Methods, apparatus, and program products for utilizing contextual property metadata in networked computing environments

1. A computer controlled method for accumulating a historical context of changes for a device, comprising:

maintaining on a receiving device a history of contextual changes;

receiving, by the receiving device, a plurality of requests to perform operations that change a portion of a context associated with the receiving device, wherein each request is transmitted from one of a plurality of requester devices;

verifying whether each requester device is authorized to perform the requested operation, comprising:

applying a context access policy to each requester device;

identifying those requester devices that satisfy the context access policy as authorized requester devices and performing the operation by changing the portion of the receiving device context associated with the request for each of the authorized requester devices; and

identifying those requester devices that fail to satisfy the context access policy as unauthorized devices and denying the requests from the unauthorized requester devices;

accreting the changed portions of the receiving device context with the history of contextual changes on the receiving device;

accreting the denied requests of the unauthorized requester devices with the history of contextual changes; and

storing the accreted history of contextual changes.

2. The computer controlled method of claim 1 , wherein the changed portion of the receiving device context includes at least one of an addition and deletion of a property in the context.

3. The computer controlled method of claim 1 , wherein each request from the requester devices is associated with a context of that requester device, which comprises information specifying the operation requested and information specifying one or more of a time, a location, a cause, and an identification of that requester device.

4. The computer controlled method of claim 1 , further comprising:

retrieving the history of contextual changes from the receiving device; and

developing a history of use from the retrieved history.

5. The computer controlled method of claim 1 , further comprising:

reconstructing a prior configuration for a service that involved the receiving device and at least one of the requester devices; and

establishing a similar configuration for the service based on the prior configuration.

6. An apparatus for accumulating a historical context of changes for a device, comprising:

a history of contextual changes maintained on a receiving device;

a receiver mechanism of the receiving device to receive a plurality of requests to perform operations that change a portion of a context associated with the receiving device, wherein each request is transmitted from one of a plurality of requester devices;

a verification mechanism configured to verify whether each requester device is authorized to perform the requested operation, comprising:

a policy mechanism configured to apply a context access policy to each requester device;

an identification mechanism configured to identify those requester devices that satisfy the context access policy as authorized requester devices and those requester devices that fail to satisfy the context access policy as unauthorized requester devices;

a performance mechanism configured to perform the operations by changing the portion of the receiving device context associated with the request for each of the authorized requester devices; and

a decision mechanism configured to deny the requests from the unauthorized requester devices;

an accretion mechanism configured to accrete the changed portions of the receiving device context and the denied requests for each of the unauthorized requester devices with the history of contextual changes on the receiving device; and

a storage mechanism configured to store the accreted history of contextual changes.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:

a presentation mechanism configured to present the accreted history of contextual changes for the receiving device.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the changed portion of the receiving device context includes at least one of an addition and deletion of a property in the context.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein each request from the requester devices is associated with a context of that requester device, which comprises information specifying the operation requested and information specifying one or more of a time, a location, a cause, and an identification of that requester device.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:

a history retrieval mechanism configured to retrieve the history of contextual changes from the receiving device and to develop a history of use from the retrieved history.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein said history retrieval mechanism accesses a context monitor.

12. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:

a configuration reconstruction mechanism configured to reconstruct a prior configuration for a service that involved the receiving device and at least one of the requester devices; and

a configuration establishment mechanism configured to establish a similar configuration for the service based on the prior configuration.

13. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:

a configuration reconstruction mechanism configured to reconstruct a prior configuration for a service that involved the receiving device and at least one of the requester devices;

a presentation mechanism configured to present the prior configuration for the service; and

a selection mechanism configured such that a user can select the prior configuration for the service.

14. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the context access policy authenticates that at least one of the requester devices is authorized to cause the operation to be performed based on one or more of identification, location, and a bypass policy.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , further comprising:

an authentication mechanism configured to authenticate that the at least one requester device is authorized to cause the requested operation to be performed on a property.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , further comprising:

a history of contextual changes maintained for each of the requester devices, wherein the history includes security information.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the context access policy uses the security information.