Broadcast interactive multimedia system

A method for communicating data elements from a common database to each of a plurality of users of the data elements, the method comprising the steps of

• (a) assigning data attributes to each of the data elements and communicating each data element and its associated data attributes to the users,
• (b) generating a user profile indicative of data elements of interest to each user,
• (c) selecting and locally storing data elements of interest to each user in correspondence to the selections of each user with respect to the communicated data elements and with reference to the user profile,
• (d) synthesizing a home page to display disjointed groups of locally stored data elements on a display device,
• (e) navigating among disjoint groups of the locally stored data elements with reference to the home page,
• (f) displaying the locally stored data elements on the display device in response to user selection of the locally stored data elements, and
• (g) modifying the user profile in correspondence to the data attributes of data elements selected by each user, and returning to step (c).

A method for communicating data elements from a common database to each of a plurality of users of the data elements, the method comprising the steps of

• (a) assigning data attributes to each of the data elements and communicating each data element and its associated data attributes to the users wherein at least one data element is a special page data element and the associated data attribute of said page data element indicates the relative value of the page data element as a home page,
• (b) generating a user profile indicative of data elements of interest to each user,
• (c) selecting and locally storing data elements of interest to each user in correspondence to the selections of each user with respect to the communicated data elements and with reference to the user profile,
• (d) displaying the locally stored data elements on a display device in response to user selection of the locally stored data elements,
• (e) synthesizing a home page to display disjointed groups of locally stored data elements on the display device, the step of synthesizing including the step of weighting the relative value in selecting the home page,
• (f) navigating among disjoint groups of the locally stored data elements with reference to the home page, and
• (g) modifying the user profile in correspondence to the data attributes of data elements selected by each user, and returning to step (c).

A method for communicating data elements from a common database to each of a plurality of users of the data elements, the method comprising the steps of

• (a) assigning data attributes to each of the data elements and communicating each data element and its associated data attributes to the users,
• (b) generating a user profile indicative of data elements of interest to each user,
• (c) selecting and locally storing data elements of interest to each user in correspondence to the selections of each user with respect to the communicated data elements and with reference to the user profile,
• (d) displaying the locally stored data elements on a display device in response to user selection of the locally stored data elements,
• (e) synthesizing a home page to display disjointed groups of locally stored data elements on the display device, the step of synthesizing includes the step of weighting the relative value in selecting the home page,
• (f) navigating among disjoint groups of the locally stored data elements with reference to the home page, the step of navigating including the steps of marking certain data elements as primary navigational pathways and displaying the locally stored data elements in correspondence to said certain data elements, and
• (g) modifying the user profile in correspondence to the data attributes of data elements selected by each user, and returning to step (c).

Circuitry for communicating data elements from a common database to each of a plurality of users of the data elements, the circuitry comprising

• (a) means, coupled to the database, for defining interest categories for the database which express the collective interest of the users,
• (b) means, coupled to the means for defining, for assigning at least one of the interest categories to each data element,
• (c) means for identifying data attributes for each of the data elements, the means for identifying including the means for defining an interest level for each of the interest categories wherein each interest level expresses an estimate of the collective interest of the users in each of the interest categories assigned to each data element,
• (d) means, coupled to the database, for communicating each data element and its associated data attributes to the users,
• (e) means for generating a user profile indicative of data elements of interest to each user,
• (f) means, coupled to said means for generating and said means for identifying and for communicating, for selecting and locally storing data elements of interest to each user in correspondence to the selections of each user with respect to the communicated data elements and with reference to the user profile, and
• (g) means, responsive to said means for selecting and for storing and coupled to said means for generating, for modifying the user profile in correspondence to the data attributes of data elements selected by each user.