System for automatic unattended electronic information transport between a server and a client by a vendor provided transport software with a

Claims

I claim:

1. A computer-implemented information transport software component embeddable in a vendor-provided containing information product, the transport component being separately suppliable to one or more vendors of multiple containing electronic information products for use with any one of said multiple containing electronic information products, the information transport component being intended for mass distribution of electronic information file objects to users of a diversity of uncoordinated communications equipped computer stations by enabling said users to fetch a manifest-listed electronic information file object from an object source specified with said information product to a user's computer station, in an on-line manifest-based transport operation proceeding in unattended mode after activation, said information transport software component being adaptable to and controllable by each of said multiple containing information product to have a user interface in said information product for activation of unattended transport of the information file object from the remote object source to the user's computer station, said user's station being entered into a real time, closed-ended, client-server communication as a client with said remote object source via a communications network lacking a network file system, said information transport software component comprising:

a user interface within said containing information product for allowing said activation of unattended transport by said user, and to provide said user, in said information product, information transport functions with a desired look and feel unconstrained by said information transport component;

means for referencing a manifest list to identify an object to be transported;

means for establishing call connection to said remote object source, wherein said establishment of call connection comprises login and a handshake process between a user protocol and a source protocol, wherein said user communications protocol is specified in a user communications module of said information transport component, and specifies user station functions of said unattended object transport including a remote object source address, wherein said source communications protocol is specified in a source communication module of said remote object source, and specifies source functions of said information file object transport, said user communications protocol being cooperative with and known to said source communications protocol to effect said unattended object transport automatically after initiation at said user station, and wherein object parameters selected from the group consisting of file name, file names, file size, file location, file content and file format are specified in said user communications protocol and said source communications protocol;

means for fetching of an electronic information file object in accordance with an object list in said manifest;

means for disconnecting from said remote object source upon completion of said fetching of said information file object, wherein said disconnecting comprises acknowledging of receipt of said information file object and logout; and

means for automatically integrating of said fetched information file object into said containing information product, wherein said integrating comprises decompressing and unpacking of said fetched information file object if necessary, storing said information file object in a designated location within said user's station, enabling importation of said information file object by said containing information product, returning control to said containing information product to allow the user to use the fetched information file object within said containing information product;

wherein said information transport component comprises a high-level functional interface permitting said information product to remain unaware of and uninvolved in the technical and operational details of the communications process, and wherein said information transport component is seamlessly embedded in said containing information product.

2. An information transport component according to claim 1 comprising object send means for unattended transport of a send object from said user's station to said remote object source.

3. An information transport component according to claim 2 wherein said object send means comprise a user-activatable selection in said user interface, and send specifications in said user and source protocols.

4. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein an object specification is listed in an object manifest stored at said user's station.

5. An information transport component according to claim 4 wherein said object manifest is sent to said remote object source as a verifier to assist control of said transport operation.

6. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said fetched information object is pre-identified and integratable with said information product to which said transport component is customized to provide an augmented information product.

7. An information transport component according to claim 6 wherein said information transport component comprises:

a) a fetcher module configured to fetch said pre-identified object from said object source employing a pre-specified common carrier address stored in said fetcher module;

b) a communications manager to establish and manage connection to said object source under control of said fetcher module and with said assistance of said user and source communications protocols; and

c) a fetched object integrator to locate a fetched object in a preset file area accessible to and known to said containing information product;

wherein said object pre-identification, said common carrier address and said preset file area specifications are stored in said information transport software component, whereby a workstation user of said information product can automatically effect transport and integration of a pre-identified object from said object source to create an augmented information product at said workstation.

8. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said information transport component performs a containerized, standard transport operation, said transport operation being transparent to any high-level formatting of said transported information object, and essentially repeatable for a wide variety of different information objects.

9. An information transport component according to claim 1 having means to pack or unpack, compress or decompress, and send files to or fetch files from specified locations.

10. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said transporter allows said containing information product to be set up automatically to effect high-level integration of indexes and navigational structures by letting said containing product have control to import or export or to encrypt or decrypt objects.

11. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said user communications module is self-configuring and includes a workstation surveyor providing workstation configuration parameters.

12. An information transport component according to claim 1, wherein said information transport component provides protocol selection means for selecting media for real time communication between said user and said remote object source employing a selection from a set of open-ended network technologies and network providers, said communication means being selectable without substantive change to said information product.

13. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said remote object source comprises a remote server capable of establishing real time communication with said information transport component for object transport.

14. A information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said information product is a collection of issues of a periodical publication and said pre-identified object comprises an update issue.

15. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said information product is a software application and said pre-identified object comprises an upgrade for said software application.

16. An information transport component according to claim 1 supplied as a free-standing embeddable component for incorporation in an information product said information transport component comprising only such functionality as is required for said information object transport operation.

17. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said real time communication has a software-controlled duration confined to a period sufficient to effect said unattended object transfer.

18. A computer-implemented electronic information product comprising information content and an information transport component according to claim 1.

19. An electronic information product distribution remote server for use in transporting information objects to multiple transport components according to claim 1 located at said object source and being supplied with said source communication protocols.

20. A distribution server according to claim 19 in combination with a link to a remote vendor, whereby said users can transport objects to or from said vendor via said distribution server.

21. A distribution server according to claim 19 said server being gatewayed to other information object sources.

22. An information transport component according to claim 1 wherein said communications network is a telephone network, said user protocols include a telephone number for accessing said remote object source and specifications for a telephone modem or other telephone interface device, said real time communication being made via a user telephone modem.

23. A computer-implemented information transport software component embeddable in a vendor-provided containing information product, the transport component being separately suppliable to one or more vendors of multiple containing electronic information products for use with any one of said multiple containing electronic information products, said information transport component enabling users of a diversity of uncoordinated communications-equipped computer stations to send a manifest-listed electronic information file object to a remote center specified with said information product from a user station, in an on-line manifest-based transport operation proceeding in unattended mode after activation, said information transport software component being adaptable to and controllable by an individual information product to have a user interface in said information product for activation of unattended transport of an information file object from said users computer station to said remote center, said user's station being entered into a real time, closed-ended, client-server communication as a client with said remote center via a communications network lacking a network file system, said information transport software component comprising:

a user interface within said containing information product for allowing said activation of unattended transport by said user, and to provide said user, in said information product, information transport functions with a desired look and feel unconstrained by said information transport component;

means for referencing a manifest list to identify an object to be transported;

means for establishing call connection to said remote center, wherein said establishment of call connection comprises login and a handshake process between a user protocol and a remote center protocol, wherein said user communications protocol is specified in a user communications module of said information transport component, and specifies user station functions of said unattended object transport including a remote center address, wherein said remote center communications protocol is specified in a remote center communications module of said remote center, and specifies remote center functions of said information file object transport, said user communications protocol being cooperative with and known to said remote center communications protocol to effect said unattended object transport automatically after initiation at said user station, and wherein object parameters selected from the group consisting of file name, file names, file size, file location, file content and file format are specified in said user communications protocol and said remote center communications protocol;

means for sending of an electronic information file object in accordance with a list in said manifest; and

means for disconnecting from said remote center upon completion of said sending of said information file object, wherein said disconnecting comprises acknowledging of receipt of said information file object and logout;

wherein said information transport component comprises a high-level functional interface permitting said information product to remain unaware of and uninvolved in the technical and operational details of the communications process and wherein said information transport component is seamlessly embedded in said containing information product.

24. An information transport component according to claim 23 wherein said electronic information product comprises a merchant's product disclosure and said send object comprises a user's order electronically prepared from said product disclosure whereby said order can be placed with said remote center electronically in unattended mode without requiring a voice call.

25. An information transport component according to claim 23 wherein said communications network is a telephone network, said user protocols include a telephone number for accessing said remote object source and specifications for a telephone modem or other telephone interface device, said real time communication being made via a user telephone modem.

26. A computer-implemented electronic information transporter supplied as a free-standing embeddable component for incorporation in a vendor-provided information product for transporting information objects related to said information product, between users of a diversity of uncoordinated communications-equipped computer stations and a specified remote center by enabling said users to fetch and send manifest-listed electronic information file objects to and from a remote center specified with said information product, in a real time, closed-ended, client-server communication as a client with said remote center, said on-line manifest-based transport operation proceeding in unattended mode after activation via a communications network lacking a network file system, said transporter comprising:

a user interface for allowing said activation of unattended transport by said user, and to provide said user;

means for referencing a manifest list to identify an object to be transported;

