WO2022047532A1

WO2022047532A1 - Content distribution

Info

Publication number: WO2022047532A1
Application number: PCT/AU2021/051014
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jonathan Chek Kin Yau
Original assignee: Stockphoto.com Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-03
Filing date: 2021-09-01
Publication date: 2022-03-10

Abstract

The invention provides a content facilitation system, which, when operational provides a method of facilitating content availability that includes: sharing links to data elements stored in exclusive use storage facilities to a content facilitation system; indexing data objects identified in the data elements by use of artificial intelligence techniques; making available to content consumers the data elements by providing the indexed data objects to content consumers.

Description

CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to content distribution. More specifically, this invention relates to a content facilitation system and to a method of facilitating content availability.

BACKGROUND ART

The following discussion of the background art is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. The discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to is or was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application.

Stock photography in general is the supply of images which are often licensed for specific use. It is based on an on-line source of images available for people and companies to download. A photographer uploads his/her images to a stock photography agency’s database, the agency protects the various images with a watermark and charges a fee for downloading the images, from which the agency receives commission on each sale.

The storage component of the uploaded images on the relevant stock photography agency is typically based on a cloud storage infrastructure. Each agency makes use and is responsible for its own cloud storage infrastructure. This results in a user/photographer uploading limitation set by said agency in order to avoid the exploitation and/or over usages of the relevant agency’s cloud infrastructure, resulting in an indirect cost-effective uploading management system.

Uploading of stock photography images onto existing stock photography databases can be cumbersome as the photographer has to ensure that images comply with certain minimum standards and the photographer has to provide indexing details of each photograph to enable potential users effectively to search for relevant images under certain predefined categories. The aforementioned limitation has certain overall disadvantages, viz. photographers are discouraged from uploading all their images and furthermore some agencies reject the uploading of certain images. This results in a hidden inventory of images worldwide and a passive participation by the general public and more specifically, photographers.

In this specification, the terms images, photographs, videos and content may be used interchangeably. It is to be understood that the present invention finds application in all available digital content, including audio/visual content, irrespective of the format in which the content is stored or coded onto storage media.

It is an object of this invention to address some of the shortcomings of general cloud infrastructure used by digital content providers, such as stock photography providers, software providers, or the like, of which the Applicant is aware.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Very broadly, the invention provides a system and method of facilitating the sharing of digital content from one or more content providers’ external storage systems, via a content facilitation system.

Broadly thus, one aspect of the invention provides a content facilitation system, which, when operational provides a method of facilitating content availability that includes: sharing links to data elements stored in exclusive use storage facilities to a content facilitation system; indexing data objects identified in the data elements by use of artificial intelligence techniques; making available to content consumers the data elements by providing the indexed data objects to content consumers. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a content facilitation system, which includes: at least one web interface operable to provide front end access to one or more content providers of the content facilitation system; a register of external storage locations of data elements to which the content providers have provided access; an index of data objects associated with each data element; and a database in which the register of external storage locations are stored.

The at least one web interface may be operable to provide front end access to one or more content consumers of the content facilitation system, which enables content consumers to access data elements of one or more content providers from the external storage locations.

According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a content facilitation system, which includes: at least one web interface operable to provide front end access to any one or both of content providers and content consumers of the content facilitation system; at least one user administration system operable to register details of any one or both of content providers and content consumers, the details of the content providers including external storage locations of data elements to which the content providers have provided access; data object components comprising: a data object identification facility operable to access data elements located at the external storage locations of the content providers and to detect data objects in each of the data elements; a data object categorisation facility operable to categorize the data objects according to a list of predefined objects; a data object indexing facility operable to index the data elements of the content providers associated with detected data objects in any one or more of the data elements; and a database operable to store the indexed external storage locations of the data elements of the content providers associated with detected data objects in each of the data elements.

The data object components may be machine learning components.

The external storage locations may be cloud-based storage locations to which the content provider has exclusive access control. The cloud-based storage locations may thus be private to the content provider.

