The present invention relates to a method and system for content creation, more particularly it relates to a method and system for aiding in creating content by providing automatic content suggestions and engagement suggestions.
Writing is an activity that is common across many professions and scholastic disciplines. Written works include, but are not limited to, books, blogs, articles, reports, essays, letters, e-mails, manuals, web pages, social media, content marketing, white papers, case studies, nurturing emails, and instant messaging. As any writer is acutely aware of, the pursuit of writing can be extremely challenging at times, as it is often a slow and time-consuming process. For example, it is not uncommon for authors to lack inspiration or creativity, which typically leads to writer's block. This is further exacerbated by the fact that most authors, such as writers, journalists, news bloggers, part-time/full-time bloggers are usually under tremendous pressure to turn around high quality work products despite being under considerable time constraints and budgets. In addition, these authors are often faced with the challenge of conjuring up novel and interesting topics to write about. Also, given the 24/7 news cycle there is great demand for contemporaneous articles, or constant article updates on journalists or bloggers.
Given the popularity of social media and in particular blogging, writing is no longer the domain of trained journalists, columnists, editors, or professional writers, and some of these burgeoning authors are not aware of the tenets that a good piece of written work should at least address, that is, the “Five Ws”, namely: “Who”; “What”; “When”; “Where” and “Why”; and the “One H”, that is, “How”, among other principles. Even those aware of these basic principles of story writing often find it difficult to answer those “Five Ws” and “One H” effectively, and may simply not have immediate and convenient access to the relevant information. Typically, an author confronted with these writing principles is forced to temporarily abandon writing the piece, perform the requisite research, typically on the World Wide Web to gather the relevant information, make notations, bookmark relevant the web resources, and then resume writing. This process is generally considered to be disruptive, time-consuming, inefficient, and onerous, as the author is tasked to assemble all the relevant information and have that information readily available before authoring a piece of written work. Inevitably, some of the relevant details are simply not discovered during the author's search, and some of the information discovered by the author may be omitted from the written work as the author may fail to recall the information, or is unable to locate it. Those authors lacking any journalistic background may find it even more challenging to structure a story based on the above-noted writing principles.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate or obviate at least one of the above-mentioned disadvantages.
In one of its aspects, there is provided a computer-implemented method for content creation, the method having the steps of:
receiving at least one keyword related to said content;
creating a first query associated with said at least one keyword;
providing said first query to at least one resource to discover information related to said at least one keyword to automatically provide at least one content suggestion based on said discovered information to aid said user create content; and
analyzing said created content in real-time and creating a second query associated with said created content;
providing said second query to said at least one resource to discover information related to said created content;
cross-referencing the discovered information to said created content to automatically provide at least another content suggestion; and
wherein said at least one content suggestion is in the form of at least one of a question, a sentence, a partial sentence, and a predicted next word or phrase based on preceding content input; and
whereby said steps are executed in a recursive manner as said content is created.
In another of its aspects, there is provided a system for providing suggestions for authoring a written work, the system having:
a user interface for textual input for authoring said written work;
an analysis engine module configured to receive said input from said user interface and perform at least one of a lexical, a syntactic and a semantic analysis to generate a query associated with said received input;
an aggregator for providing said query to at least one resource to discover information related to said input; and
a suggestion module for cross-referencing said discovered information to said input to provide at least one suggestion related to said input on said user interface.
In yet another of its aspects, there is provided a system for a content creation platform, the system comprising:
a computing device having a processing structure; and a memory including instructions for content creation, wherein said memory and said instructions are configured, with said processing structure, to cause said processing structure to:
receive at least one keyword related to said content;
create a first query associated with said at least one keyword;
provide said first query to at least one resource to discover information related to said at least one keyword to automatically provide at least one suggestion based on said discovered information to aid said user create said content;
analyze said created content in real-time and generate a second query associated with said created content;
provide said second query to said at least one resource to discover information related to said created content;
cross-reference the discovered information to said created content to automatically provide at least another suggestion; and
whereby said steps are executed in a recursive manner as said content is created.
