Patent ID: 7865487

Claim:
A database access system comprising: a memory; a web browser; a distributed database comprising: a plurality of federated databases for storage of a plurality of data records; and a metadata database for storage of a plurality of metadata records, each metadata record representing a corresponding one of the plurality of data records, each metadata record comprising abbreviated information relative to its corresponding one of the plurality of data records; and a data event agent that is coupled to the distributed database using an application abstraction layer, the application abstraction layer operable to control the flow of information between the data event agent and the distributed database, the data event agent also being coupled to the web browser through a firewall, the data event agent being operable to: receive a query comprising contextual, temporal, or geo-spatial filter criteria from the web browser; store the query in the memory; repeatedly filter at least one of the plurality of metadata records against the query in response to an addition or modification of the at least one metadata record; and in the event that the at least one metadata record matches the query, transmit the corresponding one of the plurality of data records to the web browser; wherein the plurality of federated databases are coupled to the data event agent using a database proxy layer; wherein the database proxy layer is operable to convert each of the plurality of data records into a standardized format using an extensible markup language schema; and wherein the distributed database further comprises a data discovery agent that is operable to periodically search each of the federated databases and in the event that a new data record is found, create a corresponding metadata record.