Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/01—Protocols
  • H04L67/10—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network
  • H04L67/1095—Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
  • G06F16/10—File systems; File servers
  • G06F16/17—Details of further file system functions
  • G06F16/178—Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
  • G06F16/1794—Details of file format conversion
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
  • Y10S707/99951—File or database maintenance
  • Y10S707/99952—Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
  • Y10S707/99951—File or database maintenance
  • Y10S707/99952—Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
  • Y10S707/99953—Recoverability

Definitions

• Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of synchronizing and updating documents accessible and modifiable by multiple clients on a variety of devices via a network.
• embodiments of this invention relate to methods, computer-readable media, and data structures capable of synchronizing relatively large documents among multiple clients on a piecemeal, on-demand basis, whereby only portions of documents of interest to each particular client are provided to speed communication and minimize file storage requirements.
• a typical low-end, conventional, mobile device may have about 32 MB of memory, which severely limits the size of documents that may be stored. Also, code or programs for accessing and viewing documents on many devices are non-existent. Moreover, some formats may render better than others due to user interface scaling issues. In addition, some document formats may utilize less memory to expand than others. All of these issues cooperate to discourage the widespread use of relatively large documents collaboratively on different, particularly mobile, devices. [0003] Another issue with downloading, viewing, editing, and uploading relatively large documents on devices is the time required to download such a document.
• downloading the entire document can waste scarce resources of bandwidth, memory, time, and money (e.g., where a network charges by the amount of data transferred) .
• a method for synchronizing relatively large documents among multiple clients on a piecemeal, on- demand basis whereby only portions of documents of interest are sent to each particular client is desired to address one or more of these and other disadvantages.
• at least one embodiment of the present invention individually transcodes each portion of the document into a format understood by a particular mobile device.
• at least one embodiment of the invention downloads instructions for modifying only those modified portions of the document to which the client subscribes.
• aspects of the invention permit synchronizing of documents with multiple clients by receiving instructions from one or more clients regarding preferred data format, defining subsections of an original document, generating a subsection ID identifying each of the subsections, sending a listing of the subsection IDs to the one or more clients, receiving a request from at least one of the one or more clients to subscribe to one or more of the subsections, transcoding, responsive to the request, the one or more of the subsections into the preferred format of each client, and sending the transcoded, subscribed subsections according to respective client subscription requests.
• embodiments of the invention may be well-suited for collaboration by a group of clients, each utilizing separate devices, on one large, shared document.
• a method for synchronizing documents with multiple clients comprises receiving instructions from one or more clients regarding a format in which each of the one or more clients wishes to receive data.
• the method further defines subsections of an original document of potential interest to one or more of the clients.
• the subsections correspond to semantic breaks within the original document.
• the method further comprises generating a subsection ID identifying each of the subsections and sending a listing of the subsection IDs to the one or more clients.
• a system for synchronizing documents with multiple clients adapted for connection with the system via a network comprises a server and a database.
• the system is further adapted for connection with the network and adapted for receiving instructions from one or more of the clients regarding the format in which each of the one or more clients wishes to receive data from the server via the network.
• the system further comprises a database adapted for connection with the server for storing an original document of potential interest to one or more of the clients.
• the server is further configured to define subsections of the original document stored on the database. The defined subsections correspond to semantic breaks within the original document.
• the system further generates a subsection ID identifying each of the subsections and sends a listing of the subsection IDs to each of the one or more clients via the network.
• the system further receives a request from at least one of the one or more clients to subscribe to one or more of the subsections via the network.
• the system also transcodes, in response to the received request, the one or more of the subsections of the original document to which one or more clients wishes to subscribe and sends the transcoded subscribed subsections to the one or more clients according to their respective subscription requests.
• a computer-readable medium with computer executable instructions for receiving, defining, generating, sending, receiving, transcoding, and sending generally as set forth above with respect to the method and system of the present invention are disclosed.
• the invention may comprise various other methods, computer-readable media, systems, and data structures.
• FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system of the present invention
• Fig. 2 is a diagram of a document with multiple subsections according to the present invention
• FIGs. 3-3D are flowcharts of methods of the present invention.
• Fig. 4 is a diagram of a computer-readable medium (CRM) of the present invention.
• Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a suitable computing system environment in which the invention may be implemented.
• the system 21 generally comprises a server 33 and a database 37.