means for establishing call connection to said remote center, wherein said establishment of call connection comprises login and a handshake process between a user communications protocol and a source communications protocol, wherein said user communications protocol is specified in a user communications module of said information transport component, and specifies user station functions of said unattended object transport including a remote center address, wherein said source communications protocol is specified in a source communications module of said remote center, and specifies source functions of said information file object transport, said user communications protocol being cooperative with and known to said source communications protocol to effect said unattended object transport automatically after initiation at said user station, and wherein object parameters selected from the group consisting of file name, file names, file size, file location, file content and file format are specified in said user communications protocol and said source communications protocol;

means for sending and fetching of electronic information file objects in accordance with a list in said manifest;

means for disconnecting from said remote center upon completion of said sending and fetching of said information file object, wherein said disconnecting comprises acknowledging of receipt of said information file objects and logout; and

means for automatically integrating of said fetched information file objects into said containing information product, wherein said integrating comprises decompressing and unpacking of said fetched information file objects if necessary, storing said information file objects in a designated location within said computer station of said user, enabling importation of said information file object by said information product, returning control to said information product to allow the user to use the fetched information file object within said containing information product;

wherein said information transporter comprises only such functionality as is required for said transport of said information file objects, and comprises a high-level functional interface permitting said information product to remain unaware of and uninvolved in the technical and operational details of the communications process, and is seamlessly embedded in said containing information product.

27. A transporter according to claim 26 operative to provide unattended information object transport only between an aforesaid user and at least one remote address, said at least one address being pre-specified to the transporter and including an address for said remote center.

28. An information transport component according to claim 26 wherein said communications network is a telephone network, said user protocols include a telephone number for accessing said remote object source and specifications for a telephone modem or other telephone interface device, said real time communication being made via a user telephone modem.

29. A method of distributing predetermined electronic information file objects from a remote object source to users of a diversity of uncoordinated communications-equipped computer stations across a communication network lacking a network file system, said method comprising:

a) supplying said users with an information transport component supplied as a free-standing embeddable component for incorporation into a vendor-provided information product for enabling said users to fetch manifest-listed electronic information file objects from a remote object source specified with said information product, in an on-line manifest-based transport operation, said information transport component containing a user communications module having a user protocol specifying user station functions for said transport operation and including a remote object source address; and

b) supplying said remote object source with a source communication module having a source protocol specifying source functions for said transporting, said source protocol being cooperative with and known to said user protocol to effect transport of said predetermined electronic information file object in an unattended mode automatically after initiation by said user;

wherein said information transport component provides a high-level functional interface within said information product for activation of said unattended transport of at least one said information file object, said unattended transport comprising the steps of:

referencing, by said information transport component, a manifest list to identify an object to be transported;

establishing call connection, by said information transport component, to said remote center, wherein said establishment of call connection comprises login and a handshake process between a user communications protocol and a source communications protocol, wherein said user communications protocol is specified in a user communications module of said information transport component, and specifies user station functions of said unattended object transport including a remote center address, wherein said source communications protocol is specified in a source communications module of said remote center, and specifies source functions of said information file object transport, and wherein object parameters selected from the group consisting of file name, file names, file size, file location, file content and file format are specified in said user communications protocol and said source communications protocol;

transporting by sending or fetching, by said information transport component, of electronic information file objects in accordance with a list in said manifest;

disconnecting, by said information transport component, from said remote center upon completion of said sending and fetching of said information file object, wherein said disconnecting comprises acknowledging of receipt of said information file objects and logout; and

automatically integrating, by said information transport component, of said fetched information file objects into said containing information product, wherein said integrating comprises decompressing and unpacking of said fetched information file objects if necessary, storing said information file objects in a designated location within said computer station of said user, enabling importation of said information file object by said information product, returning control to said information product to allow the user to use the fetched information file object within said containing information product;

wherein said information transport component comprises a high-level functional interface permitting said information product to remain unaware of and uninvolved in the technical and operational details of the communications process, and wherein said information transport component is seamlessly embedded in said containing information product.

30. A method according to claim 29 wherein after setup by a information product and a simple menu-selection activation of a transport operation said information transport component effects said transport operation in an unattended manner, without user intervention, through steps of modem activation, dialing, handshaking with said object source, file specification, file importation, termination of said call and return of control to said containing product.

31. A method according to claim 29 comprising additional steps of sending back verification of receipt of said fetched file to said object source, inspection of said fetched object and comparison with a pre-existing manifest for verification of object parameters, any necessary unpacking and decompression being effected automatically, in an unattended manner without user intervention.

