Methods and systems for managing entities in a computing device using semantic objects

• US 7,640,267 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2003
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fiver LLC
• Original Assignee: Radar Networks Incorporated (EVRI Incorporated)
• Inventors: Thorisson, Kristinn R., Spivack, Nova
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): DANG, THANH HA T
• Application Number:
  US10/719,002
• Publication Number:
  US 20040158455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,231 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 707/101, 707/3, 707/103.X, 707/104.1, 707/9, 707/103.R, 707/103.Y
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/048 Fuzzy inferencing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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 707/99946 Object-oriented database structure network

Abstract

A data construct called a semcard is a semantic (meaning-based) software object including semantic meta-tags and meta-data that describes a target object or thing. A target object can be any type of digital or physical entity or identifier, or it can be tacit knowledge, such as ideas, concepts, processes or other data existing in a user'"'"'s mind, provided that the user represents this knowledge in the semcard. A semcard embodies information about its own structure-rules, history, state, policies and goals regarding automation, display, access permissions, sharing and other operations of the semcard and any optional target object. It can also represent a semantic link between two semcards, or a semantically typed link or a standard Web hyperlink between a semcard and its referent target. A collection of semcards represents a knowledge network; single semcards, and knowledge networks, can be browsed, shared, searched, disseminated, manipulated, displayed, organized, and stored.

Claims

1. A method of semantically representing a target entity using a semantic object, the method comprising:

identifying a set of meta-tags having associated metadata entries to represent attributes associated with the target entity in the semantic object, the semantic object being stored on a computer-readable storage medium;

wherein at least one meta-tag of the set of meta-tags is defined using an ontology;

storing in a metadata entry in the semantic object on the computer-readable storage medium an attribute including an access policy that specifies how the semantic object is shared over a network;

sharing, over a network, the semantic object with a user via a computational device in accordance with the access policy of the semantic object;

displaying the semantic object on a display screen of the computational device;

creating a second semantic object to represent information resource or tacit information, the second semantic object comprising meta-tags which identify semantic information and rules regarding at least one of;

how the second semantic object (i) interacts with, (ii) is manipulated by, and (iii) is displayed to human beings and automated processes;

seeking to detect the information resource containing information that is represented by the second semantic object;

linking the second semantic object to the information resource to represent the information resource using the second semantic object;

wherein the second semantic object is configured to have a link to or from any number of other semantic objects.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the second semantic object with meta-data about the information resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when the information resource is not found the second semantic object represents the tacit information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second semantic object is created before seeking to detect the information resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information resource is detected before creating the second semantic object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the information resource is detected upon the information resource being published on the Internet.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein any entity that publishes the information resource triggers the creation of the second semantic object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising linking the second semantic object to at least one of the other semantic objects in the computer-readable storage medium.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic object represents a physical entity comprising, one or more of, a living organism, a person, a place, an organization, a corporation, an object, a physical item, a processor, a machine, a natural entity, and an artificial entity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic object represents a digital object comprising, one or more of, a document, an email, an address book entry, a message, an instant message, a query, a discussion thread, a posting, an XML message, a file, a directory, multimedia content, a website, a web-page, a blog, and a data record.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic object represents intangible entity comprising, one or more of, a relationship, an interaction, a link, a semantic relationship, a keyword relationship, a personal relationship, a connection, a transaction, an event, a type of activity, knowledge, content, an idea, and a concept.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of meta-tags are identified at least partially based on an object type of the target entity that the semantic object represents.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the metadata entry provides data about the structure of the semantic representation.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of attributes of the target entity further comprises policies regarding one or more of interaction with the target entity, manipulation of the target entity, and presentation of the target entity.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic object is machine-readable or human-readable.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata entry is user-specified or machine-specified.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata entry is retrieved on-demand.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic object is automatically generated by the computational device.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata entry represents one or more of:

a link to a second target entity having an identified relationship matching a semantic or a peer relationship.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the identified relationship is detected from a user triggered event.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the identified relationship is user-specified.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein, the set of meta-tags used to represent the target entity are identified manually.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein, the set of meta-tags used to represent the target entity are identified by automatic selection from a plurality of meta-tags.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising, performing the automatic selection according to a heuristic rule.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein, the heuristic rule is determined based on popularity of each of the plurality of meta-tags with a group of authors or users.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising, storing, in a second metadata entry in the semantic object on the computer-readable storage medium, an identity section which specifies an owner of the semantic object.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein, the identity section further specifies a recipient individual or a recipient group of the semantic object.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein, the identity section further specifies a fuzzy definition of a set of qualifications of the recipient individuals or the recipient group of the semantic object.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein, the identity section further specifies a list of users who has modified the semantic object.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein, the list of users further includes users who have performed, one or more of, copied, received, and deleted the semantic object.

31. The method of claim 26, wherein, the identity section further specifies one or more of, parties who have rated the semantic object and parties who have annotated the semantic object.

32. The method of claim 26, wherein, the identity section further specifies parties that have been matched to the semantic object.

33. The method of claim 26, wherein, the semantic object includes a link to a display specification.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein, the display specification is determined based on the display device used for viewing the semantic object.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein, the display specification is represented by another semantic object.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein, the semantic object represents streaming media.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein, the semantic object represents an advertisement.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein, the semantic object represents a web site or web page.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein, the semantic object is manually generated by an author;

and

wherein, at least one metadata entry of the semantic object is provided by the author.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein, a description and a comment of the target entity represented by the semantic object is provided by the author.

41. The method of claim 1, wherein, the metadata entry is automatically identified by the computational device.

42. The method of claim 1, wherein, the computational device data mines the Internet to generate the semantic object.

43. A system for semantically representing a target entity using a semantic object, the system, comprising,

a set of computing devices connected via a network;

wherein, one of the set of computing devices;

identifies a set of meta-tags having associated metadata entries to represent attributes associated with the target entity in the semantic object;

wherein at least one meta-tag of the set of meta-tags is defined using an ontology;

stores in a metadata entry of the semantic object, an attribute including an access policy that specifies how the semantic object is shared over the network among the set of computing devices;

shares, over the network, the semantic object with a user in accordance with the access policy of the semantic object;

creates a second semantic object to represent information resource or tacit information, the second semantic object comprising meta-tags which identify semantic information and rules regarding at least one of;

how the second semantic object (i) interacts with, (ii) is manipulated by, and (iii) is displayed to human beings and automated processes;

seeks to detect the information resource containing information that is represented by the second semantic object;

links the second semantic object to the information resource to represent the information resource using the second semantic object;

wherein the second semantic object is configured to have a link to or from any number of other semantic objects.

44. The system of claim 43,

wherein the set of meta-tags used to represent the target entity are identified by automatic selection from a plurality of meta-tags;

and

wherein the automatic selection is performed according to a heuristic rule determined based on popularity of each of the plurality of meta-tags with a group of authors or users.

45. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed by a computing device performs a method of semantically representing a target entity using a semantic object, the method comprising:

identifying a set of meta-tags having associated metadata entries to represent attributes associated with the target entity in the semantic object, the semantic object being stored on a computer-readable storage medium;

wherein at least one meta-tag of the set of meta-tags is defined using an ontology;

storing in a metadata entry in the semantic object on the computer-readable storage medium an attribute including an access policy that specifies how the semantic object is shared over a network;

sharing, over a network, the semantic object with a user via a computational device in accordance with the access policy of the semantic object;

displaying the semantic object on a display screen of the computational device;

creating a second semantic object to represent information resource or tacit information, the second semantic object comprising meta-tags which identify semantic information and rules regarding at least one of;

how the second semantic object (i) interacts with, (ii) is manipulated by, and (iii) is displayed to human beings and automated processes;

seeking to detect the information resource containing information that is represented by the second semantic object;

linking the second semantic object to the information resource to represent the information resource using the second semantic object;

wherein the second semantic object is also configured to have a link to or from any number of other semantic objects.

46. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 45, further comprising, mining the Internet to generate the semantic object.