Abstract:
The present invention discloses a computer-implemented online-offline workspace and method for creating, developing, storing, and managing digital content within a contextual and shared knowledge network. The invention includes a central service facility that provides an online platform for the users to work in a context-based and shared knowledge environment through a user interface on a wide range of user access devices. The online platform is embedded with a plurality of applications to allow the user to capture, create, develop, store, process, share, distribute, retrieve, reuse, and manage digital contents containing any one or a combination of the following: text, graphics, audio, video, whole or portions of web-pages and web-links. The invention further includes an end-user facility providing an offline platform that gets synchronized with the online platform upon detection of a secured communication network.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    The invention relates generally to creation and management of digital content through an integrated online-offline workspace, and in particular to a system comprising of a seamlessly integrated online and offline platforms, characterized by a context based collaborative environment and a service framework, for creating, developing, processing, distributing, and managing digital content. 
         [0002]    The advent of computer and Internet has revolutionized the way people work and access information for various purposes. For example, a user can send near instant messages to someone across the globe on a click. Additionally, web browsers allow the user to look for desired information through trillions of web pages. While such ease of access to information and computing provide many advantages to a person or an entity, the current platforms and/or service frameworks limits the utilization of true potential of computer and Internet. For example, multiple documents and files pertaining to a single project may be created, accessed, developed, and uploaded from multiple locations by one or more users. This is because multiple users work from multiple computing devices available at multiple locations—a personal desktop computer at home, a work terminal at office, a desktop computer at library or other public places, a personal laptop or hand held computing device, or an official laptop or hand held computing device. Additionally, many users work in teams such that the same document or file may be accessed from and worked on at different computers in the same or different locations and at same or different time. As a consequence, users constantly have to physically transport files, saved website links, and other digital content between their multiple workstations. This results in multiple documents containing similar information and/or multiple versions of the same documents floating around at various locations or in various folders at the same locations. It is therefore difficult to filter and organize all the information related to same project in an efficient and convenient manner, particularly where multiple users in different locations are contributing to the project and developing the files and documents collaboratively. For example, it is not only difficult to ensure that all copies of the documents are updated to the latest version but it is also difficult to locate these documents, files and information when needed. 
         [0003]    Some of the platforms and/or service frameworks that have come up recently allow the users to store, manage, view, or share their data from any location through an online platform. However, such online platforms are limited in their scope as they require the user access device to be on an active high-speed communication network. In order to work in an offline mode, the digital content must be manually downloaded by the user on his access device. Only after downloading the digital content locally on his access device, can the user edit it in an offline mode. Further, to have the flexibility to access this edited digital content from any other device, the user needs to manually upload the latest version of the digital content on the online platform. Moreover, the user needs to repeat this entire process each time any change needs to be made to the document. Such platforms therefore fail to provide for an integrated online and offline mode to enable the user to access and work on data with or without an active communication network. Additionally, existing platforms fail to provide for efficient handling of multiple documents containing similar information and/or multiple versions of the same documents that are accessed, compiled, and stored by one or more users. 
         [0004]    It is therefore desirable to provide an integrated online-offline workspace and a corresponding service framework for improved, efficient and convenient digital content creation, manipulation, storage, management, and distribution in a context-based collaborative environment. 
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION 
       [0005]    Briefly in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an integrated online-offline workspace and a corresponding service framework is provided for improved and efficient digital content creation, manipulation, storage, management, and dissemination in a context-based collaborative environment. The integrated online-offline workspace and the corresponding service framework enable a user or an enterprise to improve productivity and collaboration and to enhance knowledge generation and management. 