Advantageously, during authorship of a written work, the computer-implemented process provides suggestions and poses relevant, open-ended questions in real-time, and thus provokes the author to contemplate previously non-considered subject matter that may be incorporated in the written work. Accordingly, in another aspect, the invention assists in structuring the content flow, improves the quality of the work, and allows authors, such as, bloggers, journalists, content creators, publishers, students, academics, and marketers, to create original, relevant, and interesting contemporaneous content that engages a target audience. The system allows authors to research, outline and write their content using real-time dynamic writing prompts based on the content being written. Furthermore, the system analyses the created content and learns the author's writing style to present substantially thought-provoking suggestions.
In addition, the system provides increased power, ease and speed combined with workflow integration and flexibility to help the user create compelling content, compared to other prior art systems.
Several exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the appended drawings in which:
The detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention herein makes reference to the accompanying block diagrams and schematic diagrams, which show the exemplary embodiment by way of illustration and its best mode. While these exemplary embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, it should be understood that other embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are not limited to the order presented.
Moreover, it should be appreciated that the particular implementations shown and described herein are illustrative of the invention and its best mode and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the present invention in any way. Indeed, for the sake of brevity, certain sub-components of the individual operating components, conventional data networking, application development and other functional aspects of the systems may not be described in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships or physical connections may be present in a practical system.
Many of the methods of the invention may be performed with a digital processing system, such as a conventional, general purpose computer system. Special purpose computers which are designed or programmed to perform only one function may also be used.
Various aspects of the invention may be implemented as specialized software executing in one or more computer systems communicating over network 15, whereby a processor 21, associated with one or more computer systems, executes sequences of instructions contained in memory 22, such as a machine readable medium. The machine readable medium includes any mechanism that provides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a form accessible by a machine (e.g., a computer, network device, personal digital assistant, a smartphone, any device with a set of one or more processors, etc.). For example, machine readable media includes recordable/non-recordable media (e.g., read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices; a hard disk drive, etc.), as well as electrical, optical, acoustical or other forms of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.).
In one exemplary embodiment, the memory 22 includes a browser client 30 (e.g., a web browser) (not shown) having executable instructions to present a browser page 32 on a display or user interface 34 capable of presenting graphics, text, icons, audio, video, and any combination thereof, as shown in
With reference to
In the next step 122, the analysis engine module 19 ranks the structured data based on popularity and relevancy and produces a list of trending topics and subjects (step 124) corresponding to the chosen title, topic or subject. Database 17a with current trending topics and subjects is updated to include the most recent trending topics and subjects; and previous trending topics and subjects are removed (step 126). Alternatively, previous trending topics and subjects are ranked lower than the most current trending topics. Next, database 17b of trending topics and subjects is cross-referenced with the user's writing profile by the suggestion engine 20 in order to form initial topics and subject suggestions relevant to the user on display 34 (step 128).
In the next step 130, the initial topics and subjects are presented to the user, and the user then decides whether or not to approve the topics or subjects suggestions (step 132). When the user approves the topics or subjects suggestions, then those topics or subjects suggestions are incorporated into the written work (step 134), otherwise the topics or subjects are removed from database 17b or are ranked lower (step 136). When the user selects the automatically suggested topic or subject, or enters his or her own topic or subject, the topic or subject is inserted into the written work, and the suggestion engine module 20 generates an outline for the written work corresponding to the suggestions. As the user continues to input text into the content frame 40, the system 10 continually updates the user's writing profile by tracking the topics and subjects, writing patterns, keywords, repetition, approved suggestions, disapproved suggestions, including the user's own criteria. Therefore, database 17b facilitates improved search functions, analysis functions, topic generation, topic wording, topic relevancy, suggestion generation, suggestion wording, and suggestion relevancy.
In parallel with step 122, the user's writing profile is updated with the topic or subject selections using the relevant parts of the restructured web data and the user's usage information (step 136), and increased use of the system 10 further shapes and fine-tunes the user's writing profile, which culminates in more accurate results from the suggestion engine module 20. The restructured web data is then cross-referenced with an individual's user writing profile in database 17b in order to generate initial content suggestions for the user to input relevant content in content frame 40 (step 138). In particular, the suggestion engine module 20 forms content suggestions based on what the individual user is most likely to respond to. These suggestions are then ranked based on their relevancy to the topic or subject. Such suggestions, including questions, consist of materials or subject matter not yet considered by the user and are presented on the user interface 34 so as to provoke thinking, and assist in structuring the content flow. The initial content suggestions are then placed in a database 17f (step 140). In the next step 142, a determination is made whether any of the suggestions are relevant to the topic or subject. When none of the content suggestions are deemed relevant the analysis engine module 19 then performs an analysis of the user's inputted text content in content frame 40 to detect patterns, keywords in order to reformulate further meaningful queries (step 144), and process loops back to step 116. However, when the suggestions are deemed relevant then the highest ranking suggestions are presented to the user in the content suggestion frame 44 (step 146). Generally, the top ranked suggestions are selected based on both the ranking of the suggestions and the likelihood that the user will respond positively to that particular suggestion. Next, the user decides whether or not to approve the suggestions (step 148), when the user approves the suggestions then the suggestions are incorporated into the created content or written work (step 150), otherwise the suggestions are removed from the database or are ranked lower, and maintained in the database 16 for later use (step 152).
