United States Patent
`Sonnenreich et al.
`
`[19]
`
`US005974446A
`Patent Number:
`Date of Patent:
`
`[11]
`[45]
`
`5,974,446
`Oct. 26, 1999
`
`[54] INTERNET BASED DISTANCE LEARNING
`SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING
`BETWEEN SERVER AND CLIENTS
`WHEREIN CLIENTS COMMUNICATE WITH
`EACH OTHER OR WITH TEACHER USING
`DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION
`TECHNIQUES VIA COMMON USER
`INTERFACE
`
`Inventors: Wes Sonnenreich; Tim Macinta;
`Jason Albanesc; Robert H. Rines, all
`of Boston, Mass.
`
`Assignee: Academy of Applied Science
`
`Tak K. Woo et al, “A Synchronous Collaboration Tool for
`WWW,” http://WWW.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/
`CSCW/rees/SynColTolhtml, 1994.
`Elizabeth Thach et al, “Training via distance Learning,”
`Training & Development, vol. 49 p. 44 (3p), Dec. 1, 1995.
`Karen L. Murphy et al, Development of Communication
`Conventions in Instructional Electronic Chats http://star.uc
`c.nau.edu/mauri/papers/aera97a.html, 1997.
`Katie Wulf, “Training via the Internet; Where are We?”
`Training & Development, vol. 50 p. 50 (6p), May 1, 1996.
`Gene Steinberg, Special Edition Using America Online, pp.
`1 through 851, Aug. 18, 1995.
`
`Appl. No.: 08/735,903
`Filed:
`Oct. 24, 1996
`
`Int. Cl.6 .................................................... .. G06F 15/16
`709/204; 709/205; 709/203
`Field of Search ................................... .. 395/650, 330,
`395/676, 335; 709/204, 205, 206, 201,
`203, 217, 58; 370/260; 707/10
`
`References Cited
`
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`5,347,632
`5,442,771
`5,740,549
`5,841,976
`5,862,330
`
`9/1994 Filepp et a1. .......................... .. 395/200
`8/1995 Filepp et a1. ..
`395/650
`4/1998 Reilly et a1. ..
`705/14
`11/1998 Tai et al. ..... ..
`.. 395/200.34
`1/1999 Anupam et a1. ................. .. 395/20034
`
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`
`Paul England et al, “Rave: Real Time Servios for the Web,”
`Fifth International WWW Conference, May 6—10, 1996,
`Paris, France http://WWW5conf.inria.fr/?chihtml/papers/
`p57/overvieW.html.
`Thane J. Frivold, “Extending WWW for Synchronous Com
`munication”, http://WWW.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceed
`ings/CSCW/Frivold/Frivoldhtml, 1994.
`
`Primary Examiner—Mehmet B. Geckil
`Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Rines and Rines
`
`[57]
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`A novel user-friendly method of and system for integrating
`the use of a plurality of different communication techniques
`for over-the-Internet interfacing between a central server
`storing a plurality of different information topics and user
`identi?cation information and a plurality of independent
`user computer stations Which have selected common infor
`mation topics and are Widely geographically separated, for
`such purposes as information and dialog networking of
`schools and other groups With common topic interests, and
`enabling real-time intercommunication amongst such users
`and With the server, and including groWing the information
`on the selected topics through Internet feedback to the server
`of user dialog and supplemental information relating thereto;
`the method creating a virtual common room atmosphere for
`all the users (such as the same virtual classroom) Wherein,
`irrespective of the diverse geographical locations and actual
`distances of the varied user stations from one another and
`from the central server, real-time interactions are enabled
`amongst all simulating as if the users Were all actually in the
`same room at the same time and participating together.
`
`29 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets
`
`CUENT lNTENFACE OPERATION FOR IHE GLOBAL SCHOOL DlSIRlCI
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`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Oct.26, 1999
`
`Sheet 1 of5
`
`5,974,446
`
`CLIENT/SERVER NETWORK DIAGRAM
`
`D*\ FILE SERVER
`
`’-‘T
`__,_ SEQ/BER __ DATABASE
`TOPIC INFO
`\
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`
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`
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`REAL-TIME TEXT COMMUNICATIONS
`2) STATE NOTIFICATION AND DATA
`COORDINATION
`3) INTERACTION WITH THE FILE
`STORAGE SUBSYSTEM
`
`SMTP
`/
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`INCOMING
`INTERNET MAIL
`EM1 I EMg
`
`I
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`OR
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`
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`|JIEIINT?|
`UCS 2...