         [0006]    In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a computer-implemented system is provided for contextual and collaborative knowledge generation, management, and dissemination. The system includes multiple user devices in communication with a plurality of application servers that are in further communication with one or more data servers. The system facilitates an integrated online-offline workspace and a corresponding service framework designed to offer a context-based and collaborative workspace to the users through a variety of applications. The integrated online-offline workspace can be accessed by the user through a web browser, a web browser toolbar, and/or a device application from a host of devices such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a mobile device, and so forth. The integrated online-offline workspace includes a plurality of embedded applications that help the user to create, manage, and share digital contents in a context based collaborative environment. The online workspace and the offline workspace are integrated through mutual communication with each other such that any addition, removal, or modification of any data item in any one of these workspaces accordingly adds, removes or modifies the corresponding data item on the other workspace upon establishment of a secured communication network on the user access device. 
         [0007]    Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS 
         [0008]    These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters and/or numerals represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein: 
           [0009]      FIG. 1  illustrates a representative networked computing system in accordance with aspects of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram of the present system in accordance with aspects of the invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram representing online and offline access modes for the online and offline platforms respectively in accordance with aspects of the present invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating a user interface for viewing and managing digital contents in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating the architecture of the service framework in accordance with aspects of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIGS. 6-15  are screen diagrams illustrating various aspects of the user interface in accordance with aspects of the present invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 16  is a snapshot illustrating a user interface for viewing and managing digital contents in an offline mode in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    The present invention is generally directed to an integrated online-offline workspace for contextual and collaborative knowledge generation and management. Such techniques may be useful for a variety of users, such as an individual, a team, an institutional, an enterprise, and so forth. Though the present discussion provides examples generally in context of an individual and/or a team, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily comprehend that the application of discussed features and tools in larger contexts, such as for an institution or an enterprise, is well within the scope of the present invention. 
         [0017]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , an exemplary networked computing system is illustrated in accordance with one aspect of the present technique. A user  12 , in his individual capacity or as a part of the business, is almost always working on one or more projects at any given time frame. While working on any of these multiple projects, the user employs different computing and online tools like searching, bookmarking, documents and file sharing, chat, emails, blogs, storing, and so forth. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the user  12  interacts with Internet to perform various tasks at different locations such as at work  14 , at home  16 , and at public places  18 . The various tasks may include, but are not limited to, sending and receiving mails with friends, family, colleagues; creating and editing notes and other file (e.g., word, power point, excel, images, audio, and so forth) for self or for some collaborative project via sharing; chatting with friends or team members; browsing and saving the link for self and or for some collaborative project with friends, family, or other members of the team via sharing; and so forth. It should be noted that the sharing of the notes, files or link may be accomplished through email, chat, and/or other file sharing program. 
         [0018]    All of these computing and/or online tools, applications, and services provide different methods and mediums of finding, creating, organizing, storing, and sharing the information. For example, a bookmarking application may allow a user to create, organize, and share the bookmarks. Similarly, a document/file sharing application may allow a user to create, organize and share documents. Further, if for any reason, the user employs two or more document sharing tools then the information is stored and managed in two different ways at two different places, often in addition local storage of this information on local mass storage device. It is desirable to tie all this information together across all these applications, tools, and storage services at one single place and preferable to access and view all these information in one single view in a relevant project context. The embodiments of the present invention enable a user to achieve above goal through an integrated, context-aware platform and/or browser based service framework over a trusted network communication. 
         [0019]    Turning now to  FIG. 2 , three different levels of an embodiment of the present system are illustrated, namely, access level  200 , interface level  206 , and architecture level  208 . Box  202  represents the integrated online/offline workspace and the corresponding service framework provided by the present system. A user  400  can access the integrated online/offline workspace and the corresponding services of the present system on multiple access devices  204 , such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a mobile device, and so forth. The integrated online/offline workspace comprises the user interface  206 , which is displayed on the user access device  204 , and the server-side architecture  208  which supports the present system in a manner as described later with reference to  FIG. 5 . 