• the server 33 in the illustrated embodiment is adapted for connection with the network 29 for sending instructions at 41 to clients 25 via the network and for receiving instructions at 45 from one or more of the clients via the network.
• the database 37 is adapted for connection with the server 33 for storing an original document of potential interest to one or more of the clients 25.
• the server 33 can send instructions at 49 to the database 37 and receive instructions at 51 from the database.
• Each of the clients 25 is configured to communicate directly at 55 with the network 29, including sending communications to the network and receiving communications from the network.
• the server 33 and database 37 of the system 21 are also configured to provide the functionality discussed below in association with the multiple methods of the present invention.
• a client, or user, 21 communicating via a device may be any number of entities, representing individuals, groups of individuals, or automated devices functioning under the control of one or more individuals, among others.
• the term device, computer, or computing device as used herein may comprise a variety of different devices, including but not limited to a personal computer, a laptop computer, or a handheld computers, as well as cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and other portable media devices, among others.
• Other devices or means for accessing documents not specifically mentioned here are also contemplated as within the scope of the present invention.
• the server 33 may receive instructions, at 45, from one or more clients 25 regarding a format in which each of the one or more clients wishes to receive data (see Fig. 3).
• this formatting selection may occur early in the process to ensure that all communications with the device are in an understandable format, although it is contemplated that such a selection may occur at a later time in the process.
• Each client can request any number of different formats, including html formatting, formatted text documents (e.g., Microsoft Word documents, rich text format documents, Portable Document Format (PDF), etc.), ASCII text formatting, among others.
• PDF Portable Document Format
• the system 21 and method of the present invention may utilize these formatting instructions when transcoding data for sending at 41 to each client 25 to ensure that the data sent will be accessible by each of the clients.
• a diagram of a document of potential interest to one or more clients 25 is generally indicated at 61.
• Multiple clients 25 sharing and collaborating with a common document will benefit from the systems and methods of the present invention.
• clients 25 sharing particularly large documents will stand to gain substantial functionality by utilizing the system and methods of the present invention.
• the method of the present invention further defines, at 75, subsections A-F, each indicated 65, of the original document (see Fig. 3).
• These subsections 65 correspond to semantic, or logical, breaks within the original document 61.
• the subsections 65 may be established according to a table of contents associated with the original document 61.
• the present invention may divide the document into logical subsections that will make sense to the clients 25. Moreover, the subsections 65 will be more likely to begin and end at logical locations within the document. This particular scheme is much more intuitive and helpful than conventional methods, which may divide documents based upon an end of a page of text, the number of words in each subsection, the memory allocation of each subsection, or other arbitrary measure.
• defining, at 75, the subsections 65 of the original document 61 comprises separating the document, also at 75, into the subsections based upon a table of contents associated with the document identifying logical breaks within the document (see Fig.3).
• Such a table of contents helps ensure that appropriate subsections 65 are defined because the table of contents already has been logically created by the drafter of the document 61 according to the contents of the document.
• a table of contents maybe client-defined.
• the subsections 65 of the original document 61 maybe defined by generating a table of contents based upon the inherent structure of the document itself.
• automatic generation of a table of contents can occur in any number of ways, including leveraging an outline view of a Microsoft Word document, utilizing headings and subheadings included in a document, and utilizing white space recognition in the document. Other methods for automatically establishing a table of contents are also contemplated as within the scope of the claimed invention.
• the present method also contemplates generating a subsection ID, at 79, identifying each of the subsections 65 (see Fig. 3).
• These subsection IDs may be structured in any number of logical ways for easy review and consideration by clients.
• generating a subsection ID may comprise linking, also at 79, the name of the subsection 65 and the location of the subsection within the document together. In this manner, both the general contents of the subsection 65 and its relative location with respect to other subsections is readily known simply by reviewing the subsection ID.
• the subsection IDs may be as simple as IA, 2B, 3 C, 4D, 5E, and 6F, wherein the numerical portion of the subsection ID indicated the location of the subsection within the document 61 and the letters A-F indicate the topic discussed in the subsection.
• the letters A-F can be readily substituted with topical headings indicative of the contents of the subsection (e.g., 1 Apples, 2Bananas, etc.).
• topical headings indicative of the contents of the subsection (e.g., 1 Apples, 2Bananas, etc.).
• other methods of identifying such subsection IDs may also be used without departing from the scope of the claimed invention.