32. A method according to claim 29 further comprising additional steps of providing application file specifications, location or relocation of an object file or files, indexing, reindexing, index creation or use of hypertext or other product integration function that are required to enable said user to utilize said fetched object harmoniously with said original information product, said steps being performed automatically in unattended manner without user intervention.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to computer-implemented transport of electronic information objects. More specifically it relates to information transport software which can be used for transporting information objects between a remote server and any one of multiple, uncoordinated intelligent computer workstations. Still more particularly, it provides a computer-implemented software component that can be used to facilitate the distribution of information objects from a remote source to a large number of customers or subscribers.

BACKGROUND

Electronic publication is an exploding industry in which thousands of new products including magazines and periodicals, software applications and utilities, video games, business, legal and financial information and databases, encyclopedias and dictionaries are purchased by millions of customers. Commonly, such information products are replicated in computer-readable form on magnetic or optical storage diskettes and are box-packaged with printed manuals for distribution to retail stores and direct mail sales. These marketing practices are relatively expensive and involve a significant time lag of at least days or weeks to get a product into a consumer's hands once it is created.

Such costs and delays are generally acceptable for original, high value products such as collections of publications or software application, of which some examples are NEWSWEEK.RTM. Interactive CD-ROM, or disks, which provides a searchable audio-visual library of issues of NEWSWEEK magazine and CINEMANIA.RTM. CD-ROM which provides reviews and other information on newly released films. For time-sensitive, low-value updates, for example, the latest issue of Newsweek or last week's movie reviews, distribution in stored form, on physical media, is slow and the cost may exceed the value of the information in the product.

Thus, electronic transfer from a central computer server to a subscriber's computer over common carriers or wide area networks is an attractive proposition. Similar considerations apply to the distribution of software program updates, although cost and frequency of issue are not such serious constraints. A problem faced in both situations is that of incorporating the received material with the original material so that a fully integrated publication, information database or software program is obtained by the user.

Another class of electronically distributed information product comprises home shopping catalogues of mail order products distributed on optical or other digital data storage disks which may contain text, sound and images from printed catalogues or uniquely created material, for example software application demos. To applicant's knowledge and belief, available products lack any computer order placement capability, requiring orders to be placed by voice call.

Communication between remote computers, not directly interconnected by umbilical cable or a wired network, is enabled by a wide range of hardware devices and software drivers, utilities, applications and application modules. Telephone modems that couple a computer with the telephone network are familiar devices. RF modems that couple computers into wireless networks are less familiar but are beginning to appear in consumer devices known broadly as personal information communicators (PIC's) of which personal digital assistants (PDA's) such as Apple Corp.'s NEWTON.RTM. product are a first generation. New kinds of digital communications devices can be expected to emerge as digital technology replaces analog transmission.

General-purpose, online, modem-accessed, electronic information services, such as PRODIGY, COMPUSERVE and AMERICA ONLINE (trademarks), and some Internet services, provide wide access to timely information products from a central server, but are limited and complex. They provide no means for the integration of downloaded information with information products offered on disk or CD, and provide only rudimentary facilities for local viewing and search of downloaded files.

Such online information services provide their own user interface which is generally unlike that of a disk or CD-based information product, and can be customized very little, if at all, by a publisher using the service for product distribution.

Online services are oriented to extended online sessions which require complex user interaction to navigate and find desired information objects. Initial setup and use is rendered complex by requirements related to extended session use of data networks and the frequent need to navigate across the network, and through massive data collections, to locate desired data items. General-purpose online information services do not provide a suitable medium for electronic information publishers to distribute updates, and the like, because of limited interface flexibility, because a publisher cannot expect all their customer base to be service subscribers, and because of cost and payment difficulties. Such services are centered on monolithic processes intended for national use by millions of subscribers which processes are not readily adaptable.

Online service charging mechanisms are also inflexible and inappropriate for most individual information products, requiring monthly subscription fees of $5-10 or more, plus time charges for extended use, which are billed directly to users, after a user sign-up and credit acceptance process. Such cost mechanisms are too expensive and too complex for distribution of many products such as magazine and other low cost update products. They do not presently permit a publisher to build an access fee into a purchase price or a product subscription.