The content facilitation system may include a search facility, operable upon request to search for a data element according to a predefined data object and to return an external cloud-based storage location of the data element containing the data object.

The details of content providers and content consumers may include login details, such as a username and password to provide secure access to the content facilitation system.

The web interface may be in the form of a backend web application host, such as Netlify, or the like.

The user administration system may include an authentication, authorization and user management facility such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cognito, or the like.

The data object identification facility and data object categorisation facility may be in the form of a machine learning tool, which is operable to identify and analyse images and videos, such as Clarifai, Google Vision, or the like.

The database may be operable to store user data, metrics data and the like and may employ tools such as MongoDB, AWS DynamoDB, or the like. The data object indexing facility and search facility may be implemented by a serverless event driven platform such as AWS Lambda, or the like.

The external storage locations may include any cloud storage facility to which a content provider holds exclusive access control, such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Google Photos, or the like. The external storage locations may include social media applications to which a content provider holds exclusive access control, such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or the like.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of facilitating content availability, which includes authorizing access to a content storage facility of a content provider; accessing elements stored in the content storage facility of the content provider; employing tools to analyse the elements stored in the content storage facility by identifying data objects within any one or more of the data elements; categorising the identified data objects according to a list of predefined data objects; indexing each of the data elements according to the list of predefined data objects; storing the indexed data elements in an index database; making the index database available to content consumers; and upon request, retrieving a data element indexed to a predefined data object in the list of predefined data objects from the content storage facility of the content provider of the particular data element.

The tools may be machine learning tools. The method may include the prior step of permitting a content provider to register onto a content facilitation system.

The method may include the prior step of permitting a content provider to upload data elements to a content storage facility.

The data elements stored in the content storage facility may include any one or more of individual digitized images, series of digitized images arranged as video clips, and sound recordings associated with the series of digitized images. It is to be appreciated that the term images should be interpreted as any digital file that may be used to create a visual representation such as bit-mapped filed, encoded files, vector files, or the like. It is further to be appreciated that the invention may also be applicable to technical drawings, printed circuit board layouts, computer software and the like.

The step of receiving access to a content storage facility may include receiving an authorization token to access the content storage facility of a content provider.

The step of receiving access to a content storage facility may be preceded by the step of presenting a hosted web interface to a content provider via which the content provider may interface with a content facilitation system. This step may include the step of uploading pointers to all the data elements in the content storage facility of the content provider. The pointers may be in the form of hyperlinks.

The step of identifying data objects within each of the data elements may include employing machine learning image recognition tools to identify visual data objects in the individual digitised images or series of digitized images; or may include employing machine learning sound recognition tools to identify aural data objects in a sound recording associated with a series of digitized images, as the case might be. For example, a visual data object may be an image of a living or inanimate object and an aural data object may be a sound produced by a living or inanimate object.

It is to be appreciated that the list of predefined data objects in the step of categorising the identified data objects according to a list of predefined data objects may conform to a list of data objects with which machine learning models employed by the machine learning tools have been trained. The list of predefined data objects may be indexed to keywords for such objects.

The step of making the index database available to content consumers may be preceded by the step of presenting a hosted web interface to a content consumer via which the content consumer may interface with a content facilitation system.

The step of retrieving a data element indexed to a predefined data object in the list of predefined data objects may be preceded by the step of presenting a content consumer with a search facility to search the list of predefined data objects for a particular keyword with which such data object is associated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features of the present invention are more fully described in the following description of several non-limiting embodiments thereof. This description is included solely for the purposes of exemplifying the present invention. It should not be understood as a restriction on the broad summary, disclosure or description of the invention as set out above. The description will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 shows a functional block diagram of a content facilitation system, in accordance with one aspect of the invention;

Figure 2 shows an illustration of the relationship between data objects and data elements;

Figure 3 refers to a flow diagram of a method in accordance with another aspect of the invention; and

Figures 4 to 12 show a web interface of the content facilitation system of Figure 1 .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following embodiments, given by way of example only, are described to provide a more precise understanding of the subject matter of a preferred embodiment or embodiments. In the figures, incorporated to illustrate features of a non-limiting example embodiment, like reference numerals are used to identify like parts throughout the figures. With reference to the Figures, reference numerals 1X are used throughout this specification to refer, generally to a content facilitation system and its components and reference numerals 1XX are used to refer generally to a method of facilitating content availability and its steps.

