Facebook Usage Breakdown

In the Facebook chart of activities, below, file sharing is at the bottom. Why? Because file sharing isn't perceived as 'fun'.

But, here's a suggestion.

Give those Facebooker's an interface dashboard for tracking who does what with their shared information - and where their shared information ends up - and see if that doesn't make for an irresistible 'game' of control.

Then imagine the real-world, commercial applications for information portability, information traceability and data ownership.

 

US Patent 4,974,173: Small-scale workspace representations indicating activities by other users (Xerox Corporation)

Title: Small-scale workspace representations indicating activities by other users
Patent Number: US Patent 4,974,173
Issued: November 27, 1990
Filed: February 22, 1990
Parent case: This is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 07/127,814, filed Dec. 2, 1987 now abandoned.
Inventor(s): Stefik, Mark J. et al.
Assignee: Xerox Corporation
Referenced at issuance: n/a
Referenced after issuance: US Patent 5,107,443 (Xerox Corporation) Φ, US Patent 5,220,657 (Xerox Corporation) Φ, US Patent 5,515,491 (IBM Corporation) and US Patent 6,240,414 (eiSolutions, Inc.).
Blogger comment:

There were 7 references to prior patents at issuance. None are deemed remarkable for the scope and purposes of this blog.

An advanced search at USPTO online on May 9, 2008 for distinguishing references to this patent after its issuance using ref/4974173 reveals 166 references. A more refined search reveals US Patent 5,107,443, US Patent 5,220,657, US Patent 5,515,491 and US Patent 6,240,414.

Other inventor comments:

Structured Data Objects: US Patent 5,388,196 commenting on US Patent 4,974,173 Φ

Structured Data Objects: US Patent 5,220,657 commenting on US Patent 4,974,173 Φ

Collaborative Data Sharing Environments: Comment by US Patent 7,028,074 Φ

Abstract:

In a collaborative system in which a body of shared data may be accessed by more than one user, a small-scale representation of the body of shared data displayed to one user includes an indication of the activities of other users.

Independent claims (as numbered):

1. A method of operating a collaborative system that includes a plurality of workstations each having a respective display and a respective user input device, the collaborative system further including a set of bodies of shared data, each of the workstations being connected to access the bodies of shared data for presentation of a respective full-scale representation of any of the bodies of shared data on the respective display, the respective full-scale representation of any of the bodies of shared data occupying a substantial part of the respective display, the collaborative system further being for presenting the respective full-scale representations of any of the bodies of shared data concurrently on the respective displays of more than one of the workstations, the method comprising:

presenting on the respective display of a first one of the workstations a set of small-scale representations, each small-scale representation representing a respective one of the bodies of shared data, each small-scale representation occupying a small part of the first workstation's respective display, a first one of the set of small-scale representations representing a first one of the bodies of shared data; presenting on the respective display of a second one of the workstations the respective full-scale representation of the first body of shared data; and

upon receiving a signal requesting activity affecting the first body of shared data from the respective user input device of the second workstation, presenting in the first small-scale representation an indication of the activity at the second workstation.

15. A method of operating a collaborative system that includes a plurality of workstations each having a respective display and a respective user input device, the collaborative system further including a set of bodies of shared data, each of the workstations being connected to access the bodies of shared data for presentation of a respective full-scale representation of any of the bodies of shared data on the respective display, the respective full-scale representation of any of the bodies of shared data occupying a substantial part of the respective display, the collaborative system further being for presenting the respective full-scale representations of any of the bodies of shared data concurrently on the respective displays of more than one of the workstations, the method comprising:

presenting on the respective display of a first one of the workstations a set of small-scale representations, each small-scale representation representing a respective one of the bodies of shared data, each small-scale representation occupying a small part of the first workstation's respective display, a first one of the set of small-scale representations representing a first one of the bodies of shared data; presenting on the respective display of a second one of the workstations the respective full-scale representation of the first body of shared data; and

upon receiving a signal requesting activity relating to the first body of shared data from the respective user input device of the second workstation, presenting in the first small-scale representation an indication of the activity at the second workstation.

