Information management system

• US 20020080170A1
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Published: 06/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Broadfire Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: Broadfire Technologies Corporation
• Inventors: Goldberg, Elisha Y., Schmeidler, Yonah, Horowitz, Marc
• Application Number:
  US09/803,731
• Publication Number:
  US 20020080170A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An information management system including an information source processor operative for performing user-selectable information management processes on any user-selectable information source from among a plurality of information sources and an ELA interface constructed and operative to allow a user to identify specific elements of documents as information sources, wherein the specific elements which a user is allowed to identify include at least one of the following group: image, phrase, table, sub-table, line, caption, cell, row, column, item, list, paragraph, frame.

Claims

1. An information management system comprising:

a plurality of information sources; and

an information source previewer operative to provide a preview of the information sources comprising a less than complete view of at least some of the information sources.

20. A system according to claim 1 wherein at least one of the information sources is selectably accessed via a locally stored copy thereof rather than directly.

2. An information management system comprising:

at least one representations of information sources;

a graphical user interface integrated with at least one of the representations of the information sources; and

an archiving system operative to allow users to time-stamp and archive at least one representations of information sources.

3. A system according to claim 2 wherein said archiving system is operative to allow remote archiving.

4. A system according to claim 2 whrein said archiving system comprises an annotator.

5. A system according to claim 2 wherein said graphical user interface allows a user to specify which of a plurality of other users can access the content and how long content is to be stored.

6. An information management system comprising:

an archiving system operative to allow users to time-stamp and archive content; and

a scheduling system allowing the archiving system to operate automatically in accordance with a predetermined schedule.

7. A system according to claim 6 wherein the scheduling system operates the archiving system in accordance with at least one triggering rule.

8. A system according to claim 6 wherein the scheduling system is operative to perform a watch function in which predefined content is watched for.

21. A system according to claim 8 wherein the scheduling system performs the watch function over a user-defined set of information sources and over a user-defined time period.

22. A system according to claim 8 wherein the scheduling system comprises a notifier operative to notify a user of “

hits”

, the notifier employing any of a plurality of user-selectable notification modes.

24. A system according to claim 23 which is operative to perform an ongoing search over a specific part of an information source.

26. A system according to claim 25 which is operative to perform an ongoing update-check over a specific part of an information source.

9. An information management system comprising:

a content searcher;

a search-defining GUI allowing a user to define a search; and

a watch-defining GUI allowing a user to define a watch at least by automatically converting a previously defined search into a watch.

10. An information management system comprising:

a content searcher; and

a search-defining GUI allowing a user to define at least freshness of search.

11. An information management system comprising:

a content searcher; and

a search-defining GUI allowing a user to define at least depth of search.

18. A system according to claim 12 which is operative to perform a search over a specific part of an information source.

27. A system according to claim 17 wherein the document portion processing unit is programmable to perform customized functions, thereby to allow a user to perform customized processes on specific document portions.

28. A system according to claim 14 wherein the client displays multiple sources simultaneously.

29. A system according to claim 14 wherein the client operates within a standard web browser without downloading and installing specialized software.

30. A system according to claim 16 wherein the search results GUI displays a list of results and, simultaneously, the results themselves in separate windows.

12. An information management system comprising:

a content searcher; and

a search-defining GUI allowing a user to define at least duration of search.

13. An information management system comprising:

an information source manager including a set of user-defined information sources;

a content searcher; and

a search-defining GUI allowing a user to define a subset of the user-defined information sources to be searched.

14. An information management system comprising:

a server storing user-defined folders, and

a client via which a user can view at least some of the user-defined folders.

15. An information management system comprising:

at least one representations of information sources including graphic representation of check-update status; and

a check-update status maintainer operative to monitor the check-update status of each information source and to maintain the graphic representation of the check-update status accordingly.

16. An information management system comprising:

a search results GUI including a plurality of separate result windows for separate search results.

17. An information management system comprising:

a document portion identification GUI operative to allow a user to graphically identify a portion of a document using a targeted set of questions; and

a document portion processing unit operative to perform at least one process on a document portion defined by a user via the document portion identification GUI.

19. An information management system comprising:

a plurality of information management tools;

an information source; and

a GUI (graphic user interface) integrating the plurality of information management tools around the information source using a graphical representation.

23. An information management system comprising:

a watch unit operative to watch for a defined unit of information in a flow of information; and

an ELA unit.

25. An information management system comprising:

an update checking unit; and

an ELA unit.

31. An information management system comprising:

a functional unit operative to perform a plurality of selectable functions on information; and

an automatic information retriever operative to, automatically retrieve information from a plurality of information sources.

32. A system according to claim 31 wherein the automatic information retriever is selectably operative to automatically retrieve information on a condition-triggered basis.

33. A system according to claim 31 wherein multiple user-selectable notification methods are employed to bring system work products to a user'"'"'s attention.

34. A system according to claim 31 and also comprising an interface allowing mobile access to and control of the system.

36. A system according to claim 35 wherein the specific elements which a user is allowed to identify include at least one of the following group:

image, phrase, table, sub-table, line, caption, cell, row, column, item, list, paragraph, frame.

37. A system according to claim 35 wherein the ELA interface is operative to group several elements in a document.

38. A system according to claim 37 wherein the ELA interface is operative to contiguously group several elements in a document.

39. A system according to claim 37 wherein the ELA interface is operative to non-contiguously group several elements in a document.

40. A system according to claim 35 wherein a group of at least one elements may be identified by means of a combination of at least one internal properties.

41. A system according to claim 35 wherein a group of at least one elements may be identified by means of their relationships to other elements having a specified combination of at least one internal properties.

42. A system according to claim 40 wherein the internal properties include at least one of the following group:

contains a specified text, possesses at least one descriptive formatting property, contains specified markup-tag information.

43. A system according to claim 42 wherein the at least one descriptive formatting property comprises at least one of the following group of property types:

a color property, a size property, and a style property.

44. A system according to claim 41 wherein said relationships comprise at least one of the following type of relationships:

after, before, between, contained in, location in group, bigger, biggest in group, first, smallest, largest.

45. A system according to claim 31 and also comprising an ELA unit.

35. An information management system comprising:

an information source processor operative for performing user-selectable information management processes on any user-selectable information source from among a plurality of information sources; and

an ELA interface constructed and operative to allow a user to identify specific elements of documents as information sources.