Context instantiated application protocol

• US 8,195,714 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2003
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Michael T. Mckibben
• Original Assignee: Leader Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: McKibben, Michael T., Lamb, Jeffrey R.
• Primary Examiner(s): LIE, ANGELA M
• Application Number:
  US10/731,906
• Publication Number:
  US 20040123242A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,100 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 715/753, 707/100, 707802-805
• US Class Current: 707/804
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers

Abstract

A system that facilitates the automatic tagging of contextual metadata information to a file as the file is being created. The system facilitates the automatic association of data with a user context, and includes a data operations component that associates with data operations being performed on a data. These data operations include standard data operations such as read, write, delete, move, copy, paste, etc., that are normally associated with data operations. The system further includes a tagging component that facilitates automatic tagging of contextual information to the data when the data is created. That is, when the data is first saved, the tagging operation of the contextual information is performed on the data. Subsequent save operations simply overwrite the existing data in the storage location. Thus, data and applications can be grouped based on the identity of the tag.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates the association of data with a user, a first context associated with a first plurality of users and a second context associated with a second plurality of users, comprising:

a storage device adapted to store data and contextual metadata, the contextual metadata being associated with;

a) the user;

b) a data component that is associated with one or more data operations being performed on the data; and

c) a tagging component that automatically tags contextual information as the contextual metadata when the data is created, the contextual information being at least one of automatically generated information generated by the system upon creation of the data and automatically generated information generated by the system upon the one or more data operations being performed on the data; and

a computer device linked via one or more communication links to the storage device, the computer device adapted to execute a software tool configured to perform the steps of;

automatically tagging contextual information related to the user, the software tool, and the first context to the data as contextual metadata upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the first context to which the software tool is associated;

automatically generating a plurality of pointers to the data for the first plurality of users as part of the contextual information upon entry of the data into the first context, each pointer linking one of the first plurality of users associated with the first context to the data;

updating the contextual metadata based upon the one or more data operations;

automatically tagging contextual information related to the user, the software tool, and the second context to the data as contextual metadata upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the second context to which the software tool is associated;

automatically generating a plurality of pointers to the data for the second plurality of users as part of the contextual information upon entry of the data into the second context, each pointer linking one of the second plurality of users associated with the second context to the data;

updating the contextual metadata based upon the one or more data operations.

2. The system of claim 1, the contextual information is tagged to the data when the data is being saved.

3. The system of claim 1, the contextual information is tagged to the data when the data is first saved.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the contextual information is representative of at least one of the first context and the second context that is associated with a board.

5. The system of claim 1;

wherein the contextual information is automatically tagged to any type, of data created in association with at least one of the first context and the second context.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of pointers for the first and second plurality of users provides a link to a single storage location of the data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of pointers for the first and second plurality of users provides a link to a storage location of the data, and wherein upon designation of a third context by the user, a plurality of pointers to the data is automatically generated for the users associated with the third context, each pointer linking one of the users associated with the third context to the data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the contextual information is associated with at least one of the first context and the second context, wherein at least one of the first context and the second context is further associated with an application tool that is used to generate the data.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the application tool is associated with at least one of the first context and the second context, and contains the ability to associate the user with the data created by the application tool.

10. The system of claim 9, the application tool points to a storage location of the data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the data component includes one or more applications that perform data operations related to at least one of telephony, unified messaging, decision support, document management, portals, chat, collaboration, search, vote, relationship management, calendar, personal information, management, profiling, video, directory management, executive information systems, dashboards, cockpits, tasking, meeting and, web and video conferencing.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the contextual information includes context data that is representative of at least one of the first context and the second context, which context data is automatically tagged to the data.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first context is at least one of a first web page, a first environment, a first workspace, a first portal, a first profile, a first board, a first Uniform Resource Locator and a first link.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the second context is at least one of a second web page, a second environment, a second workspace, a second portal, a second profile, a second board, a second Uniform Resource Locator and a second link.

