Collaborative, Incremental Specification Of Identities

• US 20120323912A1
• Filed: 06/15/2012
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Morphism LLC
• Original Assignee: Morphism LLC
• Inventors: Stephens, James H. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 8,577,883 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2322 using timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Methods and systems for collaborative, incremental specification of identities are provided. Users of an information processing system collaborate to define and refine identities of entities, and users can create references for those identities. Relationships among the identifiers imply related keywords that can be used to improve search, navigation, and integration. Relationship factoring can be used to maintain efficient logical and physical representations.

Claims

1-22. -22. (canceled)

23. A computer-implementable method for incremental specification of identities in a computer network, the method comprising:

creating first, second, and third set identifiers wherein the first and second set identifiers represent subsets of the set represented by the third identifier,

annotating the first set identifier with first properties,

annotating the second set identifier with second properties such that the first properties and the second properties have third properties in common,

creating a fourth set identifier,

annotating the fourth set identifier with third properties,

adding the property of being a subset of the fourth identifier to the first properties and second properties, and

removing third properties from the first and second properties.

24. The method of claim 23, the method further comprising:

generating a first reference to the first set identifier,

generating a second reference to the fourth set identifier, and

creating a targeted unrefinement comprising an unrefiner that relates a first audience to the first reference and a second audience to the second reference.

25. The method of claim 24, the method further comprising:

characterizing a set of authors,

specifying a mapping from the first and second set identifiers to the targeted unrefinement, and

using an unrefinement rule that restricts the second audience to the second reference for the set of authors.

26. The method of claim 25, the method further comprising a default unrefinement.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the default refinement searches from the first set identifier up a chain of superset properties to find set identifiers marked as unrefinements of the first set identifier.

28. A computer-implementable method for incremental specification of identities in a computer network, the method comprising:

creating set identifiers,

annotating the set identifiers using tuples that are grouped in multiple sets of statements,

distinguishing a first set of statements,

storing the first set of statements in a first structure partitioned by properties of the tuples in the first set of statements,

storing other sets of statements in a second structure that is partitioned by properties of the tuples in the other sets of statements, and

storing historical tuple data in a third structure that is ordered by property, tuple creation time, and tuple deletion time.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the second structure is also partitioned based on the set of statements associated with each tuple.

30. A computer-implementable method for incremental specification of identities in a computer network, the method comprising:

identifying a set identifier to be referenced,

providing reference parameters for the reference,

obtaining a reference for the set identifier according the reference parameters,

generating a reference representation according to the reference parameters,

parsing the reference representation into the reference, and

resolving the reference into a set of set identifiers that includes the set identifier.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the reference parameters include targeted unrefinements.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the resolving uses a default unrefinement.

33. The method of claim 32 further comprising:

searching from a first set identifier up a chain of superset properties to find set identifiers marked as unrefinements of the first set identifier.