Now turning to
In addition, the analysis engine module 19 returns a set of keywords which are presented to the user ordered in accordance with ranking criteria in the persistent keyword frame 46. Alternatively, the keywords may be displayed in a non-persistent frame, or window or other ways. Exemplary keywords pertaining to the above-noted title may include, but are not limited to, “website”, “Google”, “mergers and acquisitions”, and “BufferBox”. The box 44 may include alerts pertaining to the user's writing style, which allow the user to tweak his or her content for improved engagement with the target reader, as will be described below. In
As shown in
In yet another embodiment, there is a provided an exemplary user interface associated with a content platform 16 executable in a native environment, and comprising a content frame 72 having a plurality of headline input fields 73, 74 and content input fields 76, 78 for entering content associated with the headlines 73,74, as shown in
In
While the suggestions are shown as appearing in the content suggestion frame 44 or 80 alongside the content frame 40 or 72, the suggestions or prompts may also occur or appear within the document in the content frame 40 or 72.
In another embodiment, there is provided an application program interface (API) that facilitates communications between a content creation platform 16 resident at remote computing system 14 and a client application (that is, an executing computer program, e.g. a word-processing program or content management system, such as, Microsoft Word®, or Google Drive®, Google Chrome®, HubSpot®, Marketo®, Eloqua®, Pardot®, or Wordpress®). For example, following a user login and authentication process, the user creates content using the client application and the API which generally includes a command processor, processes the forwards the content being created in real-time to the remote computing system 14 for processing by the aggregator 18 and analysis engine module 19. After analysis and aggregation, the suggestion module 20 transfers suggestions or dynamic prompts through the API to the client application for viewing, editing, or further processing at the direction of the user.
In another embodiment, a plurality of users may work collaboratively on a single piece of content.
In another embodiment, there is provided suggestions that assist with the engagement of content which includes the detection of readability, sentence and word tenses, sentence and word lengths, and many other metrics. Accordingly, users are able to adjust their content to suit the target audiences, by making the content readable and easy to digest. For example, suitable or appropriate suggestions can be provided for a plethora of content, including, but not limited to, legal documents (agreements, patents, facta, etc.), public policy papers, speeches, advertisements, essays, blogs, reviews, stories, personal stories, written content, tweets, scripts, grant proposals, theses and so forth. As such, suggestions may be tailored for particular type of written work or subject matter.
In yet another embodiment, system 10 provides targeted content that is consistent with the user or organization by customizing the content according to the brand guidelines and audiences, and verifying that the content meets the user or the organization's standards before publishing.
In yet another embodiment, the content is created via speech using speech recognition methods and systems, with text-to-speech processing capabilities, rather than typing in content frame 40 or 72. Accordingly, system 10 comprises a configurable speech recognition engine that receives speech input captured by a microphone associated with the user device 12. The speech may be partially processed by client-side software resident on the user device 12, and the output of this partial processing is transmitted to the remote computing system 14 via the communications network 15 for recognition by the speech recognition engine, and the recognized speech is then converted to text at the remote computing system 14. Accordingly, a content management system or application program at the client-side may include API that provides speech recognition and input to the content frame 40 or 72. Alternatively, the recognized speech remains in audio format and may form part of an audio book, lecture or article.
In yet another embodiment, the content suggestions and/or engagement suggestions are provided to the user auditorily.
In yet another embodiment, the content is created via speech using speech recognition methods and systems, rather than typing on the content frame 40 or 72, as described above, and the content suggestions and/or engagement suggestions are provided auditorily.
In yet another embodiment, suggestions are generated, at least in part, based on the user's writing profile.
