of S63 and S65, the counter variable P is incremented by 1 (S66), and it is confirmed whether the counter variable P is greater than the total number of contents of the target subscriber stored in the content data 3b (S67). In the process of S67, if the counter variable P is less than or equal to the total number of contents of the target subscriber in the content data 3b (S67: No), the processes from S62 onwards are repeated.

[0180] In the process of S64, if the time difference ΔT is smaller than the acquired disclosure time difference (S64: No), it is confirmed whether the disclosure result has been received from the user terminal 20 of the target contractor (S68). In the process of S68, if the disclosure result has not been received (S68: No), the processes from S64 onwards are repeated. On the other hand, if the disclosure result has been received in the process of S68 (S68: Yes), the received disclosure result is transmitted to the user terminal of the requesting recipient (S69). After the process of S69, the disclosure result received in the process of S68 is confirmed (S70). In the process of S70, if the received disclosure result is "permitted" (S70: "permitted"), the processes from S64 onwards are repeated.

[0181] In the process of S63, if the sharing method acquired in the process of S63 is not "request sharing" or the acquired disclosure status is not "disclosure not permitted" (S63: No), the processes of S64 and S65 are skipped. In the process of S67, if the counter variable P is greater than the total number of contents of the target contractor in the content data 3b (S67: Yes), or in the process of S70, if the received disclosure result is "not permitted" (S70: "not permitted"), the disclosure permission process is terminated.

[0182] Among these, when the received disclosure result is "Not allowed" in the process of S70, it means that the request sharing content is not to be disclosed to the requesting recipient from the target contractor, so the setting of the disclosure status to "Disclosure permitted" in the process of S65 thereafter is skipped. At this time, all of the disclosure statuses that were set from "Disclosure not allowed" to "Disclosure permitted" in the process of S65 of the current disclosure permission process may be reset to "Disclosure not allowed".

[0183] Returning to Fig. 11, in the process of S40, if a disclosure request has not been received from the recipient's user terminal 20 (S40: No), the processes of S41 to S49 are skipped. After the processes of S40 and S47, the request process ends.

[0184] Next, the content transmission process of S4 will be described with reference to Fig. 13. Fig. 13 is a flowchart of the content transmission process. The content transmission process is a process for transmitting the title and configuration data of the necessary content to the recipient's user terminal 20 so that the recipient can display and play the list of content that the subscriber can view and the content on the shared content list screen Ns5 in Fig. 6(b).

[0185] The content transmission process first checks whether a content list request, which is a request to transmit a list of content viewable by the target subscriber, has been received from the recipient's user terminal 20 (S80). If a content list request has been received in the process of S80 (S80: Yes), all titles of content of the target subscriber whose sharing status for the recipient who sent the content list request is "disclosure permitted" are obtained from the content data 3b (S81). After the process of S81, the titles of the obtained content are transmitted to the recipient who sent the content list request (S82). If a content list request has not been received in the process of S80 (S80: No), the processes of S81 and S82 are skipped.

[0186] In the process of S82, the recipient's user terminal 20 receives the title of the content, and on the shared content list screen Ns5 (see FIG. 7(a)), content buttons 97a, 97b, and 97c showing the title of the received content are displayed. For example, when the recipient selects the content button 97a on this shared content list screen Ns5, the content corresponding to the content button 97a is displayed or played. In this case, a content acquisition request requesting acquisition of the content is transmitted from the recipient's user terminal 20 to the management server 1.

[0187] After the processes of S80 and S82, it is confirmed whether the content acquisition request has been received from the recipient's user terminal 20 (S83). In the process of S83, if the content acquisition request has been received (S83: Yes), the title and configuration data of the content corresponding to the content acquisition request are acquired from the content data 3b (S84).

[0188] After the process of S84, the title and constituent data of the acquired content are transmitted to the user terminal 20 of the recipient that transmitted the content acquisition request (S85). By the process of S85, the title and constituent data of the received content are displayed on the LCD 27 and / or output from the speaker 29 in the user terminal 20 of the recipient that received the content, so that the recipient can view the content.

[0189] In the process of S83, if a content acquisition request has not been received from the recipient's user terminal 20 (S83: No), the processes of S84 and S85 are skipped. After the processes of S83 and S85, the content transmission process ends.

[0190] The present invention has been described above based on an embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it can be easily inferred that various improvements and modifications are possible within the scope of the present invention.