Figure 1 shows a content facilitation system (10). The content facilitation system (10) is accessible to content providers (photographers) (12), to content consumers (14), and to system administrators (16) via a web interface (18). In this example the web interface (18) is hosted on a Netlify platform (30) that is operable to interface with an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda platform (22). The AWS Lambda platform (22) employs a MongoDB platform (24) and an AWS DynamoDB (26) platform to host data of the content facilitation system (10). This data may include data of content providers (12), content consumers (14), administrators (16), a library of predefined data objects, index database, and the like. The user data and data metric information is stored on the AWS DynamoDB (26) platform. Access to the AWS Lambda platform (22) is controlled by the AWS Cognito platform (28) through which the authentication, authorization and user management of the content providers (12), the content consumers (14) and the administrators (16) are managed. The AWS Lambda platform (22) in use represents a register of external storage locations. Photographers (12) normally store their content on cloud-based storage facilities (20), such as Dropbox (20.1 ), OneDrive (20.2), Google Drive (20.3) and Google photos (20.4). It is to be appreciated that this invention is applicable to any type of storage facility where remote access is possible through authorization tokens. There are a plethora of platforms that could be integrated onto the content facilitation system (10) that will not be described in the specification. Part of the AWS Lambda platform (22) is an indexing function that can be performed by an AWS Lambda Indexing function (34). The AWS Lambda Indexing function (34) employs Clarifai (36) and Google Vision (38) to associated keyword tags (predefined data objects) to each data object. In this example, reference is only made to images as data objects, but the same principles can be applied to a series of images and to sound recordings associated with a series of images, such as video content that contains sound. The Google Vision (38) platform is used to perform reverse image searches to determine if images are used without permission. The content facilitation system includes an Elasticsearch search engine (40), which can access the AWS Lambda Indexing platform (34) to perform searches for predefined data objects (keywords) on the data extracted by the Clarifai (36) and Google Vision (38) platforms. The AWS Elastic Beanstalk (32), manages the AWS Load Balancer (32.2) and the AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) services (32.1 ). It is to be understood that, in order to perform the indexing on the data elements (80, 82, 84), such data elements (80, 82, 84) need to be temporary downloaded to the AWS download servers (32.1 ). This function can be performed initially and/or at regular intervals.

As can be seen in Figure 2, content of content providers (12) stored on the cloudbased storage facilities (20) are accessed as separate data elements (80, 82, 84). The data element (80) is an image, the data element (82) is a series of images, such as a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) animation or a video file, and the data element (84) is an audio component which might represent an individual data element, or which might be associated with a video file as a video sound track. In the data element (80) a data object (86) in the form of a human can be seen. In the data element (82) a data object (88) in the form of a motor vehicle can be seen, and in the data element (84) in the form of a sound recording, a motorcycle engine (90) can be heard.

