Information organization and navigation by user-generated associative overlays

Claim 1

A method of linking together digital information objects of a digital information space comprising: creating an overlay comprising at least one concept node, each concept node expressing one concept; accessing a digital information object in the digital information space; determining if the digital information object includes at least one concept in common with concepts expressed in the at least one concept node; if the digital information object and the overlay include at least one common concept, automatically and dynamically establishing a link between the digital information object and each concept node expressing one of the at least one common concept; and permitting a user to create an information node in the overlay representing the digital information object.

Claim 2

A method of linking together digital information objects of a digital information space comprising: creating an overlay comprising at least one concept node, each concept node expressing one concept; accessing a digital information object in the digital information space; determining if the digital information object includes at least one concept in common with concepts expressed in the at least one concept node; if the digital information object and the overlay include at least one common concept, automatically and dynamically establishing a link between the digital information object and each concept node expressing one of the at least one common concept; and permitting a user to create an information node in the overlay representing the digital information object.

Claim 11

A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space, the digital information space comprising a plurality of addressable objects, the method comprising: creating an overlay, the overlay comprising at least one concept, each concept described by at least one keyword; accessing an addressable object; scanning the accessed addressable object for occurrences of each keyword; for each keyword found in the search, linking each concept described by the found keyword with the accessed addressable object; permitting the user to add a reference to the accessed addressable object to the overlay and, if the user adds the reference, linking the reference with each concept described by the found keyword; for each keyword found in the search, associating the concept described by the found keyword with the address of each added addressable object linked to any concept described by the found keyword; and repeating scanning the accessed addressable object, linking each concept for each keyword found, permitting the user to add a reference to the accessed addressable object, and associating the concept described by the found keyword, for each addressable object accessed; whereby the addressable objects are organized according to linking concepts, and whereby the addressable objects are navigated by selecting one of the added addressable objects while in the accessed addressable object, the accessed addressable object and each of the added addressable objects having a common concept.

Claim 12

A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space, the digital information space comprising a plurality of addressable objects, the method comprising: creating an overlay, the overlay comprising at least one concept, each concept described by at least one keyword; accessing an addressable object; scanning the accessed addressable object for occurrences of each keyword; for each keyword found in the search, linking each concept described by the found keyword with the accessed addressable object; permitting the user to add a reference to the accessed addressable object to the overlay and, if the user adds the reference, linking the reference with each concept described by the found keyword; for each keyword found in the search, associating the concept described by the found keyword with the address of each added addressable object linked to any concept described by the found keyword; and repeating scanning the accessed addressable object, linking each concept for each keyword found, permitting the user to add a reference to the accessed addressable object, and associating the concept described by the found keyword, for each addressable object accessed; whereby the addressable objects are organized according to linking concepts, and whereby the addressable objects are navigated by selecting one of the added addressable objects while in the accessed addressable object, the accessed addressable object and each of the added addressable objects having a common concept.