Patent Document ID: 7493296
Application ID: 11421216
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for classifying information comprising: determining a plurality of management characteristics for an information type; determining a plurality of business characteristics for the information type; determining at least one management tally for the information type based on the management characteristics; determining a management characteristic scoring scale; assigning a management characteristic score to each management characteristic for the information type; calculating a linear combination of the management characteristic scores associated with the information type; determining at least one business tally for the information type based on the business characteristics wherein determining the business tally comprises: determining a business characteristic scoring scale; assigning a business characteristic score to each business characteristic for the information type; and calculating a linear combination of the business characteristic scores associated with the information type; determining a normalization factor for the business tally; determining at least one management weighting factor for each or for all of the management characteristics; determining at least one business weighting factor for each or for all of the business characteristics; determining an information class gradient based on the management tally and an information class value wherein the information class gradient includes a plurality of information classes having an information class range; providing the information class value wherein the information class value represents the number of information classes in the information class gradient; calculating a maximum possible management tally wherein the maximum possible management tally is a summation of a maximum management characteristic score for each management characteristic; calculating the information class range as the quotient of the maximum possible management tally and the information class value; determining at least one management information class based on the management tally and the information class gradient; determining at least one business information class based on the business tally and the information class gradient; determining a global information class for the information type based on the management tally and the business tally wherein determining the global information class for the information type comprises: combining the at least one management weighting factor with the management tally to yield a weighted management tally; combining the at least one business weighting factor with the business tally to yield a weighted business tally; calculating a global tally based on the weighted management tally and the weighted business tally; mapping the global tally into the information class gradient, and continuously updating the global tally based on an evaluation of the global information class; defining the management characteristics; defining the business characteristics; and storing the information type based on the information class gradient.