• the server 33 sends a listing of the subsection IDs, at 41, to the one or more clients 25 via the network 29 so that the clients can review the subsection IDs and determine to which subsections they wish to subscribe (see Figs. 1 and 3). In this manner, the clients 25 can quickly peruse the subsection IDs of the document 61, and thus a summary of their content, to determine if they would like to subscribe to any of the subsections 65, without having to download the entire document, or even a portion of the document before reviewing the subsection IDs.
• Each client 25 has the option of sending a request at 55 via the network 29 to subscribe to one or more of the subsections 65.
• the server 33 receives such a request, at 83, from at least one of the one or more clients 25 to subscribe to one or more of the subsections 65 (see Fig. 3).
• the server 33 may receive a different subscription request from each client 25, allowing each client to customize her view of the document 61 on her device. For example, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the server 33 may receive a request at 45 from Client 1 to receive subsection A, while Client 2 elects to receive subsections A, C, and F, while Client 3 selects to receive only subsection F.
• the system 21 may simply send the subsection or subsections 65 to the respective client making the request.
• the server 33 Before sending data to one or more of the clients at 41, the server 33 further transcodes, at 87, in response to the client request(s) the one or more of the subsections 65 of the original document 61 to which one or more clients 25 wishes to subscribe into the format in which the respective one or more clients wishes to receive data (see Fig. 3).
• each of the subscribed subsections 65 may be transcoded for access and modification according to the particular formatting requirements of each of the clients 25.
• a transcoded item is as an item that is formatted or configured so that it may be accessed, viewed, modified, and/or otherwise utilized on different platforms, irrespective of the application utilized, the language used, the viewing device employed, or the communication protocol required.
• the server 33 may send, at 91 , the transcoded, subscribed subsections 65 to the one or more clients 25 according to their respective subscription requests (see Fig. 3). The clients 25 may then view the contents of the subsections 65 to which they have subscribed. In one example, the server 33 sends only the subsections subscribed to by a particular client 25.
• the server 33 will not send a client a subsection to which the client does not subscribe.
• Each client may individually alter her subscriptions at any time, adding subsections, removing subsections, or modifying subsections, as will be discussed in greater detail below.
• a method embodying aspects of the present invention may further provide, at 95, a sample portion 71 of a subsection 65 to a non- subscribing client 25 for reviewing the sample portion of the contents of the subsection (see Fig. 3A).
• the subsection ID alone may not provide adequate information to each non-subscribing client 25 considering subscribing to a subsection 65 of a document 61.
• the system 21 may additionally offer a sample portion 71 of one or more subsections 65 for review to the client.
• the system 21 additionally provides, at 97, a selection element to the non-subscribing client 25 for requesting the sample portion 71 of one or more of the subsections 65 (see Fig. 3A).
• the system 21 automatically provides the sample portion 71 with one, some, or all of the subsections 65.
• the system 21 may also provide, at 99, a selection element to the non-subscribing client for electing to subscribe to or not to subscribe to the sampled subsection 65.
• Other features help preserve the relative ease of use of the present method by minimizing the amount of data downloaded to or uploaded from any particular client 25.
• the providing a sample portion 71 of a subsection 65 may further comprise providing, also at 95, a sample portion sized for reasonable download and storage to the device of the non-subscribing client 25 based upon the capabilities of at least one of the network and the device.
• Selection elements are provided generally herein to allow clients 25 to interact with the server 33 of the system 21 according to the present methods, m one example, the server 33 provides such functionality by providing, at 103, a user interface for interaction with the client 25 incorporated on the client's device (see Fig. 3).
• a user interface may, for example, include at least one selection element allowing the client to subscribe or unsubscribe to subsections 65 of the document 61.
• other selection elements may also be provided to each client 65 via the user interface.
• a client 25 may utilize an application on her device to make one or more modifications to the subsection. These modifications may do any number of things, including adding text, deleting text, modifying text, rearranging text, to name a few.
• the server 33 receives, at 105, at least one operation at 45 from one of the subscribing clients 25 comprising instructions to modify the contents of the subsection 65 of interest, add contents to the subsection of interest, or remove contents from the subsection of interest (see Fig. 3). A combination of one or more of these operations may also be received by the server 33 according to the present method. Such modifications may be sent to the server 33 either automatically or as specifically directed by a client 25.
