System and method for automatically removing documents from a knowledge repository

• US 20040249871A1
• Filed: 05/22/2003
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mehdi Bazoon
• Original Assignee: Mehdi Bazoon
• Inventors: Bazoon, Mehdi
• Application Number:
  US10/444,835
• Publication Number:
  US 20040249871A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

A system and method is provided for automatically removing documents from a knowledge repository. The invention includes the operation of assigning a storage period to documents in the knowledge repository. A further operation is reducing the storage period for documents as time passes. An additional operation is identifying whether documents are useful to users. The storage period of documents is updated based on the documents'"'"' usefulness to users. Then the documents that have an expired storage period are removed.

Claims

1. A method for automatically removing documents from a knowledge repository, comprising the steps of:

assigning a storage period to documents in the knowledge repository;

reducing the storage period for documents as time passes;

identifying whether documents are useful to users;

updating the storage period of documents based on documents'"'"' usefulness to users; and

removing the documents that have an expired storage period.

2. A method as in claim 1, where the step of removing the documents further comprises the step of activating a document removal process to remove the documents with expired storage periods.

3. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of removing the documents that have an expired storage period further comprises the step of removing documents which have a storage period of zero.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of removing the documents further comprises the step of activating a document removal process each day to remove the documents with expired storage periods.

5. A method as in claim 1, further comprising the step of notifying an interested party when the storage period for a document has expired and the document will be removed from the knowledge repository.

6. A method as in claim 5, further comprising the step of enabling the interested party to reinstate the document in the knowledge repository by responding to a notification.

7. A method as in claim 6, further comprising the step of removing the document from the knowledge repository if the interested party does not respond to the notification.

8. A method as in claim 6, further comprising the step of enabling the interested party to reassign a storage period to the document when the document is reinstated.

9. A method as in claim 5, wherein the step of notifying an interested party when the storage period has expired for a document further comprises the step of notifying the author when the storage period for a document has expired.

10. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of reducing the storage period for documents as time passes further comprises the step of reducing the storage period of each document for each time unit that passes.

11. A method as in claim 10, wherein the step of reducing the storage period of each document for each time unit that passes further comprises the step of selecting a time unit from the group of time units consisting of a day, a week, a month or quarter year.

12. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of assigning a storage period to documents in the knowledge repository further comprises the step of assigning a default storage period to documents in the knowledge repository if no storage period is provided by an interested party.

13. A method as in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying whether documents are useful to a user further comprises the step of identifying useful documents based on a comparison of document open time values for unique users.

14. A method for removing documents from a knowledge repository, comprising the steps of:

assigning a storage period to documents in the knowledge repository;

reducing the storage period of documents as time passes;

determining when documents are useful to a user;

updating the storage period of documents based on documents'"'"' usefulness to a user;

notifying an interested party when the storage period of a document has expired and the document will be removed from the knowledge repository; and

removing documents from the knowledge repository with an expired storage period unless the interested party requests that the document remain in the knowledge repository.

15. A method as in claim 14, further comprising the step of enabling the interested party to reinstate the document into the knowledge repository by responding to the notification.

16. A method as in claim 15, further comprising the step of enabling the interested party to reassign a storage period to the document when reinstating the document into the knowledge repository.

17. A method as in claim 14, further comprising the step of archiving the document if the interested party does not reinstate the document into the knowledge repository.

18. A method as in claim 14, wherein the step of reducing the storage period of documents as time passes further comprises the step of reducing the storage period of documents for each time unit that passes.

19. A method as in claim 18, wherein the step of reducing the storage period of documents for each time unit that passes further includes the step of reducing the storage period for each time unit selected from the group of time units consisting of a plurality of hours, a day, a week, a month, and quarter year.

20. A method as in claim 14, wherein the step of removing the documents that have an expired storage period further comprises the step of removing documents that have a storage period of zero.

21. A method as in claim 14, wherein the step of removing the documents further comprises the step of initiating a document removal process to remove documents with expired storage periods.

22. A method as in claim 14, wherein the step of notifying an interested party when the storage period of a document has expired and the document will be removed from the database further comprises the step of notifying an interested party that the document will be archived unless the interested party reassigns a storage period to the document.

23. A system for removing documents from a data storage system when the documents are less useful, comprising:

a knowledge repository which stores a plurality of documents;

a storage period associated with each document;

a document usefulness process in communication with the knowledge repository and configured to determine document usefulness and to update the storage period of documents based on document usefulness;

wherein the document usefulness process is configured to reduce the storage period of documents as time passes; and

a document removal process in communication with the knowledge repository and configured to remove documents from the knowledge repository with expired storage periods.

24. A system as in claim 23, further comprising a web interface that enables the user to access the knowledge repository.

25. A system as in claim 23, further comprising an interested party notification module configured to send a notification to the interested party for a document informing the interested party that the document will soon be removed from the knowledge repository.

26. A system as in claim 25, wherein the interested party notification module enables the interested party to reinstate the document into the knowledge repository.

27. A system as in claim 25, wherein the interested party is an author.

28. A system as in claim 23, wherein the documents are multimedia documents.

29. A system for removing documents from a data storage system when the documents are less useful, comprising:

a knowledge storage means for storing a plurality of documents;

a storage representation means associated with each document for representing a storage period for a document;

a document usefulness means in communication with the knowledge repository for determining document usefulness and updating the storage period of documents;

a storage period reduction means for reducing the storage period of documents as time passes; and

a document removal means in communication with the knowledge repository for removing documents with expired storage periods; and

an interested party notification means for sending notifications to the interested party for a document to inform the interested party that the document will be removed from the knowledge repository.

30. A system as in claim 29, wherein the storage period reduction means is incorporated into the document usefulness means or the document removal means.

31. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for automatically removing documents from a knowledge repository, the computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code for assigning a storage period to documents in the knowledge repository;

computer readable program code for reducing the storage period for documents as time passes;

computer readable program code for identifying whether documents are useful to users;

computer readable program code for updating the storage period of documents based on documents'"'"' usefulness to users;

computer readable program code for notifying an interested party when the storage period for a document has expired and the document will be removed from the knowledge repository; and

computer readable program code for removing the documents that have an expired storage period.