Patent ID: 7788587

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for modeling a connectivity universe comprising objects, the objects comprising one or more physical devices, logical devices or data collections, each associated with a same user of a plurality of users via one or more on-line relationships over one or more computer networks, the method comprising: automatically determining a plurality of objects from the objects of the connectivity universe of a user of the plurality of users and an assessment of access proximity relative to the user for each such object; wherein the access proximity assessment for the user of each object is at least based upon prior access history to the object; and wherein the access proximity assessment for at least one of the objects is different for different users; automatically grouping the determined objects into a plurality of groupings based upon the assessments of relative access proximity of the determined objects, each grouping associated with a different class of access proximity, a plurality of the groupings including at least one object that is a computing system with a display and a keyboard, and at least one of the groupings including an object that is a wireless device connected via one of the computer networks; and on a display screen of a computing system, displaying, in a unified view, a graphical representation of the automatically determined groupings and their respective objects that, for each grouping, graphically indicates the associated access proximity of the grouping relative to the user and displays representations of the objects included in the grouping, such that the displayed graphical representation graphically communicates a relative measure of access proximity between the user and each grouping of objects, thereby presenting a model of at least a portion of the connectivity universe of the user.