DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM

• US 20100211570A1
• Filed: 09/03/2008
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Duman, Hakan, Ghanea-Hercock, Robert, Healing, Alexander L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,832,109 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

The present invention relates to distributed systems in which resource utilisation decisions depend upon the semi-automatic categorisation of resource descriptions stored in the distributed system. In the principal embodiment, the resource descriptions are web service descriptions which are augmented with tags (i.e. descriptive words or phrases) entered by users and/or by web service administrators. The initial use of automatic categorisation of these descriptions, followed by a user-driven fine-tuning of the automatically-generated categories enables the rapid creation of reliable categorisation of the resource descriptions, which in turns results in better resource utilisation decisions and hence a more efficient use of the resources of the distributed system.

Claims

1. A distributed system comprising one or more administration computers arranged in operation to:

i) receive digital resource identifiers and words attributed to the digital resources, and to automatically arrange said digital resources into groups on the basis of said attributed words;

ii) on a display, present a human user with a graphical user interface enabling modification of said groups;

iii) modify said groups in accordance with user commands received via said graphical user interface; and

iv) utilise said modified grouping in identifying one or more digital resources in said digital system; and

v) using said digital resource in said distributed system.

2. A distributed system according to claim 1 wherein said graphical user interface represents said digital resources as graphical elements whose relative locations on said display are calculated in dependence on a measure of similarity of said digital resources calculated in dependence on said words attributed to said digital resources.

3. A distributed system according to claim 2 wherein said grouping is hierachical.

4. A distributed system according to claim 1 wherein said automatic arrangement of said digital resources into groups involves finding the degree of semantic similarity in different words attributed to said digital resources.

5. A distributed system according to claim 2 wherein said graphical user interface enables said user to select a group of graphical elements and introduce said group into the hierarchical grouping.

6. A distributed system according to claim 3 wherein said graphical user interface also includes a tree structure which represents said hierarchical grouping.

7. A distributed system according to claim 3 wherein said graphical user interface enables a user to select classes in the hierarchical grouping and selectively presents only the graphical elements representing digital resources in the selected classes.

8. A distributed system according to claim 1 wherein said distributed system further comprises:

a store of digital resource identifiers and words attributed to the digital resources in communication with said administration computer;

said administration computer being arranged to receive digital resource identifiers and words attributed thereto by downloading them from said store

one or more client computers in communication with said store and arranged in operation to enable a use to use a digital resource and transmit words the user ascribes to that digital resource to said store for association with the digital resource identifier corresponding to said resource.

9. A distributed system according to claim 1 wherein said distributed system further comprises a computer network, and one or more client computers connected to said administration computer via said computer network, said administration computer being further arranged in operation to send said classification to said client computers, said client computers being further arranged in operation to utilise said classification in identifying a required digital resource, and thereafter to utilise said identified resource.

10. A distributed system according to claim 1 wherein said digital resources are components of a distributed application program executable on said distributed system.

11. A method of using digital resources in a distributed system, said method comprising:

i) receiving digital resource identifiers and words attributed to the digital resources, and automatically arranging said digital resources into groups on the basis of said attributed words;

ii) on a display, presenting a human user with a graphical user interface enabling modification of said groups;

iii) modifying said groups in accordance with user commands received via said graphical user interface; and

iv) utilising said modified grouping in identifying one or more digital resources in said digital system; and

v) using said digital resource in said distributed system.

12. A computer program executable in a computer system to cause said computer system to perform the method of claim 11.

13. A computer program product storing a computer program according to claim 12.