Abstract: Described herein are a cash register and a ticket vending mechanism that require little or no merchant infrastructure resulting in dramatic cost reduction for merchants. These are made possible through a payer-centric payment paradigm where the payer—as opposed to the merchant—completes the payment transaction without depending on the merchant, resulting in increased payer convenience and payment security.

Abstract: Described herein is an Event Locking System (ELS) and its associated methods for (a) cryptographically locking a given piece of information until a certain time or the occurrence of a certain event and (b) providing an attestation of both the lock time and the locked content to prove that the information has not been accessed or tampered with since the lock time. Applications for such a system abounds: from sealed bids for auctions and tenders, sports betting, elections, archiving of sensitive information, securing legal documents and so on.

Abstract: Described herein is an Internet of payments, i.e., a loosely coupled, federated architecture for electronic payment in which payers and payees interact through an Internet-based store-and-forward payment bus to complete an electronic payment. Merchants may use any payment service or gateway and any device to place a payment request on the payment bus; similarly, payers may use any payment service or gateway from any device to make a payment toward the payment request. Embodiments describe how this invention addresses different types of payments including contactless physical payments, online payments and vending machine and kiosk payments, with scenarios illustrating voluntary donations, paying a restaurant check with tips from a mobile device, automated actions at the completion of a payment (e.g., issuing a ticket by a ticketing kiosk) etc.

Abstract: Described herein is an Internet of payments, i.e., a loosely coupled, federated architecture for electronic payment in which payers and payees interact through an Internet-based store-and-forward payment bus to complete an electronic payment. Merchants may use any payment service or gateway and any device to place a payment request on the payment bus; similarly, payers may use any payment service or gateway from any device to make a payment toward the payment request. Embodiments describe how this invention addresses different types of payments including contactless physical payments, online payments and vending machine and kiosk payments, with scenarios illustrating voluntary donations, paying a restaurant check with tips from a mobile device, automated actions at the completion of a payment (e.g., issuing a ticket by a ticketing kiosk) etc.

Abstract: Unlike the prevalent paradigm for electronic payments where merchants own, orchestrate, and drive the payment process, embodiments of this invention enable customers to pay for products and services from their personal computers or mobile devices without involving the merchant in the payment process. Merchants place their payment requests into a payment bus and customers fulfill these requests in any way they please—from any device, at any time, through any payment service. We refer to the payment paradigm described here as Payer-Centric Payments (PCP) as opposed to Merchant-Centric Payments (MCP) that is commonplace today. This invention is applicable for physical, online, and vending machine payments and provides significant benefits to both customers and merchants.

Abstract: This invention describes an open framework for mobile payments to vending machines (VM). The framework comprises a namespace and a payment bus: the namespace provides unique IDs for VMs and the payment bus enables payers to pay VMs through any payment service of their choice. Embodiments of the invention cater to both online and offline VMs. The twin goals of our invention are (a) to give customers a platform for mobile payment to vending machines, and (b) to enable vending machine operators to reduce their capital and operational costs.

Abstract: Unlike the prevalent paradigm for electronic payments where merchants own, orchestrate, and drive the payment process, embodiments of this invention enable customers to pay for products and services from their personal computers or mobile devices without involving the merchant in the payment process. Merchants place their payment requests into a payment bus and customers fulfill these requests in any way they please—from any device, at any time, through any payment service. We refer to the payment paradigm described here as Payer-Centric Payments (PCP) as opposed to Merchant-Centric Payments (MCP) that is commonplace today. This invention is applicable for physical, online, and vending machine payments and provides significant benefits to both customers and merchants.

Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for managing data across an enterprise. A request for information is received from a user. Data relating to the user request is searched for in at least two geographically separated information repositories. The results of the search are presented to the user. The user is allowed to browse through additional data of the information repositories. Links between data items and other data entries in the information repositories are created according to relationships the data items have to the other data entries.

Abstract: A system and method enable rapid knowledge transfer, for example between a plurality of experts and a plurality of apprentices located remotely from the experts. The system makes use of unique tools to facilitate transfer of knowledge and collaboration between individuals, even among remotely located individuals. An input to the system is a Knowledge Transfer Plan which has been designed to orchestrate the knowledge transfer. The knowledge transfer system integrates a shared repository and collaboration tools for use by the expert and apprentice. The collaboration tools may be accessed through role-specific portals which are automatically created from the Knowledge Transfer Plan. In one embodiment, the system is configured with a World Wide Web-based interface and an integrated suite of tools to support knowledge transfer activities on a global basis to facilitate knowledge transfer among workers engaged in an outsourcing business process.

Abstract: A system and method enable rapid knowledge transfer, for example between a plurality of experts and a plurality of apprentices located remotely from the experts. The system makes use of unique tools to facilitate transfer of knowledge and collaboration between individuals, even among remotely located individuals. An input to the system is a Knowledge Transfer Plan which has been designed to orchestrate the knowledge transfer. The knowledge transfer system integrates a shared repository and collaboration tools for use by the expert and apprentice. The collaboration tools may be accessed through role-specific portals which are automatically created from the Knowledge Transfer Plan. In one embodiment, the system is configured with a World Wide Web-based interface and an integrated suite of tools to support knowledge transfer activities on a global basis to facilitate knowledge transfer among workers engaged in an outsourcing business process.