         [0020]      FIG. 3  illustrates a flow diagram showing two major components of the service framework, namely, an online workspace  306  and an offline workspace  308 . These two workspaces  306  and  308  are parts of an integrated workspace and are synchronized with each other. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the synchronization may be carried out in real time or at periodic intervals upon establishment of a secured or trusted communication network between the user access device and the backend servers. It should be noted that synchronization ensures that the two workspaces are concurrent with each other such that any addition, removal, or modification of any data item in one of these workspaces is reflected accordingly in the corresponding data item on the other workspace. The online workspace  306  can be accessed in an online access mode  302  as a desktop application, as a web-browser application, or as a toolbar plug-in on a web-browser. The offline platform  308  can be accessed in an offline access mode  304  as a desktop application accessible locally on the user access device  204 . 
         [0021]    Referring now to  FIG. 4 , an aspect of a user interface for viewing and managing digital contents is illustrated in accordance with aspects of the present invention. In order to access the online and offline workspaces offered by the present system, a user is required to have an account with the service framework. The user may create the account by getting registered on the service framework  202 . For registration, the user may utilize any of his authenticated e-mail addresses. Once the account is created, or if the user is already registered, he can sign-in and get access to the online and offline platforms provided by the service framework. Both the online and offline platforms provide a user-oriented context-based workspace instead of the automatically generated semantics-based context. The user is provided with the ability to define as many contexts as the user needs, such as client, subject, project name, deal, product, goal, and so forth. Each of the contexts is treated as a project in the service framework described herein. If the user does not define any context, a pre-defined default context or project is automatically activated within the workspace. Once a context or a project is selected, for example ‘Client XYZ’, the user can create and save any digital contents as items within multiple sub contexts or tabs. Again, it should be noted that the sub-contexts or tabs are either pre-defined (e.g., saved items, emails, bookmarks, deleted items, and so forth) or user-defined (profile, feedbacks, invoices, and so forth). The digital contents include, but are not limited to, an audio digital data, or a video digital data, or a textual digital data, or an audio/video digital data, or a graphic digital data, a webpage, a link to a webpage, PowerPoint presentation, a Word document, a notepad document, an Excel file, or the like. 
         [0022]    Referring now to  FIG. 5 , the server-side architecture of the service framework  202  is illustrated. In the illustrated embodiment, the user  400  interacts with the service framework  202  through a web-browser  502 . For example, the user  400  may send a request or initiate a thread to access various applications residing on an application server  506 . The request or the thread passes through a firewall server  504  which checks and certifies the authenticity of the user  400 . After checking the authenticity of the user, the firewall server  504  allows the user to access various applications residing on the application server  506 . The user can therefore create, manage and share various digital contents through applications residing on the application server  506 . All of the digital contents, requests, and/or threads are managed by an index server  512 . The index server  512  indexes and stores these digital contents, requests, and/or threads on a database server  514 . It is likely that multiple users may access the application server  506 , the index server  512 , and the database server  514  at about same time and that may slow down the execution of various active requests or threads coming from different users. A load balancing server  510  manages these multiple requests or threads and balances the load of various requests or threads on the application server  506 , the index server  512 , and the database server  514  by logically distributing the requests or threads among multiple application servers  506 , index servers  512  and database servers  514 . Additionally, multiple users may create, manage and share requests or threads at about the same time on the application server  506 , the index server  512 , and the database server  514  and that may result in errors during the process thereby affecting the active requests or threads. A monitoring and healing server  508  may be employed to monitor and repair the above errors. Further, in certain embodiments, the monitoring and healing server  508  may be employed to reconstruct the complete database of indexed and stored digital contents if by any chance the database server  514  crashes resulting in corruption of database. The reconstruction of the database may be carried out by comparing online and offline versions of the digital contents between multiple user access devices and database servers and determining missing digital contents on the database servers based upon comparison. The missing digital contents are then copied from the user access devices, indexed, and stored again on the database servers. Additionally, a usage monitoring server  514  may be communicatively connected with the application server  506 , the index server  512 , and the database server  514  to monitor account usage and usage pattern of the authorized users. The usage monitoring server  514  dynamically maintains the usage pattern of the applications on the application server  506  and/or digital contents on the database server  514 . Such monitoring of usage pattern may be effectively employed to provide better user experience and user interface through customization, better security adherence, and so forth. For example, an analysis of usage pattern of a particular user may be employed to customize the user interface such that the most commonly used applications are visibly available to the user. Similarly, for an enterprise client, an analysis of usage pattern of a user employed with the enterprise may be necessary so as to restrict the download of sensitive and confidential data on the user&#39;s personal device. 
