Personal information space management system and method

• US 20050102257A1
• Filed: 11/07/2003
• Published: 05/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: FusionOne Incorporated (Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Stannard, Liam J., Ridgard, Leighton A., Onyon, Richard M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,634,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A system and method for organizing information in a personal information space. The personal information space includes at least one data source holding at least a portion of the personal information space. The system includes an agent for the data source which provides interaction information regarding data in the data source; and a interaction evaluation engine including one or more weighting characteristics for each interaction, and providing an output reflecting a weighting of one or more characteristics of the interaction. The method may comprise the steps of determining when an interaction between a contact on one of the contact data sources occurs; analyzing one or more characteristics of the interaction event to determine a at least one trait about the interaction; and generating a result based on said step of analyzing.

Claims

1. A system for organizing information in a personal information space, the personal information space including at least one data source holding at least a portion of the personal information space, comprising:

an agent for the data source, the agent providing interaction information regarding data in the data source; and

a interaction evaluation engine including one or more weighting characteristics for each interaction, and providing an output reflecting a weighting of one or more characteristics of the interaction.

2. The system of claim 1 further including interaction data associated with data in the data source.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the interaction data is stored in the data store.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the interaction data is stored in a separate database.

5. The system of claim 2 further including rating data.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a contact database.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the data includes a telephone call with a contact.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the data includes using a contact email address.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the data includes an instant messenger identifier.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a word processing file.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a database file.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is a task entry in a personal information manager.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is a calendar appointment.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is meeting request.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is a journal entry in a personal information manager.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a spreadsheet file.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a binary file modifiable by a user.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is stored in a data structure.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the data includes an action flag.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the action flag signifies a level of importance.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the data structure includes a user ID.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein the data structure includes a device agent ID.

23. The system of claim 18 wherein the data structure includes an object rating.

24. The system of claim 18 wherein the data structure includes an object list.

25. The system of claim 18 wherein the data structure includes object content data.

26. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes the frequency of use of the data source.

27. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes the amount of use of the data source.

28. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes the length of time between contacts with the data.

29. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes the duration of the interaction with the data source.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes the area of use of the data source.

31. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes the type of data used within the data source.

32. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes the type of application used to generate the interaction.

33. The system of claim 1 wherein the rating criteria includes a pattern of use defined by one or more additional characteristics selected from the list of:

frequency of use, amount of use, length of time between interactions with the data, duration of the interactions with the data, the area of the data source used, the type of data source used, and the application used to access the data source.

34. The system of claim 1 wherein the interaction engine includes an output of an update to the data source.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the interaction engine includes an output for multiple data sources.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the multiple data sources are on different devices.

37. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is provided on a single processing device.

38. The system of claim 1 wherein agent is on a first device and evaluation engine on a second processing device.

39. The system of claim 1 further including a user interface.

40. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a weighting selection interface.

41. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes an action selection interface.

42. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a conflict resolution interface.

43. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a maximum output selection interface.

44. A method for managing a user'"'"'s personal contact information from a variety of contact data sources, each data source comprising a device or application storing contact information used by the user, comprising:

determining when an interaction with a contact on one of the contact data sources occurs;

analyzing one or more characteristics of the interaction event to determine a at least one trait about the interaction; and

generating a result based on said step of analyzing.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is an email.

46. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is a phone call.

47. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is a scheduled meeting.

48. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is a web conference.

49. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is a file access.

50. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is a file modification.

51. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is a task entry.

52. The method of claim 44 wherein the interaction is an instant message.

53. The method of claim 44 wherein the data source is a PIM information store.

54. The method of claim 44 wherein the data source is a PDA information store.

55. The method of claim 44 wherein the data source is a mobile device call list.

56. The method of claim 44 wherein the data source is an Internet messaging message list.

57. The method of claim 44 wherein the data source is a Web Conference attendee list.

58. The method of claim 44 wherein the data source is a Contact list.

59. The method of claim 44 further including the step of updating the data store from which the data interaction occurred.

