Methods and Devices for Information Exchange and Routing

• US 20120221953A1
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sierra Wireless America Incorporated (Sierra Wireless Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Flow Search Corp. (Sierra Wireless Incorporated)
• Inventors: Alterman, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 9,390,188 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Method and device for information exchange and routing by providing items of information that are organized in discrete flows to third parties. Relationships are defined among the flows such that at least one item of information in at least a first discrete flow is selectively copied to at least a second discrete flow. This allows users to easily discover and exchange real-time items of information across applications.

Claims

1. A computing device for information exchange and routing, the device comprising:

a memory storing computer-executable instructions;

a processing unit for executing the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory; and

a user interface for receiving commands from a user of the computing device,

wherein the execution of the computer-executable instructions results in an application selectively providing items of information to third parties, the items of information being organized in discrete flows, and

wherein the execution of the computer-executable instructions results in the definition of a relationship among a plurality of flows such that at least one item of information in at least a first discrete flow is selectively copied to at least a second discrete flow.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein at least one item of information comprises a field, and the selective copying of at least one item of information comprises copying at least one item of information having a value in the field that matches a specified value.

3. The computing device of claim 2, wherein the field is one of a required field and an optional field.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow is owned by an application.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow comprises content sourced from a community of identities.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow is owned by an individual identity.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow comprises reference information.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one item of information is published to the first discrete flow by at least one of an application, an identity, a community system, and another discrete flow.

9. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the selective copying further comprises performing at least one rule-based operation on the at least one item of information.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the rule-based operation comprises at least one of transformation, enhancement, and redaction.

11. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the selective copying further comprises selectively copying at least two items of information from at least two discrete source flows to a discrete target flow.

12. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the selective copying further comprises selectively copying at least one item of information from a discrete source flow to at least two discrete target flows.

13. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the selective copying is performed automatically and in real-time.

14. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the execution of the computer-executable instructions further results in the definition of a relationship between the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow, wherein the definition comprises a track for listening for new items of information published to the first discrete flow and selectively copying at least one of the new items of information to the second discrete flow.

15. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the execution of the computer-executable instructions further results in the definition of permissions for an entity, the permissions indicating an ability of the entity to modify parameters associated with at least one flow in the plurality of flows.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the parameters determine whether the at least one flow is discoverable by other flows in the plurality of flows.

17. A method, implemented on at least one computing device, for information exchange and routing, the at least one computing device comprising at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions and at least one processing unit for executing the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, wherein the execution of the instructions results in the at least one computing device:

receiving commands from a user of the at least one computing device;

selectively providing items of information to third parties, the items of information being organized in discrete flows, and

defining a relationship among a plurality of flows such that at least one item of information in at least a first discrete flow is selectively copied to at least a second discrete flow.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one item of information comprises a field, and the selective copying of at least one item of information comprises copying at least one item of information having a value in the field that matches a specified value.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the field is one of a required field and an optional field.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow is owned by an application.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow comprises content sourced from a community of identities.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow is owned by an individual identity.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein one of the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow comprises reference information.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one item of information is published to the first discrete flow by at least one of an application, an identity, a community system, and another discrete flow.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the selective copying further comprises performing at least one rule-based operation on the at least one item of information.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the rule-based operation comprises at least one of transformation, enhancement, and redaction.

27. The method of claim 17, wherein the selective copying further comprises selectively copying at least two items of information from at least two discrete source flows to a discrete target flow.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein the selective copying further comprises selectively copying at least one item of information from a discrete source flow to at least two discrete target flows.

29. The method of claim 17, wherein the selective copying is performed automatically and in real-time.

30. The method of claim 17, wherein the execution of the instructions further results in the at least one computing device defining a relationship between the first discrete flow and the second discrete flow, wherein the definition comprises a track for listening for new items of information published to the first discrete flow and selectively copying at least one of the new items of information to the second discrete flow.

31. The method of claim 17, wherein the execution of the instructions further results in the at least one computing device defining permissions for an entity, the permissions indicating an ability of the entity to modify parameters associated with at least one flow in the plurality of flows.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the parameters determine whether the at least one flow is discoverable by other flows in the plurality of flows.