`
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`UCS1
`
`FIG. 1
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Oct.26, 1999
`
`Sheet 2 of5
`
`5,974,446
`
`FIG. 2
`cLIENT INTERFACE OPERATION FOR THE GLOBAL scHooL nIsTRIcT
`
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`LOGIN mm
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`=
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`LOCATE THEIR
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`
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`oTHER STUDENTS
`USING PERSONAL
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`
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`
`\
`A/ V
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Oct.26, 1999
`
`Sheet 3 of5
`
`5,974,446
`
`FIG. 3A
`
`Ucs1\@ DETAILED GLOBAL SCHOOL DIsTRIcT
`ETC
`SOFTWARE OPERATION
`
`"HIE :5.
`
`(A)
`
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`AUTOMATICALLY
`UPDATES IF
`NEEDED
`J LOGIN SCREEN
`
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`(1))
`
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`LOGIN SCREEN
`
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`(E)
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`
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`mm THEIR
`a
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`
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`
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`
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`
`_ mm
`PROFILES
`cHAHcE
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`
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`
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`
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`sEARcH FOR
`oTHER STUDENTS
`BY PERSONAL
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`
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`To CHANGE THEIR
`PERsoIIAL
`PRoEILE AND
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`PROVIDES
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`HELP 0N USAGE
`
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`
`T (G)
`T0 ToPIc wIHDow CHART (FIGS. 38 & 3c)
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`

`

`US. Patent
`
`Oct. 26, 1999
`
`Sheet 4 0f 5
`
`5,974,446
`
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`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`

`

`US. Patent
`
`Oct. 26, 1999
`
`Sheet 5 0f 5
`
`5,974,446
`
`55.62
`
`
`
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`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`
`
`
`
`
`

`

`1
`INTERNET BASED DISTANCE LEARNING
`SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING
`BETWEEN SERVER AND CLIENTS
`WHEREIN CLIENTS COMMUNICATE WITH
`EACH OTHER OR WITH TEACHER USING
`DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION
`TECHNIQUES VIA COMMON USER
`INTERFACE
`
`The present invention relates to the Internet (or similar
`Wide access communication systems hereinafter generically
`embraced by the term “Internet”) providing facility for
`communication, including information sharing and dialog,
`including real-time dialog, amongst Widely geographically
`distant and separated computer users; being more particu
`larly directed to the enabling of information and dialog or
`chatter netWorking amongst such users as for the purpose of
`providing user selected information on various topics from
`a central ?le server to the user stations and for enabling the
`users to netWork With other users also interested in the same
`topic(s) and With the server—thereby providing for
`common, and Where desired, real time netWorking of com
`mon Internet users and user groups region-Wide, nation
`Wide and indeed World-Wide. An important application is for
`distance teaching and learning and exchange, and for pro
`viding a virtual classroom accessible in real-time by geo
`graphically separated users, and With real-time interchange
`simulating an actual single classroom for all.
`
`10
`
`15
`
`25
`
`BACKGROUND
`
`Numerous systems have evolved and are rapidly continu
`ing to evolve for using the Internet as a fountain of infor
`mation and contacts to impart information of all kinds to
`computer users, leaving it, hoWever, up to the individual
`users and their individual resourcefulness or talents to ferrit
`out the sources of desired information, ?nding cross
`referencing sources, discovering appropriate World-Wide
`Web pages, and discovering e-mail and databases and direc
`tories and other addresses and identi?cations. While amaZ
`ing and exciting in its scope, this process is far from
`organiZed, is most time-consuming, With much trial and
`error and hit or miss, and is largely unintegrated and
`someWhat user-unfriendly and often discouraging.
`Attempts have recently been started at least to simplify
`topic information and source identi?cation With so-called
`“object” or icon (“button”) selection as With code concepts
`such as Java (Web Page URL reference http://java.sun.com/
`doc/index.html). Individual companies have also come up
`With solutions that link selected communication media
`together (such as e-mail softWare and Web-page softWare) in
`the form of a suite of applications, but still Without enabling
`universal linking of all of the available services through a
`neW interpretation of the universal functionality of such
`services and their interrelationships as provided by the
`present invention. For example, in connection With Volatac
`Iphone (http://WWW.pulver.com/vocaltec/), service is broken
`doWn by topics With limited voice and chat communication
`and enabling exchange of ?les over the Internet the topics
`being used primarily to enable temporal location of similar
`interest parties but not for putting resources in a groWing
`frameWork and adding to topic information resources.
