System and method for the management of distributed personalized information

• US 20030088581A1
• Filed: 10/29/2001
• Published: 05/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kptools Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Dana Louis Schnitzer, Gary Robin Maze
• Inventors: Schnitzer, Dana Louis, Maze, Gary Robin
• Granted Patent: US 7,181,465 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/914 Video
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/916 Audio
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/917 Text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The present invention comprises a system useful for organization of information, the system comprising a database comprising an authority table; at least one taxonomy table that is manipulatable by a user with adequate access permission to manipulate the user taxonomy table; and at least one summary table that is related to the authority table and user taxonomy table. In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention further comprises a method of creating summarized information for later access for a system of the present invention, the method comprising capturing a description of raw data in the authority table; retrieving raw data from the authority table by a user; summarizing at least a portion of the raw data; examining one or more elements in a user taxonomy table for an appropriate taxonomy element to associate with the summarization and creating a new element in the user taxonomy table for an appropriate taxonomy element to associate with the summarization if an appropriate element is not already present in the taxonomy table; associating the summarization with the appropriate element of the taxonomy table; and storing the summarization with its associated element of the taxonomy table in the summary table.

Claims

1. A system for organization of information, comprising:

a. a server comprising a searchable authority table;

b. a data communications device operatively in communication with the server;

c. a user computer operatively in communication with the data communications device, the user computer having access to the searchable authority table, the user computer further comprising;

i. at least one user definable taxonomy table, wherein the taxonomy table;

(1) is accessible to the user computer; and

(2) is manipulatable by a user with adequate access permission to manipulate the user taxonomy table; and

ii. at least one searchable summary table, wherein the summary table;

(1) is accessible to the user computer;

(2) is related to the authority table and the user taxonomy table; and

(3) is manageable by a user with adequate access permission to manage the summary table;

d. software executable in the server to provide access to and management of the authority table; and

e. software executable in the user computer to provide access to and manipulation of the taxonomy table and the summary table.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein manipulation of the taxonomy table comprises creating, modifying, associating elements in the taxonomy table with other elements in the taxonomy table for dynamic alternate presentation, rearranging, and deleting elements of the user taxonomy table.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein management of the summarization table comprises creating, modifying, and deleting elements of the summary table and associating elements of the summary table with at least one element of the user taxonomy table.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the user computer has access to a plurality of searchable raw data via the data communications device.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the authority table comprises descriptions of at least one of legal data, medical data, educational data, manufacturing data, scientific data, repair data, audiovisual data, and entertainment data.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the server further comprises a database comprising the authority table.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a. a data network accessible to the server and the user computer via the data communications device; and

b. query software executing at least partially in the server;

c. whereby computers with access to the data network may be allowed to access predetermined portions of the authority table.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the authority table comprises descriptions of data located via the Internet.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein:

a. the data network comprises the Internet;

b. the user computer uses Internet browsing software executable at the user computer to access the predetermined portions of the database; and

c. the server is an Internet service provider;

d. wherein the user computer further has access to a plurality of searchable raw data via the Internet.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein a user is allowed to submit a query to the query software via the Internet.

11. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user interface to the system comprising at least one of an HTML user interface, a non-database language user interface, and a database language interface.

12. A method of creating summarized information for later access for a system of claim 1, comprising:

a. capturing raw data into an programmatically manipulatable format;

b. storing the programmatically manipulatable format of the raw data into the authority table;

c. capturing a description of a source of the raw data;

d. storing the description into the authority table while associating the description with the data in the authority table;

e. programmatically retrieving the raw data from the authority table by a user;

f. allowing the user to summarize at least a portion of the retrieved raw data, the summarization to be stored in the summary table;

g. examining one or more elements in the user taxonomy table for an appropriate taxonomy table element to associate with the summarization;

h. creating a new element in the user taxonomy table describing an appropriate taxonomy element to associate with the summarization if an appropriate element is not already present in the taxonomy table;

i. associating the summarization with the appropriate element of the taxonomy table;

j. associating the summarization with the authority table; and

k. storing the summarization and associations in the summary table.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein step (a) further comprises:

i. parsing the raw data prior to storing the captured raw data in the authority table;

ii. generating keywords from the parsed raw data;

iii. saving the keywords in a keyword table associated with the authority table; and

iv. storing the raw data description in the authority table.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein step (k) further comprises:

i. parsing the summarization prior to storing the summarization in the summary table;

ii. generating keywords from the parsed summarization;

iii. saving the keywords in a keyword table associated with the summary table; and

iv. storing the summarization in the summary table.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the description of the raw data comprises at least one of the raw data, a pointer to the raw data, a description of a file containing the raw data, and a description of a remote source location of a file containing the raw data.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

a. receiving a notice of addition of new raw data to the authority table at the user computer;

b. receiving keywords associated with the new raw data at the user computer;

c. processing the user taxonomy table for keywords associated with one or more predetermined elements of the user taxonomy table for keywords associated with each of those predetermined elements of the user taxonomy table;

d. examining the keywords associated with each of the predetermined elements of the user taxonomy table against the keywords received associated with the new raw data;

e. generating a relevance factor for the new raw data based on the examination; and

f. suggesting the new raw data to the user as relevant for each of the predetermined elements of the user taxonomy table where the relevance factor is at a predetermined threshold level in each of the predetermined elements of the user taxonomy table.

17. A method of searching a system of claim 1 for relevant information, comprising:

a. formulating a query at a user workstation;

b. analyzing the query for keywords;

c. obtaining user filtering input for tables to be searched;

d. searching for keywords against the tables using the user filtering input; and

e. returning search results to the user.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising at least one of:

a. allowing the user to continue the search outside the tables when the number of search results occurs below a predetermined threshold; and

b. allowing the user to continue the search outside the tables on a user initiated command.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the filtering input comprises at least one of limiting searches to a selected element of the taxonomy, limiting searches to a plurality of selected elements of the taxonomy, limiting searches to all elements of the taxonomy, limiting searches based on fields present for an authority table element, and limiting searches based on fields present for a summary table element.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein a user viewing a summary table element may be allowed to view the raw data from which that summary was derived, the allowing comprising at least one of selecting a region on a display at the user computer in which the summary is being displayed, selecting a command button on the display, and using one or more keys on a keyboard associated with the user computer.