15. A system that facilitates the association of data with a user and a first board context, comprising:

a storage device adapted to store data and contextual metadata, the contextual metadata being associated with;

a) the user;

b) a data component that is associated with one or more data operations performed on the data in the first board context of the user; and

c) a tagging component that automatically tags contextual information of the user as the contextual metadata when the data is first saved, the contextual information being at least one of automatically generated information generated by the system upon creation of the data and automatically generated information generated by the system upon the one or more data operations being performed on the data; and

a computer device linked via one or more communication links to the storage device, the computer device adapted to execute a software tool configured to perform the steps of;

automatically tagging contextual information related to the user, the software tool, and the first board context to the data as contextual metadata upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the first board context to which the software tool is associated; and

automatically generating a first plurality of pointers to the data as part of the contextual information upon entry of the data into the first board context, a pointer for each user associated with the first board context providing a link to the data for that user associated with the first board context;

automatically tagging contextual information related to the user, the software tool, and a second board context to the data as contextual metadata upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the second board context to which the software tool is associated; and

automatically generating a second plurality of pointers to the data as part of the contextual information upon entry of the data into the second board context, a pointer for each user associated with the second board context providing a link to the data for that user associated with the second board context;

updating the contextual metadata based upon the one or more data operations;

wherein the first board context is part of a web context that includes a plurality of board contexts; and

wherein the contextual metadata is updated based on the one or more data operations occurring in any one of the plurality of board contexts in the web context.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the first plurality of pointers provides a link to a single storage location of the data.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the first plurality of pointers provides a link to a single storage location of the data, which link is assigned to each user of the board context in which the data was created.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the contextual information is associated with a board context that is further associated with an application tool that generates the data, the application tool generates a pointer to the data for each board context to which it is associated.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the pointers generated by the application tool point to the only storage location of the data.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the pointers generated by the application tool are generated with a read-only access.

21. The system of claim 15, the one or more data operations cause updating of at least one of the contextual information and the data.

22. The system of claim 15, the contextual information includes at least one of web ID, a board ID, a transversal to the location of the data, and parameters representative of the one or more data operations that can be performed on the data.

23. A computer-implemented method that facilitates associating data with a user and a first context associated with a first plurality of users and a second context associated with a second plurality of users, the method comprising:

initiating a session on a computer system for an individual user in the first context, wherein the first context is a digital workspace of at least one of events, subjects, relationships and resources associated with the individual user,

automatically tagging contextual information related to the individual user and the first context to the data, the contextual information being at least one of information related to the first context generated automatically upon creation of the data and information related to the first context generated automatically upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the first context;

automatically generating a plurality of pointers to the data for the first plurality of users upon entry of the data into the first context, each pointer providing a link to the data for one of the first plurality of users associated with the first context;

updating the contextual information based upon the one or more data operations;

initiating a session on a computer system for the individual user in the second context, wherein the second context is a digital workspace of at least one of events, subjects, relationships and resources associated with the individual user;

automatically tagging contextual information related to the individual user and the second context to the data, the contextual information being at least one of information related to the second context generated automatically upon creation of the data and information related to the second context generated automatically upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the second context;

automatically generating a plurality of pointers to the data for the second plurality of users upon entry of the data into the second context, each pointer providing a link to the data for one of the second plurality of users associated with the second context; and

updating the contextual information based upon the one or more data operations.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising tagging the contextual information to the data when the data is first being saved.

25. The method of claim 23, the contextual information is updated when the data is saved.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising tagging the contextual information to the data in accordance with a backup operation.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising associating one or more users of at least one of the first context and the second context to the data using the contextual information.

28. The method of claim 27, the one or more users are granted at least read access to the data.

29. The method of claim 23, further comprising encoding the location of the stored data such that the encoded location is processed to access the stored data.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the first context is at least one of a first web page, a first workspace, a first portal, a first environment, a first profile, a first board, a first Uniform Resource Locator and a first link.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein the second context is at least one of a second web page, a second environment, a second workspace, a second portal, a second profile, a second board, a second Uniform Resource Locator and a second link.

