Dynamic assembly of information pedigrees

• US 7,908,281 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2007
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: H. Russell Goodrich, Jr.
• Original Assignee: Architecture Technology Corporation
• Inventors: Stillerman, Matthew A., Marceau, Carla, Rosenthal, David, Gioioso, Marisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tim T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ahn; Sangwoo
• Application Number:
  US11/943,374
• Publication Number:
  US 20080120281A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,211 Days
• Field of Search: 707/726, 707/751, 707/770, 707/773, 707/775
• US Class Current: 707/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques of dynamically assembling and utilizing a pedigree of a resource. A pedigree of a resource is a set of statements that describe a provenance of the resource. As described herein, a set of one or more servers may host context objects that contain the statements that make up the pedigree of the resource. In order to obtain the pedigree of the resource, a context assembly device may send queries to the servers for context objects that are likely to contain statements in the pedigree of the resource. After receiving context objects from the servers in response to the queries, the context assembly device may query the statements in the received context objects in order to identify, among the statements in the context objects, the statements that constitute the pedigree of the resource. The dynamically assembled pedigree may then be used in a variety of ways.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, with a context assembly device, a request to assemble a pedigree that describes a history of origin of a primary resource, wherein the requested pedigree of the primary resource represents the history as a set of statements that describe relationships between the primary resource and a plurality of other resources from which an asserted fact of the primary resource was derived;

submitting, from the context assembly device to a set of one or more pedigree management servers, a first query for a first set of pedigree fragments that each include one or more statements that specify direct relationships between the primary resource and a first set of resources, wherein the direct relationships indicate that the asserted fact of the primary resource was derived from data of the first set of the resources;

receiving, in response to the first query, a first set of pedigree fragments, each of which includes one or more of the statements that specify the direct relationships between the primary resource and the first set of resources;

submitting, with the context assembly device to the pedigree management servers, a second query for a second set of pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify direct relationships between the first set of resources and a second set of resources, wherein the direct relationships of the second set of pedigree fragments indicate that the data of the first set of resources was derived from data of the second set of the resources;

receiving, in response to the second query, the second set of pedigree fragments, each of which includes one or more of the statements that specify the direct relationships between the first set of resources and the second set of resources; and

assembling, with the context assembly device, the pedigree of the primary resource from the statements of the first set of pedigree fragments and the second set of pedigree fragments received from the pedigree management servers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises receiving a request from a user to perform an action that requires the pedigree of the primary resource.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein receiving a request from a user comprises receiving a request from the user to evaluate a level of trustworthiness of the primary resource;

and

wherein the method further comprises using the pedigree to evaluate the level of trustworthiness of the primary resource.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the primary resource is associated with a first Uniform Resource Identifier (URI);

wherein each of the other resources is associated with a distinct URI; and

wherein statements in the set of statements comprise Resource Description Framework (RDF) subject-predicate-object statements that specify the URI of the primary resource or the URIs of the other resources as subjects or objects.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein receiving the request comprising receiving a URI of an information object that includes the primary resource;

and

wherein the method further comprises using the URI of the information object to identify a URI that includes a query string that instructs the servers to return pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify a direct relationship between the primary resource and other resources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein submitting the query comprises submitting a URI that includes a query string that instructs the servers to return pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify a direct relationship between the primary resource and other resources.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein each of the pedigree fragments includes metadata that describes the statements in the pedigree fragments;

and

wherein when the servers receive the query, the servers use the metadata to identify the pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify direct relationships between the primary resource and other resources.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying statements in the set of statements comprises applying a second-stage query to the statements in the set of pedigree fragments in order to identify the statements in the set of statements.

9. A device comprising:

a processor;

an interface that receives a request to assemble a pedigree of a primary resource, wherein the pedigree of the primary resource includes a set of statements that describe relationships between the primary resource and other resources from which an asserted fact of the primary resource was derived;

a first-stage query module executing on the processor that submits to a set of one or more pedigree management servers a first query for pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify direct relationships between the primary resource and a first set of the resources, wherein the direct relationships indicate that the asserted fact of the primary resource was derived from data of the first set of the resources;

wherein the interface receives, in response to the query, a first set of pedigree fragments , each of which includes one or more of the statements that specify the direct relationships between the primary resource and the first set of resources; and

a second-stage query module executing on the processor that queries the first set of pedigree fragments to identify statements that describe direct relationships between the primary resource and a second set of the resources,

wherein the first-stage query module is configured to submit a second query to the pedigree management servers to obtain a second set of pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify direct relationships for the second set of resources, wherein the direct relationships of the second set of pedigree fragments refer to the second set of resources as objects within the statements; and

a pedigree assembly module executing on the processor to assemble the pedigree of the primary resource from the statements of the first set of pedigree fragments and the second set of pedigree fragments received from the pedigree management servers.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the pedigree comprises a pedigree of the primary resource.

11. The device of claim 9,

wherein the primary resource is associated with a first Uniform Resource Identifier (URI);

wherein each of the other resources is associated with a distinct URI; and

wherein statements in the set of statements comprise Resource Description Framework (RDF) subject-predicate-object statements that specify the URI of the primary resource or the URIs of the other resources as subjects or objects.

12. The device of claim 9,

wherein the request includes a URI of an information object that includes the primary resource;

and

wherein the device comprises a URL mapping module that uses the URI of the information object to identify a URL that includes a query string that instructs the servers to return pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify a direct relationship between the primary resource and other resources.

13. The device of claim 9, wherein the first-stage query module submits a URI that includes a query string that instructs the servers to return pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify a direct relationship between the primary resource and other resources.

14. The device of claim 9,

wherein each of the pedigree fragments includes metadata that describes statements in the context objects;

and

wherein when the servers receive the query, the servers use the metadata to identify the context objects that include one or more statements that specify direct relationships between the primary resource and other resources.

15. The device of claim 9,

wherein the second-query module identifies statements included in the set of statements at least in part by applying a second-stage query to the statements in the set of pedigree fragments in order to identify the statements in the set of statements.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

receive a request to assemble a pedigree that describes a history of origin of a primary resource, wherein the pedigree of the primary resource represents the history as a set of statements that describe relationships between the primary resource and a plurality of other resources from which an asserted fact of the primary resource was derived;

submit, to a set of one or more pedigree management servers, a first query for a first set of pedigree fragments that each include one or more statements that specify direct relationships between the primary resource and a first set of resources, wherein the direct relationships indicate that the asserted fact of the primary resource was derived from data of the first set of the resources;

receive, in response to the first query, a first set of pedigree fragments, each of which includes one or more of the statements that specify the direct relationships between the primary resource and the first set of resources;

submit, to the pedigree management servers, a second query for a second set of pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify direct relationships between the first set of resources and a second set of resources, wherein the direct relationships of the second set of pedigree fragments indicate that the data of the first set of resources was derived from data of the second set of the resources;

receive, in response to the second query, the second set of pedigree fragments, each of which includes one or more of the statements that specify the direct relationships between the first set of resources and the second set of resources; and

assemble the pedigree of the primary resource from the statements of the first set of pedigree fragments and the second set of pedigree fragments received from the pedigree management servers.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16,

wherein the primary resource is associated with a first Uniform Resource Identifier (URI);

wherein each of the other resources is associated with a distinct URI; and

wherein statements in the set of statements comprise Resource Description Framework (RDF) subject-predicate-object statements that specify the URI of the primary resource or the URIs of the other resources as subjects or objects.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to submit the query in part by causing the one or more processors to submit a URI that includes a query string that instructs the servers to return pedigree fragments that include one or more statements that specify a direct relationship between the primary resource and other resources.