Systems and Methods for Infinite Information Organization

• US 20070208685A1
• Filed: 10/31/2006
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Iron Mountain Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Iron Mountain Incorporated
• Inventors: Blumenau, Steven
• Application Number:
  US11/555,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20070208685A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

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. A method of displaying digital asset of a distributed computing system according to an organization specified by the end-user of a client includes: receiving an organization semantic having at least one depth level from an end-user of the client, the organization semantic specifying at least one attribute of a digital asset identification tag; and displaying, to the end-user of the client, on a virtual computing element the digital assets of the distributed computing system that substantially match the organization semantic defined by the end-user, without reference to a pre-existing organizational hierarchy of the distributed computing environment.

Claims

1. A method of displaying digital asset of a distributed computing system according to an organization specified by the end-user of a client of the distributed computing system, the method comprising:

(a) receiving an organization semantic having at least one depth level from an end-user of the client, the organization semantic specifying at least one attribute of a digital asset identification tag; and

(b) displaying, to the end-user of the client, on a virtual computing element the digital assets of the distributed computing system that substantially match the organization semantic defined by the end-user, without reference to a pre-existing organizational hierarchy of the distributed computing environment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the displaying comprises displaying the digital assets in one or more virtual folders, the virtual folders corresponding to a respective depth level of the organization semantic.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating an identifier for the organization semantic.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising transmitting the identifier to another client of the distributed computing environment and displaying to the end-user of the another client the digital assets of the distributed computing system that substantially match the organization semantic.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital assets comprise email.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising saving the organization semantic on the client for future redisplay of the same organization semantic.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising updating the display to the end-user of the client as additional digital assets are stored in the distributed computing environment.

8. A system for displaying digital asset of a distributed computing system according to an organization specified by the end-user of a client of the distributed computing system, the system comprising:

(a) an interface that receives an organization semantic having at least one depth level from an end-user of the client, the organization semantic specifying at least one attribute of a digital asset identification tag; and

(b) a display engine that generates and displays to the end-user of the client on a virtual computing element the digital assets of the distributed computing system that substantially match the organization semantic defined by the end-user, without reference to a pre-existing organizational hierarchy of the distributed computing environment.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the display engine displays the digital assets in one or more virtual folders, the virtual folders corresponding to a respective depth level of the organization semantic.

10. The system of claim 8 further comprising a module that generates an identifier for the organization semantic.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising a transmitter that transmits the identifier to another client of the distributed computing environment, the another client having a display module that displays to the end-user of the another client the digital assets of the distributed computing system that substantially match the organization semantic.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the digital assets comprise email.

13. The system of claim 8 further comprising a module that saves the organization semantic on the client for future redisplay of the same organization semantic.

14. The system of claim 8 further wherein the display engine updates the display to the end-user of the client as additional digital assets are stored in the distributed computing environment.

15. A computer readable medium having executable instructions thereon to displaying digital asset of a distributed computing system according to an organization specified by the end-user of a client of the distributed computing system, the computer readable medium comprising:

(a) instructions to receive an organization semantic having at least one depth level from an end-user of the client, the organization semantic specifying at least one attribute of a digital asset identification tag; and

(b) instructions to display, to the end-user of the client, on a virtual computing element the digital assets of the distributed computing system that substantially match the organization semantic defined by the end-user, without reference to a pre-existing organizational hierarchy of the distributed computing environment.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the instructions to display comprise instruction to display the digital assets in one or more virtual folders, the virtual folders corresponding to a respective depth level of the organization semantic.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions to generate an identifier for the organization semantic.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to transmit the identifier to another client of the distributed computing environment and display to the end-user of the another client the digital assets of the distributed computing system that substantially match the organization semantic.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the digital assets comprise email.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions to save the organization semantic on the client for future redisplay of the same organization semantic.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions to update the display to the end-user of the client as additional digital assets are stored in the distributed computing environment.