System, method, and computer program for a consumer defined information architecture

• US 8,510,302 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Primal Fusion Inc.
• Original Assignee: Primal Fusion Inc.
• Inventors: Good, Robert, Sweeney, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Saeed, Usmaan
• Application Number:
  US12/441,100
• Publication Number:
  US 20100049766A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,174 Days
• Field of Search: 707/737, 707/741, 707/705, 707/736, 1/1, 706/20, 706/45, 715/206, 715/853
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/84 Mapping; Conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

Techniques are described for performing synthesis of relationships between a plurality of concept definitions automatically derived from a faceted domain of information. Some embodiments involve identifying at least one facet attribute in an active concept definition specified by user input. In response to determining that at least one explicit relationship and/or at least one implicit relationship exist(s) between the active concept definition and a first concept definition of the plurality of concept definitions, a relationship is synthesized between the active concept definition and the first concept definition.

Claims

1. A method, performed in a computer, for synthesizing one or more relationships between a plurality of concept definitions automatically derived from a faceted domain of information, wherein the information of the domain is classifiable according to a plurality of facets each having a plurality of facet attributes, wherein each of the concept definitions comprises at least one of the plurality of facet attributes, the method comprising:

receiving user input specifying an active concept definition;

identifying at least one facet attribute in the active concept definition;

determining whether any explicit relationships exist between the active concept definition and a first concept definition of the plurality of concept definitions derived from the domain of information, wherein an explicit relationship is determined to exist if a facet attribute of the active concept definition and a facet attribute of the first concept definition are of a same lineage in at least one facet attribute hierarchy of the plurality of facet attributes;

determining whether any implicit relationships exist between the active concept definition and the first concept definition, wherein an implicit relationship is determined to exist if the active concept definition and the first concept definition share at least one common facet attribute;

in response to determining that at least one explicit relationship, at least one implicit relationship, or at least one explicit relationship and at least one implicit relationship exist between the active concept definition and the first concept definition, synthesizing, using the computer, a relationship between the active concept definition and the first concept definition; and

generating a dimensional concept hierarchy based on dimensional concept relationships synthesized between the active concept definition and the plurality of concept definitions derived from the domain of information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-specified active concept definition is not derived from the domain of information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the synthesized relationship between the active concept definition and the first concept definition is either an ancestor relationship or a descendant relationship.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a limit for the number of hierarchical steps in the dimensional concept hierarchy.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a limit on a number of relationships to synthesize between the active concept definition and the plurality of concept definitions derived from the domain of information.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving user input indicating the limit.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving user input indicating the limit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein synthesizing the relationship between the active concept definition and the first concept definition further comprises defining a dimensional axis between the active concept definition and the first concept definition in the dimensional concept hierarchy.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

selecting one or more facet attributes for defining said dimensional axis based on at least one of;

(i) the respective priorities of the facet attributes in the facet attribute hierarchy;

or (ii) a particular concept definition including the one or more facet attributes to associate a particular meaning to said dimensional axis.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating sets of dimensional concept relationships for the presence of indirect relationships and assembling the dimensional concept hierarchy without the indirect relationships.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a priority for the concept definitions in the dimensional concept hierarchy based on at least one of;

(i) priorities of facet attributes in the facet attribute hierarchy, or (ii) an analysis of the facet attributes in the respective concept definitions of related concepts.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a dimensional concept taxonomy by assigning facet attributes to content nodes of the domain of information in accordance with concepts associated with the content nodes, said concepts being represented by the concept definitions in the dimensional concept hierarchy.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining the dimensional concept relationships for the domain of information such that said defining is limited to real-time processing using concept definitions proximal to a selected concept definition.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining the dimensional concept relationships for a domain to be classified such that said defining is limited in time for latency control.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the domain of information further comprises a plurality of content nodes and wherein the method further comprises:

automatically deriving the plurality of concept definitions from the domain of information by examining the content nodes.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

defining the dimensional concept relationships for a domain to be classified such that said defining is limited to processing a localized region of the domain using content nodes proximal to a selected content node.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user interface for manually editing, by an outside entity, the synthesized relationship between the active concept definition and the first concept definition.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the user interface comprises a web page that renders a view of data elements corresponding to an active node selected by the outside entity.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the active node is presented in a tree fragment form.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the data elements include concept definitions and the user interface allows the outside entity to modify concept definitions.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the data elements include hierarchical data and the user interface allows the outside entity to modify hierarchical data.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the data elements include content nodes and the user interface allows the outside entity to change the position of a content node associated with concepts relative to other content nodes associated with concepts in a dimensional concept taxonomy.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the user interface allows the outside entity to change definitions describing the subject matter of a content node.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the user interface further allows display of data element modifications to an outside entity.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the user interface further allows storage of data element modifications on a computer-readable medium.

26. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed, perform a method of synthesizing relationships between a plurality of concept definitions automatically derived from a faceted domain of information, wherein the information of the domain is classifiable according to a plurality of facets each having a plurality of facet attributes, wherein each of the concept definitions comprises at least one of the plurality of facet attributes, the method comprising:

receiving user input specifying an active concept definition;

identifying at least one facet attribute in the active concept definition;

determining whether any explicit relationships exist between the active concept definition and a first concept definition of the plurality of concept definitions derived from the domain of information, wherein an explicit relationship is determined to exist if a facet attribute of the active concept definition and a facet attribute of the first concept definition are of a same lineage in at least one facet attribute hierarchy of the plurality of facet attributes;

determining whether any implicit relationships exist between the active concept definition and the first concept definition, wherein an implicit relationship is determined to exist if the active concept definition and the first concept definition share at least one common facet attribute;

in response to determining that at least one explicit relationship, at least one implicit relationship, or at least one explicit relationship and at least one implicit relationship exist between the active concept definition and the first concept definition, synthesizing a relationship between the active concept definition and the first concept definition; and

generating a dimensional concept hierarchy based on dimensional concept relationships synthesized between the active concept definition and the plurality of concept definitions derived from the domain of information.

27. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the user-specified active concept definition is not derived from the domain of information.

28. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein synthesizing the relationship between the active concept definition and the first concept definition further comprises defining a dimensional axis between the active concept definition and the first concept definition in the dimensional concept hierarchy.

29. A computer system comprising:

at least one tangible memory that stores processor-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method of synthesizing relationships between a plurality of concept definitions automatically derived from a faceted domain of information, wherein the information of the domain is classifiable according to a plurality of facets each having a plurality of facet attributes, and wherein each of the concept definitions comprises at least one of the plurality of facet attributes;

at least one hardware microprocessor, coupled to the at least one tangible memory, that executes the processor-executable instructions to;

receive user input specifying an active concept definition;

identify at least one facet attribute in the active concept definition;

determine whether any explicit relationships exist between the active concept definition and a first concept definition of the plurality of concept definitions derived from the domain of information, wherein an explicit relationship is determined to exist if a facet attribute of the active concept definition and a facet attribute of the first concept definition are of a same lineage in at least one facet attribute hierarchy of the plurality of facet attributes;

determine whether any implicit relationships exist between the active concept definition and the first concept definition, wherein an implicit relationship is determined to exist if the active concept definition and the first concept definition share at least one common facet attribute;

in response to determining that at least one explicit relationship, at least one implicit relationship, or at least one explicit relationship and at least one implicit relationship exist between the active concept definition and the first concept definition, synthesize a relationship between the active concept definition and the first concept definition; and

generate a dimensional concept hierarchy based on dimensional concept relationships synthesized between the active concept definition and the plurality of concept definitions derived from the domain of information.

30. The computer system of claim 29, wherein the user-specified active concept definition is not derived from the domain of information.