JP2009193092A - Charity mail system, mail server, charity mail processing method, program therefor, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a charity mail system for fund-raising, only by transmitting/receiving a usual mail by a communication terminal. <P>SOLUTION: An HTML recognition processing part 21 of a mail server 20 recognizes charity identification information 2, when an HTML mail with a character string, for example, "This is Charity Mail" inserted into a footer part of a mail text, as the charity identification information 2 predetermined as information indicating the fund-raising, is transmitted from a mobile terminal 10A of the communication terminal, and a fund-raising processing part 22 charges a fee by adding a predetermined charge for the fund-raising, to a usual charge. The charity identification information 2 may be the text as well as a predetermined character string, a pattern or a symbol, while they can be inserted at the footer part as well as a header part, and the charity mail may be the HTML mail as well as a text mail. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a charity mail system, a mail server, a charity mail processing method, a charity mail processing program, and a program recording medium.

In the conventional donation system, from a classic form of putting money into a donation box, recently, a specific telephone number is called, or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-044627, “Draft System and It has been expanded to various types of formats such as clicking on a specific location on the Web, such as “Web server for donation system” and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-226543 “Prize system”.
JP 2003-044627 A (page 6-7) JP 2007-226543 A (page 4-5)

  However, all of the conventional fund-raising systems require a specific action for fund-raising, so there are not a few users who refrain from fund-raising for the reason that a specific operation is required. While providing a variety of formats, the situation is not necessarily to spread the fundraising activities dramatically. In order to solve such a situation, a mechanism that does not require a dedicated action for “funding” has become necessary.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a charity mail system, a mail server, a charity mail processing method, which can perform fund-raising only by performing an operation of normal mail transmission / reception operation by a communication terminal, An object of the present invention is to provide a charity mail processing program and a program recording medium.

  That is, the purpose is to make it possible to play a part in the further spread of the fund-raising by incorporating a mechanism in which the fund-raising is possible in the normal action of sending and receiving emails in the communication terminal.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the charity mail system according to the present invention employs the following characteristic configuration.

  (1) A charity mail system that includes a communication terminal having a mail transmission / reception function, a mail server that performs mail distribution processing, and a network that transfers the mail, and is capable of transmitting and receiving charity mail for donation. When the mail server receives from the communication terminal the charity email in which the predetermined charity identification information is inserted in the mail text as information indicating that the donation is to be performed, Charity mail system that performs billing processing in addition to the regular fee.

  According to the charity mail system, mail server, charity mail processing method, charity mail processing program and program recording medium of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

  Send a special character string or figure indicating charity identification information for donation to a normal mail, for example, a special HTML sentence that incorporates a special HTML sentence, and the mail server that received the mail receives a special type of mail (that is, charity mail) ), It is possible to perform a billing process with a fundraising fee, which is different from the normal mail billing process. It becomes possible to make a donation simply by performing the operation of, and it becomes easy to make a donation.

  Preferred embodiments of a charity mail system, a mail server, a charity mail processing method, a charity mail processing program, and a program recording medium according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, a charity mail system, a mail server, and a charity mail processing method according to the present invention will be described. However, the charity mail processing method is implemented as a charity mail processing program that can be executed by a computer on the mail server. Needless to say, the charity mail processing program may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

(Features of the present invention)
Prior to the description of the embodiments of the present invention, an outline of the features of the present invention will be described first. The present invention is characterized in that a fund-raising element that has so far required an active special action is incorporated into a normal operation of a communication terminal such as a mobile terminal for sending and receiving mail.

  For example, a special HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) sentence (for example, a special character string or figure used in the footer) is incorporated as charity identification information in a normal mail as a “charity mail” on the mail server. By recognizing and transmitting the charity mail, a mechanism is provided that allows the user to automatically make a donation without being aware of a special action.

  By providing a mechanism like this, conventionally, money is put in a donation box, a specific telephone number is called, a specific website is accessed, or a specific location in the website For donations that require special actions, such as clicking, the present invention does not take any special actions for donations, just using the mobile device as usual. It is possible to make a donation automatically. As a result, it is possible to expand the fund-raising activities than before.