In Figure 3 a flow diagram of a method of facilitating content availability (100) is illustrated. The method (100) is initiated at 102 by permitting a content provider (12) to register onto a content facilitation system (10) by means of the AWS Cognito platform (28). The method includes the step of permitting a content provider at 104 to submit references to data elements (images) (80) to a content storage facility (20). This step includes uploading pointers to all the data elements (80) in the content storage facility (20) of the content provider (12). The pointers are in the form of hyperlinks. At 106, the AWS Lambda platform (22) receives permission from the content provider (12) to access the data elements (images) (80) stored in the content storage facility (20) of the content provider (12). This is done by receiving an authorization token to access the content storage facility (20) of a content provider (12). At 108, the AWS Lambda platform (22) access data elements (80) stored in the content storage facility (20) of the content provider (12) and at 110 employs machine learning tools in the form of the Clarifai platform (36) and the Google Vision platform (38) to analyse the data elements (80) stored in the content storage facility (20). During this step of employing machine learning tools at 110, the method entails identifying data objects (86) within each of the data elements (80) at 110.1 , categorising the identified data objects (86) according to a list of predefined data objects, stored in Clarifai (36) and Google Vision (38) at 110.2, and indexing each of the data elements (86) according to the list of predefined data objects at 110.3. Indexing of the data elements (86) is performed by the AWS Lambda Indexing platform (34). The data elements (86) is indexed as metadata for each of the images (80) and the metadata is stored on the Elastisearch platform at 112. The next step in the method of facilitating content availability (100) is to provide content consumers (14) with relevant content. At 114 content consumers are provided access to the content facilitation system (10) via the web interface (18). Optionally, content consumers (14) may be required to register on the AWS Cognito platform (28) to gain access to the system (10). In particular, the index database in the form of the Elasticsearch platform (40) is made available to content consumers (14) at 114. At 116 content consumers (14) can interrogate the image metadata by performing keyword searches on the Elasticsearch platform (40). At 118 a data element (80) indexed to any of the searched keywords can be retrieved by content consumers (14) through the AWS Cognito platform (28) providing the necessary authorization to the content consumer (14) to access the relevant data element (80) stored in the content storage facility (20) of the content provider (12). The method terminates at 120.

Figures 4 to 12 show the web interface (18) of the content facilitation system (10) of Figure 1 , in use. These figures will be described further to illustrate the method of facilitating content availability (100) as described in Figure 3. The step 102 of registering on the system (10) is not shown in the figures. Once registered, as shown in Figure 4, a content provider (12) has the opportunity to link a cloud-based storage facility (20) to their account. In this example it is possible to link a Dropbox account (20.1 ), a Google Drive account (20.3), a Google Photos account (20.4), or a OneDrive account (20.2). However, it is to be appreciated that other examples may include social media applications to which a content provider holds exclusive access control, such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or the like. Once the cloudbased storage facility (20) is linked, the status is confirmed in Figure 5, by displaying the account e-mail address and providing an opportunity to link a particular folder to the system (10). A folder is selected in Figure 6 in which data elements (photos or videos) (80, 82, 84) are stored. In Figure 7, the content in the selected folder can be selected individually. In this example, for simplification purposes all date elements (80) are images. Once the relevant folders and data elements (80) are selected, the processes described above are initiated, including calls to Clarifai (36) and Google Vision (38) to index the data elements (80) stored in the content storage facility (20) by means of machine learning tools, as described at 110 above. Furthermore, this process performs reverse image searches to detect any pirated or inappropriate content and to generate reports for the content provider (12) about the usage of data objects (80, 82, 84) that were made available. The data obtained from the Clarifai (36) and Google Vision (38) processes are then stored in the Elasticsearch instance (40) as described under 112 above.

The outcome of this process is visible with reference to Figure 8. In Figure 8, the data elements (images)(80) that were made available are shown and if a content provider (12) hovers their cursor over a particular image, a number of keyword tags (data objects, from the list of predefined data objects) are displayed. A content provider (12) has the opportunity to delete certain keyword tags by clicking on the "X" in the keyword tag, and can add new keyword tags by clicking on the "+" next to the first keyword tag and then entering a new keyword, as shown in Figure 9. A content consumer (14), once registered, can now access the system (10) as described at 114 and 116 above.

