METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING DIGITAL ASSETS

• US 20090157843A1
• Filed: 02/16/2009
• Published: 06/18/2009
• 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 8,196,063 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• 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

1. A method for managing digital assets across a network, comprising the steps of:

monitoring interactions with said digital assets by a user through at least one device associated with said network;

establishing a pattern of said interactions with said digital assets by said user, based on said monitoring step;

ranking said digital assets based on said established pattern; and

providing an access hierarchy comprising any of hierarchical storage and hierarchical listing of said ranked digital assets in a memory based on said ranking step, wherein highly ranked digital assets are more easily accessed by the same said user than lower ranked digital assets, and wherein said memory is accessible to at least one of said plurality of devices over said network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said interaction with said digital assets comprises any of access and navigation to said digital assets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of establishing a pattern of interactions comprises the steps of:

identifying one or more types of use of any of said assets interacted with by said user associated with said monitoring step, wherein said types of use comprise any of visitation, playback, viewing, activation, sharing, transporting, and editing; and

assigning a score based on each identified type of use by said user associated with said monitoring step;

wherein said ranking step comprises ranking said accessed digital assets based on accumulation of said assigned scores of said digital assets.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

re-ranking said digital assets only if a score of a first digital asset exceeds a score of a second previously higher ranked digital asset by a predetermined threshold.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said transporting comprises any of transmitting and receiving said digital assets.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said ranking step is based at least partially on any of recency of interactions, frequency of interactions, and number of interactions with said digital assets.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said ranking step further comprises the step of:

applying a user-assigned value when providing said access hierarchy.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said digital assets comprises any of a digital image file, a digital audio file, or an URL.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring step comprises the step of:

monitoring a Web browser'"'"'s navigation history.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of:

assigning a first score to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) based on the length of time spent by said user visiting a Web page represented by said URL and a second score if said user downloads digital information from a Web site associated with said URL; and

wherein said ranking step is at least partially based upon said first score and said second score.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

assigning cumulative scores to a plurality of URL'"'"'s activated by said user;

re-ranking said plurality of URL'"'"'s only if a cumulative score assigned to a first URL exceeds a cumulative score assigned to a second previously higher ranked URL by a predetermined threshold.

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

sharing said access hierarchy with a plurality of networked devices.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of said networked devices comprises any of a computer, a CD player, an MP3 player, and a DVD player.

19. The system of claim 4, wherein said ranking is based at least partially on any of recency of interactions, frequency of interactions, and number of interactions with said digital assets.

14. A system for managing digital assets across a network, comprising:

means for monitoring interactions with said digital assets by a user through at least one device associated with said network;

means for establishing a pattern of said interactions with said digital assets by said user, based on said monitoring;

means for ranking said digital assets based on said established pattern; and

an access hierarchy comprising any of hierarchical storage and hierarchical listing of said ranked digital assets in a memory based on said ranking, wherein highly ranked digital assets are more easily accessed by the same said user than lower ranked digital assets, and wherein said memory is accessible to at least one of said plurality of devices over said network.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said interactions with said digital assets comprises any of access and navigation to said digital assets.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein said means for establishing a pattern of interactions comprises:

an identification of one or more types of use of any of said assets interacted with by said user associated with said means for monitoring interactions, wherein said types of use comprise any of visitation, playback, viewing, activation, sharing, transporting, and editing; and

an assignment of a score based on each identified type of use by said user associated with said monitoring;

wherein said means for ranking comprises a ranking of said accessed digital assets based on accumulation of said assigned scores of said digital assets.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a re-ranking of said digital assets only if a score of a first digital asset exceeds a score of a second previously higher ranked digital asset by a predetermined threshold.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein said transporting comprises any of a transmission and a receipt of said digital assets.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein said means for ranking further comprises:

an application of a user-assigned value.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein said digital assets comprise any of digital images, digital audio files, and URL'"'"'s.

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

creating a navigation history during a first browsing session at a first device located on a network, wherein said navigation history comprises any of Web sites visited or URL'"'"'s activated;

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. The method of claim 22, wherein said location comprises a memory.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein said location is any of a server, a router, resident on one of said plurality of networked devices, or distributed amongst at least two of said plurality of networked devices.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein said navigation history further comprises any of the frequency with which each web site was visited, the total number of visits, the duration of each visit, and the amount of time since the most recent visit to each Web site.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein said navigation history further comprises a record of Web sites from which data was downloaded by a user.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said navigation history further comprises a record of whether said data was any of edited or shared by said user.