Patent ID: 8027960

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a repository residing in the memory that includes a plurality of elements; a content management system residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the content management system managing the plurality of elements in the repository, the content management system comprising: properties for the plurality of elements in the repository that are not represented in any explicit relationships in the repository, wherein the properties comprise probability of reuse, popularity of use, and time of recent usage; a deletion policy that specifies criteria for deleting the plurality of elements according to the properties and according to role of a user making a request to delete a selected one of the plurality of elements; an element deletion mechanism that receives the request to delete the selected one element, determines whether the properties for the selected one element and the role of the user satisfy the deletion policy, and when the properties for the selected one element and the role of the user satisfy the deletion policy, the element deletion mechanism deletes the selected element from the repository, and when the properties for the selected one element and the role of the user do not satisfy the deletion policy, the element deletion mechanism not deleting the selected element from the repository; and a viability generation mechanism that generates a viability value for the selected one element from the properties and from a viability policy that specifies criteria for setting the viability value according to the probability of reuse, popularity of use, and time of recent usage of the selected one element.