US Patent 6,321,238: Hybrid shared nothing/shared disk database system (Oracle Corporation)

Title: Hybrid shared nothing/shared disk database system
Patent Number: US Patent 6,321,238
Issued: November 20, 2001
Filed: December 28, 1998
Parent case: n/a
Inventor(s): Putzolu, Gianfranco
Assignee: Oracle Corporation
Referenced at issuance: n/a
Referenced after issuance by these Oracle Corporation patents: US Patent 6,711,571 , US Patent 7,107,270 , US Patent 7,139,772 , US Patent 7,277,897. Also compare to Oracle's US Patent 6,341,340.
Blogger comment: 

There were 12 prior US patents referenced at issuance with none deemed remarkable for the scope and purposes of this blog.

This patent is interesting for its use of the word 'ownership' in its claims. An advanced search at USPTO online on May 9, 2008 of references to this patent using ref/6321238 reveals 9 references. A more refined search reveals no hits.

Abstract:

A database or some portion thereof is partitioned into ownership groups. Each ownership group is assigned one or more database servers as owners of the ownership group. The database servers that are assigned as owners of an ownership group are treated as the owners of all data items that belong to the ownership group. That is, they are allowed to directly access the data items within the ownership group, while other database servers are not allowed to directly access those data items.

Independent claims (as numbered):

1. A database system including:

one or more persistent storage devices having a database stored thereon;

a plurality of database servers executing on a plurality of nodes;

wherein each node of said plurality of nodes has direct access to said one or more persistent storage devices;

wherein at least a portion of said database is partitioned into a plurality of ownership groups;

wherein each ownership group of said plurality of ownership groups is assigned an owner set;

wherein only processes that are executing on database servers that are members of the owner set of an ownership group are allowed to directly access data within said ownership group.

10. A method for managing access to a database stored on one or more persistent storage devices that are directly accessible to a plurality of database servers executing on a plurality of nodes, the method including the steps of:

partitioning at least a portion of said database into a plurality of ownership groups;

assigning an owner set to each ownership group of said plurality of ownership groups; and

allowing only processes executing in database servers that belong to the owner set of each ownership group to directly access data within said ownership group.

19. A computer readable medium carrying instructions for managing access to a database stored on one or more persistent storage devices that are directly accessible to a plurality of database servers executing on a plurality of nodes, the instructions including instructions for performing the steps of:

partitioning at least a portion of said database into a plurality of ownership groups;

assigning an owner set to each ownership group of said plurality of ownership groups; and

allowing only processes executing in database servers that belong to the owner set of each ownership group to directly access data within said ownership group.

Pain in the SaaS

Here is an excerpt from an article published by the The Economist on April 24th.

"It was bound to happen. One after another, pieces of software have been moving online in a trend towards “software as a service” (SaaS). You can now manage your e-mail, write documents and edit spreadsheets using online services that run inside a web browser .... But now the trend has reached the darker corners of the software universe. Computer-security firms say criminals have adopted the new model too, and are offering “crimeware as a service” (CaaS).

.... 

The new offerings ... take commercialisation to the next level by allowing criminals to use and pay for such nefarious services via a web browser. Just as companies that adopt SaaS no longer need armies of support technicians ... criminals using CaaS no longer need to be hackers. One web-based service he found even allows customers to specify a target group, such as British lawyers or American doctors. Once enough of their machines have been infected, documents and other data are siphoned out of them."

 SaaS provides huge, potential benefits in terms of costs, business efficiencies and customer convenience. It will be the preferred tool of the emerging Semantic Web. The challenge is that it comes with fear factors, too. In Portability, Traceability and Data Ownership I have addressed some of those fear factors.

"The value proposition of data ownership is that it provides the most acceptable technological and socio-political pathway for adoption by ordinary people of the emerging Semantic Web."