Abstract: A system and method enable rapid knowledge transfer, for example between a plurality of experts and a plurality of apprentices located remotely from the experts. The system makes use of unique tools to facilitate transfer of knowledge and collaboration between individuals, even among remotely located individuals. An input to the system is a Knowledge Transfer Plan which has been designed to orchestrate the knowledge transfer. The knowledge transfer system integrates a shared repository and collaboration tools for use by the expert and apprentice. The collaboration tools may be accessed through role-specific portals which are automatically created from the Knowledge Transfer Plan. In one embodiment, the system is configured with a World Wide Web-based interface and an integrated suite of tools to support knowledge transfer activities on a global basis to facilitate knowledge transfer among workers engaged in an outsourcing business process.

Abstract: A system for analyzing a document in a repository is provided. The system receives a document that includes data and a document type. The document type has an associated physical structure. The system determines a logical structure of the document based in part on the data and selects a subset of the data based on at least one of the group including the associated physical structure and the logical structure. The system also stores a document segment that includes the selected subset of the data.

Abstract: A knowledge transfer system is described for transferring knowledge from expert workers at a client location to apprentice workers at an outsourcing location. The knowledge transfer system includes a memory system configured to store a Knowledge Transfer Plan that defines knowledge and tasks that need to be transferred from the expert workers to the apprentice workers and program code and associated data defining role-specific portals for individual expert workers and apprentice workers. The program code is configured to access the memory system for storage and retrieval of data associated with the role-specific portals. The knowledge transfer system further includes program code which defines one or more collaboration systems for two-way communication between individual expert workers and individual apprentice workers and a multi-media knowledge repository which is configured to store work objects created by the expert workers and the apprentice workers during the knowledge transfer process.

Abstract: A system for analyzing a document in a repository is provided. The system receives a document that includes data and a document type. The document type has an associated physical structure. The system determines a logical structure of the document based in part on the data and selects a subset of the data based on at least one of the group including the associated physical structure and the logical structure. The system also stores a document segment that includes the selected subset of the data.

Abstract: A knowledge transfer system is described for transferring knowledge from expert workers at a client location to apprentice workers at an outsourcing location. The knowledge transfer system includes a memory system configured to store a Knowledge Transfer Plan that defines knowledge and tasks that need to be transferred from the expert workers to the apprentice workers and program code and associated data defining role-specific portals for individual expert workers and apprentice workers. The program code is configured to access the memory system for storage and retrieval of data associated with the role-specific portals. The knowledge transfer system further includes program code which defines one or more collaboration systems for two-way communication between individual expert workers and individual apprentice workers and a multi-media knowledge repository which is configured to store work objects created by the expert workers and the apprentice workers during the knowledge transfer process.

Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for managing data across an enterprise. A request for information is received from a user. Data relating to the user request is searched for in at least two geographically separated information repositories. The results of the search are presented to the user. The user is allowed to browse through additional data of the information repositories. Links between data items and other data entries in the information repositories are created according to relationships the data items have to the other data entries.

Abstract: A system including a document repository is provided. The system determines, automatically, a level of similarity between at least two of a plurality of discrete elements stored in the document repository. The system then stores data representative of a link between the elements based in-part on the level of similarity. In another embodiment, the system determines a relationship between documents by retrieving a plurality of documents from a document repository. The system segments at least two documents of the plurality of documents into a plurality of conceptually meaningful segments. The system determines if a segment of one document is related to a segment of another document and stores data representative of the relationship.

Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for developing a dossier. First, a name of one or more clients which may be relevant to the proposal is received. A list of industries associated with the client(s) is presented to the user. The user is allowed to select an industry from the list of industries. A search for information relating to the client and the selected industry is performed. The dossier is prepared utilizing the information found during the searching.

Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for managing data across an enterprise. A request for information is received from a user. Data relating to the user request is searched for in at least two geographically separated information repositories. The results of the search are presented to the user. The user is allowed to browse through additional data of the information repositories. Links between data items and other data entries in the information repositories are created according to relationships the data items have to the other data entries.

Abstract: A system and method enable rapid knowledge transfer, for example between a plurality of experts and a plurality of apprentices located remotely from the experts. The system makes use of unique tools to facilitate transfer of knowledge and collaboration between individuals, even among remotely located individuals. An input to the system is a Knowledge Transfer Plan which has been designed to orchestrate the knowledge transfer. The knowledge transfer system integrates a shared repository and collaboration tools for use by the expert and apprentice. The collaboration tools may be accessed through role-specific portals which are automatically created from the Knowledge Transfer Plan. In one embodiment, the system is configured with a World Wide Web-based interface and an integrated suite of tools to support knowledge transfer activities on a global basis to facilitate knowledge transfer among workers engaged in an outsourcing business process.