[0191] In the above embodiment, the first period is set to a start timing when the last disclosure request is sent or when the management server 1 receives a disclosure result of "permitted", and the end timing is a timing when the disclosure time lag has elapsed from the start timing. However, the end timing of the first period is not limited to the timing using the disclosure time lag, and may be another timing, for example, a disclosure date and time that is a predetermined date and time.

[0192] For example, when the disclosure date and time is used as the end timing of the first period, the disclosure date and time is stored instead of the disclosure time difference as in the content data 3b in Fig. 14(a). For example, the disclosure date and time of the recipient R2 of the content D101 of the subscriber C1 in the content data 3b in Fig. 14(a) is set to "March 10, 2022 12:00" ("22.3.10 12:00" in the figure).

[0193] In order to set such a disclosure date and time, the sharing setting screen Ns40 of Fig. 14(b) can be displayed on the user terminal 20 of the contractor instead of the sharing setting screen Ns4 of Fig. 4(d). On the sharing setting screen Ns40, instead of the disclosure time difference input areas 91a and 91b, disclosure date and time input areas 910a and 910b for inputting the disclosure date and time are displayed. The disclosure date and time input by the contractor in the disclosure date and time input areas 910a and 910b is set as the sharing setting instead of the disclosure time difference, and is transmitted to the management server 1.

[0194] In addition, in the disclosure permission process of S48 when the disclosure date and time is used as the end timing of the first period, as shown in FIG. 15, first the process of S60 is omitted, and instead of the process of S62, the sharing method, disclosure status, and disclosure date and time of the requesting recipient for the Pth content of the target subscriber are obtained from the content data 3b (S162).

[0195] After the process of S162, the process of S63 is executed, and if the sharing method acquired in the process of S63 is "request sharing" and the disclosure status acquired is "disclosure not allowed" (S63: Yes), instead of the process of S64, it is confirmed whether the current date and time is after the acquired disclosure date and time (S164). The current date and time may also be acquired from a clock installed in the management server 1, or may be acquired via the communication device 7 from an external device such as an NTP server.

[0196] In the process of S164, if the current date and time is after the obtained disclosure date and time (S164: Yes), the process from S65 onwards is executed. This allows the requester's recipient to view the requested shared content whose disclosure date and time has passed. On the other hand, in the process of S164, if the current date and time is before the obtained disclosure date and time (S164: No), the process from S68 onwards is executed.

[0197] In this way, by using the disclosure date and time as the end timing of the first period, the target content is permitted to be disclosed to the requesting recipient at a specified date and time after the requesting recipient transmits the disclosure request. This allows the timing of the target content being disclosed to the requesting recipient to be set in more detail. For example, if the content is the result of an exam, the disclosure date and time can be set to the date and time of the announcement of the results, thereby preventing the results from being disclosed to the recipient before the date and time of the announcement of the results.

[0198] The end timing of the first period may be not only the disclosure date and time, but also the disclosure date, which is a predetermined date, or the disclosure time, which is a predetermined time. When the disclosure date is used as the end timing of the first period, the disclosure of the target content to the requesting recipient may be permitted at a predetermined time (e.g., 0:00 a.m.) on the disclosure date after the last disclosure request is sent or after the management server 1 receives a notice that the disclosure is permitted. When the disclosure time is used as the end timing of the first period, the disclosure of the target content to the requesting recipient may be permitted at the first disclosure time after the last disclosure request is sent or after the management server 1 receives a notice that the disclosure is permitted.

[0199] Note that the content data 3b in Fig. 1(b) shows a case where only the disclosure time difference is used as the end timing of the first period, and the content data 3b in Fig. 14(a) shows a case where only the disclosure date and time is used as the end timing of the first period, but this is not limited thereto. In the content data 3b, the disclosure time difference and the disclosure date and time may be mixed as the end timing of the first period. For example, in Fig. 14(a), the disclosure time difference may be set to the end timing of the first period of the recipient R1 of the content D101, and the disclosure date and time may be set to the end timing of the first period of the recipient R2 of the same content D101.

[0200] In this case, in the case of content and recipient in which a disclosure time difference is set as the end timing of the first period in the content data 3b, the disclosure permission process of Figure 12 is executed, and in the case of content and recipient in which a disclosure date and time is used as the end timing of the first period, the disclosure permission process of Figure 15 is executed.

[0201] In addition, the end timing of the first period (disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time) is set for each content and each recipient, but this is not limited to this. For example, the end timing of the first period may be set for each content. For example, the sharing method of the content D101 in FIG. 14(a) may be "request sharing" regardless of the recipient, and the end timing of the first period of the content D101 may also be the same regardless of the recipient (for example, the disclosure date and time "March 10, 2022, 12:00").