For example, the following mechanism may be adopted as an outline of “charity mail”.
1) By incorporating a special HTML sentence (for example, using a special footer) predetermined as charity identification information in general mail, the mail server recognizes it as charity mail.
2) At the mail server that received the charity mail transmission, the sender's mail is charged with an additional charge to the normal charge (charge added to the amount set in advance as the amount of donation). Is treated as a “fund”, and the money raised by the mail service operator on behalf of the mail user is donated to a partner such as a fundraising organization.
3) When a charity mail recipient receives a charity mail that contains charity identification information, that is, a special HTML sentence, for example, a special character string or figure that makes the footer recognize that the mail is a charity mail, for example. Although attached, there is no additional charge for special character strings or graphics on the recipient side.
4) In other words, there is no need to install or join a special service program for charity mail on the user side who is the sender / receiver of mail, and only insert a special HTML sentence as charity identification information for fund-raising. It will be possible to conduct fund-raising activities.

(Configuration example of embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of a system configuration of a charity mail system according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the charity mail system according to the present invention includes a mobile terminal 10, a mail server 20, a donation center 30, and a network 40, and is configured to be able to transfer mail to each other.

  The mail created in the mobile terminal 10 is transferred to the mail server 20 via the network 40 and distributed to the destination mobile terminal side or the like in the mail server 20. Here, the mail server 20 searches the received mail text and confirms whether or not a special HTML sentence (for example, a special footer) determined in advance as charity identification information indicating that fund-raising is performed is inserted. To do. If the charity identification information is inserted, it is determined that it is a charity email for donation, and a billing process is added to the normal billing at the time of sending the email, plus a plus alpha billing fee. . The result of performing the billing process for the mail fee including the fund-raising fee is sequentially stored in the mail server 20.

  Further, the mail server 20 takes out information related to the fund-raising fee added as the charity mail fee from the accumulated mail fee at a predetermined period as a settlement period of the fund-raising fee, and via the network 40 By transmitting to the fund-raising center 30, a process (transfer process) is performed in which the fund-raising fee collected on behalf of the mail server 20 by the operating entity of the mail server 20 is transferred to the fund-raising center 30.

  Note that the mobile terminal 10 used as a communication terminal for sending and receiving mail is a portable communication terminal such as a mobile phone, a PHS terminal, a PDA (personal digital assistant), a game machine, a portable music player, and a notebook PC. It may be in any form. Moreover, depending on the case, it may not be a portable device, but may be a stationary PC or various information devices.

  FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of the mail reception process in the mail server 20 of the charity mail system of FIG. 1. As the process in the mail server 20, it is addressed to the mobile terminal 10 B transmitted from the mobile terminal 10 A. 2 shows an example of processing in the HTML recognition processing unit 21 that recognizes the body of the HTML mail 1 and the fund-raising processing unit 22 that performs charity mail processing.

  In FIG. 2, when the user A (mail sender) of the mobile terminal 10A as the mail sender makes a donation, when creating a normal mail addressed to the user B (mail receiver) of the mobile terminal 10B, for example, the mail text The HTML mail 1 including the charity identification information 2 such as “This is Charity Mail” is created as the last footer information and transmitted to the mail server 20.

  The mail server 20 that has received the HTML mail 1 including the charity identification information 2 searches the body of the received HTML mail 1 in the HTML recognition processing unit 21 and performs charity identification as a special HTML sentence indicating that a donation is to be made. It is determined whether or not “This is Charity Mail” is inserted as the information 2 in the last footer part of the text. When it is determined that the charity identification information 2 is inserted in the footer of the received HTML mail 1, the charity mail is instructed to make a donation and the donation processing unit 22 is activated.

  The fund-raising processing unit 22 calculates a mail transmission fee by adding a fund-raising fee set in advance, and performs a process of charging the sender of the charity mail. Thereafter, similarly to the normal mail transmission / reception process, a process of distributing the charity mail to the destination mobile terminal 10B is performed.

  When the mail server 20 receives the charity mail from the sending user (user A), for example, instead of immediately performing the billing process with the donation fee added, the charity mail is sent to the user B (mail recipient). The billing process may be performed for the first time when it is confirmed that the charity mail is not a non-delivery mail, and is added to the fundraising fee.

  Further, the charity identification information 2 is not limited to a text sentence such as “This is Charity Mail” as described above, but may be a pattern or a figure as long as the information can identify charity mail. It may be a character string, an abbreviation, or a symbol. Further, the insertion position is not limited to the footer part, and may be, for example, a header part. Further, the charity identification information 2 may be in a format including information indicating the number of donations. In the present embodiment, an HTML mail in which a mail body is created using an HTML language including a tag will be described as an example. However, in some cases, a text mail may be used.

  Next, the billing process of the donation processing unit 22 of the mail server 20 will be further described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of the billing process in the donation processing unit 22 of the mail server 20 of FIG.