`The problem of totally organiZing and integrating all the
`varied communication tools and archives therefor, hoWever,
`and for the myriad of different possible informational topics
`of interest (such as the primary communication functions of
`e-mail, real-time communications and personal information
`
`45
`
`55
`
`65
`
`5,974,446
`
`2
`gathering, Web access, multi-media representations, custom
`softWare, instantaneous messaging, etc.) has, until the
`advent of the present invention, remained largely unsolved
`and even largely unapproached.
`The present invention is believed to provide a break
`through in this area, opening up for the ?rst time, the
`possibility, for example, of completely user-friendly
`regional, national and global distance education and
`information-sharing and supplementing such information
`With individual user contributions to a groWing information
`resource; and With communication With all of the “tools” of
`varied communication techniques—messaging, archiving
`and accessing functions all assembled and organiZed and
`integrated for user-friendly, self-contained universal use at
`each user computer station—providing the opportunity for
`the ?rst real time simpli?ed sharing and netWorking of, for
`example, all the similar schools of the land or the globe, or
`other common interest and facility groups over the
`Internet—regionally, nationally, and World-Wide—and as
`distinguished from the teleconferencing technology
`approach.
`As earlier stated, an important application of the meth
`odology of the invention is to netWorking educational
`instructions and providing distance learning and interchange
`over the Internet. A brief revieW of this useage may thus be
`appropriate before describing preferred implementations.
`APPLICATION OF INVENTION TO DISTANCE
`LEARNING
`The present invention expands the concept of distance
`learning to accommodate the full and noW-integrated poWer
`and ?exibility of the Internet. In order to create a complete
`and successful distance learning system, hoWever, more is
`needed than just e-mail, Web broWsing and video confer
`encing. Schools need inexpensive teaching materials and
`resources that can easily be integrated into a traditional
`classroom setting. The invention enables poWerful personal
`netWorking softWare to bring neW resources to students and
`teachers across the country and, indeed, around the World.
`Imagine, for example, a student in IoWa Working With
`students from NeW York, Texas and AriZona under the
`guidance of a professor from Harvard. They’re all trying to
`solve a challenging problem in Which each has been given
`a part of the solution and specialiZed softWare to help With
`their analysis. Rarely does any one high school, for example,
`have the resources to promote teamWork and problem solv
`ing on this level.
`The primary goals of this system, termed the Global School
`DistrictTM system by the assignee of the present invention,
`the Academy of Applied Science, are as folloWs:
`To create a formal means of netWorking and communication
`betWeen schools, such as, for example, high schools
`To provide high-quality education in subjects that may not
`be available in every school
`To give students easy access to mentors and peers in their
`?eld of interest
`To motivate and alloW students to look beyond What is
`offered at their oWn school
`To develop teamWork skills
`The easy-to-use softWare of the invention provides features
`that have never before been integrated into one package. On
`the surface, it provides the folloWing functionality:
`A group-oriented system
`Online classes
`Text-based chat
`Email and Zephyr messaging
`Online lectures and presentations
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
`
`

`

`3
`Heretofore, distance learning has referred to conducting a
`class in one school to be vieWed in one or more other schools
`located elseWhere. In the past, this has been accomplished
`through small cable TV netWorks connecting together sev
`eral high schools in a region. Ideally, they Would alloW
`students to take classes that Weren’t offered at their school
`but Were at a near-by school. Then, by coordinating classes
`and schedules, a district of schools could reallocate their
`resources to minimize redundancies and maximiZe the diver
`sity of classes offered. In the United Kingdom, university
`link-ups With digital signal transmission are being tested.
`These systems Were quite expensive and not all ef?cient, due
`to the aWkWardness of conducting a class session over a
`TV/video camera set up. The real problem Was that they
`Were using a neW medium in the same old fashion Way.
`More recently the possibility of video conferencing over
`the Internet has sparked a reneWed interest in distance
`learning. Unfortunately almost every type of prior “Internet
`distance learning” package has exactly the same problem
`that the cable TV setup had. They are trying to force the
`technology to simulate the familiar Way of teaching and
`learning—instead of adapting the methods of teaching and
`learning to the neW technology.
`There are also some projects offering “do it yourself”
`classes online—doWnloading the assignments and submit
`ting the completed ones over the netWork. These, hoWever,
`suffer from the lack of feedback and discussion.
