TECHNIQUES FOR ANALYZING DATA FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES

• US 20120030202A1
• Filed: 07/29/2010
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: B'Far, Reza, Golden, Ryan, Srinivasan, Uppili Ranga, Waxman, Alan, Adourian, Mike, Jacobs, Nigel, Sinha, Siddharth
• Granted Patent: US 8,949,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24564 Applying rules; Deductive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Techniques, including systems are methods, for analyzing data from multiple sources are disclosed and suggested herein. In an embodiment, external information from one or more external information sources and internal information from one or more internal information sources is received. The received external information and internal information are stored in one or more data stores that collectively implement one or more ontologies. One or more conditions are applied to the external information and internal information in the one or more data stores to determine a conclusion and the conclusion is provided to a user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of detecting violations of policies of an organization, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving external information from one or more external information sources;

receiving internal information from one or more internal information sources;

storing the external information and internal information in one or more data stores that collectively implement one or more ontologies;

applying one or more conditions to the external information and internal information in the one or more data stores to determine a conclusion; and

providing the conclusion.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the external information includes:

receiving first external information from a first external information source;

receiving second external information from a second external information source; and

converting at least one of the first external information and second external information to a common format.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising converting the received internal information to the common format.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

specifying one or more parameters for at least a portion of the external information;

measuring a rate of external information receipt; and

when the rate deviates from a range of acceptable values, adjusting one or more of the parameters to modify the rate.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more external information sources includes a website offering for consumption an item purporting to be from the organization.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein applying the one or more conditions to the external information and internal information includes performing a statistical analysis on the external information and internal information to determine one or more statistical measurements relating at least a portion of the external information to at least a portion of the internal information, and wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on the one or more statistical measurements.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the one or more statistical measurements includes a particular statistical measurement that relates one or more transactions of the organization with one or more activities of a vendor of the organization.

8. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for causing at least one computer system to detect policy violations for an organization, the instructions comprising:

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive external information from one or more external information sources;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive internal information from one or more internal information sources;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to store the external information and internal information in one or more data stores that collectively implement one or more ontologies;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to apply one or more conditions to the external information and internal information in the one or more data stores to determine a conclusion; and

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to provide the conclusion.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive external information includes:

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive first external information from a first external information source;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to receive second external information from a second external information source; and

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to convert at least one of the first external information and second external information to a common format.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions that cause the at least one computer system to convert the received internal information to the common format.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to specify one or more parameters for at least a portion of the external information;

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to measure a rate of external information receipt; and

instructions that cause the at least one computer system to, when the rate is above a threshold, adjust one or more of the parameters to reduce the rate.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the one or more external information sources includes a website offering for consumption an item purporting to be from the organization.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions that cause the at least one computer system to apply the one or more conditions to the external information and internal information include instructions that cause the at least one computer system to perform a statistical analysis on the external information and internal information to determine one or more statistical measurements relating at least a portion of the external information to at least a portion of the internal information, and wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on the one or more statistical measurements.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more statistical measurements includes a particular statistical measurement that relates one or more transactions of the organization with one or more activities of a vendor of the organization.

15. A system for detecting policy violations for an organization, comprising:

one or more communications devices collectively operable to receive external information from one or more external information sources and internal information from one or more internal information sources;

a data store that receives at least a portion of the internal information and at least a portion of the external information, that transforms said at least a portion of the internal information and said at least a portion of the external information to a common schema that implements an ontology; and

one or more computing devices that are collectively operable to;

apply one or more conditions to contents of the data store to determine a conclusion, the contents including said at least a portion of the internal information and said at least a portion of the external information; and

provide the conclusion.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the ontology is based at least in part on a plurality of user-defined semantic objects and a plurality of user-defined relationships among the semantic objects.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more computing devices are collectively operable to:

specify one or more parameters for receipt of the external information;

measure a rate of external information receipt;

when the rate deviates from a range of acceptable values, adjust the one or more parameters to modify the rate; and

cause the one or more communications devices to receive external information according to the adjusted parameters.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more information sources includes a website offering for consumption an item purporting to be from the organization.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more computing devices are collectively operable to apply the one or more conditions to the external information and internal information by performing a statistical analysis on said at least a portion of the external information and said at least a portion of the internal information to determine one or more statistical measurements relating at least a portion of the external information to at least a portion of the internal information, and wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on the one or more statistical measurements.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more statistical measurements includes a particular statistical measurement that relates one or more transactions of the organization with one or more activities of a vendor of the organization.