  In the normal mail billing process, a charge proportional to the number of packets constituting the mail is charged to each of the mail sending user (user A) and the receiving user (user B). The billing process in the fund-raising processing unit 22 when the mail is received is performed as shown in FIG. In other words, for the receiving side user (user B), the normal packet B is divided into two parts: a normal packet B of a normal mail text composing a charity mail and a special packet C including charity identification information 2. Charge only for the receiving part of. This is because the receiving user (user B) receives the received email without knowing that it is a charity email for fund-raising, and on the other hand, it is added including the fund-raising fee. This is to prevent this.

  On the other hand, for the transmission side user (user A), not only the transmission part of the normal packet B and the special packet C but also the reception part of the special packet C in the reception side user (user B) is included. Billing for packet A is performed. As a result, when the charity mail receiving user (user B) receives the charity mail, the receiving user (user A) bears the receiving fee for the special packet C including the charity identification information 2. . In other words, the mail charge for charity mail of the sending user (user A) is {transmission charge for the number of packets of normal mail + transmission / reception charge for the number of special packets including charity mail charity identification information 2}.

  The receiving side user (user B), for example, has inserted charity identification information 2 capable of recognizing a charity email indicating that the sending side user (user A) has made a donation into the email body as an HTML footer. Except for this, it can be received in the same manner as normal mail reception.

  In the mail server 20, when a charity mail including a special HTML sentence indicating the charity identification information 2 is received from the transmission-side user (user A), only the billing process with the donation fee added is performed. In some cases, only a special HTML sentence indicating the charity identification information 2 may be deleted and transmitted to the receiving user (user B).

  Here, the mail server 20 that performs the fund-raising process by the charity mail may be an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server on the mail transmission side or a POP3 (Post Office Protocol) server on the mail reception side. Alternatively, both the SMTP server and the POP3 server may be used. Alternatively, depending on the case, a web server may be used as the web mail.

  As described above, the billing information related to the charity mail is sequentially accumulated in the mail server 20, and the charges including the fund-raising fee are aggregated at the time of the mail charge request to the user, and the charge billing process is performed for each user. On the other hand, the funding fee included in the charity email fee is the same as the email fee billing cycle (for example, the same as the email billing cycle) In this cycle, remittance processing is performed via the network 40 to the fund-raising center 30 operated by the business organization performing the fund-raising activity.

  The example of the configuration of the embodiment of the charity mail system according to the present invention and the mechanism of the fund-raising process by the charity mail have been described in detail. However, the detailed configuration in the mail server 20 and the specific number of packets and billing are described. Since the relationship and the like are not directly related to the gist of the present invention, a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

(Description of operation of embodiment)
Next, a charity mail transmission / reception operation in the charity mail system shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be further described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a charity mail transmission / reception operation in the charity mail system shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, and shows an outline of the operation in the mail server 20 handling the charity mail.

  First, the transmission-side user (user A) activates a normal mail transmission / reception application of the mobile terminal 10A, creates an HTML mail, and performs a mail transmission operation (step S1). At this time, when making a donation, for example, a special HTML sentence is inserted as charity identification information indicating that a donation is to be made in the last footer portion of the text. Note that, when the message creation unit of the mail transmission / reception application is activated, a message creation screen including the footer unit in which the charity identification information is inserted may be automatically opened according to a user instruction.

  In the HTML recognition processing unit 21 in the mail server 20 that has received the HTML mail, whether the received HTML mail is a normal mail or a charity mail is used as charity identification information as a special charity mail special information. A determination is made based on whether or not an HTML sentence is incorporated in the footer portion, for example (step S2).

  If the mail is a normal mail that does not include a special HTML text for charity mail (NO in step S2), the process proceeds to step S4, where the normal mail processing unit 23 charges the same as in the case of a normal mail. After the processing is performed, the received HTML mail is transferred to the destination receiving user (user B) (step S4).

  On the other hand, when it is determined that it is a charity mail in which a special HTML sentence for charity mail is incorporated (YES in step S2), the fund-raising processing unit 22 adds the fund-raising fee as described above. A dedicated billing process is performed (step S3). Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S4, and the normal mail processing unit 23 transfers the received HTML mail to the destination receiving user (user B) (step S4).

  Finally, when the time point set in advance as the transmission period of the fund-raising information to the fund-raising center 30 is reached, the fund-raising fee added to the e-mail fee in the fund-raising processing unit 22 is totaled, Along with the information indicating the details of the donation amount, the information is transmitted to the donation center 30 as donation information (step S5).