• the entire modified subsection 65 need not be sent to the server 33, but rather only the operations initiated by one of the subscribing clients 25 upon the subsection. For example, if the client 25 were to remove all references to a first text string (e.g., "World Wide Web") and replace them with a second text string (e.g., "WWW”), only the relatively simple operation of replacing the first string with the second string would need to be forwarded to the server 33 for application to the subsection 65 for each of the subscribers.
• a first text string e.g., "World Wide Web”
• WWW second text string
• aspects of the invention further permit checking the synchronization.
• the server of the present system 21 may compare the subsection stored in the database 37 with one, some, or all of the subsections stored on client devices.
• the system 21 hashes, at 107, the subsection(s) 65 of interest of the original document 61 to which one or more clients 25 subscribe into a numerical value indicative of the contents of the subsection of the original document (see Fig. 3D).
• the system 21 then hashes, at 109, the modified subsection 65 of the original document 61 into a numerical value indicative of the content of the at least one modified subsection.
• the system 21 may then compare, at 111 , the numerical value of the subsection 65 of the original document 61 to the numerical value of the modified subsection to determine if the subsection of the original document has been modified (see Fig. 3D).
• a modification which may also be simply an addition or a deletion of data, is detected, the system 21 provides, at 113, the operation(s) associated with the modified subsection 65 to clients 25 subscribing to the subsection for use in modifying the subsection for each client.
• each client 25 has an identical copy of the modified subsection, thereby allowing ready review and access to the latest changes in the document 61.
• the server 33 sends, at 115, an updated listing of the subsection IDs to all clients when the operation(s) adds content to a subsection 65 (see Fig.3C).
• This action provides subscribers with information relating to a subsection 65 to which they have demonstrated a particular interest and non-subscribers with an opportunity to subscribe to the subsection if the added content may be of particular interest.
• the server 33 sends, at 117, the operation(s) from one of the subscribing clients 25 to all the subscribing clients (see Fig. 3C).
• the subscribers have demonstrated a desire to maintain an updated version of the subsection
• the server does not send these modification or deletion operations to the non-subscribing clients 25, however, because the removal or modification of information within the subsection 65 will not likely be of interest to a non-subscriber.
• the system 21 may remove, at 119, the formatting attributes of the one or more subsections 65 before hashing the one or more of the subsections of the original document 61 and before the hashing of the modified subsection of the original document (see Fig. 3D). This ensures that formatting changes that may have occurred to the subsection 65 on a client device do not create a false positive for a changed document subsection when comparing the hashing of the original subsection and the potentially modified subsection.
• sending notification of the modified subsection 65 to clients not subscribing to the modified subsection comprises updating, at 115, the listing of the subsection IDs to indicate the modified subsection (see Fig. 3C). In this manner, the non-subscribing client 25 may simply review the updated list of subsection IDs to determine if any subsections have changed, again, without downloading each subsection.
• two or more clients 25 may attempt to modify the same document subsection 65, requiring that the system 21 employ a conflict resolution methodology.
• the server 33 may receive, 121, at least one operation from two or more of the subscribing clients 25 (e.g., Client 1 and Client 2) to modify the same subscribed subsection (see Fig.3B).
• the server 33 resolves, at 123, any conflict between the operation(s) received from one of the subscribing clients 25 and the operation(s) received from another of the subscribing clients to modify the same subscribed subsection 65 by employing the conflict resolution methodology.
• the server 33 applies a modification authority hierarchy to determine whether to apply the at least one operation from Client 1 or Client 2 based upon the position of each subscribing client 25 in the hierarchy. For instance, where Client 2 is ranked above Client 1 in the modification authority hierarchy, the modifications of Client 2 will be utilized, instead of the modifications of Client 1.
• the server 33 resolves any conflict by utilizing the received operation that satisfies a temporal requirement based upon the time each of the operations was initiated by the subscribing clients 25.
• the server 33 may utilize the earlier of the two modification operations, the latter of the two modification operations, or the modification operation closest to a particular time, to name a few.
• the system 21 may also or alternatively notify a client 25 if her modifications have gone unused due to a conflict resolution, so that the client is aware that such changes will not be utilized.
• the server 33 receives at least one operation from a Client 1 and a Client 2 and sends the operations of one client (e.g., Client 1) to the other client (e.g., Client 2).
• Client 1 e.g., Client 1
• Client 2 may then review each of the proposed changes side-by-side to determine what operations, if any, of both sets of operations should be adopted.
