Profile management system
OwnerSimon J. Case, Nader Azarmi +1inventors
InventorsSimon J. Case, Nader Azarmi, Marcus Thint
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Abstract
A profile management system, for use with information processing applications which retrieve information on behalf of a user. The system comprises a profile generator which generates default user profiles. The profile generator can identify user-specific information from, for instance, an organisation chart such that new members of an organisation are automatically assigned a profile. This enables information processing applications to provide new members with information that is relevant to their role within an organisation.
Claims18
Apparatus for generating a user profile for use in an information management system, the user profile comprising interests deemed to be relevant to a user, the apparatus comprising:
- classification means for classifying a user as a type of entity;
- a mapping store comprising data indicative of mappings between entity type and interests;
- a template store comprising one or more templates each comprising a plurality of interests;
- identifying means in operative association with the mapping store and the classification means and arranged, in use, to identify data indicative of interests relevant to a user in accordance with classification of the user;
- to retrieve a template from the template store;
- and
- to generate a user profile from the retrieved template in accordance with the identified interests.
Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein an interest is characterised by a plurality of sets of subject-related data and/or attributes classifying the interest.
Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising means for characterising an interest for loading onto a template, said characterising means comprising means for retrieving subject-related data from information accessed by one or more users.
Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, including means arranged to receive data indicative of relationships between entity types, and to modify interests in the mapping store in dependence on the received data.
Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the classification means is in operative association with a data structure, elements of which are representative of entity type.
A method of generating a user profile for use in an information management system, the user profile comprising interests deemed to be relevant to a user, the method comprising the steps of:
- classifying a user as a type of entity;
- accessing mappings between entity type and interests in order to identify interests corresponding to the classified user;
- retrieving a template from a template store, the template store comprising one or more templates each comprising a plurality of interests;
- generating a user profile from the retrieved template in accordance with the identified interests.
A user profile for use by one or more information management means in retrieval of information, the profile comprising
- first data identifying a plurality of interests, and comprising, for each interest, subject-related terms related to the said interest and subject-related terms un-related to the said interest,
- second data identifying attributes characterising an interest, the second data being used by the information management means to filter information identified as being relevant to the first data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.