(Description of the effect of this embodiment)
As described above in detail, in the present embodiment, a special character string or figure indicating charity identification information 2 for donation is sent to a normal mail, for example, a special HTML sentence incorporating a special HTML sentence, and the mail is sent. By making the received mail server 20 recognize it as a special type of mail (that is, charity mail), it is possible to perform a billing process with an additional fee for fund-raising, unlike the ordinary mail billing process. Thus, it is possible to make a donation by performing a normal operation of sending and receiving e-mails without requiring a dedicated action for donation, and an effect of facilitating the donation can be achieved.

(Other embodiments)
The main aim of the present invention is to focus on a charitable activity called fund-raising by a general user. However, in the conventional fund-raising system using the Internet, an element as a kind of advertisement of the service provider company is included under the name that the service provider company raises money by clicking or receiving an email. There is a fact that.

  For this reason, each user does not make a donation, but the service provider company makes a donation. For example, as a mail creation screen including a special HTML sentence indicating the charity identification information 2, the service provider A mail creation screen in which a company name, link information to the service provider, and the like are incorporated in the footer portion of the mail body may be provided to each user. The mail server 20 that receives the mail created using the mail creation screen provides the service set in the charity identification information 2 as the actual billing destination of the donation fee, not the user who sent the mail. It is possible to adopt an operation form that includes two elements of corporate advertisement and fund-raising.

The configuration of the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. However, it should be noted that such examples are merely illustrative of the invention and do not limit the invention in any way. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that various modifications and changes can be made according to a specific application without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the embodiment of the present invention can be expressed as the following configuration in addition to the configuration (1) in the means for solving the problems.
(2) The charity mail system according to the above (1), wherein the charity identification information is made up of a special character string, a special figure or a special symbol which is predetermined as donation identification information.
(3) The charity mail system according to (1) or (2), wherein the charity mail for donation is an HTML mail in an HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) language.
(4) The charity mail system according to (3), wherein the charity identification information is inserted at any position of a footer part or a header part of the HTML mail.
(5) When the mail server receives the charity mail and performs a billing process in which the donation fee is added to the normal mail charge, the charity identification information is included in the communication charge corresponding to the number of packets in the mail text. The charity mail system according to any one of (1) to (4), wherein a billing process is performed using a communication fee corresponding to the number of packets including the fee for donation.
(6) The mail server sends a distribution fee corresponding to the number of packets including the charity identification information out of the distribution fee to the charity mail receiving communication terminal, not the receiving communication terminal. The charity mail system according to the above (5), which is charged as a communication charge on the transmission side communication terminal side.
(7) The mail server totals the fund-raising fee added to the normal rate of the email by the charity email at a predetermined period as the fund-raising summarization cycle, and information about the sum of the fund-raising amount is displayed as the fund-raising information. The charity mail system according to any one of the above (1) to (6), which is transmitted to the fund-raising center for collecting information via the network.
(8) A mail server that performs mail distribution processing from each communication terminal, and receives from the communication terminal a charity mail in which predetermined charity identification information is inserted into the mail body as information indicating that fund-raising is performed A mail server that performs billing processing by adding a predetermined fund-raising fee to the regular email fee.
(9) The mail server according to (8), wherein the charity identification information includes a special character string, a special figure, or a special symbol determined in advance as donation identification information.
(10) The mail server according to (8) or (9), wherein the charity mail for donation is an HTML mail in an HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) language.
(11) The mail server according to (10), wherein the charity identification information is inserted at any position of a footer part or a header part of the HTML mail.
(12) Upon receiving the charity mail and performing a billing process in which the donation fee is added to the normal mail charge, the communication charge corresponding to the number of packets in the mail body is set to the number of packets including the charity identification information. The charity mail system according to any one of the above (8) to (11), wherein the corresponding communication fee is used as the fund-raising fee and billing processing is performed.
(13) Of the distribution fee to the charity mail receiving communication terminal, the distribution fee corresponding to the number of packets including the charity identification information is not the receiving communication terminal but the charity mail transmitting communication terminal side. (12) Charity mail system charged as a communication fee for the above.
(14) Fund-raising center that collects fund-raising information by summing up the fund-raising fee that is added to the regular rate of the email by the charity email and added for each predetermined period as the fund-raising cycle. The mail server according to any one of (8) to (13), which is transmitted to
(15) When a mail server that performs mail distribution processing from each communication terminal receives a charity mail in which charity identification information predetermined as information indicating that a donation is to be performed is inserted from the communication terminal in the mail body In addition, a charity mail processing method for performing a billing process in which a predetermined donation fee is added to a normal mail fee.
(16) A charity mail processing program for implementing the charity mail processing method of (15) above as a program executable by a computer mounted on a mail server.
(17) A program recording medium in which the charity mail processing program of (16) is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