         [0023]    Reference will now be made to  FIGS. 6-15 , wherein snapshot diagrams of the online integrated platform  306  have been illustrated to explain the features and working of the present system in greater detail.  FIG. 6  is a screenshot diagram of home page  600  of the present service framework  202 , wherein a registered user can sign-in to access his account and also an unregistered user can create his account. The home page  600  can be opened on a web browser  610  by directly typing the web-page address, specific to the service framework  202 , in address bar  620  of the web-browser  610 . However, if the service framework  202  has been previously downloaded as a plug-in toolbar on the web-browser  610 , the registered user can directly sign into his account through a sign-in-icon  630  while the unregistered user can get started with the registration process by clicking on a register-icon  640 . The service framework  202  allows a registered user to add other registered users to his account as friends or colleagues, thereby enabling them to communicate, create, and/or share digital contents among themselves. Additionally, the service framework may assign a pre-defined storage limit or profile space on the server to each of the registered user based on the user&#39;s subscription type. For example, a premium user may be assigned a higher profile space than a normal user. Similarly, a user belonging to enterprise client may have higher profile space than an individual user. 
         [0024]    Turning now to  FIG. 7 , a user interface of the online integrated platform  306  is illustrated. The illustrated user interface is displayed to the user once the user signs into his account. The interface displayed herein and in subsequent screenshot diagrams represent an account of a user who has already worked at least once on this platform and not that of a new user who has for the first time signed into his account. It should be noted that the discussion provided herein is with reference to a used account in order to provide a better understanding of features and functionalities of the present invention. The major components of the interface are: a toolbar as represented by  700 , a chat bar  734 , a side window as represented by  726 , and a main window  728 . The toolbar  700  of the present system comes with a scroll button which when clicked flips the current toolbar with a new toolbar that a user may want to use. For example, if a user has multiple toolbars he may not use and hence may not wish to view all the toolbar in his browser at the same time. Mostly, these toolbars are website specific and best used with that particular website. For example, the toolbar from Zyanga® for its popular Farmville application is best for that particular application and is of limited or no use when the user is surfing web for other content or working. In that case, the user do not want that particular toolbar and may be interested only in a generic toolbar that allows him to quick search and so forth such as google toolbar. The user then just have to click and the toolbar flips or rotates over to show google toolbar and hides the Farmville toolbar from the browser and the user. The advantage of having such a tool or application is to have multiple toolbars without cluttering the toolbar space or the browser window. 
         [0025]    The toolbar  700  for the present system further comprises a plurality of selectable toolbar icons that offer a wide range of applications to the user. Functions of these toolbar icons are later discussed with reference to corresponding snapshot diagrams. The user interface further includes a side window  726  that further comprises two sub-widows:  726 ( a ) and  726 ( b ). The sub-window  726 ( a ) comprises a plurality of selectable icons that provide the user with quick access to various functionalities or features of the present invention. For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 7 , the sub-window  726 ( a ) comprises three selectable icons indicated by reference numerals  736 ,  738 , and  740 . Indicated by  736  is ‘create a project’ icon for creation of user-defined projects. Upon clicking the icon  736 , the user is asked to create a project, for a user-defined context, and to also name the project being created. The user can create any number of projects he desires to create. Further, a user can quick share any of the existing projects with other users via selectable icon  738 . Additionally, a help menu describing important features of the service framework  202  is also provided to the user for his quick reference. User can access this help menu by clicking on a selectable icon  740 . It should be noted that the user can also use toolbar to achieve above objectives besides using quick selectable icons available in sub-window  726 ( a ). For example, a toolbar icon  720  may be employed to access help menu besides using the selectable icon  740 . Further it should be noted that selectable icons of the sub-window  726 ( a ) is highly customizable based on user preferences. The customization may be done manually by the user or may be done automatically based on usage pattern. 
