Personal information space management system and method

• US 7,634,509 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2003
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: FusionOne Incorporated (Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Stannard, Liam J., Ridgard, Leighton A., Onyon, Richard M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wassum, Luke S
• Application Number:
  US10/704,443
• Publication Number:
  US 20050102257A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,230 Days
• Field of Search: 707/201
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A system and method for organizing information in a personal information space. The personal information space includes at least one data source holding at least a portion of the personal information space. The system includes an agent for the data source which provides interaction information regarding data in the data source; and a interaction evaluation engine including one or more weighting characteristics for each interaction, and providing an output reflecting a weighting of one or more characteristics of the interaction. The method may comprise the steps of determining when an interaction between a contact on one of the contact data sources occurs; analyzing one or more characteristics of the interaction event to determine a at least one trait about the interaction; and generating a result based on said step of analyzing.

Claims

1. A system for organizing information in a personal information space, the personal information space including at least one data source on a first processing device holding at least a portion of the personal information space, comprising:

an element comprising an agent, on the first processing device, specific to the element, the agent communicating with a data source associated with the element and providing interaction data regarding data in the data source, the interaction data including at least one of the amount of use of a data file, the frequency of use of the data file and the characterization of the use of the data file;

an interaction evaluation engine on a second processing device for directly extracting the interaction data from the data source via the agent, the engine evaluating the interaction data and returning an output reflecting one or more weighting characteristics of the interaction data, wherein the evaluating comprises using a combination of two or more weighting characteristics; and

a data output device capable of communicating the output to a user.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the interaction data is stored in the data source.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the interaction data is stored in a system database.

4. The system of claim 1 further including rating data, the rating data including a user input flag determining whether an object of data in the data source is always provided to a smart filtering engine, never provided to the smart filtering engine or subject to the interaction engine.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a contact database.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interaction includes a telephone call with a contact.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the data includes using a contact email address.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the data includes an instant messenger identifier.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a word processing file.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a database file.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is a task entry in a personal information manager.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is a calendar appointment.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is meeting request.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is a journal entry in a personal information manager.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a spreadsheet file.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the data source is a binary file modifiable by a user.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the data is stored in a data structure.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the data includes an action flag.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the action flag signifies a level of importance.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein the data structure includes a user ID.

21. The system of claim 17 wherein the data structure includes a device agent ID.

22. The system of claim 17 wherein the data structure includes an object rating.

23. The system of claim 17 wherein the data structure includes an object list.

24. The system of claim 17 wherein the data structure includes object content data.

25. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes the frequency of use of the data source.

26. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes the amount of use of the data source.

27. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes the length of time between contacts with the data.

28. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes the duration of the interaction with the data source.

29. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes the area of use of the data source.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes the type of data used within the data source.

31. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes the type of application used to generate the interaction.

32. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more weighting characteristics includes a pattern of use defined by one or more additional characteristics selected from the list of:

frequency of use, amount of use, length of time between interactions with the data, duration of the interactions with the data, the area of the data source used, the type of data source used, and the application used to access the data source.

33. The system of claim 1 wherein the interaction engine includes an output of an update to the data source.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the interaction engine includes an output for multiple data sources.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the multiple data sources are on different devices.

36. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is provided on a single processing device.

37. The system of claim 1 wherein the element is chosen from the group consisting of applications and devices, wherein the element is associated with the data source.

38. The system of claim 1 further including a user interface.

39. The system of claim 38 wherein the user interface includes a weighting selection interface.

40. The system of claim 38 wherein the user interface includes an action selection interface.

41. The system of claim 38 wherein the user interface includes a conflict resolution interface.

42. A method operable on a computing device in communication with a server, the method capable of managing a user'"'"'s personal contact information from one or more data sources on the computing device, each data source comprising a device or application storing contact information used by the user in a personal information space and communicating with the computing device via a network, comprising:

determining when an interaction with a contact on a data source occurs;

evaluating interaction data by using a combination of two or more characteristics of the interaction data to determine an at least one trait about the interaction, wherein the interaction data is directly extracted from the data source for the evaluation;

generating a result based on said step of evaluating; and

communicating the result to the server via an agent specific to the data source.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is an email.

44. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is a phone call.

45. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is a scheduled meeting.

46. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is a web conference.

47. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is a file access.

48. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is a file modification.

49. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is a task entry.

50. The method of claim 42 wherein the interaction is an instant message.

51. The method of claim 42 wherein the data source is a PIM information store.

52. The method of claim 42 wherein the data source is a PDA information store.

53. The method of claim 42 wherein the data source is a mobile device call list.

54. The method of claim 42 wherein the data source is an Internet messaging message list.

55. The method of claim 42 wherein the data source is a Web Conference attendee list.

56. The method of claim 42 wherein the data source is a Contact list.

57. The method of claim 42 further including updating the data source from which the data interaction occurred.

58. The method of claim 42 further including updating a series of data sources for the user.

59. The method of claim 42 wherein characteristic is the frequency of interaction with the data in the data source.

60. The method of claim 42 wherein characteristic is the amount of use.

61. The method of claim 42 wherein characteristic is the length of time between interactions with data in the data source.

62. The method of claim 42 wherein characteristic is the duration of the interaction with the data in the data source.

63. The method of claim 42 wherein characteristic is the type of data with which the interaction occurs.

64. The method of claim 42 further including providing a user selection of said step of evaluating such that, for each data type or application type, the user can select whether an evaluation occurs.

65. The method of claim 64 wherein the user can select to always have said step of evaluating occur.

66. The method of claim 64 wherein the user can select to never have said step of evaluating occur.

67. A method on a server in communication with a client device, the method capable of characterizing information acted upon by a user, comprising:

receiving an indication of a data interaction with the user from the client device, thereby directly acquiring a set of user data interactions from a data source on the client device for evaluation;

for the set of user data interactions, evaluating by an interaction evaluation engine interaction information based on using a combination of two or more characteristics of the interaction, the interaction information including at least one of the amount of use of a data file, the frequency of use of the data file and the characterization of the use of the data file;

weighing elements of the interaction information based on said step of evaluating; and

storing a result of said step of weighing elements of the interaction information.

68. The method of claim 67 wherein the data interaction includes interaction with a data application.

69. The method of claim 67 wherein the data interaction includes interaction with a device.

70. The method of claim 67 wherein the set of user data interactions includes one interaction.

71. The method of claim 67 wherein the set of user data interactions includes a plurality of interactions.

72. The method of claim 67 further including outputting a list of the interaction information based on said step of weighing.

73. The method of claim 72 further including updating a data source associated with a device or application.

74. The method of claim 67 wherein the set of user data interactions includes a series of interactions gathered over time.

75. The method of claim 67 wherein the set of user data interactions includes an individual transaction and the step of evaluating is performed for each interaction received.

76. The method of claim 67 wherein the device is a mobile device.

77. The method of claim 76 wherein the user data interactions are telephone calls.

78. The method of claim 77 wherein the step of weighing includes determining the frequency of use of a contact based on said telephone calls in the cellular phone.

79. The method of claim 78 further including updating an internal phone book in the cellular phone with contact records.

80. A system for managing data between at least a first device and a second device, the devices communicating with a server via at least one network, the first device including at least one data store having personal information associated with a user, comprising:

an element comprising an interaction agent on the first device, the interaction agent specific to the element and communicating with a data store on the first device, wherein the element is associated with the data store;

a processor on the server capable of running an evaluation engine on the second device, the evaluation engine for directly extracting interaction information from the data store via the interaction agent and evaluating user communication, wherein the evaluating comprises using a combination of two or more interaction weighting characteristics; and

a database communicating with the evaluation engine and including the interaction information and the interaction weighting characteristics for at least one user, wherein the interaction information including at least one of the amount of use of a data file, the frequency of use of the data file and the characterization of the use of the data file.

81. The system of claim 80 further including a change transaction generation engine providing updates to said at least one data store based on an output of the evaluation engine.