Patent ID: 8090844

Claim:
A method for sharing content stored across a plurality of shared file systems and a plurality of mobile devices located on a plurality of networks comprising at least one wireless network providing intermittent connectivity, said mobile devices and networks having variable performance and functional characteristics, the method comprising: continuously determining the performance and functional characteristics of a said mobile devices and of said networks every time a user of one of said mobile devices performs one or more actions related to said content stored across a plurality of the shared file systems, the functional characteristics of the mobile device including the type of device and the operating system utilized by the mobile device, and the performance characteristics of the mobile device including the amount of current unused memory available on the mobile device, the performance characteristics of said wireless network providing intermittent connectivity including the current speed and capacity, and the functional characteristics of said networks includes the type of networks; determining the characteristics of the file systems that contain the content; and creating and continuously maintaining a virtual abstraction layer based on the performance and functional characteristics of the mobile devices, the networks, and the shared file systems, the virtual abstraction layer providing a view to a said plurality of mobile devices as if said content is local to said plurality of mobile devices and the virtual abstraction layer providing the content from at least one of the plurality of the shared file systems to at least one of the mobile devices allowing the mobile device to access the functions of the file system containing the requested content including manipulating the content as if the file system was local to the mobile device.