[0202] Also, the end timing of the first period may be set for each recipient. For example, the sharing method for recipient R1 in Fig. 14(a) may be set to "request sharing" regardless of the content, and the end timing of the first period for recipient R1 may also be set to the same timing regardless of the content.

[0203] Alternatively, the disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time may be omitted, and disclosure of the target content to the requesting recipient may be permitted at the time when the last disclosure request is sent or when the management server 1 receives a notice that disclosure is permitted.

[0204] 1(b) and 14(a), the sharing method / disclosure state / disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time (i.e., the end timing of the first period) is set for each content and each recipient, but this is not limited to this. If the content registered in the content data 3b is a parent content that includes multiple child contents, the sharing method / disclosure state / disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time may be further set for each child content and each recipient.

[0205] For example, if the parent content is a content that encompasses an ending note and its child contents include specific ending note contents, such as content of cancellation information for life support services and content of farewell words, the end timing of the first period of the cancellation information for life support services is set to be earlier than the farewell words.

[0206] As a result, even if the parent content (ending note) is the same, the cancellation information is disclosed earlier than the farewell message, allowing the recipient to quickly cancel the service to which the contractor has contracted. On the other hand, the contractor's farewell message, which requires the recipient to prepare mentally, is disclosed later than the cancellation information, allowing the recipient to fully prepare mentally when watching the farewell message.

[0207] On the other hand, among child contents, child contents for which the sharing method / disclosure state / disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time has not been set may be disclosed according to the sharing method / disclosure state / disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time set for the parent content. This eliminates the need to set the sharing method / disclosure state / disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time for all child contents, thereby eliminating the need for the contractor to set the sharing method / disclosure state / disclosure time difference or disclosure date and time.

[0208] In the above embodiment, the start timing of the first period in FIG. 8(a) is set to the timing when the last (sixth) disclosure request is sent, but is not limited thereto. For example, the start timing of the first period may be the timing when the first disclosure request is sent, or the timing when the third disclosure request is sent. Alternatively, the start timing of the first period may be set to any timing between the sending of the first disclosure request and the sending of the sixth disclosure request, or may be set to a timing before the sending of the first disclosure request or a timing after the sending of the sixth disclosure request. In these cases, it is preferable that the end timing of the first period, which is the timing when the disclosure time difference has elapsed from the start timing of the set first period or the disclosure date and time, is sufficiently later (for example, six hours later) than the sending of the sixth disclosure request.

[0209] In addition, the start timing of the first period in Fig. 8(b) is the timing when the management server 1 receives the disclosure result of "permission", but is not limited to this. The start timing of the first period in Fig. 8(b) may be a timing later than the timing when the management server 1 receives the disclosure result of "permission" (for example, 30 minutes after the timing when the management server 1 receives the disclosure result of "permission").

[0210] In the above embodiment, when disclosing the requested shared content, a disclosure request based on the recipient's disclosure request is sent every 8 hours for a total of 6 times, and if the contractor does not respond within a first period from the transmission of the first disclosure request, the disclosure of all the requested shared content of the contractor is permitted. However, this is not limited to this, and for example, it may be configured so that the transmission interval or the number of transmissions for the disclosure request can be set for each requested shared content.

[0211] In this case, it is preferable to be able to set the length of the first period for each requested shared content, and to set the length of the first period according to the transmission interval and number of transmissions of that requested shared content (for example, if the transmission interval is 4 hours and the number of transmissions is 3, the first period is set to 16 hours).

[0212] Here, the requested shared content is disclosed to the recipient when the contractor's response to the disclosure request is not received. The time required for the disclosure request is based on the transmission interval multiplied by the number of transmissions, so the shorter the transmission interval and the smaller the number of transmissions, the shorter the time required for a series of disclosure requests, and the faster the requested shared content can be disclosed to the recipient.

[0213] For example, for content that requires prompt disclosure (such as an ending note with bank account information or account information for online services), a short transmission interval or a small number of transmissions can be set, whereas for content that does not require prompt disclosure (such as an ending note with photos of the subscriber's memories), a long transmission interval or a large number of transmissions can be set. This allows the period from when the recipient sends a disclosure request until the requested shared content is disclosed to the recipient to be set in more detail depending on the content of the requested shared content.

