초록 ▼

A network-computer-based personal contact manager system is disclosed wherein users of networked clients maintain and update a set of user information which is stored in a relational database on a networked server. The personal contact manager system allows each user to specify on an individual basi

A network-computer-based personal contact manager system is disclosed wherein users of networked clients maintain and update a set of user information which is stored in a relational database on a networked server. The personal contact manager system allows each user to specify on an individual basis which of their contacts are permitted to access respective datums of their user information. In some cases, and assuming permission is granted, the system will issue notifications (e.g., by e-mail) to a user's contacts when the user changes his information or when a preset event, such as a birthday, as defined by the user, is to occur. The system also allows users to find contacts based on common group affiliations and notifies users when there are coincidences in their data (e.g., travel plans, astrological compatibility). The personal contact manager system supports the retrieval of information on the contacts of contacts, assuming such as permission has been granted by the contacts and their contacts, and can also be used to synchronize the server database with a PIM database of the user and any contacts of the user whoe have the appropriate permissions.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A networked contact management system, comprising:a database which contains personal records of multiple users, each record including multiple fields, including fields for storing personal contact information; andcontact manager software which provides restricted access

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A networked contact management system, comprising:a database which contains personal records of multiple users, each record including multiple fields, including fields for storing personal contact information; andcontact manager software which provides restricted access to the database through an interface in which (1) users select other users from the database to include in their own, respective virtual personal address books without the need to enter information for such users, (2) if a first user selects a second user to include in the first user's virtual personal address book, the second user is provided an option to specify the types of information of the second user's personal record to be viewable by the first user, (3) users directly update their own respective personal records within the database, and (4) the personal records stored within the database are at least partially viewable as virtual address book entries, so that updates made by users to their own respective personal records are reflected automatically within the virtual personal address books of other users without the need to propagate or separately apply the updates to individual address books.