Systems and methods for retrieving data

• US 20050108262A1
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advent Software Incorporated (SS&C Technologies Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Advent Software Incorporated (SS&C Technologies Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Dias, Daniel, Akhnoukh, Nader, Fawcett, John Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,088 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

This invention relates to a computer-based method and system for facilitating the retrieval, classification, and distribution of information. In one embodiment, a method for providing information comprises providing a plurality of entities, each having an entity type, providing a plurality of relationships among the entities, each relationship having a relationship type and direction, and constructing an entity-relationship network comprising the entities and relationships. The method further includes receiving a plurality of information items, facilitating the association of the information items with at least one corresponding entity, receiving a request for information items associated with a selected one of the entities, determining a subset of the entities based on the selected entity, the relationships, the relationship types and the relationship directions, and providing the information items associated with the subset of the entities.

Claims

1. A method of providing information items, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of entities, each entity having a entity type;

providing a plurality of relationships among the entities, each relationship having a relationship type and a relationship direction;

constructing an entity-relationship network comprising the entities and the relationships;

receiving a plurality of information items;

facilitating the association of each information item with at least one corresponding entity;

receiving a request for information items associated with a selected one of the plurality of entities;

determining a subset of the plurality of entities to provide based on the selected entity and the relationship types and relationship directions of the entity-relationship network; and

providing the information items associated with the subset of the plurality of entities.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the subset of entities comprises:

(i) entities that have a direct relationship with the selected entity, the relationship having one of a number of predetermined relationship types and a direction; and

(ii) entities that have an indirect relationship with the selected entity in which each relationship relating such an identified entity with the selected entity has the same predetermined type and direction.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the entity types comprise companies, industries, indices, people, and subjects.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationship direction is one of unidirectional and bi-directional.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the relationship direction is bi-directional and the relationship type represents a set of reciprocal relationships between the entities.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the relationships among the entities is hierarchical.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the hierarchical relationships comprise one or more of business relationships, legal relationships, formal membership relationships, and informal membership relationships.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationships among the entities is influential.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the influential relationships comprise one or more of business relationships, legal relationships, formal membership relationships, and informal membership relationships.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationships among the entities comprises both hierarchical and influential relationships.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationships between the entities further comprise a strength indicator.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the information items comprise at least one of an electronic message, an email, an instant message, a financial report, a voicemail, a web page, a research report, an electronic document, and a press release.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the information items are received via one or more of an electronic message, electronic mail, instant message, voice message, scheduled database query, or triggered database query.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of associating information items with entities is initiated by first user of a first computer.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the request for information items associated with the selected entity is initiated by a second user of a second computer.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the information items are provided using one or more of email, voicemail, computer display screen, personal data assistant, and print.

17. A system for presenting information, comprising:

an entity definition module for defining entities;

a relationship definition module for defining a relationship among the entities and attributing a relationship type and relationship direction to each relationship;

a receiver for receiving information;

an information management module for associating the received information with at least one of the entities;

an information retrieval module for retrieving, upon receiving a request for information associated with one of the entities, information associated with a subset of the entities, the subset based, at least in part, on the relationship types and relationship directions among the entities in the subset; and

a display module for presenting the retrieved data.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the subset of entities comprises:

(i) entities that have a direct relationship with the selected entity, the relationship having one of a number of predetermined relationship types and a direction; and

(ii) entities that have an indirect relationship with the selected entity in which each relationship relating such an identified entity with the selected entity has the same predetermined type and direction.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the receiver receives one or more of an electronic message, an email, an instant message;

a streaming data feed, a voice message, and a web page.

20. The system of claim 17 further comprising a database for storing one or more of the entities, the relationships, the information, and the associations of information with entities.

21. The system of claim 17 further comprising a rules engine for governing the relationships between two of the entities.

22. The system of claim 17 wherein the relationships between entities are one or more of unidirectional and bi-directional.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the relationships between entities are bi-directional and represent a reciprocal relationship between the entities.

24. The system of claim 17 wherein the relationships between the entities comprise a strength indicator.

25. The system of claim 17 further comprising a messaging module for distributing modifications made to one of the entities, the relationships, and the rules.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the messaging module distributes the modifications asynchronously.

27. The system of claim 25 wherein the messaging module distributes the modifications on demand.

28. The system of claim 17 further comprising a permissions module for enforcing user access privileges to one or more of the entities, the relationships, and the information associated with the entities.