[0214] Also, the transmission interval or the number of transmissions may be set for each recipient. For example, for all the requested shared contents of the contractor C10, the transmission interval may be set to 5 hours and the number of transmissions to 5 for the recipient R10, and the transmission interval may be set to 10 hours and the number of transmissions to 3 for the recipient R11. In this case, it is also preferable to set the length of the first period for each recipient, and to set the length of the first period according to the transmission interval and the number of transmissions of the recipient. This allows the time from when the recipient transmits a disclosure request until the requested shared contents are disclosed to the recipient to be set in detail according to the recipient's status (e.g., age, sex, personality, etc.).

[0215] Furthermore, a transmission interval or number of transmissions may be set for each combination of requested shared content and recipient of that content.

[0216] In the above embodiment, the invitation code created in the process of S11 of the approval process in Fig. 9(b) does not have a particular expiration date, but this is not limited to this. For example, the invitation code may be invalidated after a second period (e.g., 100 hours) has elapsed since the invitation code was created in the process of S11.

[0217] In this case, if an invitation code that has been created by the recipient for the second period of time has passed since it was created in the process of S12 of the approval process, the process of S13 and S14 will determine that the invitation code is invalid and does not match the invitation code created in the past (i.e., "S14: No"), and the process of S15 will not be executed, and error information will be sent to the recipient in the process of S16. This can suitably prevent a situation in which a created invitation code is reused for a long period of time and a person unrelated to the contractor is registered as the recipient.

[0218] In the above embodiment, the title and constituent data of the content transmitted to the recipient's user terminal 20 in the process of S85 of the content transmission process in Fig. 13 are displayed and played on the recipient's user terminal 20, but this is not limited to the above. For example, if the content includes account information for an Internet service or the like created on the new content creation screen Ns3 in Fig. 4(c), it may be possible to transition to a web page with a URL set in the login screen URL input area 88. In this case, a button for transitioning to a web page with a URL set in the login screen URL input area 88 may be provided on the screen displaying the content, and when the recipient selects the button, the screen may transition to the web page.

[0219] Furthermore, when transitioning to the web page, the character string set in the ID input area 86 may be set in the area for inputting the ID and user name of the web page, and the character string set in the password input area 87 may be set in the area for inputting the password of the web page. This can reduce the recipient's effort in authenticating (logging in) to the Internet service etc. described in the content.

[0220] In the above embodiment, the sharing methods are immediate sharing, request sharing, and non-sharing, but are not limited to this. For example, the sharing methods may be only request sharing and non-sharing, or may be only immediate sharing and non-sharing. Furthermore, the sharing methods may include methods other than immediate sharing, request sharing, and non-sharing.

[0221] In the above embodiment, the management server 1 is configured as a server, but is not limited to this. For example, the management server 1 may be configured as another computer (information processing device) such as a personal computer, a mobile terminal, a tablet terminal, etc. Alternatively, the control program 3a may be stored in a ROM or the like, and a dedicated device that executes only the control program 3a may be used instead of the management server 1.

[0222] In addition, although the user terminal 20 is configured as a mobile terminal, the present invention is not limited to this, and the user terminal 20 may be configured as another information processing device, such as a tablet terminal or a personal computer. Alternatively, the control program 22a may be stored in a ROM or the like, and a dedicated device that executes only the control program 22a may be used instead of the user terminal 20. [Explanation of symbols]

[0223] 1 Content management server (computer, content management device) 3a Control program (content management program) D1~D10,D101~D110 Contents S10, S11: Invitation information issuing step, invitation information sending step S12 Invitation information receiving step S13 Invitation information verification step S15 Approval request sending step S17 Invitation approval response receiving step S18, S19 Recipient registration steps S34 Disclosure timing setting step, disclosure timing setting means S40: Disclosure request receiving step, disclosure request receiving means S42: Request sending step, request sending means S43 to S47: Disclosure permission step, disclosure permission means S70 Non-disclosure step

Claims

1. A content management program for causing a computer to execute a disclosure process for disclosing content registered by a subscriber to a recipient designated by the subscriber at a predetermined disclosure timing, comprising: The disclosure timing is configured to be a disclosure request transmitted from the recipient, and based on the disclosure request requesting disclosure of the content, a request sharing for disclosing the content to the recipient can be set; a disclosure timing setting step of setting a disclosure timing of the content of the subscriber; a disclosure request receiving step of receiving, from the recipient, a disclosure request for the content, the disclosure timing of which is set as a request share; a request transmission step of transmitting a disclosure request to a subscriber of the content corresponding to the disclosure request received in the disclosure request reception step, requesting disclosure of the content; a disclosure permission step for permitting disclosure to the recipient of the content requested for disclosure in the disclosure request receiving step if no response to the disclosure request is received from the subscriber within a first period after the disclosure request is sent in the request sending step.

