Patent ID: 8805783

Claim:
A computing device, comprising: at least one processor; memory that stores modules for execution by the at least one processor, the modules including: a sync module configured to support variable membership in a filter set in connection with multi-master synchronization, configured to maintain filter forgotten knowledge, where forgotten knowledge supports synchronization of knowledge by the sync module with one or more other sync modules and the filter forgotten knowledge supports synchronization of filtered knowledge by the sync module with one or more other sync modules, and configured to communicatively couple to a local replica that stores a local version of a set of data objects and associated metadata, the sync module comprising: a communications module configured to communicate with at least one other sync module included in a multi-master community of sync modules; and an analysis module configured to manage information associated with the set of data objects, wherein the information includes (1) knowledge that pertains to at least one version of the set of data objects received from the at least one other sync module, and (2) filter forgotten knowledge that pertains to deleted data objects, or versions thereof, that belong to filtered knowledge, which is a filtered subset of the set of data objects in which membership is dynamic; the sync module being further configured to synchronize the local replica based upon information received from the at least one other sync module.