60. The method of claim 44 further including updating a series of data stores for the user.

61. The method of claim 44 wherein characteristic is the frequency of interaction with the data in the data store.

62. The method of claim 44 wherein characteristic is the amount of use.

63. The method of claim 44 wherein characteristic is the length of time between interactions with data in the data source.

64. The method of claim 44 wherein characteristic is the duration of the interaction with the data in the data source.

65. The method of claim 44 wherein characteristic is the type of data with which the interaction occurs.

66. The method of claim 44 wherein method includes the step of providing a user selection of said step of evaluating such that, for each data type or application type, a the user can select whether an evaluation occurs

67. The method of claim 66 wherein the user can select to always have said step of evaluating occur.

68. The method of claim 66 wherein the user can select to never have said step of evaluating occur.

69. A method for characterizing information acted upon by a user, comprising:

monitoring personal information space data interaction by a user;

identifying said data interaction with the user;

for a set of user data interactions, evaluating the interaction based on one or more characteristics of the interaction; and

weighing elements of the data based on said step of evaluating.

70. The method of claim 69 wherein the data interaction includes interaction with a data application.

71. The method of claim 69 wherein the data interaction includes interaction with a device.

72. The method of claim 69 wherein the set of user data interactions includes one interaction.

73. The method of claim 69 wherein the set of user data interactions includes a plurality of interactions.

74. The method of claim 69 further including the step of outputting a list of the data based on said step of weighing.

75. The method of claim 74 further including updating a data source associated with a device or application.

76. The method of claim 69 wherein the set includes a series of interactions gathered over time.

77. The method of claim 76 wherein the set includes an individual transaction and the step of evaluating is performed for each interaction received.

78. The method of claim 69 wherein the device is a mobile device.

79. The method of claim 78 wherein the user data interactions are telephone calls.

80. The method of claim 79 wherein the step of weighing includes determining the frequency of use of a contact based on said telephone calls in the cellular phone.

81. The method of claim 80 further including the step of updating an internal phone book in the cellular phone with contact records

82. A system for managing data between at least a first device and a second device, the devices communicating via at least one network, the first device including at least one data store having personal information associated with a user, comprising:

an interaction agent associated with the data store and communicating with the data store on the first device;

an evaluation engine on the second device and communicating with the interaction agent; and

a database communicating with the evaluation engine and including interaction information and interaction weighting information for at least one user.

83. The system of claim 82 further including a change transaction generation engine providing updates to said at least one data store based on an output of the evaluation engine.

84. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising the steps of:

determining when an interaction between a contact on one of the contact data sources occurs;

analyzing one or more characteristics of the interaction event to determine a at least one trait about the interaction; and

generating a result based on said step of analyzing.

85. The method of claim 84 wherein the step of determining includes providing a data store agent associated with the contact data store.

86. The method of claim 84 wherein the step of analyzing includes:

providing a rule set and evaluating said one or more characteristics according to at least one rule in the rule set.

87. A contact management method, comprising:

determining interactions between a user and the user'"'"'s contacts in a database via at least one communication means;

analyzing one or more characteristics of the interaction to determine at least one trait about the interaction;

ranking contacts based on the trait; and

updating the user'"'"'s contact information database based on said ranking.

88. The method of claim 87 wherein the steps of updating is based on a finite number of contacts defined by the user in a target database.

89. The method of claim 87 wherein the target database is the contact database.

90. The method of claim 87 wherein the interaction is an email.

91. The method of claim 87 wherein the interaction is a phone call.

92. The method of claim 87 wherein the interaction is a scheduled meeting.

93. The method of claim 87 wherein the interaction is a web conference.

94. The method of claim 87 wherein the interaction is a task entry.

95. The method of claim 87 wherein the interaction is an instant message.

96. The method of claim 87 wherein the data source is a mobile device call list.

97. The method of claim 87 wherein the data source is an instant messenger buddy list.

98. The method of claim 87 further including the step of updating the data store from which the data interaction occurred.

99. A system for managing a user'"'"'s personal information, comprising:

means for monitoring data interaction by a device or application on a per-user basis;

means for evaluating the interaction based on one or more characteristics of the interaction; and

means for weighing elements of the data based on said step of evaluating.