Collaborative data and knowledge integration

• US 20090070350A1
• Filed: 09/05/2008
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Wang, Fusheng
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata

Abstract

A framework for to enable collaborative research includes enabling scientific researchers to dynamically interact with others, collaboratively author, annotate, review, comment on others'"'"' data, and discuss their research. The framework allows for providing a dynamic collaboration environment by harnessing collective contributions from a group of researchers and facilitating broader participation of people into research projects. The framework is a Web-based collaborative platform to dynamically integrate information for scientific research. Besides data integration, the system provides essential collaboration capabilities to boost user participation and collaboration. The system will not only enable users as active information contributors to bring significant new values to the data, but also provide an environment for scientific researchers to do collaborative research in a large research community.

Claims

1. A system for collaborative data management comprising:

a central server comprising a plurality of collaborative engines; and

wherein the central server is adapted to receive information from a plurality of local servers and coordinate information transfer between the plurality of local servers and between the local servers and the central server.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of local servers, each comprising a plurality of local collaborative engines, the plurality of local servers adapted to transfer information to the central server and the plurality of local servers via the central server.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of collaborative engines comprises at least one of a metadata engine, a schema engine, a hierarchy engine, and a messaging engine.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein at least one of the plurality of collaborative engines is a metadata engine adapted to receive metadata indicative of experiment data from the plurality of local servers, store the metadata, and index the stored metadata.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the metadata engine is further adapted to link at least a portion of metadata indicative of experiment data stored at the plurality of local servers with at least another portion of metadata indicative of experiment data stored at the plurality of local servers.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein at least one of the plurality of collaborative engines is a schema engine adapted to receive one or more schemas from one or more of the plurality of local servers, store the one or more schemas received from the one or more of the plurality of local servers, and transmit the one or more schemas received from the one or more plurality of local servers to the plurality of local servers.

7. The system of claim 3 wherein at least one of the plurality of collaborative engines is a hierarchy engine adapted to provide hierarchical structure to data.

8. A method of collaborative data management comprising:

receiving, at a central server having a plurality of collaborative engines, information from a plurality of local servers; and

coordinating information transfer between the plurality of local servers and between the local servers and the central server.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

transferring information to the central server and the plurality of local servers via the central server.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the plurality of collaborative engines comprises at least one of a metadata engine, a schema engine, a hierarchy engine, and a messaging engine.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving, at a metadata engine, metadata indicative of experiment data from the plurality of local servers;

storing the metadata; and

indexing the stored metadata.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

linking at least a portion of metadata indicative of experiment data stored at the plurality of local servers with at least another portion of metadata indicative of experiment data stored at the plurality of local servers.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving, at a schema engine, one or more schemas from one or more of the plurality of local servers;

storing the one or more schemas received from the one or more of the plurality of local servers; and

transmitting the one or more schemas received from the one or more plurality of local servers to the plurality of local servers.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

providing hierarchical structure to data with a hierarchy engine.

15. A machine readable medium having program instructions stored thereon, the instructions capable of execution by a processor and defining the steps of:

receiving, at a central server having a plurality of collaborative engines, information from a plurality of local servers; and

coordinating information transfer between the plurality of local servers and between the local servers and the central server.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further define the step of:

transferring information to the central server and the plurality of local servers via the central server.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further define the step of:

providing as the plurality of collaborative engines a metadata engine, a schema engine, a hierarchy engine, and a messaging engine.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further define the steps of:

receiving, at a metadata engine, metadata indicative of experiment data from the plurality of local servers;

storing the metadata; and

indexing the stored metadata.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further define the step of:

linking at least a portion of metadata indicative of experiment data stored at the plurality of local servers with at least another portion of metadata indicative of experiment data stored at the plurality of local servers.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further define the steps of:

receiving, at a schema engine, one or more schemas from one or more of the plurality of local servers;

storing the one or more schemas received from the one or more of the plurality of local servers; and

transmitting the one or more schemas received from the one or more plurality of local servers to the plurality of local servers.

21. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further define the step of:

providing hierarchical structure to data with a hierarchy engine.