`Finally, there are a feW email and Web-based courses that
`combine real-time discussions With the do-it-yourself style
`of learning. These are the most effective systems provided
`before the advent of the present invention, but they are
`lacking in depth due to the current lack of standards and
`organization of resources.
`There is a serious question, moreover, of the value of
`spending great sums of money to set up complex hardWare
`and softWare in order to have video conferencing abilities in
`high schools When there’s no formal Way of organiZing such
`a system. Clearly, the main priority should be establishing a
`netWork With clearly de?ned means of communication. The
`design of the softWare is purely secondary. Underlying the
`present invention and the educational thrusts of the said
`Academy, is to provide a technique to teach high schools
`(and, of course, other institutions) hoW to communicate
`amongst one another and hoW to share intellectual resources.
`Resource Finder
`Teambuilder and TeamChallenge SoftWare
`World Wide Web broWsing With bookmarks for important
`educational Web sites
`What also makes the system of the invention special is the
`Way in Which these features are integrated. The key to the
`novel softWare is the concept of a group. A group is
`collections of people With common interests. When a user
`logs into the system, he or she Will see a toolbar containing
`a button for each group they belong to. All users are
`members of their oWn private “group” Which contains a list
`of the people they knoW on the system. Classes, ?elds of
`interest and hobbies are also represented as groups. Clicking
`on any one of the group buttons Will bring up a neW WindoW.
`This contains all of the actions that can be performed With
`the group. Each group has an information page Which acts
`as the reference point for the group’s archived resources
`such as presentations, discussions, frequently asked ques
`tions (FAQ’s) and softWare.
`Groups that represent classes Will have additional features
`such as online test and homeWork assignments, multimedia
`lectures and lecture notes. The lectures, homeWork assign
`ments and tests may be vieWed at a student’s convenience.
`
`15
`
`25
`
`35
`
`45
`
`55
`
`65
`
`5,974,446
`
`4
`Since the students Will have many questions about the
`assignments or lectures, teachers and teaching assistants Will
`hold scheduled online discussion sessions. This Will be done
`through another section of the group’s WindoW called the
`“chat” area. This is a real-time text-based conferencing
`system. Users type one or tWo sentences at a time and then
`send them out to the group. In the chat area their text Will
`shoW up next to the user name. A session might look like the
`folloWing:
`<joe> So on question tWo, Why is force acting horiZontally
`in the opposite direction of motion?
`<Professor Smith> That is the force of friction, Which
`alWays opposed motion.
`.
`.
`<sam> Professor, on question eight .
`All groups have this feature. Any members that are currently
`vieWing a group’s WindoW may participate in its chat
`session.
`There is also provided a list doWn the side of the group
`WindoW Which contains the name of each member of the
`group currently online. The list Will be sorted such that
`professors and TA’s are at the top, folloWed by the people
`the user knoWs. By clicking on a user’s name one can send
`either an email message or a real-time Zephyr message to
`that user. Email messages are useful for sending long or
`complex messages that may incorporate graphics, sound, or
`?les from other softWare packages. These messages can be
`sent to individual users either online or off-line, entire
`groups, or even to people on the Internet that are not part of
`the system. When a neW message arrives, a little note
`appears on the speci?ed group’s button in the main toolbar.
`Personal mail appears Within a user’s oWn private group.
`Within each group WindoW there is a button Which brings up
`a list of email messages sent to it. Selecting a message Will
`display its contents. Zephyrs are much simpler than e-mail
`since they only handle text. Like email messages, hoWever,
`they can be sent to users or entire groups. But, Zephyrs
`immediately appear in a separate WindoW on the designated
`user’s screen and only function if the selected user is on-line.
`Zephyrs are preferable to email for quick, real-time
`messages, and also preferable to chat since it does not
`require vieWing a speci?c WindoW in order to communicate.
`It is possible to block receiving Zephyrs from a particular
`user or Zephyrs sent to an entire group.
`Groups may contain multimedia presentations that any
`member can doWnload at any time. For classes, these
`presentations Would be letters created by a teacher. There is
`a VCR-style interface With Which one can pause, fast
`forWard or reWind the presentation. As the audio plays
`through there Will be numerous images and interactive
`demonstration that Will appear on the user’s screen.
