Method and system for managing digital assets

• US 20050028104A1
• Filed: 07/30/2003
• Published: 02/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Apparao, Vidur, Bandhauer, John, Waterson, Christopher Robert
• Granted Patent: US 7,082,573 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution

Abstract

The claimed invention enables digital asset management that is responsive to a user'"'"'s interactions with digital assets. Based on the user'"'"'s interaction, the invention generates a ranking of the digital assets that is intended to reflect the value of the digital assets to the user. The ranking is based in part on the access frequency and recency, and the number and types of uses of the digital assets. An access hierarchy is derived from the ranking that stores the digital assets so that the higher ranked digital assets are more easily accessed than the lower ranked digital assets. The digital assets can include any of digital images, audio files, and Uniform Resource Locators. The invention can also distinguish between different types of uses so that some types of uses imbue an asset with greater value than others. The types of uses include passive viewing or playback, file sharing, transport, and editing. The invention also allows the user to assign subjective values to each digital asset that can be factored into the ranking independently of usage patterns. A volatility-dampening attribute is provided to moderate volatility in the access hierarchy.

Claims

12. A system for managing a plurality of digital assets, comprising:

a memory for storing a plurality of digital assets;

a processor in communication with said memory for manipulating said plurality of digital assets; and

a ranking module in communication with said processor and said memory to rank said digital assets based on user manipulation of said digital assets;

wherein said memory is responsive to said rank of said digital assets to store said digital assets with higher ranked digital assets more easily accessed than lower ranked digital assets.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said digital assets are any of digital images and digital audio files.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said ranking module is in communication with said processor to assign a first score to a first digital image when said processor accesses said first digital image for viewing and to assign a second score to a second digital image if said processor accesses said second digital image for editing.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said ranking module ranks said digital assets at least in part based on user-assigned values.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein said ranking module comprises an inertia algorithm that prevents a re-ranking of said digital assets unless a score of a first digital asset exceeds a score of a second previously higher ranked digital asset by a predetermined threshold.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein said ranking module comprises an input for receiving data representative of use of said digital assets including any of frequency of use, recency of use, and number of uses of said digital assets, said ranking module being configured to factor in said data representative of said use.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein said digital assets stored in said memory comprise digital images, said ranking module being configured to use scores assigned to said digital images to calculate a ranking of said digital images, said scores being based on specific user manipulations of said digital images, comprise any of editing, viewing, and transmitting or receiving of said digital images.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein said digital assets stored in said memory comprise URL'"'"'s.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said ranking module comprise an inertia algorithm that prevents a re-ranking of said URL'"'"'s unless a score of at least one of said URL'"'"'s exceeds a score of another of said URL'"'"'s by a predetermined threshold.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein said ranking module is in communication with said processor to assign a first score to a first digital audio file when said processor accesses said first digital audio file for playback and to assign a second score to a second audio file if said processor accesses said second digital audio file for editing.

22. A method for managing storage of, and access to URL'"'"'s, comprising the steps of:

creating a navigation history of URL'"'"'s activated during a first browsing session at a first device located on a network;

at the conclusion of said browsing session, saving said navigation history at a location accessible to a plurality of networked devices;

initiating a second browsing session at a second device located on said network; and

accessing said navigation history at said second device for use during said second browsing session.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the steps of:

ranking said URL'"'"'s according to the extent said URL'"'"'s are used; and

generating an access hierarchy based on said ranking step so that URL'"'"'s that are more highly ranked are more easily accessed than lower ranked URL'"'"'s.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the steps of:

assigning scores to said URL'"'"'s based on a usage URL usage pattern of said URL'"'"'s; and

re-ranking said URL'"'"'s only if a score of at least one URL exceeds a score of another previously higher ranked URL by a predetermined threshold.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of:

allowing a user to establish said predetermined threshold.

26. A method for managing a list of URL'"'"'s that is automatically responsive to a user'"'"'s Web navigation history, comprising the steps of:

creating a Web navigation history that records Web sites visited by said user;

assigning scores to each of said URL'"'"'s in said Web navigation history based on use of said URL'"'"'s;

creating an access hierarchy of said URL'"'"'s based on said scores, wherein URL'"'"'s having higher scores are more easily accessed than URL'"'"'s having lower scores.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said step of creating a Web navigation history comprises recording the recency and frequency with which each of said URL'"'"'s are activated.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein said step of creating said Web navigation history comprises the step of:

determining whether data downloaded from Web sites corresponding to said URL'"'"'s were edited or shared by said user.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising the step of:

receiving user-assigned values for each of said URL'"'"'s, said step of assigning scores further comprising the step of factoring in said user-assigned values.

30-1. The method of claim 30, further comprising the step of:

allowing said user to define said predetermined threshold.