Extensible Object Types for Secure Social Applications
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current online social networking systems lack the ability to create and manage structured data in a web-site-independent manner, limiting user interaction and metadata visibility based on relationships, and do not allow for extensible object types that can be seamlessly shared across different platforms.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for creating objects that represent entities in web content, associating metadata visible to related users, and allowing users to extend object types and schemas, enabling a rich system of predefined types with extensible metadata that can be shared across the web, using a global object model and application programming interfaces (APIs) for social environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users can create and modify objects with custom attributes, then the system becomes more versatile and adaptable, but data validation and security become more difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments object validation into type-specific schemas that define valid attributes and values for each object type. This allows the system to handle diverse object types with custom attributes while maintaining validation through standardized schema-based checking, resolving the contradiction between versatility and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces schemas as a parameter layer that changes the validation approach from rigid to flexible. Schemas define the structure, data types, and constraints for object attributes, enabling the system to adapt to different object types while maintaining consistent validation rules through parameterized schema definitions.
2Reliability
If metadata visibility is controlled based on user relationships, then privacy and security are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces relationship metadata as an intermediary layer that mediates between users and object metadata visibility. Instead of implementing complex access control logic directly in the metadata system, relationship information serves as a mediator that automatically determines visibility based on predefined relationship types, simplifying the overall system while maintaining privacy control.
3Adaptability or versatility
If objects can be shared across multiple web sites and platforms, then user interaction and content portability are enhanced, but data consistency and security management become more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal object model with standardized schemas that can represent diverse entities across different platforms and applications. This universal model allows objects to be shared across multiple web sites while maintaining data consistency through standardized attribute definitions and validation rules, enabling cross-platform portability without proportionally increasing management complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A social environment is provided by creating an object in response to recognition of an entity in a portion of web content, wherein the object represents the entity, the object is associated with a type selected from a set of types, and the type is associated with a schema selected from a set of schemas, where the social environment includes a set of objects including the object, wherein the objects are instances of corresponding types in a rich system of predefined types, the schemas are associated with the types, metadata is associated with the objects, and there is at least one relationship between at least two objects selected from the set of objects, where the set of objects and the metadata are extensible, such that extensions provided by a first user are available for use by a second user. In one example, metadata provided by a first user is only available to a second user having a relationship with the first user.