Patent ID: 7949569

Claim:
A method for managing device information, the method comprising: providing by a first computer a root node of a distributed repository, the root node associated with a first entity, the root node containing information about a tree structure representing a hierarchy of the distributed repository system; providing by at least one second computer a plurality of levels of nodes in the hierarchy of the distributed repository, each level corresponding to one of a type and a source of device information contained at nodes of the respective level, each node other than the root node being linked to a node at a higher level in the tree structure, the device information including information for each of a plurality of different end devices; locating by the first computer system the nodes of the distributed repository provided by the at least one second computer and associated with second and third entities; allowing by the at least one second computer each node of the distributed repository to tag information obtained from that node with source information; and providing by the first computer system and the at least one second computer system each of the first, second, and third entities with configurable access parameters whereby each of the first, second, and third entities are able to control access by a user to any nodes of the distributed repository controlled by that entity.