AUTONOMOUS INTELLIGENT CONTENT ITEMS

• US 20120117016A1
• Filed: 11/08/2010
• Published: 05/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: THOMAS, MATHEWS, WONG, JULIO, FREESE, BRADLEY T., SLADE, TOM B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,538,907 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

One embodiment of the disclosure provides a storage unit of digitally encoded information stored on a non-transitory storage medium. The storage unit can be referred to as an intelligent content item. The intelligent content item can include an intelligent wrapper, content data, and intelligent functions. The intelligent wrapper can enable the intelligent content item to function as a self-managing unit of storage. The content data can be contained within the intelligent wrapper. The intelligent functions can be contained within the intelligent wrapper. The intelligent functions can represent abilities of the intelligent wrapper to autonomously and dynamically manage a state of the intelligent content item and manage specifics for content consumers to access and utilize the content data.

Claims

1. A storage unit of digitally encoded information stored on a non-transitory storage medium, said storage unit being referred to as an intelligent content item, said storage unit comprising:

an intelligent wrapper enabling the intelligent content item to function as a self-managing unit of storage;

content data contained within the intelligent wrapper; and

intelligent functions contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said intelligent functions represent abilities of the intelligent wrapper to autonomously and dynamically manage a state of the intelligent content item and manage specifics for content consumers to access and utilize the content data.

2. The storage unit of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication handler contained within the intelligent wrapper configured to manage communication activities of the intelligent content item, which includes the communication of events between the intelligent content item and a common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI) and communication of heartbeat messages from the intelligent content item to the common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI).

3. The storage unit of claim 1, further comprising:

usage data for the content data contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said usage data comprises a variety of information that describes requests made of the intelligent content item as well as subsequent actions required to fulfill the requests, wherein the usage data values trigger automatic specific ones of the intelligent functions.

4. The storage unit of claim 1, further comprising:

security attributes contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said security attributes specify access restrictions for the content data.

5. The storage unit of claim 1, further comprising:

a change log contained within the intelligent wrapper, which records changes of state of the content data, times these changes were made, and content consumers that made the changes.

6. The storage unit of claim 1, further comprising:

metadata contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said metadata specifies when the intelligent content item was created, versioning information of the content data, keyword tags, a file type of the content data, and a size of the content data.

7. The storage unit of claim 1, wherein the intelligent content item is configured to be utilized by a plurality of different content consumers using a common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI), wherein the CEMI comprises hardware and software components configured to receive and distribute event messages among the different content consumers and a plurality of the intelligent content items, wherein said intelligent content items are distributed across a networked computing space and wherein the intelligent content items comprise said intelligent content item.

8. The storage unit of claim 1, wherein the intelligent functions comprise:

a function that changes a format of the content data to a format requested by content consumer;

a function that performs data analysis for the intelligent content item; and

a function to broadcast presence information of the intelligent content item to a common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI).

9. The storage unit of claim 1, wherein the intelligent functions trigger at least one action to be performed responsive to changes in user behavior, which is recorded within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said at least one action is selected from a group of actions consisting of:

changing a format of the content data contained in the intelligent content item;

compressing a rarely used portion of the content data contained in the intelligent content item while keeping a different portion of the content data uncompressed; and

detecting at least a portion of the data content that is being misused by a content consumer and to automatically delete the detected portion of the data content from the corresponding intelligent content item.

10. The storage unit of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the intelligent functions of the intelligent content item change the content data based on usage data, wherein the usage data is maintained within the intelligent wrapper.

11. A system for managing distributed content comprising:

a plurality of intelligent content items, each being a storage unit stored in a storage medium, each intelligent content item comprising an intelligent wrapper enabling the intelligent content item to function as a self-managing unit of storage and content data contained within the intelligent wrapper; and

a common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI), wherein the CEMI comprises hardware and software components configured to receive and distribute event messages among the different content consumers and the plurality of the intelligent content items.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the intelligent content items further comprises:

a communication handler contained within the intelligent wrapper configured to manage communication activities of the intelligent content item, which includes the communication of events between the intelligent content item and a common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI) and communication of heartbeat messages from the intelligent content item to the common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI); and

intelligent functions contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said intelligent functions represent abilities of the intelligent wrapper to autonomously and dynamically manage a state of the intelligent content item and manage specifics for content consumers to access and utilize the content data.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each of the intelligent content items further comprises:

usage data for the content data contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said usage data comprises a variety of information that describes requests made of the intelligent content item as well as subsequent actions required to fulfill the requests, wherein the usage data values trigger automatic specific ones of the intelligent functions.

security attributes contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said security attributes specify access restrictions for the content data;

a change log contained within the intelligent wrapper, which records changes of state of the content data, times these changes were made, and content consumers that made the changes; and

metadata contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said metadata specifies when the intelligent content item was created, versioning information of the content data, keyword tags, a file type of the content data, and a size of the content data.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

an intelligent content server comprising hardware and software components that support storage and access to the plurality of intelligent content items, wherein said intelligent content server is remotely located from the common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI).

15. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the content consumers is remotely located from the plurality of intelligent content items and from the common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI), wherein each of the content consumers is able to invoke each function of the intelligent wrapper.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a plurality of devices for consuming and utilizing the intelligent content items-intelligence functions of the wrapper are able to be processed by any of the devices

17. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the intelligent content items operates independent of each other, and wherein each of the intelligent content items is able to autonomously and dynamically perform a set of functions as defined by the intelligent wrapper.

18. A method for handling storage units of digitally encoded content comprising:

identifying a plurality of intelligent content items, each being a storage unit stored in a storage medium, each intelligent content item comprising an intelligent wrapper enabling the intelligent content item to function as a self-managing unit of storage and content data contained within the intelligent wrapper;

as each of the intelligent content items is utilized by a set of content consumers, recording usage behavior related to each of the intelligent content items within usage data that is stored within the intelligent wrapper of the related intelligent content item; and

each of the intelligent content items triggering at least one self-managing function defined within the intelligent wrapper based on changes to the recorded usage behavior, wherein said at least one self-managing function causes the corresponding intelligent content item to perform at least one of;

changing a format of the content data contained in the intelligent content item;

compressing a rarely used portion of the content data contained in the intelligent content item while keeping a different portion of the content data uncompressed; and

detecting at least a portion of the data content that is being misused by a content consumer and to automatically delete the detected portion of the data content from the corresponding intelligent content item.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein different ones of the intelligent content items perform the following self-management functions responsive to the recorded usage behavior:

changing a format of the content data contained in the intelligent content item;

compressing a rarely used portion of the content data contained in the intelligent content item while keeping a different portion of the content data uncompressed; and

detecting at least a portion of the data content that is being misused by a content consumer and to automatically delete the detected portion of the data content from the corresponding intelligent content item.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said at least one self-managing function causes the corresponding intelligent content item to change a format of the content data contained in the intelligent content item.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein said at least one self-managing function causes the corresponding intelligent content item to compress a rarely used portion of the content data contained in the intelligent content item while keeping a different portion of the content data uncompressed,

22. The method of claim 18, wherein said at least one self-managing function causes the corresponding intelligent content item to detect at least a portion of the data content that is being misused by a content consumer and to automatically delete the detected portion of the data content from the corresponding intelligent content item.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein each of the intelligent content items comprises:

an intelligent wrapper enabling the intelligent content item to function as a self-managing unit of storage;

content data contained within the intelligent wrapper; and

intelligent functions contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said intelligent functions represent abilities of the intelligent wrapper to autonomously and dynamically manage a state of the intelligent content item and manage specifics for content consumers to access and utilize the content data.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein each of the intelligent content items comprises:

a communication handler contained within the intelligent wrapper configured to manage communication activities of the intelligent content item, which includes the communication of events between the intelligent content item and a common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI) and communication of heartbeat messages from the intelligent content item to the common event messaging infrastructure (CEMI);

intelligent functions contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said intelligent functions represent abilities of the intelligent wrapper to autonomously and dynamically manage a state of the intelligent content item and manage specifics for content consumers to access and utilize the content data;

usage data for the content data contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said usage data comprises a variety of information that describes requests made of the intelligent content item as well as subsequent actions required to fulfill the requests, wherein the usage data values trigger automatic specific ones of the intelligent functions;

security attributes contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said security attributes specify access restrictions for the content data;

a change log contained within the intelligent wrapper, which records changes of state of the content data, times these changes were made, and content consumers that made the changes; and

metadata contained within the intelligent wrapper, wherein said metadata specifies when the intelligent content item was created, versioning information of the content data, keyword tags, a file type of the content data, and a size of the content data.

25. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code stored in a non-transient storage medium which when run by a processor is operable to identify a plurality of intelligent content items, each being a storage unit stored in a storage medium, each intelligent content item comprising an intelligent wrapper enabling the intelligent content item to function as a self-managing unit of storage and content data contained within the intelligent wrapper;

computer usable program code stored in a non-transient storage medium which when run by a processor is operable to, as each of the intelligent content items is utilized by a set of content consumers, record usage behavior related to each of the intelligent content items within usage data that is stored within the intelligent wrapper of the related intelligent content item; and

computer usable program code stored in a non-transient storage medium which when run by a processor is operable to, trigger at least one self-managing function defined within the intelligent wrapper based on changes to the recorded usage behavior for each of the intelligent content items, wherein said at least one self-managing function causes the corresponding intelligent content item to perform at least one of;

changing a format of the content data contained in the intelligent content item;

compressing a rarely used portion of the content data contained in the intelligent content item while keeping a different portion of the content data uncompressed; and

detecting at least a portion of the data content that is being misused by a content consumer and to automatically delete the detected portion of the data content from the corresponding intelligent content item.