Abstract: Described is a technology by which a mobile device outputs an alert for a reminder based upon a current location of the mobile device with respect to an entity (person, place or thing) associated with the reminder. The reminders may be maintained and provided by a service. Each reminder includes a reference to target-related information. When the device moves to within a threshold proximity of the target, and other criteria (e.g., time of day) is satisfied, an alert is output by the device. A user may gesture with a device towards an entity to set a reminder associated with that entity, or to get any reminder associated with that entity. A device may also get reminders by scanning or image processing, e.g., by reading a barcode associated with a product to get any reminders associated with that product.

Abstract: With the addition of directional information and gesture based input in a location based services environment, a variety of service(s) can be provided on top of user identification or interaction with specific object(s) of interest. For instance, when a user gestures at or points at a particular item, or gestures at a particular location or place, this creates an opportunity, e.g., an advertising opportunity, for anyone having an interest in that particular item or place to communicate with the user regarding that item or related items at a point in time when the user's focus is on the particular item. User context for the interaction can also be taken into account to supplement the provision of one or more interactive direction based services.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates managing data consistency in connection with a plurality of devices. A collection of devices can be associated with a user. A web service can receive a portion of data from at least one device via an interface component, wherein the web service can host and relate the portion of data with an account for the user. A master sync component can leverage a computing resource from at least one device in order to maintain data consistency between at least one of the following: two or more devices within the collection of devices associated with the user; or the account hosted by the web service and two or more devices within the collection of devices associated with the user.

Abstract: Systems and methods that enable removal of data from an endpoint, while not propagating such removal to other endpoints when synchronizing data sources associated therewith. A designation component can indicate items as forgotten items, wherein such items are being known to an endpoint and deleted therefrom—yet, reintroduced therein and reappearing (e.g., as a create) upon re-synchronizing with the replica over again. Moreover, the forgotten items can employ additional metadata such as in from of an additional bit that indicates whether an item is a forgotten item.

Abstract: Providing synchronization to a local system. Embodiments may include downloading a batch of changes in a heterogeneous batch. The batch of changes is correlated to an anchor affiliated with a synchronization service. The anchor is a reference point indicating time or relative order. The batch of changes and the anchor are serialized to a non-volatile storage medium as a heterogeneous set. After serializing the batch of changes to a non-volatile storage medium as a heterogeneous set, entities in the batch of changes are parsed out into entities in in-memory representations. Similarly, embodiments may receive user input modifying a plurality of data entities, store on a non-volatile storage medium a serialized heterogeneous representation of the modified data entities, and upload the serialized heterogeneous representation to a synchronization service.

Abstract: A data custodian and curation system may store data from a data supplier in encrypted form and may allow users to consume the data when the consumers obtain access to the data through an agreement. The curation system may manage access to the data, even allowing a consumer to use the data as if it were their own, but may track each usage of the data to implement a payment scheme or various usage restrictions. The curation system may encrypt downstream uses of the data and operate as a digital rights management system for the data. The custodian and curation system may operate as a cloud service that may contain encrypted data from many data providers but where the data providers may individually control access to their data in a managed system at any granular level.

Abstract: The subject disclosure relates to cross scope synchronization among different sets of nodes that synchronize the same data item(s) according to different synchronization scopes. In one aspect, create and update versions are defined for a scope in which a data item was created and updated, respectively, and create and update versions are defined for a local node shared for different groups of nodes synchronizing according to the different synchronization scopes (e.g., a server node).

Abstract: With the addition of directional information and gesture based input in a location based services environment, a variety of service(s) can be provided on top of user identification or interaction with specific object(s) of interest. For instance, a device can interact with various endpoints of a direction-based location service and any of the content or other information exchanged between clients and services can be synchronized for efficient exchange of information and efficient utilization of network bandwidth and resources. For example, change input is received by a device that alters, deletes or augments dynamically updateable information associated with a point of interest and the changes resulting from the change input are synchronized from the mobile device to a location based network service. Optionally, the synchronization can be according to a knowledge exchange to identify what should be synchronized prior to transmitting the updates.

Abstract: The subject disclosure relates to cross scope synchronization among different sets of nodes that synchronize the same data item(s) according to different synchronization scopes. In one aspect, create and update versions are defined for a scope in which a data item was created and updated, respectively, and create and update versions are defined for a local node shared for different groups of nodes synchronizing according to the different synchronization scopes (e.g., a server node).

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to efficiently routing data requests from a plurality of tenants and to using smart routing to limit service denials. In an embodiment, a gateway node receives data requests from a tenant subscriber requesting data for an indicated service. The gateway node determines which server node the received data requests are to be routed to. The determination evaluates various criteria associated with the data request. The gateway node queries the determined server node to determine the health of the server nodes and receives a reply from the determined server node indicating the server node's current operating status. The gateway node also, based on the determined server node's reply, routes the received data requests to the determined server node, according to the evaluated criteria.

Abstract: With the addition of directional information and gesture based input in a location based services environment, a variety of service(s) can be provided on top of user identification or interaction with specific object(s) of interest. For instance, a device can interact with various endpoints of a direction-based location service and any of the content or other information exchanged between clients and services can be synchronized for efficient exchange of information and efficient utilization of network bandwidth and resources. For example, change input is received by a device that alters, deletes or augments dynamically updateable information associated with a point of interest and the changes resulting from the change input are synchronized from the mobile device to a location based network service. Optionally, the synchronization can be according to a knowledge exchange to identify what should be synchronized prior to transmitting the updates.

