| 摘要 |
A system for assessing to tenants fees for renting system resources of an on-line computer system, charging rental rates that correspond to the amounts and types of resources utilized. The system presents tenant services and products to end users as a navigable "virtual village", in which tenants rent "space" in village "buildings". The space is quantified by the system provider as a number of "square bytes", that represent the system resources required to make available to a predetermined number of end users certain features associated with categories of space - i.e., offices, stores, conference rooms and so forth. The system determines for each tenant an applicable price per square byte based on a number of village factors and/or building factors. The village factors include the potential for exposure of the space and/or the tenant's name to end users entering the village, and the number of layers of graphics or menus an end user must go through to reach the tenant's space from the main village menu or graphic. The system sets a basic price per square byte for standard office or store space within the village based in part on these factors. The system then considers the building factors, such as the potential for exposure of the tenant's space to an end user entering the associated building, any special features offered by the tenant to end users entering its space, and any other factors as the system provider may determine. Based on these building factors, i.e., the underlying resources associated therewith, the sytem sets a price for the tenant, above the basic price. At the end of each rental period, the system determines the system resources that were utilized by each tenant, measured in terms of square bytes. It also determines, based on the amounts and types of system resources utilized, a price per square byte. It then charges the tenant rent for that period, determined by multiplying the square bytes utilized by the price per square byte. |
