Document access management method and system

• US 8,347,400 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2011
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Zuniga, Marco A., Harrington, Steven J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Song, Hosuk
• Application Number:
  US13/182,531
• Publication Number:
  US 20110271355A1
• Time in Patent Office: 537 Days
• Field of Search: 726 1- 7, 726/11, 726 22- 23, 726 26- 30, 713165-167, 713193-194
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself

Abstract

This disclosure provides a document access method and system. The document access method and system are based on a social network model which interconnects members of the social network as a function of trust. This framework provides a basis for documents to be accessed by members which are not directly specified by a document'"'"'s owner, while providing a certain degree of document security.

Claims

1. A method of operating a document access system, the document access system including one or more servers and a plurality of member computers, the member computers operatively connected to the one or more servers, the method comprising:

the document access system generating a model which represents all members of an information technology social network, the model associating an intermember trust value for each member relative to each other member of the information technology social network;

the document access system associating a document trust value requirement and document owner for one or more documents, the document trust value requirement providing a minimum intermember trust value, relative to the document owner, necessary for access to a respective document; and

providing access to a document for a set of members as a function of an effective trust value.

2. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 1, wherein generating a model comprises:

generating a directed graph G (V,E) representing the information technology social network, where V represents the people as vertices and E represents the intermember trust as edges.

3. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 2, the method comprising:

wherein the effective trust value is associated with the shortest path from the document owner'"'"'s vertices to each respective member, wherein the shortest path is a function of connecting intermember trust edges from the document'"'"'s owner to the respective members.

4. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 3, the effective trust value calculated according to the method comprising:

multiplying each edge trust value associated with each path from the document'"'"'s owner to the other members.

5. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 4, further comprising:

comparing the document'"'"'s trust value with the effective trust value associated with each other member, relative to the document'"'"'s owner; and

providing access to only members with an effective trust value greater than or equal to the document'"'"'s trust value.

6. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 1, the method comprising:

generating a database for storing document'"'"'s trust attributes and member trust attributes.

7. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 6, the method comprising:

interfacing with members to acquire data for the database.

8. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 1, the method comprising:

comparing the document trust value with an administratively determined minimum trust value; and

attributing the administratively determined minimum trust value to any document associated with an owner assigned document trust value greater than the minimum trust value.

9. The method of operating a document access system according to claim 1, the method comprising:

informing members which documents they can access.

10. A document access system comprising:

a computer configured to execute a method of operating a document access system, the document access system including one or more servers and a plurality of member computers, the member computers operatively connected to the one or more servers, the method comprising;

the document access system generating a model which represents all members of an information technology social network, the model associating an intermember trust value for each member relative to each other member of the information technology social network;

the document access system associating a document trust value requirement and document owner for one or more documents, the document trust value requirement providing a minimum intermember trust value, relative to the document owner, necessary for access to a respective document; and

providing access to a document for a set of members as a function of an effective trust value.

11. A document access system according to claim 10, wherein generating a model comprises:

generating a directed graph G (V,E) representing the information technology social network, where V represents the people as vertices and E represents the intermember trust as edges.

12. A document access system according to claim 11, wherein the effective trust value is associated with the shortest path from the document owner'"'"'s vertices to each respective member, wherein the shortest path is a function of connecting intermember trust edges from the document'"'"'s owner to the respective members.

13. A document access system according to claim 12, the effective trust value calculated according to the method comprising:

multiplying each edge trust value associated with each path from the document'"'"'s owner to the other members.

14. A document access system according to claim 13, further comprising:

comparing the document'"'"'s trust value with the effective trust value associated with each other member, relative to the document'"'"'s owner; and

providing access to only members with an effective trust value greater than or equal to the document'"'"'s trust value.

15. A document access system according to claim 10, the method comprising:

generating a database for storing document'"'"'s trust attributes and member trust attributes.

16. A document access system according to claim 15, the method comprising:

interfacing with members to acquire data for the database.

17. A document access system according to claim 10, the method comprising:

comparing the document trust value with an administratively determined minimum trust value; and

attributing the administratively determined minimum trust value to any document associated with an owner assigned document trust value greater than the minimum trust value.

18. A document access system according to claim 10, the method comprising:

informing members which documents they can access.

19. A document access system network comprising:

one or more servers; and

a plurality of member computers, the user computers operatively connected to the one or more servers,

wherein the one or more servers are configured to execute a method of operating a document access system, the document access system including one or more servers and a plurality of member computers, the member computers operatively connected to the one or more servers, the method comprising;

the document access system generating a model which represents all members of an information technology social network, the model associating an intermember trust value for each member relative to each other member of the information technology social network;

the document access system associating a document trust value requirement and document owner for one or more documents, the document trust value requirement providing a minimum intermember trust value, relative to the document owner, necessary for access to a respective document; and

providing access to a document for a set of members as a function of an effective trust value.

20. The document access system network according to claim 19, wherein the one or more servers are configured to generate a directed graph G (V,E) representing the document access system network, where V represents the members as vertices and E represents the intermember trust as edges.