As can be seen in Figure 10, when a content consumer (14) enters a keyword in the search field, the Elasticsearch platform (40) is accessed and retrieves references (thumbnails) to data elements (images) (80) which were previously indexed to the particular keywords. As can be seen in Figure 10, if a content consumer (14) wants to retrieve an image, a selection is made on the menu to download the image. A screen is then displayed as in Figure 11 , that provides the content consumer (14) with an option to pay for the particular image or to subscribe to the platform (as the case might be). Once access is granted, the content consumer (14) obtain access from the AWS Cognito platform (28) to access the cloud-based storage facility (20) of the content provider (12), and the image is downloaded directly to the content consumer (14) as set out above at 118. All data elements made available by the content provider (12) remains under the control of the content provider (12) and can at any time be deleted from the cloud-based storage facility (20) and through the content facilitation system (10), as shown in Figure 12.

The Applicant is of the opinion that the invention provides a useful content facilitation system and method of facilitating content availability. Optional embodiments of the present invention may also be said to broadly consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or indicated herein, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of the parts, elements or features, and wherein specific integers are mentioned herein which have known equivalents in the art to which the invention relates, such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if individually set forth. It is to be appreciated that reference to "one example" or "an example" of the invention is not made in an exclusive sense. Accordingly, one example may exemplify certain aspects of the invention, whilst other aspects are exemplified in a different example. These examples are intended to assist the skilled person in performing the invention and are not intended to limit the overall scope of the invention in any way unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It is to be understood that the terminology employed above is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The described embodiment is intended to be illustrative of the invention, without limiting the scope thereof. The invention is capable of being practised with various modifications and additions as will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Various substantially and specifically practical and useful exemplary embodiments of the claimed subject matter are described herein, textually and/or graphically, including the best mode, if any, known to the inventors for carrying out the claimed subject matter. Variations (e.g., modifications and/or enhancements) of one or more embodiments described herein might become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading this application. The inventor(s) expects skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventor(s) intends for the claimed subject matter to be practiced other than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, as permitted by law, the claimed subject matter includes and covers all equivalents of the claimed subject matter and all improvements to the claimed subject matter. Moreover, every combination of the above described elements, activities, and all possible variations thereof are encompassed by the claimed subject matter unless otherwise clearly indicated herein, clearly and specifically disclaimed, or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate one or more embodiments and does not pose a limitation on the scope of any claimed subject matter unless otherwise stated. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed subject matter as essential to the practice of the claimed subject matter. The use of words that indicate orientation or direction of travel is not to be considered limiting. Thus, words such as "front", "back", "rear", "side", "up", down", "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", "forwards", "backwards", "towards", "distal", "proximal", "in", "out" and synonyms, antonyms and derivatives thereof have been selected for convenience only, unless the context indicates otherwise. The inventor(s) envisage that various exemplary embodiments of the claimed subject matter can be supplied in any particular orientation and the claimed subject matter is intended to include such orientations. The use of the terms "a", "an", "said", "the", and/or similar referents in the context of describing various embodiments (especially in the context of the claimed subject matter) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms "including," "having," "including," and "containing" are to be construed as open- ended terms (i.e., meaning "including, but not limited to,") unless otherwise noted. Moreover, when any number or range is described herein, unless clearly stated otherwise, that number or range is approximate. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value and each separate sub-range defined by such separate values is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. For example, if a range of 1 to 10 is described, that range includes all values there between, such as for example, 1.1 , 2.5, 3.335, 5, 6.179, 8.9999, etc., and includes all sub-ranges there between, such as for example, 1 to 3.65, 2.8 to 8.14, 1.93 to 9, etc. Accordingly, every portion (e.g., title, field, background, summary, description, abstract, drawing figure, etc.) of this application, other than the claims themselves, is to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive; and the scope of subject matter protected by any patent that issues based on this application is defined only by the claims of that patent.

