Systems and methods for propagating categorization information with a digital asset

• US 20060106813A1
• Filed: 11/17/2005
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Iron Mountain Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Iron Mountain Incorporated
• Inventors: Barnes, Matthew, Blumenau, Steven, Passmore, Dale
• Application Number:
  US11/283,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20060106813A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing digital assets in a distributed computing environment are described. Meta-data for the digital assets is stored separately from the digital assets. Meta-data for some of the digital assets is copied and stored at a central location. Meta-data for the digital assets is generated by clients of the system.

Claims

1. A method of propagating categorization information associated with a digital asset between clients in a distributed computing environment the environment having a central computing device that stores an asset identification tag for at least one digital asset and one or more clients that locally stores respective digital assets, the method comprising:

(a) generating, by a first client, a meta-data set including categorization information associated with the digital asset;

(b) associating the meta-data set with the digital asset such that the meta-data has at least one characteristic of the digital asset; and

(c) transferring the digital asset and meta-data set to a second client of the distributed computing system.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising accessing the meta-data, by the second client, prior to accessing to the digital asset.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the set is set transferred in an e-mail header.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the set is transferred in a comments field of the e-mail header.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the set is transferred in a keywords field of the e-mail header.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the set is transferred in an optional-field field of the e-mail header.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the set contains a hash value.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the set contains a hash value.

8. A system for propagating categorization information associated with a digital asset between clients in a distributed computing environment the environment having a central computing device that stores an asset identification tag for at least one digital asset and one or more clients that locally stores respective digital assets, the system comprising:

(a) a first client in communication with a network; and

(b) a second client in communication with a network, the second client generates a meta-data set including categorization information associated with the digital asset, associates the meta-data set with the digital asset such that the meta-data has at least one characteristic of the digital asset, and transfers the digital asset and meta-data set to the first client of the distributed computing system.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the first client accesses the meta-data prior to accessing to the digital asset.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the set is set transferred from the second client to the first client via an e-mail header.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the set is transferred in a comments field of the e-mail header.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the set is transferred in a keywords field of the e-mail header.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the set is transferred in an optional-field field of the e-mail header.

15. A computer readable medium having executable instructions thereon to propagate categorization information associated with a digital asset between clients in a distributed computing environment the environment having a central computing device that stores an asset identification tag for at least one digital asset and one or more clients that locally stores respective digital assets, the computer readable medium comprising:

(a) instructions to generate, by a first client, a meta-data set including categorization information associated with the digital asset;

(b) instructions to associate the meta-data set with the digital asset such that the meta-data has at least one characteristic of the digital asset; and

(c) instruction to transferring the digital asset and meta-data set to a second client of the distributed computing system.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions to access the meta-data, by the second client, prior to accessing to the digital asset.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions to transfer the meat-data set in an e-mail header.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to transfer the meta-data set in a comments field of the e-mail header.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to transfer the meta-data set in a keywords field of the e-mail header.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to transfer the meta-data set in an optional-field field of the e-mail header.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the meta-data set contains a hash value.