Abstract: The subject disclosure relates to synchronizing among network nodes in a multi-master synchronization environment that extend a knowledge based synchronization framework to include notions of object quality. In one embodiment, additional dimension(s) are placed on a knowledge vector for a given version of an object that represent quality information for the object, which is accounted for during the synchronization process to allow nodes to decide what types of qualities of objects should be conveyed to them as part of the synchronization process. Other embodiments include tombstoning objects to avoid future synchronization with respect to same objects maintained by other nodes in the multi-master synchronization environment. Advantageously, according to the synchronization framework, endpoints can synchronize data in a way that allows a definition and consideration of quality of one or more objects of the synchronized data for purposes of a knowledge exchange.

Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for scoping the context used to access a database partition. Embodiments of the invention enable data isolation using partitions in multi-tenant databases, while relieving client applications from dealing with the partitions. For example, a computer system that includes a distributed database system comprising a plurality of database partitions in a federation receives a context to use when performing database access operations within the distributed database system. The context identifies specified relevant portion of the federation. The computer system also receives a database access operation that is associated with the context. The computer system modifies the semantics of the database access operation in accordance with the associated context, to direct application of the database access operation to the specified relevant portion of the federation.

Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for partitioning online databases. Online database operations, such as, for example, SPLIT, MERGE, and DROP, are used to alter the arrangement of partitions in a federated database. A SPLIT operation splits rows at one partition across a plurality of other partitions. A MERGE operation merges rows at a plurality of partitions in to one partition. A DROP operation shifts responsibility for rows of data from one partition to another partition and then drops the rows from the one partition.

Abstract: Providing synchronization to a local system. Embodiments may include downloading a batch of changes in a heterogeneous batch. The batch of changes is correlated to an anchor affiliated with a synchronization service. The anchor is a reference point indicating time or relative order. The batch of changes and the anchor are serialized to a non-volatile storage medium as a heterogeneous set. After serializing the batch of changes to a non-volatile storage medium as a heterogeneous set, entities in the batch of changes are parsed out into entities in in-memory representations. Similarly, embodiments may receive user input modifying a plurality of data entities, store on a non-volatile storage medium a serialized heterogeneous representation of the modified data entities, and upload the serialized heterogeneous representation to a synchronization service.

Abstract: Systems and methods that disclose alternative patterns for exchange of synchronization data and/or metadata, e.g., ‘knowledge’, to enhance performance of synchronization processes are disclosed. Accordingly, the innovation discloses synchronization mechanisms that employ exchange of data and metadata to alleviate a requirement of a complete ‘round-trip’ when synchronizing data. ‘Knowledge’ can be provided which informs a provider of data changes, modifications, additions or deletions. The ‘knowledge’ can lower expense and/or increase efficiencies of the synchronization exchanges by enabling informed decision-making related to enumerating changes within the synchronization processes.

Abstract: An efficient way is provided to represent and exchange knowledge and/or partial knowledge across nodes when synchronizing between any two nodes. A first node sends a second node its knowledge and/or partial knowledge, including objects and versions of those objects. The second node compares its knowledge and/or partial knowledge with the knowledge and/or partial knowledge of the first node, and then sends the first node any latest versions of objects of which the first node is unaware. In addition, the second node sends its knowledge and/or partial knowledge to the first node. The first node then performs a similar object-by-object version comparison to determine any conflicts due to independent evolution of objects and any changes that should be sent to the second node in order to bring the objects of the second node up to date with the knowledge and/or partial knowledge of the first node.

Abstract: An efficient way and general mechanism is provided to represent and exchange knowledge and/or partial knowledge across nodes when synchronizing between any two nodes including custom or move filters where set membership can change over time at a device as data items come in and out of filter scope. A first node sends a second node its knowledge and/or partial knowledge, including objects and versions of those objects. The second node compares its knowledge and/or partial knowledge with the knowledge and/or partial knowledge of the first node, and then sends the first node any latest versions of objects of which the first node is unaware. In addition, the second node sends its knowledge and/or partial knowledge to the first node.

Abstract: Systems and methods that mitigate errors in positioning systems, by employing signal strength(s) of signal sources (e.g., towers adjacent to a mobile unit.) Such mitigation system verifies whether the mobile unit receiving GPS data is in static position (e.g., not moving) or is moving (e.g., dynamic position), and evaluates accuracy of the GPS reporting (e.g., discarding GPS data in static position and trusting GPS data in dynamic position).

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to synchronization utilizing one or more optimizations through the utilization of metadata. For several embodiments of the present invention, one method for optimizing synchronization is to reduce the overhead required for said synchronization by having each peer only tracking changes for itself and other peers within its change community (or communities) (a.k.a., “Intra-Community-Only Change Tracking Optimization”). For certain embodiments of the present invention, another method for optimizing synchronization is to not create synchronization overhead until required. For numerous embodiments of the present invention, yet another method for optimizing synchronization is to minimize redundant use of a partner's unique global ID—a large and cumbersome number—and to instead maintain a table that cross-references each partner (and its unique global ID) with a smaller and much less cumbersome partner key.