Gathering change data from information provider network indicative of event changes at information provider node relative to pre-stored information in the database by information collection agents

Abstract

The present invention provides a system for managing information on a computer network having a server by gathering summary data from the information provider node indicative of event changes at the information provider node by information collection agents extracting information from the information provider node based on the summary data; transmitting the extracted information to the server; storing the transmitted information in an event database; cataloging the stored information into hierarchical categories; retrieving with a delivery agent based upon the hierarchical categories selected information from the stored information; and transmitting the selected information to the client node.

I claim:  
     
         1 . A method for managing information on a computer network having a server, at least one client node and at least one information provider node, comprising the steps of: 
 gathering summary data from the information provider node indicative of event changes at the information provider node by information collection agents extracting information from the information provider node based on the summary data;    transmitting the extracted information to the server;    storing the transmitted information in an event database;    cataloging the stored information into hierarchical categories;    retrieving with a delivery agent based upon the hierarchical categories selected information from the stored information; and    transmitting the selected information to the client node.    
     
     
         2 . The method recited in  claim 1  wherein the cataloging step is based upon a relevance factor.  
     
     
         3 . The method recited in  claim 1  wherein the relevance factor is determined by pattern matching and fuzzy logic.  
     
     
         4 . The method recited in  claim 1  wherein the cataloging step assigns the transmitted information to the hierarchical categories by generating a common word list from a sample document.  
     
     
         5 . The method recited in  claim 4  wherein the generating a common word list includes the following steps: 
 identifying the words contained in a sample set of documents;  
 determining the most frequently occurring words; and  
 storing the most frequent occurring words in a list.  
 
     
     
         6 . The method recited in  claim 1  wherein the information collection agents are comprised of directory monitor agents; email reader agents and database extraction agents.  
     
     
         7 . The method recited in  claim 1  wherein the information collection agents extract event data from document directories, email servers and databases.  
     
     
         8 . The method recited in  claim 1  wherein the delivery agent retrieves the selected information from the hierarchical categories corresponding to pre-defined criteria.  
     
     
         9 . The method recited in  claim 2  further comprising the steps of: 
 calculating the relevance factor of the transmitted information for a particular category based upon a common word list, words in the transmitted information and keywords associated with a particular category;  
 comparing the relevance factor to a pre-determined relevance threshold; and  
 assigning the transmitted information to the particular category based upon the comparing of the relevance factor to the relevance threshold.  
 
     
     
         10 . The method recited in  claim 1  further comprising the step of: 
 generating a summary of the stored information based upon portions of the information containing the most frequently occurring relevant words.  
 
     
     
         11 . The system recited in  claim 1  further comprising the steps of: 
 checking the content of the web sites on a timed basis;  
 detecting changes in the content of the web site;  
 collecting information identifying the changes;  
 extracting relevant information from the collected information;  
 transmitting the relevant information to the server.  
 
     
     
         12 . A system for managing information in a computer network comprising: 
 an interconnection network;    a plurality of client nodes coupled to the interconnection network;    a plurality of information provider nodes coupled to the interconnection network;    a system server coupled to the interconnection network;    means for autonomously collecting information from the information provider nodes;    means for autonomously coordinating the collecting of information by the collecting means and for autonomously transmitting the collected information to the system server via the interconnection network;    means located at the system server for cataloging the information transmitted from the coordinating means.    
     
     
         13 . The system recited in  claim 12  wherein the interconnection network is the Internet.  
     
     
         14 . The system recited in  claim 13  further comprising means for autonomously gathering information from web sites on the Internet.  
     
     
         15 . The system recited in  claim 12  wherein the information provider node is a data server with a plurality of files arranged in a directory structure.  
     
     
         16 . The system recited in  claim 12  wherein the information provider node is an e-mail server.  
     
     
         17 . The system recited in  claim 12  wherein the information provider node is a data server with a database.  
     
     
         18 . A system for managing information in a computer network gathered from a plurality of information provider nodes for transmission to a plurality of client nodes via an interconnection network comprising: 
 a system server coupled to the interconnection network;    means for autonomously collecting information from the information provider nodes;    means for autonomously coordinating the collecting of information by the collecting means and for autonomously transmitting the collected information to the system server via the interconnection network;    means located at the system server for cataloging the information transmitted from the coordinating means.    
     
     
         19 . The system recited in  claim 18  wherein the interconnection network is the Internet.  
     
     
         20 . The system recited in  claim 19  further comprising means for autonomously gathering information from web sites on the Internet.  
     
     
         21 . The system recited in  claim 18  wherein the information collected from the information provider node is from a plurality of files arranged in a directory structure.  
     
     
         22 . The system recited in  claim 18  wherein the information collected from the information provider node is from an e-mail server.  
     
     
         23 . The system recited in  claim 18  wherein the information collected from the information provider node is from a database.