Patent ID: 8019737

Claim:
A system to synchronize metadata for a plurality of applications comprising: memory for storing computer executable instructions; and a processing unit for accessing the memory and executing the computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions comprising: content administration rules programmed to define policies for updating a master database that stores a plurality of metadata records and policies for propagating updates of the metadata records in the master database to the plurality of applications, each metadata record comprising a plurality of metadata fields describing at least one asset represented as data residing in at least one of the plurality of applications; a rules engine that is programmed to apply at least a first set of the content administration rules to a metadata record received from a first application of the plurality of applications to control updating fields in a corresponding metadata record of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, changes in the corresponding metadata record made to the master database being selectively propagated to at least one second application of the plurality of applications according to a second set of the content administration rules that is predefined for each of the at least one second application, wherein at least one of the plurality of applications includes a set of metadata records that corresponding to a proper subset of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, wherein the content administration rules further comprise: precedence rules that define a ranking among the plurality of applications for each of a plurality of metadata fields of a given metadata record of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, the rules engine applying the precedence rules determine if a given metadata field in the metadata record from the first application has priority to overwrite a corresponding metadata field in a corresponding metadata record in the master database that has been set by another of the plurality of applications in the system; and ownership rules that define which of the plurality of applications is an owner of each respective metadata field of the plurality of metadata fields for a given metadata record of the plurality of metadata records stored in the master database, wherein at least two different applications of the plurality of applications are owners of different metadata fields of the plurality of metadata fields for the given metadata record, the rules engine applying the ownership rules determine if the first application has authority to modify the corresponding metadata field in the corresponding metadata record in the master database, the master database being updated depending on application of the precedence rules and the ownership rules by the rules engine.