32. A system that facilitates the association of data with a first context and a second context in a many-to-many data regime, comprising:

computer-implemented means for initiating a session on a computer system for a user in the first context and the second context, wherein the first context and the second context are each a digital workspace of at least one of events, subjects, relationships and resources associated with the user;

computer-implemented means for automatically tagging to the data contextual information related to the first context, the contextual information being at least one of information related to the first context generated automatically upon creation of the data and information related to the first context generated automatically upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the first context;

computer-implemented means for automatically tagging to the data contextual information related to the second context, the contextual information being at least one of information related to the second context generated automatically upon creation of the data and information related to the second context generated automatically upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the second context;

computer-implemented means for updating the contextual information based upon the one or more data operations;

computer-implemented means for automatically linking the user, and all other users associated with the first context, with the location of the data upon entry of the data in the first context; and

computer-implemented means for automatically linking the user, and all other users associated with the second context, with the location of the data upon entry of the data in the second context.

33. A system that tags user-defined data with metadata comprising:

a storage device that stores the user-defined data and the metadata, the metadata including information about;

a) the user,

b) a software application that creates data based upon one or more received data operations;

c) a tagging component that automatically tags the user-defined data with at least one of metadata related to the user, the software application and a web page associated with the software application upon one or more data operations being performed on the user-defined data; and

a computer device linked by one or more communication links to the storage device, the computer device adapted to execute a software program configured to perform the steps of;

creating a first instance of user-defined data in a first web page to which the software application is associated;

automatically tagging the first instance of user-defined data with the metadata relating to the user, the software application and the first web page;

automatically creating a pointer for each user associated with the first web page upon entry of the first instance of user-defined data in the first web page, each pointer linking a user associated with the first web page to the first instance of user-defined data;

updating the metadata based, at least in part, on the software application receiving the one or more of the data operations in the first web page;

creating a second instance of user-defined data in a second web page to which the software application is associated;

automatically tagging the second instance of user-defined data with the metadata relating to the user, the software application and the second web page;

automatically creating a pointer for each user associated with the second web page upon entry of the second instance of user-defined data in the second web page, each pointer linking a user associated with the second web page to the second instance of user-defined data; and

updating the metadata based, at least in part, on the software application receiving one or more of the data operations in the second web page.

34. A system that facilitates the association of data with a user, a first context and a second context, comprising:

a storage device adapted to store data and contextual metadata, the contextual metadata being associated with;

a) the user;

b) the first context;

c) the second context;

d) a data component that is associated with one or more data operations being performed on the data; and

e) a tagging component that automatically tags contextual information associated with at least one of the first context and the second context as the contextual metadata when the data is created and/or one or more data operations are performed on the data; and

a computer device linked via one or more communication links to the storage device, the computer device adapted to execute a software tool configured to;

automatically tag contextual information related to the user, the software tool, and the first context to the data as contextual metadata upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the first context to which the software tool is associated;

automatically generate a pointer to the data for each of a plurality of users having access to the first context upon entry of the data into the first context, each pointer providing a link to the data for one of the plurality of users having access to the first context;

update the contextual metadata based upon the one or more data operations performed on the data in the first context;

automatically tag contextual information related to the user, the software tool, and the second context to the data as contextual metadata upon one or more data operations being performed on the data while in the second context to which the software tool is associated;

automatically generate a pointer to the data for each of a plurality of users having access to the second context upon entry of the data into the second context, each pointer providing a link to the data for one of the plurality of users having access to the second context; and

update the contextual metadata based upon the one or more data operations performed on the data in the second context.

35. The system of claim 34,

wherein the first context is at least one of a first web page, a first workspace, a first portal, a first environment, a first profile, a first board, a first Uniform Resource Locator and a first link;

and

wherein the second context is at least one of a second web page, a second environment, a second workspace, a second portal, a second profile, a second board, a second Uniform Resource Locator and a second link.