         [0026]    The sub-window  726 ( b ) includes a favorite-tab  730  and a recent-tab  732 . Selecting the tab  730  displays within the sub-window  726 ( b ) a list of favorite projects along with a list of favorite notes created using a notebook application accessible through a toolbar icon  712 . Similarly, selecting the tab  732  displays within the sub-window  726 ( b ) a list of recent projects and recent notes. In order to switch over from a currently active project to a different project, the user can select the different project either from the list of projects displayed within the sub-window  726 ( b ) or through a toolbar icon  706 . Upon selection, the toolbar icon  706  opens a drop-down window as shown by  900  in  FIG. 9 . This window  900  displays a complete or truncated list of projects created by the user as well as all the projects that his friends have shared with him. The window  900  also provides options to the user for renaming, saving or deleting the currently active project. Additionally, a search box is provided within the window  900  to enable the user to search for a particular project among all the projects accessible to the user. It should be noted that the search box is loaded with auto-fill and auto-look feature to make the search easy and convenient for the user. 
         [0027]    As described above, selectable icon  738  allows the user to share any project with any number of desired friends added to his account. Upon clicking the icon  738 , the user is asked to name the project that he desires to share and to name the friend(s) with whom he desires to share that project. Besides using the selectable icon  738  for sharing the project, the user can also use a toolbar icon  710  for sharing of projects. In one embodiment, the user may share the currently active project the toolbar icon  710 . Upon selection, the toolbar icon  710  opens a drop-down window comprising a first set and a second set of friend(s). The first list displays the names of user&#39;s friend(s) with whom the currently active project is already shared, while the second list displays the names of rest of the user&#39;s friend(s) whom he can select to share the currently active project. Alternatively, the toolbar icon  710  may be configured to function similar to that of icon  738 . 
         [0028]    The main window  728  displays a list of all the updates and activities related to the various projects or a currently active project in a chronological order. In certain embodiments, the updates and activities related to all of the user&#39;s projects is displayed in a separate window upon selection of a toolbar icon  716 . Further, in certain embodiments, the user receives alerts whenever there is any update in any of the projects he shares with one or more friends. These alerts can either be real-time alerts such as pop-up window alerts or be delayed alerts such as those received as e-mail messages. Additionally, a chat bar  734  displays a list of user&#39;s friend along with their status indicating whether the friend is in an online or in an offline mode. This application enables the users to communicate in near real time. The chat application is described further in greater detail with reference to  FIG. 11 . 
         [0029]    As shown in  FIG. 8 , the online integrated platform  306  also includes a plurality of data editing applications including, but not limited to, Microsoft Word application, Microsoft PowerPoint application, Microsoft Excel application, Microsoft notepad application represented by toolbar icons  714 ( a ),  714 ( b ),  714 ( c ), and  714 ( d ) respectively. Selection of these toolbar applications opens corresponding windows  714 ( aa ),  714 ( bb ),  714 ( cc ), and  714 ( dd ) respectively. Using these applications, the user can create, open, edit or save such documents as supported by these applications. 
         [0030]    Turning now to  FIG. 10 , wherein the organization and management of digital data at the project level within a tabs window  100  is shown. Said window can be opened by clicking on a toolbar icon  708 . Any digital data related to the project is treated and stored as an item  110  within one or more tabs  102  on the online platform. These tabs can either be default tabs, such as tabs  102 ( a ),  102 ( b ), and  102 ( e ) or be user-defined tabs such as tabs  102 ( c ) and  102 ( d ). The user can add one or more tabs to the tabs window  100  by clicking on the selectable icon  104 . These items can be managed in a number of ways such as they can be shared, deleted, moved or commented on by the user or the users with whom the particular project is shared. Another unique feature of the present tabs window  100  is that a URL can directly be added within a desired tab along with a title and description for the URL. This can be done by selecting add-URL-icon  106  which opens a corresponding window  106 ( a ) within which the user can add his desired URL in the space provided. The user can also upload one or more files to the desired tab by selecting upload-files-icon  108  which opens a corresponding window  108 ( a ) from where the user can upload files from the access device  204 . 