2. 2. The content management program according to claim 1, wherein said request transmission step transmits the disclosure request to said contractor a predetermined number of times at a transmission interval that is a predetermined time interval.

3. 3. The content management program according to claim 2, wherein the transmission interval or the number of transmissions can be set for each of the contents.

4. 3. The content management program according to claim 2, wherein the transmission interval or the number of transmissions can be set for each recipient.

5. The content management program according to claim 1, characterized in that the first period is a period in which the start timing of the first period is the timing when the disclosure request is sent by the request sending step, and the end timing of the first period is the timing when a predetermined time, which is a disclosure time difference, has elapsed from the start timing.

6. The content management program according to claim 1, characterized in that the first period is a period in which the start timing of the first period is the timing when a disclosure request is sent by the request sending step, and the end timing of the first period is the timing when a specified date or time has passed.

7. 7. The content management program according to claim 1, wherein the first period can be set for each of the contents.

8. 7. The content management program according to claim 1, wherein the first period can be set for each of the recipients.

9. A content management program as described in any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising causing the computer to execute a disclosure prohibition step of prohibiting disclosure to the recipient of the content requested for disclosure in the disclosure request receiving step if a response to the disclosure request not to disclose is received from the subscriber within the first period after the disclosure request is sent in the request sending step.

10. an invitation information issuing step of creating invitation information when an instruction to issue invitation information, which is information for newly registering the recipient, is received from the contractor; an invitation information sending step of sending the invitation information created in the invitation information issuing step to the contractor; an invitation information receiving step of receiving the invitation information from the potential recipient; an invitation information matching step for determining whether the invitation information received in the invitation information receiving step matches the invitation information created in the invitation information issuing step; an approval request sending step of sending an approval request to the contractor who requested the issuance of the invitation information in the invitation information issuing step, requesting a reply as to whether or not to approve the candidate as the recipient, when the invitation information received in the invitation information receiving step matches the invitation information created in the invitation information issuing step in the invitation information matching step; an invitation approval response receiving step for receiving a response from the contractor to the approval request transmitted in the approval request transmitting step; A content management program as described in any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that if the response of the contractor received in the invitation approval response receiving step is an indication of approval for registering the candidate as a recipient, a recipient registration step is executed to register the candidate as a recipient.

11. The content management program according to claim 10, characterized in that the invitation information matching step determines that the invitation information created in the invitation information issuing step is invalid and does not match if a second period of time or more has passed since the invitation information was created in the invitation information issuing step.

12. 7. The content management program according to claim 1, wherein the content relates to an ending note.

13. A content management device for disclosing content registered by a subscriber to a recipient designated by the subscriber at a predetermined disclosure timing, comprising: The disclosure timing is configured to be a disclosure request transmitted from the recipient, and based on the disclosure request requesting disclosure of the content, a request sharing for disclosing the content to the recipient can be set; a disclosure timing setting means for setting a disclosure timing of the content of the subscriber; A disclosure request receiving means for receiving, from the recipient, a disclosure request for the content for which a request sharing is set at the disclosure timing; a request sending means for sending a disclosure request to a subscriber of the content corresponding to the disclosure request received by the disclosure request receiving means, the disclosure request requesting the disclosure of the content; a disclosure permission means for permitting disclosure of the content requested for disclosure by the disclosure request receiving means to the recipient if no response to the disclosure request is received from the subscriber within a first period after the disclosure request is sent by the request sending means.

14. A content management method for disclosing content registered by a subscriber to a recipient designated by the subscriber at a predetermined disclosure timing, comprising: The disclosure timing is configured to be a disclosure request transmitted from the recipient, and based on the disclosure request requesting disclosure of the content, a request sharing for disclosing the content to the recipient can be set; a disclosure timing setting step of setting a disclosure timing of the content of the subscriber; a disclosure request receiving step of receiving, from the recipient, a disclosure request for the content, the disclosure timing of which is set as a request share; a request transmission step of transmitting a disclosure request to a subscriber of the content corresponding to the disclosure request received in the disclosure request reception step, requesting disclosure of the content; a disclosure permission step for permitting disclosure of the content requested for disclosure in the disclosure request receiving step to the recipient if no response to the disclosure request is received from the subscriber within a first period after the disclosure request is sent in the request sending step.

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