In another embodiment, the system 10 allows users to either select from a list of topic and subject suggestions based on a pre-defined topic and subject criteria, or select from a list of topic and subject suggestions in database 17c, based on previously authored work by the user, or a combination of both. Database 17a of topics and subjects and the user's writing profile in database 17b are integrated in order to exclude topics and subjects which are deemed uninteresting or not pertinent to a user's usual category of topics and subjects. As more users use the system 10, there is increased accuracy and relevance of the subjects and topics will be to the individual user.
The communications network 15 can include a series of network nodes (e.g., the clients and servers) that can be interconnected by network devices and wired and/or wireless communication lines (such as, public carrier lines, private lines, satellite lines, etc.) that enable the network nodes to communicate. The transfer of data between network nodes can be facilitated by network devices, such as routers, switches, multiplexers, bridges, gateways, etc., that can manipulate and/or route data from an originating node to a server node regardless of dissimilarities in the network topology (such as, bus, star, token ring, mesh, or hybrids thereof), spatial distance (such as, LAN, MAN, WAN, Internet), transmission technology (such as, TCP/IP, Systems Network Architecture), data type (such as, data, voice, video, multimedia), nature of connection (such as, switched, non-switched, dial-up, dedicated, or virtual), and/or physical link (such as, optical fiber, coaxial cable, twisted pair, wireless, etc.) between the correspondents within the network.
The computer system 12 may include specially-programmed, special-purpose hardware, for example, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Aspects of the invention may be implemented in software, hardware or firmware, or any combination thereof. Further, such methods, acts, systems, system elements and components thereof may be implemented as part of the computer system 12 described above or as an independent component.
The computer system 12 may be a general-purpose computer system that is programmable using a high-level computer programming language. Computer system 12 may be also implemented using specially programmed, special purpose hardware. In computer system 12, processor 21 is typically a commercially available processor such as the well-known Pentium class processor available from Intel Corporation. Many other processors are available. Such a processor usually executes an operating system which may be, for example, the Windows-based operating systems (e.g., Windows NT, Windows 7, Windows 8 operating systems) available from Microsoft Corporation, MAC OS System X operating system available from Apple Computer, one or more of the Linux-based operating system distributions (e.g., the Enterprise Linux operating system available from Red Hat Inc.), the Solaris operating system available from Sun Microsystems, or UNIX operating systems available from various sources. Many other operating systems may be used, and the invention is not limited to any particular operating system.
The processor and operating system together define a computer platform for which application programs in high-level programming languages are written. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to a particular computer system platform, processor, operating system, or network. Also, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to a specific programming language or computer system. Further, it should be appreciated that other appropriate programming languages and other appropriate computer systems could also be used. For example, various embodiments of the invention may be programmed using an object-oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, Ada, or C# (C-Sharp). Other object-oriented programming languages may also be used. Alternatively, functional, scripting, and/or logical programming languages may be used. Various aspects of the invention may be implemented in a non-programmed environment (e.g., documents created in HTML, XML or other format that, when viewed in a window of a browser program, render aspects of a graphical-user interface (GUI) or perform other functions). Various aspects of the invention may be implemented as programmed or non-programmed elements, or any combination thereof.
The operating environment, in which the present invention is used, encompasses a standalone computing system as well as the general distributed computing system. Some of the elements of a standalone computer or a general purpose workstation computer 12, as shown in
It should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to executing on any particular system or group of systems. Also, it should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to any particular distributed architecture, network, or communication protocol.
It will be apparent from this description that aspects of the present invention may be embodied, at least in part, in software. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computer system or other data processing system in response to its processor, such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of instructions contained in memory. In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in combination with software instructions to implement the present invention. Thus, the techniques are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructions executed by the data processing system.
Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific embodiments. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Further, no element described herein is required for the practice of the invention unless expressly described as “essential” or “critical.”
The preceding detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention makes reference to the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiment by way of illustration. While these exemplary embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, it should be understood that other embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the steps recited in any of the method or process claims may be executed in any order and are not limited to the order presented. Further, the present invention may be practiced using one or more servers, as necessary. Thus, the preceding detailed description is presented for purposes of illustration only and not of limitation, and the scope of the invention is defined by the preceding description, and with respect to the attached claims.
This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/890,177, filed on Oct. 11, 2013.