         [0031]    Referring to  FIG. 11 , the chat application mentioned above is further described in greater detail. The user&#39;s friends are displayed as selectable icons on the toolbar  700 . For example, in the  FIG. 11 , selectable icons  718 ( a ),  718 ( b ), and  718 ( c ) represent user&#39;s friends. It should be noted that depending on user behavior or preferences, more frequently contacted friends appear as selectable icons. For efficient space utilization on the toolbar, other friends are not shown on the toolbar  700  as selectable icons but displayed on a drop-down window which opens upon selecting toolbar icon  718 ( d ). To initiate a chat with a friend, the user has to click on the friend&#39;s name either through the corresponding selectable toolbar icon or through the drop-down window, wherever the friend&#39;s name is visible. Suppose the user has selected for friend  718 ( a ), say user1. Upon selecting a user1 for chat, a chat window  1100  is opened. The chat window  1100  comprises a text box  1110  where the user can write his chat message for user1. A conversation window  1120  is also included within the chat window  1100  wherein the ongoing conversation between the user and the user1 is displayed. The user, if so desires, may enter in to a group chat or chat in a collaborative environment with multiple users by selecting one or more desired users through a selectable icon  1130  provided within the chat window  1100 . Suppose the user has also selected user2 through icon  1130  or icon  1150 , a group chat including the user, user1, and user2 will be initiated. The chat messages from all the three users will be displayed in the same conversation window  1120 . As described in certain embodiments, a novel feature of the present framework is single window chat which enables the user to chat individually wih multiple users within the same chat window. For example if the user desires to chat with both user 1 and user2 individually and not in a group chat mode, he can still chat with both of them within the chat window  1100  unlike the other state of the art technologies wherein different chat windows open up for different users. Both the users, user1 and user2, are displayed in the chat window  1100  and the user can switch chatting from user1 to user2 and vice-versa by simply clicking on the desired user&#39;s name being displayed. The chat window  1100  also incorporates a share icon  1180  through which the user can share a link with the friends in the chat window. 
         [0032]      FIG. 12  illustrates a quick launch application featured in the present system wherein a selectable toolbar icon  715  is provided on the toolbar  700 . The toolbar icon  715 , upon selection by the user, opens a drop-down window  1200 . The window  1200  comprises a list of applications available locally on the user access device  204 . Thus the desktop applications of the user access device  204  can be directly launched using this application without requiring the user to leave the online integrated platform interface. 
         [0033]    Referring now to  FIG. 13 , which is a snapshot diagram illustrating a global search application embedded within the online integrated platform  306 . The user can select desired search source from a plurality of search sources conjugated with the online integrated platform  306  through a selectable toolbar icon  704 . The conjugated search sources in the preferred embodiment are, but not limited to, Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Dice as shown by  704 ( a ),  704 ( b ),  704 ( c ) and  704 ( e ) respectively. A search box  1300  is provided wherein the user can put his query he wants to search and thereby click on the desired search source. Upon hitting the search source, a search result window  1320  is displayed. In order to start afresh with a new search, the user may click a new-search-icon  1310 . The online integrated platform  306  also provides a bookmarking application wherein a bookmarking icon  702  on the toolbar  700  can be clicked to bookmark the currently active web-page. It is to be noted that bookmarking a web-page saves it within the currently active project on the online integrated platform  306 . 