Claims

1 . A content facilitation system, which includes: at least one web interface operable to provide front end access to any one or both of content providers and content consumers of the content facilitation system; at least one user administration system operable to register details of any one or both of content providers and content consumers, the details of the content providers including external storage locations of data elements to which the content providers have provided access; data object components comprising: a data object identification facility operable to access data elements located at the external storage locations of the content providers and to detect data objects in each of the data elements; a data object categorisation facility operable to categorize the data objects according to a list of predefined objects; a data object indexing facility operable to index the data elements of the content providers associated with detected data objects in any one or more of the data elements; and a database operable to store the indexed external storage locations of the data elements of the content providers associated with detected data objects in each of the data elements.

2. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the data object components are machine learning components.

3. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the external storage locations are cloud-based storage locations to which the content provider has exclusive access control.

4. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , which includes a search facility, operable upon request to search for a data element according to a predefined data object and to return an external cloud-based storage location of the data element containing the data object.

5. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1, in which the details of content providers and content consumers include login details to provide secure access to the content facilitation system.

6. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the web interface is in the form of a backend web application host.

7. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the user administration system includes an authentication, authorization and user management facility.

8. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which any one of the data object identification facility and data object categorisation facility is in the form of a machine learning tool, operable to identify and analyse images and videos.

9. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the database is operable to store any one or both of user data and metrics data.

10. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which any one or both of the data object indexing facility and search facility is implemented by a serverless event driven platform.

11. The content facilitation system as claimed in claim 1 , in which the external storage locations include any cloud storage facility to which a content provider holds exclusive access control.

12. A method of facilitating content availability, which includes authorizing access a content storage facility of a content provider; accessing elements stored in the content storage facility of the content provider; employing tools to analyse the elements stored in the content storage facility by identifying data objects within any one or more of the data elements; categorising the identified data objects according to a list of predefined data objects; indexing each of the data elements according to the list of predefined data objects; storing the indexed data elements in an index database; making the index database available to content consumers; and upon request, retrieving a data element indexed to a predefined data object in the list of predefined data objects from the content storage facility of the content provider of the particular data element.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the tools are machine learning tools.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, which includes the prior step of permitting a content provider to register onto a content facilitation system.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, which includes the further step of permitting a content provider to upload data elements to a content storage facility.

16. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the elements stored in the content storage facility include any one or more of individual digitized images, series of digitized images arranged as video clips and sound recordings associated with the series of digitized images.

17. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the step of receiving access to a content storage facility includes receiving an authorization token to access the content storage facility of a content provider.

18. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the step of receiving access to a content storage facility is preceded by the step of presenting a hosted web interface to a content provider for interfacing with the content facilitation system.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18, in which the step of receiving access to a content storage facility includes the step of uploading pointers to all the data elements in the content storage facility of the content provider.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19, in which the pointers are in the form of hyperlinks.

21. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the step of identifying data objects within each of the data elements includes employing machine learning image recognition tools to identify visual data objects in the individual digitised images or series of digitized images.

22. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the step of identifying data objects within each of the data elements includes employing machine learning sound recognition tools to identify aural data objects in a sound recording associated with a series of digitized images.

23. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the list of predefined data objects in the step of categorising the identified data objects according to a list of predefined data objects conforms to a list of data objects with which machine learning models employed by the machine learning tools have been trained.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, in which the list of predefined data objects is indexed to keywords for such objects.

25. The method as claimed in claim 23, in which the step of making the index database available to content consumers is preceded by the step of presenting a hosted web interface to a content consumer for interfacing with a content facilitation system.

26. The method as claimed in claim 12, in which the step of retrieving a data element indexed to a predefined data object in the list of predefined data objects is preceded by the step of presenting a content consumer with a search facility to search the list of predefined data objects for a particular keyword with which such data object is associated.

27. A content facilitation system, which includes: at least one web interface operable to provide front end access to one or more content providers of the content facilitation system; a register of external storage locations of data elements to which the content providers have provided access; an index of data objects associated with each data element; and a database in which the register of external storage locations is stored.

28. A web interface as claimed in claim 27 in which the at least one web interface is operable to provide front end access to one or more content consumers of the content facilitation system, which enables content consumers to access data elements of one or more content providers from the external storage locations.