Abstract: A method and system for updating data on an information appliance based on changes in local and remote data sources. The information appliance contains a set of rules These rules allow it to define links between its existing data and local and remote data sources. Using these links it can automatically gather data from these sources using context sensitive queries that are directly relevant to the current state of the information appliance. These updates can modify any data items within the system. These updates can either directly alter these data items or modify metadata about the data items, such as the set of possible values for the item. They can do this implicitly and immediately, or explicitly after the user reviews a summary of the new data and chooses to add the information using a single action. The links themselves are data items within the system. These links are defined using a structured representation and so can themselves be sent around the network.