         [0034]    Reference will now be made to  FIGS. 14A-14E  wherein the figures illustrates a notebook application included in the online integrated platform  306 . As shown in  FIG. 14A , a notebook application icon  712  can be selected to open a notebook window  1400 . The window  1400  comprises a note-box  1410  where the user can create his text note either by directly writing in the note-box  1410  or by pasting desired text from any other location. A text-format bar  1460  is also provided with the note-box to allow the user edit or select a desired format for his textual note. The window  1400  also comprises selectable icons  1420 ,  1430 ,  1440  and  1450  for respectively deleting, saving, sending or cancelling the created note. It should be noted that the created note automatically updates itself whenever any changes is made to it and the updates are displayed in the inbox of each of the user that the note is shared with. Additionally, it should be noted that multiple users working on the same note can see all the updates and each other&#39;s changes in near real-time. Referring to  FIG. 14B , wherein a web-page is open within the main window  728 . There can be certain content on the web-page which might interest the user and he would want to save it to his note. In order to accomplish that, the user has to simply select the desired content, as shown by  1470 , and thereafter drag and drop it to the note-box. Alternatively, the user can copy and paste the desired contents into the note-box. Shown by  1480  is the desired content from the web-page pasted on the note-box. A reference  1490  to the source web-page of the pasted content is automatically inserted into the note-box along with the pasted content. Alternatively, a desired portion of a web-page can also be pasted in the note-box a web-clip, as shown in  FIG. 14C . A web-clip icon  1405  is provided in the notebook window  1400  for the same purpose. The user has to click on the icon  1405  and then select a desired portion  1406  of the currently opened web-page. Upon selection of the desired portion  1406 , shown in  FIG. 14D  it is automatically pasted into the note-box as shown by  1408  in  FIG. 14E . Referring back to  FIG. 14C , wherein a selectable icon  1401  opens a drop-down window and gives options to the user to selectively keep only text, option  1402 , or only URLs, option  1403 , or text without tables, option  1404 , from the note created. 
         [0035]    Turning now to  FIG. 15A , wherein a selectable toolbar icon  724  is shown. Upon selection, the icon  724  opens a drop-down window  1500 . The window  1500  allows the user to set his current status that will be visible to his friends. The status can be online, idle, busy, a custom message, and so forth. The user can also update his toolbar, set preferences for his account, or sign out of his account using the options provided in the window  1500 . Shown in  FIG. 15B  is a preference setting window  1510  wherein the user can set preferences for multiple settings as shown by  1520 . The settings can be, for example, general settings, my profile settings, manage e-mail ids settings, search sources settings, and so forth. 
         [0036]    Referring now to  FIG. 16 , a novel aspect of the present invention is the offline platform  308  that enables the user to work on his digital data stored within the online integrated platform in an offline mode without requiring a secured network connection. The service framework  202  of the present invention automatically creates a folder  1610  on desktop screen  1600  of the user access device  204 . It should be noted that the folder  1610  is structured in a context-based manner, similar to context-based structuring of the online integrated platform  306 , and offers an offline platform  30 . Upon opening the folder  1610 , a window  1620  is displayed. The window  1620  contains the full gamut of context or project folders  1640 , corresponding to the range of contexts or projects saved by the user within the online integrated platform  306 . Upon opening any context or project folder  1640 , a window  1630  is displayed. The window  1630  further comprises a plurality of sub-folders  1650 , corresponding to the plurality of sub-contexts or tabs within that particular project  1640 . Each of the sub-folders comprises the items corresponding to items contained in the tab it represents. This offline folder  1610  gets automatically synchronized with the online integrated platform  306  upon detection of a secured network connection when the user signs into his account on the service framework  202  and accesses the online integrated platform  306 . During the synchronization process, any modification of an item  110  accordingly modifies the corresponding item in the tab folder  1650  of the offline platform. Similarly any modification made in an offline mode on an item in the tab folder  1650  accordingly modifies the corresponding item  110  stored on the online integrated platform  306 . 
         [0037]    While only certain features and embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, one skilled in the art will recognize that many variations and combinations of these embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such variations and combinations as fall within the true spirit of the invention.