Dynamic personalized information organizer

• US 6,766,329 B1
• Filed: 01/31/2000
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nicholson, Andrew L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Shahid
• Assistant Examiner(s): WOO, ISAAC M
• Application Number:
  US09/494,716
• Time in Patent Office: 1,632 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/500, 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103, 707/104.1, 715/513, 715/514, 715/515
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A dynamic and personalized system for organizing data is disclosed. The system provides users the ability to organize addressable information by creating associations between the information independent from the information and from any other previously imposed organization of the information. The associations contain trigger and target addresses, and relationship between the data. A view in the association identifies how to interpret the relationship. Tools are provided to manage the associations, and several applications of the organization system are described such as associating personal notes, serial construction of documents, compound construction of documents, and group construction of documents.

Claims

1. A method of organizing data accessible by a computer, allowing for personalized organization of the data which may be independent of one or more other organizations of the data, without needing separate copies of the data for each organization, the method comprising:

forming a data structure;

automatically and dynamically creating a navigation path between data that is separate and independent, based at least in part upon navigation to the data, wherein the navigation path is automatically and dynamically created by performing acts that include;

upon navigating to a particular data, inserting an entity reference as a trigger in the data structure corresponding to the particular data;

upon one of navigating to a new data and creating new data, inserting an entity reference as a target in the data structure corresponding to the new data;

storing the data structure as an association between the trigger and target; and

inserting one or more criteria in the data structure that determine the circumstances under which the association between the trigger and target applies and, the association corresponding to a user preference for navigating between the trigger and target; and

upon storing the association, automatically modifying the association in response to subsequent navigation between the trigger and target.

2. The method of claim 1 and further comprising tracking usage patterns between triggers and targets.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the data structure provides a personalized organization of the pre-organized information.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the trigger entity is different than the target entity.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the trigger entity reference identifies a base document, and where the target entity reference identifies a set of modifications to the base document.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the set of modifications to the base document are stored as an object.

7. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the method further comprises creating an association for each of multiple successive changes to the base document to create a temporal chain of modifications.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the trigger and target entity references comprise educational course modules, including sequential modules and one or more remedial content modules, and wherein the one or more criteria determine the order of presentation for the educational course modules, based on performance within the otherwise sequential modules.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the target comprises a reference to new data that is created as a note entry while the particular data that was navigated to is being viewed.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the target comprises a reference to new data that is created as a note entry while the particular data that was navigated to is being viewed.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein creating the navigation path further includes providing an interface for a user to select the one or more criteria.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user preference affects a selection of the target for subsequent presentation to a viewer from a plurality of other targets that each have an association with the trigger.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein modifying the arbitrary association includes increasing the user preference for navigating between the trigger and target.

14. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the user preference is automatically decreased by a passage of time.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data structure includes a field for defining a period of time for which the association will exist.

16. A computer readable medium having computer instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to perform a method of organizing data that allows for personalized organization of the data which may be independent of one or more other organizations of the data, without needing separate copies of the data for each organization, the method comprising:

forming a data structure;

automatically and dynamically creating a navigation path between data that is separate and independent, based at least in part upon navigation to the data, wherein the navigation path is automatically and dynamically created by performing acts that include;

upon navigating to a particular data, inserting an entity reference as a trigger in the data structure corresponding to the particular data;

upon one of navigating to a new data and creating new data, inserting an entity reference as a target in the data structure corresponding to the new data;

storing the data structure as an association between the trigger and target; and

inserting one or more criteria in the data structure that determine the circumstances under which the association between the trigger and target applies and, the association corresponding to a user preference for navigating between the trigger and target; and

upon storing the association, automatically modifying the association in response to subsequent navigation between the trigger and target.

17. A computer program product as recited in claim 16, wherein the method further comprises tracking usage patterns between triggers and targets.

18. A computer program product as recited in claim 16, wherein the data structure provides a personalized organization of the pre-organized information.

19. A computer program product as recited in claim 16, wherein the trigger entity is different than the target entity.

20. A computer program product as recited in claim 16, wherein the trigger entity reference identifies a base document, and where the target entity reference identifies a set of modifications to the base document.

21. A computer program product as recited in claim 20, wherein the set of modifications to the base document are stored as an object.

22. A computer program product as recited in claim 20, wherein the method further comprises creating an association for each of multiple successive changes to the base document to create a temporal chain of modifications.

23. A computer program product as recited in claim 16, wherein the trigger and target entity references comprise educational course modules, including sequential modules and one or more remedial content modules, and wherein the one or more criteria determine the order of presentation for the educational course modules, based on performance within the otherwise sequential modules.

24. A computer readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the target comprises a reference to new data that is created as a note entry while the particular data that was navigated to is being viewed.

25. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 16, wherein the wherein the data structure includes a field for defining a period of time for which the association will exist.

26. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 16, wherein the user preference affects a selection of the target for future presentation to a viewer from a plurality of other targets that each have an association with the trigger.

27. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 26, wherein modifying the arbitrary association includes increasing the user preference for future navigation between the trigger and target.

28. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 26, wherein the user preference is automatically decreased by a passage of time.

29. A computer readable medium storing a data structure for organizing relationships between addressable data, wherein the data structure allows for personalized organization of the data that may be independent of one or more other organizations of the data, without needing separate copies of the data for each organization, the data structure having fields comprising:

an entity reference pointing to a trigger entity;

an entity reference pointing to a target set of data; and

one or more criteria that determine the circumstances under which an association between the trigger entity and the target set of data applies,

wherein the entity references and the one or more criteria are created automatically and dynamically, based at least in part upon navigation to the data, by performing acts that include;

upon navigating to a particular data, inserting an entity reference as the trigger in the data structure corresponding to the particular data;

upon one of navigating to a new data and creating new data, inserting an entity reference as the target in the data structure corresponding to the new data;

storing the data structure as the association between the trigger and target; and

inserting the one or more criteria in the data structure;

the association corresponding to a user preference for navigating between the trigger and target; and

upon storing the association, automatically modifying the association in response to subsequent navigation between the trigger and target.

30. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 29, wherein the trigger entity reference identifies a base document, and where the target entity reference identifies a set of modifications to the base document.

31. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 30, wherein the set of modifications to the base document are stored as an object.

32. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 29, wherein the trigger and target entity references comprise educational course modules, including sequential modules and one or more remedial content modules, and wherein the one or more criteria determine the order of presentation for the educational course modules, based on performance within the otherwise sequential modules.

33. A computer readable media as recited in claim 29, wherein the target comprises a reference to new data that is created as a note entry while the particular data that was navigated to is being viewed.

34. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 29, wherein the wherein the data structure includes a field for defining a period of time for which the association will exist.

35. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 29, wherein the user preference affects a selection of the target for subsequent presentation to a viewer from a plurality of other targets that each have an association with the trigger.

36. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 35, wherein modifying the arbitrary association includes increasing the user preference for navigating between the trigger and target.

37. A computer readable medium, as recited in claim 35;

wherein the user preference is automatically decreased by a passage of time.