Recent press announcements from corporations such as AT&T, Lotus, Microsoft and MCI describe plans for new online services providing what are called "groupware" services to offer rich electronic mail and group collaboration functions, primarily for business organizations. Although offering multiple electronic object transport operations such services are believed to have complex setup procedures and software requirements and complex message routing features and protocols, and to lack interface flexibility. Accordingly, they are not suitable for mass distribution of low cost electronic information update products and cannot achieve the objectives of the invention.

Communications Products

Many software products exist that enable one computer to communicate with another over a remote link such as a telephone cable or the air waves, but none enables a vendor substantially to automate common carrier mass distribution of an electronic information product to a customer base employing multiple heterogenous systems with indeterminate hardware and software configurations. Two examples of popular such software products are Datastorm Technologies, Inc.'s PROCOMM (trademark) and CENTRAL POINT COMMUTE (trademark) from Central Point Software, Inc. which are commonly used to provide a variety of functions, including file transfers between, interactive sessions from, host-mode services from, and remote computer management of, modem-equipped personal computers wired into the telephone network.

Counterpoint Publishing's Federal Register publications

Counterpoint Publishing, (Cambridge Mass.) in brochures available to applicant in November 1993 offered electronic information products entitled "Daily Federal Register" and "CD Federal Register". "Daily Federal Register" includes communications software and a high-speed modem. Apparently, the communications software is a standard general purpose communications package with dialing scripts that are customized to the needs of the Federal Register products. Accordingly, the cost of a communications package license which may be as high as about $100 at retail must be included with in the product cost. Also, Counterpoint Publishing avoids the difficulties of supporting various modems by providing its own standard modem, with the product, building in a cost (about $100-200) which renders this approach quite unsuitable for mass-market distribution of low cost electronic information update products. The resulting product is not seamless either in its appearance or its operation because the communications software is separately invoked and used, and has its own disparate look and feel to the user.

The "CD Federal Register" provides the Federal Register on CD-ROM at weekly intervals for $1,950.00 and CD-ROM disks are shipped to customers as they become available. Back issues are $125 each. Updates are provided by shipping a disk. The Federal Register is a high-value product intended for specialist, business, academic and governmental users. Distribution of updates on CD-ROM, as utilized by Counterpoint Publishing, is not a suitable method for lower value products such as a weekly news magazine, because of the associated costs. Shipping delays are a further drawback.

While the two product "CD Federal Register" and "Daily Federal Register" might be used together, at an additive cost, to provide a combination of archives on CD-ROM plus daily updates obtained and stored until replaced by a new CD-ROM, based on information available to the present inventor it appears that the two products must be used separately. Thus they must apparently be viewed, searched, and managed as two or more separate collections, requiring multiple steps to perform a complete search across both collections, and requiring manual management and purging of the current collection on hard disk by the user.

Xcellenet's "REMOTEWARE".RTM.

Xcellenet Inc. in product brochures copyrighted 1992 and a price list dated Aug. 16, 1993, for a "REMOTEWARE".RTM. product line, offers a range of REMOTEWARE.RTM. software-only products providing electronic information distribution to and from remote nodes of a proprietary REMOTEWARE.RTM. computer network intended for use within an organized, corporate or institutional data processing or management information system. The system is primarily server directed, rather than user initiated and requires an expensive program (priced at $220.00) to run at the user's node whereas the present invention addresses consumer uses which will support costs of no more than a few dollars per node.

Further, REMOTEWARE.RTM. is primarily intended to be used with other REMOTEWARE.RTM. products at the node which other products provide a range of user interface and data management functions, at significant additional cost, each with their own separate user interface presenting a standard REMOTEWARE.RTM. look and feel. In addition, the nodes require a sophisticated central support and operations function to be provided, which may be difficult for an electronic information publisher to accomplish and add unacceptable expense.

REMOTEWARE.RTM. is overly elaborate to serve the simpler objectives of the present invention. Designed for the demanding needs of enterprise-wide data processing communications, the client or node package provides many functions such as background operation, ability to receive calls from the server at any time, ability to work under control of the central server to survey and update system software and files and an ability to support interactive sessions, which abilities are not needed to carry out the simpler information transport operations desired by the present invention. Such capabilities may be desirable in an enterprise MIS environment, but are not appropriate to a consumer or open commercial environment, and bring the drawbacks of complexity, cost, and program size, which may put undesirable operational constraints on the user (and perhaps even compromise the user's privacy). REMOTEWARE.RTM. is too costly and complex for mass distribution of updates to periodicals, cannot be shipped invisibly with an electronic information product and requires specialized server software and operations support that would challenge all but the largest and most technically sophisticated publishers. Accordingly, REMOTEWARE.RTM. is unsuitable for widespread use as an economical means of distributing updates for a variety of electronic information products.