For the complete Economist article, go to Pain in the aaS (sic).

US Patent 5,008,853: Representation of collaborative multi-user activities relative to shared structured data objects in a networked workstation environment (Xerox Corporation)

Title: Representation of collaborative multi-user activities relative to shared structured data objects in a networked workstation environment
Patent Number: US Patent 5,008,853
Issued: April 16, 1991
Filed: December 2, 1987
Related applications:

This application contains subject matter related, in certain aspect, to the subject matter of patent application Ser. No. 07/127,814, filed Dec. 2, 1987, entitled, "Small-Scale Workspace Representations Indicating Activities by Other Users", also assigned to Xerox Corporation. In US Patent 4,974,173 (Xerox Corporation) the parent case states "This is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 07/127,814, filed Dec. 2, 1987 now abandoned."

Inventor(s): Bly, Sara A. et al.
Assignee: Xerox Corporation
Referenced after issuance: US Patent 4,974,173 (Xerox Corporation)Φ,  US Patent 5,220,657 (Xerox Corporation)Φ, US Patent 5,515,491 (IBM Corporation), US Patent 6,088,702 (Plantz, Scott H. et al.), and US Patent 6,573,907 (Obvious Technology).
Blogger comment:

There were 16 prior US patents referenced at issuance, none of which are deemed remarkable for the scope and purposes of this blog.

An advanced search at USPTO online on May 9, 2008 for references to this patent after issuance using ref/5008853 reveals 388 references. A more refined search reveals US Patent 4,974,173, US Patent 5,220,657, US Patent 5,515,491, US Patent 6,088,702, and US Patent 6,573,907.

Other inventor comments:

Structured Data Objects: US Patent 6,088,702 commenting on US Patent 5,220,657 Φ

Structured Data Objects: US Patent 5,428,729 commenting on US Patent 5,008,853 Φ

Controlling security of industrial process data elements when many processes over an extended period of time, and a plurality of users Φ

Collaborative Data Sharing Environments: Comment by US Patent 7,028,074 Φ

Abstract:

A multi-user collaborative system in which the contents as well as the current status of other user activity of a shared structured data object representing one or more related structured data objects in the form of data entries can be concurrently accessed by different users respectively at different workstations connected to a common link.

Independent claims (as numbered):

1. A method for operating a collaborative system that includes a plurality of workstations each having a respective display and a respective user input device, the collaborative system further including shared data, each of the workstations being connected for accessing the shared data, the shared data including a set of parts, the method comprising the steps of:

presenting on the respective display of a first one of the workstations a local representation of the shared data; the local representation of the shared data including, for each of the parts of the shared data, a respective small-scale representation occupying a small part of the first workstation's respective display;

presenting on the respective display of a second one of the workstations a full-scale representation of a first one of the parts of the shared data, the full-scale representation occupying a substantial part of the second workstation's respective display; and

after receiving from the second workstation's respective user input device a signal requesting an operation affecting the first part of the shared data, including in the first part's respective small-scale representation an indication of the operation affecting the first part.

18. A collaborative system comprising:

a plurality of workstations each having a respective display and a respective user input device;

shared data means for storing shared data, the shared data including a set of parts; and

user interface means connected for accessing the shared data stored by the shared data storing means and for presenting on the respective display of each of the workstations a respective local representation of the shared data; the local representation of the shared data including, for each of the parts of the shared data, a respective small-scale representation occupying a small part of the respective display; the user interface means further being for presenting on the respective display of any of the workstations a full-scale representation of any of the parts of the shared data, the full-scale representation occupying a substantial part of the respective display; the user interface means further being for receiving from the respective user input device of any of the workstations at which the full-scale representation of a first one of the parts of the shared data is presented a signal requesting an operation affecting the first part of the shared data and, after receiving the signal requesting the operation, including in the first part's respective small-scale representation on the respective display of each workstation an indication of the operation affecting the first part.