`One of the major breakthroughs in the softWare of the
`invention resides in the ability to incorporate customiZed
`softWare into the lectures. For example, a physics teacher
`could add a small program that illustrates the laWs of
`motion. Students Would be able to pause the lecture and
`experiment With the softWare in real-time. Users may create
`the programs themselves or obtain pre-made softWare from
`the group’s softWare library or the Internet. Since this is an
`advanced topic there is a group devoted to helping users
`create such softWare.
`The resource ?nder of the invention alloWs users to search
`through all of the people on the system by interests, classes,
`groups, school, region and/or year. The poWer of such a
`system is evident through example. Let’s say a student
`Wanted to do a research project on genetics. FeW high
`schools have complex genetics labs on premises. The best
`Way for this student to do his or her project is by ?nding a
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
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`

`5,974,446
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`5
`professor of genetics at a nearby university to act as a
`mentor. This task is made trivial With the resource ?nder of
`the invention.
`Finally, the softWare of the invention encourages team
`building. One of the things lacking most from high school
`education is teamwork. It has alWays been hard for teachers
`to explain the ?ne line betWeen collaboration and cheating.
`Many simply ignore the bene?ts of learning hoW to Work in
`teams in order to avoid this issue altogether. Our system puts
`students from diverse geographic backgrounds together into
`teams and then gives them challenging problems to solve
`together. The bene?ts of learning hoW to function as a team,
`coping With the problems of distance, cultural differences,
`and differences in capabilities, are self-evident.
`The World Wide Web is a major means of communication
`and information dissemination. Therefore the invention, in
`preferred form, provides both Netscape and the Internet
`Explorer With its softWare. All forms of text can include Web
`pages references, Which When selected Will call up a Web
`broWser. In addition, a list of great educational sites broken
`into subject are provided, these bookmarks being included
`With the softWare and Will be continuously up-dated.
`From the user’s end, the Global School District system is
`accessed through custom softWare through Which the student
`can access the services. The softWare uses an Internet
`connection to communicate With a main or central server,
`currently in Boston. This is like a giant conference call in
`that anyone connected to the system Will be able to com
`municate With anyone else online; the softWare, moreover,
`updates itself automatically. When a neW release is
`available, it detects and does all of the necessary installation.
`It has been carefully designed so that the viruses cannot get
`into system. Preliminary tests With simultaneous school
`users in Oregon, NeW York and Cambridge have proved the
`feasibility and utility of the methodology.
`
`OBJECTS OF INVENTION
`The present invention, thus, has as a primary object, the
`provision of a neW and improved method of and system for
`integrating the use of the plurality of different Internet
`useable communication techniques for communicating, over
`the Internet, pluralities of different and varied information
`topics to a plurality of Widely geographically distant and/or
`separated independent user (client) computer stations from
`one or more central ?le servers storing server information
`topics and interested user identi?cation information, not
`only to enable common access to selected information
`topics, but to netWork and alloW ready intercommunication
`also amongst the computer user stations, including groWing
`the topic information database at the server by contribution
`from the users.
`A further object is to provide such a novel technique and
`system that organiZe access by each computer station user,
`With common screen “buttons” and preferably “object”
`icons, not only to the central server(s), but to readily identify
`similar interest users and Without the necessity for resort to
`searching different sources, databases or directories, either
`for topic information or for identi?cation and addresses of
`other interested users—and all on a single common type
`screen display.
`Still an additional object is, through the invention, for the
`?rst time, to make regional, national and global, self
`contained accessing netWorking of similar interest and func
`tion groups readily feasible and highly user-friendly, open
`ing up the Whole neW areas of school netWorking and
`information, program, teaching, virtual laboratory and other
`facility sharing over the Internet, but also such networking
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`for a myriad of other common interest groups—far less
`expensive and more ?exible and far-reaching than current
`teleconferencing and the like—and even pointing the Way to
`facilitating such national goals as elections, referenda and
`other common mass input activities.
`An important object application is to provide over the
`Internet, a novel virtual classroom, Where users in Widely
`separate locations access and participate in a simulated
`classroom environment listening and vieWing presentations,
`interactive questioning and dialog, etc. in real-time just as if
`they Were all actually physically in a common classroom.
`Other and further objects Will be explained hereinafter
`and are more particularly pointed out in the appended
`claims.