It is a system configuration figure showing an example of a system configuration of a charity mail system by the present invention. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating an example of the mail reception process in the mail server of the charity mail system of FIG. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating an example of the accounting process in the donation processing part of the mail server of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the transmission / reception operation | movement of the charity mail in the charity mail system shown in FIG. 1, FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 HTML mail 2 Charity identification information 10 Mobile terminal 10A Mobile terminal 10B Mobile terminal 20 Mail server 21 HTML recognition processing unit 22 Fund-raising processing unit 23 Normal mail processing unit 30 Fund-raising center 40 Network A Chargeable packet B Normal packet C Special packet

Claims (17)

  A charity mail system comprising a communication terminal having a mail transmission / reception function, a mail server for delivering the mail, and a network for forwarding the mail, and capable of sending / receiving a charity mail for donation, When the mail server receives the charity mail in which the predetermined charity identification information is inserted in the mail body as information indicating that the donation is to be performed from the communication terminal, the mail server determines the predetermined donation fee as a normal mail charge. Charity mail system characterized by performing billing processing in addition to.   The charity mail system according to claim 1, wherein the charity identification information includes a special character string, a special figure, or a special symbol that is predetermined as donation identification information.   The charity mail system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the charity mail for donation is an HTML mail in an HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) language.   4. The charity mail system according to claim 3, wherein the charity identification information is inserted at any position of a footer part or a header part of HTML mail.   When the mail server receives the charity mail and performs a billing process in which the donation fee is added to the normal mail charge, a packet including the charity identification information out of a communication charge corresponding to the number of packets in the mail body. The charity mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a billing process is performed using a communication fee corresponding to a number as the fee for fund-raising.   The mail server sends a distribution fee corresponding to the number of packets including the charity identification information out of the distribution fee to the charity mail receiving communication terminal, not the receiving communication terminal, but the charity mail transmitting communication. 6. The charity mail system according to claim 5, wherein charging is performed as a communication charge on the terminal side.   The mail server aggregates the fund-raising fee added to the normal fee of the email by the charity email at a predetermined period as the fund-raising summarization cycle, and collects information on the collected fund-raising information. The charity mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the charity mail system transmits to the fund-raising center via the network.   A mail server that performs delivery processing of mail from each communication terminal, when receiving a charity mail in which charity identification information that is predetermined as information indicating that fund-raising is performed is inserted in the mail body from the communication terminal A mail server that performs billing processing in which a predetermined fund-raising fee is added to a normal mail fee.   9. The mail server according to claim 8, wherein the charity identification information includes a special character string, a special figure, or a special symbol determined in advance as donation identification information.   The mail server according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the charity mail for donation is an HTML mail in an HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) language.   The mail server according to claim 10, wherein the charity identification information is inserted at any position of a footer part or a header part of HTML mail.   Communication corresponding to the number of packets including the charity identification information out of the communication fee corresponding to the number of packets in the mail body when performing the billing process in which the charity mail is received and the fund-raising fee is added to the normal mail fee The charity mail system according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein a billing process is performed using a fee as the fund-raising fee.   Of the distribution charges to the charity mail receiving communication terminal, the distribution charge corresponding to the number of packets including the charity identification information is not a communication charge on the charity mail transmitting communication terminal side instead of the receiving communication terminal. The charity mail system according to claim 12, wherein the charity mail system is charged as:   At each predetermined period as a fund-raising cycle, the fund-raising fee added to the regular e-mail fee is added via the charity email, and information on the total fund-raising amount is sent to the fund-raising center that collects the fund-raising information. The mail server according to any one of claims 8 to 13, characterized in that:   In the mail server that performs mail delivery processing from each communication terminal, when receiving the charity mail in which the charity identification information that is predetermined as information indicating that the fund-raising is performed is inserted from the communication terminal in the mail body, A charity mail processing method, characterized in that billing processing is performed by adding a predetermined fund-raising fee to a normal mail fee.   A charity mail processing program that implements the charity mail processing method according to claim 15 as a program that can be executed by a computer installed in a mail server.   A program recording medium, wherein the charity mail processing program according to claim 16 is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

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