• one of the clients 25 performs the role of conflict resolution.
• any number of different conflict resolution schemes may be utilized without departing from the scope of the claimed invention
• Fig.4 is a diagram of a computer-readable medium (CRM) of the present invention, generally indicated 125.
• the computer-readable medium has computer- executable instructions for synchronizing documents with multiple clients.
• the computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprise receiving instructions for receiving instructions from one or more clients regarding a format in which each of the one or more clients wishes to receive data.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise defining instructions for defining subsections of an original document, the original document being of potential interest to one or more of the clients, the subsections corresponding to semantic breaks within the original document.
• the computer- executable instructions further comprise generating instructions for generating a subsection ID identifying each of the subsections and sending instructions for sending a listing of the subsection IDs to the one or more clients.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise receiving instructions for receiving a request from at least one of the one or more clients to subscribe to one or more of the subsections.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise transcoding instructions for transcoding, responsive to the request, the one or more of the subsections of the original document to which one or more clients wishes to subscribe into the format in which the respective one or more clients wishes to receive data.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise sending instructions for sending the transcoded, subscribed subsections to the one or more clients according to their respective subscription requests. [0038] In another example, also depicted in Fig.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise receiving instructions for receiving at least one operation from one of the subscribing clients to modify a subscribed subsection of the original document.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise hashing instructions for hashing the one or more of the subsections of the original document to which one or more clients subscribes into a numerical value indicative of the contents of the original document and hashing instructions for hashing the modified subsection of the original document into a numerical value indicative of the content of the at least one modified subsection.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise comparing instructions for comparing the numerical value of the subsection of the original document to the numerical value of the modified subsection to determine if the subsection of the original document has been modified.
• the computer-executable instructions further comprise providing instructions for providing the at least one operation associated with the subsection to clients subscribing to the subsection for use in modifying the subsection for the client.
• the client 25 begins by specifying to the server 33 the format of the data that it wishes to receives (e.g., the server document 61 may stored in a Microsoft Word Document format, whereas the device only understands basic HTML).
• the server document 61 may stored in a Microsoft Word Document format, whereas the device only understands basic HTML.
• the client request [0040] ⁇ Sync>
• the server 33 After defining five subsections 65 of the original document 61 in this example and generating unique subsection IDs (e.g., Parti, Part2, etc.) identifying each of the subsections, the server 33 responds by sending at 41 the listing of subsection EDs to the client 25 after which the client can "subscribe" to a particular subsection of the document.
• An exemplary server response would be: [0044] ⁇ Sync> [0045] ⁇ SubSection> [0046] ⁇ Id>PartK/Id>
• the client After displaying the subsection IDs to the client 25, the client then sends a request to the server 33 specifying the subsections 65 to which the client would like to subscribe.
• the subsection 65 is identified by the subsection ID in the following example of such a request:
• the server 33 determines the set of subsection additions, changes, and deletes that it sends to the respective client 25. To determine deletes, the server 33 notices that a particular subsection 65 has disappeared from the document 61. To determine changes, the server 33 notices that the hash of the content has changed for a subsection 65 to which the client 25 already subscribes. To determine adds, the server 33 notices that either a new subsection 65 was introduced into the document 61 or the client
• the response at 41 by the server 33 will include additions, changes, and deletes for individual client subsections.
• the changes sent at 41 to the client 25 will only contain subsection 65 content if the client has subscribed to this subsection. Otherwise, the client 25 will be notified of the change, and in some examples, basic subsection ID changes.
• each subsection 65 contains a transcoded view of the subsection, not the original subsection itself. This allows the server 33 to tailor the provided subsection content to the particular constraints of the device (e.g., the device only supports viewing basic HTML and can only store a single subsection at a time).
• FIG. 5 shows one example of a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer 130.
• a computer such as the computer 130 is suitable for use in the other figures illustrated and described herein.
• the client computer or device discussed above may be embodied by computer 130.
• Computer 130 additionally has one or more processors or processing units
• a system bus 136 couples various system components including the system memory 134 to the processors 132.
• the bus 136 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.
• bus architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus,
• MCA Micro Channel Architecture
• EISA Enhanced ISA
• VESA Standards Association
• PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
• the computer 130 typically has at least some form of computer readable media.
• Computer readable media which include both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media, maybe any available medium that can be accessed by computer 130.