`
`SUMMARY
`
`In summary, hoWever, from one of its important aspects,
`the invention embraces a method of organiZing and inte
`grating the use of a plurality of different types of Internet
`information and dialog communication techniques and for
`each of a plurality of different informational topics stored in
`central ?le server(s) interfacing through the Internet With a
`plurality of Widely geographically distant and/or separated
`and independent user computer stations, that comprises,
`storing at such central ?le server(s) a database containing
`(1) an index of a plurality of different informational
`topics, and
`(2) a personal information and identi?cation directory on
`all the users of the plurality of user computer stations
`including their speci?c selected informational topics of
`interest;
`storing also at such central ?le server(s) the ?les and other
`detailed information pertaining to each informational topic
`indexed in the database; providing each user computer
`station With similar softWare that generates a common type
`screen at each station containing selectable “buttons” for
`personal user identi?cation and for each different informa
`tion topic selected as of interest to the user; enabling said
`softWare, upon a user selecting a topic “button”, for there
`upon generating a screen pattern of common format for each
`topic containing four primary selections:
`(1) a “tool” bar section of “buttons” selectable by the user
`on the screen and representing different primary com
`munications function modes, including a plurality
`selected from the group consisting of e-mail, multi
`media presentations, Web-access, instantaneous
`messaging, real-time communication, personal infor
`mation gathering, and custom softWare,
`(2) a message reader section displaying all e-mail mes
`sages sent by other users interested in the same infor
`mational topic,
`(3) a real-time text base communication-chatting or dialog
`section, and
`(4) a list of all the users Who have selected the same
`information topic as of interest and Who are currently
`on-line, cross-referenceable and con?gurable to spe
`ci?c of such users already knoWn to or desired by the
`user;
`the softWare further providing on said screen pattern, a
`Web-broWsing WindoW tuned to a topic-speci?c Web page;
`and Wherein, as the user logs in, the user’s personal identi
`?cation and information is identi?ed in the central server ?le
`database and the user screen topic “buttons” are customiZed
`by the server to those topics of interest selected by the user
`and stored in said database; and, upon the user selecting a
`
`Petitioner Samsung - Ex. 1010
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`5,974,446
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`7
`topic “button” and there—upon generating said screen
`pattern, searching for all stored data on that topic; and, upon
`the user selecting a desired communication function mode
`from the “tool” box section, communicating such data from
`the server in the appropriate user-selected communication
`mode over the Internet to the user screen.
`Preferred and best mode techniques and embodiments
`Will be later presented.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`The invention Will noW be described With reference to the
`accompanying draWings, FIG. 1 of Which is an overall block
`diagram of a system embodying the methodology of the
`invention in preferred form, and shoWn applied to the
`illustrative application of a “global” school program—such
`to be understood to be an exemplary illustration and by no
`means intended to be limited in scope, the invention rather
`being applicable to a myriad of other ?elds of application, as
`earlier discussed;
`FIG. 2 provides combined block and How chart diagrams
`of the client-user computer station system and softWare
`control for integrating, over the Internet, With the central
`server and With other users of common speci?c topic infor
`mation interest, as if in the same room together; and
`FIGS. 3A—3C are similar more detailed softWare program
`processing ?oW chart and block diagrams explanatory of the
`implementation of the system of FIGS. 1 and 2.
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`http://freesoft.mesa.net/Connected/Topics/index.html;
`Re The Client-Server Architecture
`http://WWW.interpac.net/-clientserver/;
`Re Java
`http://java.sun.com/doc/index.html;
`Re Object Oriented Programming
`http://uu-gna.mit.edu:8001/uu-gna/text/cc/Tutorial/
`tutorial.html
`Zephyr communications (the Jotter)
`http://WWW.csc.ncsu.edu/departmental/tour/eosbasics/
`midasandZephr/midasandZephy. main.html;
`Re Audio and Video Streaming
`http://WWW.prognet.com/prognet/rt/protocol.txt.
`All of this is shoWn connected to the Internet I for
`communication With pluralities of client-user computer sta
`tions UCS1, UCS2, etc., Widely dispersed or located
`geographically, regionally, nationally and World-Wide. At
`each of the client-user computer stations UCS1, UCS2, etc.,
`FIG. 2, the provided softWare, on user log-in, generates a
`log-in screen C. If a ?rst time user, a neW-user pro?le screen
`is provided for establishing identity, user name (e-mail),
`pass Word, location, and selected informational topics of
`interest, as Well as other personal information and
`identi?cation, as later more fully described in connection
`With FIG. 3A. This information is transmitted back over the
`Internet I to the central server 1, and, upon identi?cation of
`validity, the user is granted access to