Although it has wider applications, a significant problem addressed by the invention is the problem of economically distributing updates of electronic information products to a wide customer base that may number tens or hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions of consumers. At the date of this invention, such a customer base will normally include an extensive variety of computers, operating systems and communications devices, if the latter are present, all of which may have their own protocols and configuration requirements.

While an electronic information product vendor might consider licensing or purchasing an existing commercial communications product for distribution with their publication product to enable remote, diskless updating, the high cost of such a solution would generally be unacceptable because a communication package includes a broad range of functionalities not required for the vendor's particular purpose, for example, remote keyboarding. Significantly, a commercial communications package is not susceptible to customization of its user interface and may have its own configuration requirements and installation requirements, with regard to directories, device drivers and the like, which are incompatible with other vendor or user requirements or are simply a nuisance to the user. Thus, a commercial communications product in addition to its cost, cannot be satisfactorily integrated with an information product.

There is accordingly a need for computer-implementable information transport software to enable simple, economical and prompt mass distribution of electronic information products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention solves a problem. It solves the problem of enabling simple, economical and prompt mass distribution of electronic information products.

The invention solves this problem by providing a computer-implemented information transport software module usable with any of multiple electronic information products for mass distribution of electronic information objects to users of a diversity of uncoordinated communications-equipped computer stations. The information transport software module is readily customized to an individual information product to have a user interface in said information product for activation of automated transport of an information object between a remote object source and a user's computer station. The information transport module contains user communications protocols specifying user station functions of the automated object transport and the object source is supplied with source communications protocols specifying source functions of the automated object transport. The source communications protocol is co-operative with the user communications protocol and knows the characteristics of the user communications protocol, so as to be able to effect the information object transport in unattended mode after initiation.

Preferably, for economy and simplicity, the information transport component is supplied for incorporation in an information product as a free-standing embeddable component comprising only such functionality as is required for the aforesaid information object transport operation as that operation is described above and as further elaborated herein. In a preferred embodiment, by limiting available functionality to predetermined transport operations, for example to information object transport between the user's address and one or more pre-specified remote addresses, or to transport of a pre-specified information object or objects, or by making both such limitations, a lean and efficient information transporter product can be provided. This enables an information product vendor to supply an automated, or unattended, update or other information transport facility to a mass market of computer users without the complexity and expense of proprietary network or communications software packages, or of the vendor developing their own transport software.

In a local area network, users communicating across a common medium such as ETHERNET (trademark), or TOKEN RING (trademark) can enjoy the relatively expensive benefits of coordination of traffic between users, and to and from network services, which benefits are provided by a network operating system such as LANTASTIC (trademark, Artisoft Corp.) or NETWARE (trademark, Novell, Inc.). In contrast, a mass market of computer users lacks coordinating means for the facilitation of remote communications between the users and a would-be provider of services to those users. The inventive information transport component, or transporter, efficiently fills that need. While the invention might be implemented for transport across a local area network, such use would probably be incidental to the provision of other services and may not be needed having regard to the sophisticated functions usually provided by relatively much more expensive local area network communication systems for example, a network file system providing distributed file management functions permitting simple transport of files between network stations.

Typical communications equipment comprises a modem, but other cards and devices enabling remote communication between computers may be used, such as devices or means permitting communication in a digital rather than analog realm, for example, ISDN or ATM interfaces when they become commercially viable.

Preferably, the user communications protocols specify parameters such as a source address, which may be a common carrier address, such as a telephone number, and object parameters such as file name or names, file size, location content and format are specified, as appropriate, in either the user communications protocols or the source communications protocols, or both. Such object specification can be listed in an object manifest stored at the user's station, which preferably, for better control of the transport operation, is sent to the remote object source as a verifier.

By pre-specifying the desired transport functions to both ends of the transport operation, the user and the object source, a simplified, easy-to-use, automated transport operation which conveys an information object in unattended mode, after initiation, can be provided to any user.

The inventive information transport module provides an information product vendor with simplicity, modularity and generality enabling information fetch operations to be easily executed by novice users, and permitting inclusion in a wide range of information products with a minimum of customization. Th