Reserved Keyword Routing for Author Interaction in Digital Content

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Solution Overview

Problem

The existing distribution of digital content, such as eBooks, lacks direct interaction between consumers and creators, as users often do not have easy access to communicate with authors or other content creators during consumption.

Innovation Solution

Incorporating social network capabilities into digital content consumption experiences, allowing users to create and submit social media posts directly to content authors using reserved keywords, which are then processed to identify and redirect the posts to the authors' social network feeds, enabling communication and interaction.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If traditional print media distribution is used, then content consumption is straightforward, but interaction opportunities between users and authors are rare

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent consumptionVSAvoidinteraction capability

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges traditional digital content consumption with social network capabilities by integrating author identification and communication features directly into the content delivery system. Users can interact with authors through the same interface used for consuming content, combining reading and social interaction in a unified experience.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables the content consumption device to serve multiple functions: not only displaying and consuming digital content but also facilitating social interaction, author communication, and community engagement. The same platform becomes both a consumption tool and a communication hub.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Adaptability or versatility

If social network capabilities are integrated into content consumption, then user-author interaction is enabled, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinteraction capabilityVSAvoidsystem architecture

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary layer that bridges the content consumption system and social network infrastructure. This intermediary handles the complex tasks of author identification, message routing, and social graph management, allowing the core content consumption functionality to remain relatively simple while enabling rich interaction capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Ease of operation

If reserved keywords are used to identify authors, then post routing is simplified, but precision for identifying specific authors may be reduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepost routingVSAvoidauthor identification accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where users can refine or correct author identifications. If a reserved keyword leads to ambiguous results or incorrect author routing, the system provides feedback to allow users to adjust the identification, ensuring accurate delivery while maintaining the simplicity of the keyword-based approach.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS9183172B1Author interactions using online social networks

Publication Date: 2015.11.10 AMAZON TECH INC

AI summary

Communications from digital content consumers may be entered on reader devices as social media posts. Rather than specifying a particular recipient, a consumer may enter a reserved keyword, such as @author, as the recipient. Upon submission, this keyword is automatically replaced with the recipient identifier, such as with the user identifier of the actual author of the currently rendered content item.