• Computer readable media comprise computer storage media and communication media.
• Computer storage media include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data.
• computer storage media include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to store the desired information and that can be accessed by computer 130.
• Communication media typically embody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and include any information delivery media. Those skilled in the art are familiar with the modulated data signal, which has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.
• Wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection
• wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media
• communication media such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media
• the system memory 134 includes computer storage media in the form of removable and/or non-removable, volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.
• system memory 134 includes read only memory (ROM) 138 and random access memory (RAM) 140.
• Abasic input/output system 142 (BIOS) containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 130, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 138.
• RAM 140 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 132.
• Fig. 5 illustrates operating system 144, application programs 146, other program modules 148, and program data 150.
• the computer 130 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media.
• Fig. 5 illustrates a hard disk drive 154 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media.
• Fig. 5 also shows a magnetic disk drive 156 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 158, and an optical disk drive 160 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk 162 such as a CD-ROM or other optical media.
• removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like.
• the hard disk drive 154, and magnetic disk drive 156 and optical disk drive 160 are typically connected to the system bus 136 by a nonvolatile memory interface, such as interface 166.
• the drives or other mass storage devices and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in Fig. 5, provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer 130.
• hard disk drive 154 is illustrated as storing operating system 170, application programs 172, other program modules 174, and program data 176. Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system 144, application programs 146, other program modules 148, and program data 150. Operating system 170, application programs 172, other program modules 174, and program data 176 are given different numbers here to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies.
• a user may enter commands and information into computer 130 through input devices or user interface selection devices such as a keyboard 180 and a pointing device 182 (e.g., a mouse, trackball, pen, or touch pad).
• Other input devices may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, camera, scanner, or the like.
• processing unit 132 through a user input interface 184 that is coupled to system bus 136, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port, or a Universal Serial Bus (USB).
• a monitor 188 or other type of display device is also connected to system bus 136 via an interface, such as a video interface 190.
• computers often include other peripheral output devices (not shown) such as a printer and speakers, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface (not shown).
• the computer 130 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 194.
• the remote computer 194 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to computer 130.
• the logical connections depicted in Fig. 5 include a local area network (LAN) 196 and a wide area network (WAN) 198, but may also include other networks.
• LAN 136 and/or WAN 138 can be a wired network, a wireless network, a combination thereof, and so on.
• Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, and global computer networks (e.g., the Internet).
• computer 130 When used in a local area networking environment, computer 130 is connected to the LAN 196 through a network interface or adapter 186. When used in a wide area networking environment, computer 130 typically includes a modem 178 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 198, such as the Internet.
• the modem 178 which maybe internal or external, is connected to system bus 136 via the user input interface 184, or other appropriate mechanism.
• program modules depicted relative to computer 130, or portions thereof may be stored in a remote memory storage device (not shown).
• Fig. 5 illustrates remote application programs 192 as residing on the memory device. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used.
• the data processors of computer 130 are programmed by means of instructions stored at different times in the various computer-readable storage media of the computer.
• Programs and operating systems are typically distributed, in one example, on floppy disks or CD-ROMs. From there, they are installed or loaded into the secondary memory of a computer. At execution, they are loaded at least partially into the computer's primary electronic memory.
• the invention described herein includes these and other various types of computer-readable storage media when such media contain instructions or programs for implementing the operations described below in conjunction with a microprocessor or other data processor.
• Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, mobile telephones, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
• a computer 130 acting as the server 33 executes a method such as described above for synchronizing documents with multiple clients.
• the computer 130 or its components receiving instructions from one or more clients regarding a format in which each of the one or more clients wishes to receive data.
• the computer 130 or its components defining subsections of an original document, the original document being of potential interest to one or more of the clients, the subsections corresponding to semantic breaks within the original document.
• the computer 130 or its components generating a subsection ED identifying each of the subsections.
• the computer 130 or its components sending a listing of the subsection IDs to the one or more clients.
• the computer 130 or its components receiving a request from at least one of the one or more clients to subscribe to one or more of the subsections.
• the computer 130 or its components transcoding, responsive to the request, the one or more of the subsections of the original document to which one or more clients wishes to subscribe into the format in which the respective one or more clients wishes to receive data.
• the computer 130 or its components sending the transcoded, subscribed subsections to the one or more clients according to their respective subscription requests.

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• 2005
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• 2006
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