Systems and methods for retrieving data

1. A method of providing information items, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of entities, each entity having a entity type;

providing a plurality of relationships among the entities, each relationship of the plurality of relationships having a relationship type and a relationship direction;

constructing an entity-relationship network comprising the entities and the relationships;

receiving a plurality of information items;

facilitating association of each information item with at least one corresponding entity;

receiving, by a computer, a request for information items associated with a selected one of the plurality of entities, the request including a first degree of separation and a maximum degree of separation;

identifying a first subset of the plurality of entities by traversing the entity-relationship network by (i) starting at the selected entity and following relationships associated therewith to identify entities having a direct relationship with the selected entity, (ii) following relationships associated with entities having a direct relationship with the selected entity to identify additional entities having an indirect relationship with the selected entity, and (iii) repeating step (ii) by replacing the entities having a direct relationship with the selected entity with entities having an indirect relationship with the selected entity, until the first degree of separation from the selected entity is reached, thereby determining the first subset based on the selected entity and the relationship types and relationship directions of the entity-relationship network;

identifying a second subset of the plurality of entities by traversing the entity-relationship network by (x) starting at the first subset of the plurality of entities and following relationships associated therewith having a minimum strength indicator to identify entities having a direct relationship of a specified strength with each of the entities in the first subset of the plurality of entities, (y) following the relationships associated with the entities having a direct relationship of a specified strength with the entities of the first subset to identify additional entities having an indirect relationship with the selected entity, and (z) repeating step (y) by replacing the entities of the first subset with entities having an indirect relationship of a specified strength with the selected entity, until the maximum degree of separation from the selected entity is reached, thereby determining the second subset based on the selected entity, the relationship types, the relationship directions and the relationship strengths of the entity-relationship network; and

providing the information items associated with both the first and second subsets of the plurality of entities.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the entity types comprise companies, industries, indices, people, and subjects.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationship direction is one of unidirectional and bi-directional.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the relationship direction is bi-directional and the relationship type represents a set of reciprocal relationships between the entities.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the relationships among the entities are hierarchical.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the hierarchical relationships comprise one or more of business relationships, legal relationships, formal membership relationships, and informal membership relationships.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more relationships among the entities are influential.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the influential relationships comprise one or more of business relationships, legal relationships, formal membership relationships, and informal membership relationships.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationships among the entities comprises both hierarchical and influential relationships.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationships between the entities further comprise a strength indicator.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the information items comprise at least one of an electronic message, an email, an instant message, a financial report, a voicemail, a web page, a research report, an electronic document, and a press release.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the information items are received via one or more of an electronic message, electronic mail, instant message, voice message, scheduled database query, or triggered database query.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of associating information items with entities is initiated by a first user of a first computer.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the request for information items associated with the selected entity is initiated by a second user of a second computer.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the information items are provided using one or more of email, voicemail, computer display screen, personal data assistant, and print.

16. A system for presenting information, comprising:

a collection of application plug-in adapters implemented as software stored on a client computer, each adapter comprising:

an entity definition module for defining entities;

a relationship definition module for defining relationships among the entities and attributing a relationship type and relationship direction to each relationship;

a receiver for receiving information; and

an information management module for associating the received information with at least one of the entities; and

a central server in communication with each of the application plug-in adapters and configured to receive therefrom the defined entities, wherein the central server includes a processor and a memory, the defined relationships and the information associated with the entities and further comprising;

a data storage server for storing the defined entities, the defined relationships and the information associated with the entities; and

an application server implemented as application software stored on the central server and configured to:

(i) receive a request for information associated with one of the entities, the request including a first degree of separation and a maximum degree of separation;

(ii) identify a first subset of the plurality of entities by traversing the entity-relationship network by:

(x) starting at selected entity and following relationships associated therewith to identify entities having a direct relationship with the selected entity,

(y) following relationships associated with entities having a direct relationship with the selected entity to identify additional entities having an indirect relationship with the selected entity, and

(z) repeating step (y), replacing the entities having a direct relationship with the selected entity with entities having an indirect relationship with the selected entity until the specified degree of separation from the selected entity is reached, thereby determining the first subset based on the selected entity and the relationship types and relationship directions of the entity-relationship network;

(iii) identify a second subset of the plurality of entities by traversing the entity-relationship network by:

(x) starting at the first subset of the plurality of entities and following relationships associated therewith having a minimum strength indicator to identify entities having a direct relationship of a specified strength with each of the entities in the first subset of the plurality of entities,

(y) following the relationships associated with the entities having a direct relationship of a specified strength with the entities of the first subset to identify additional entities having an indirect relationship with the selected entity, and

(z) repeating step (y) by replacing the entities of the first subset with entities having an indirect relationship of a specified strength with the selected entity, until the maximum degree of separation from the selected entity is reached, thereby determining the second subset based on the selected entity, relationship types, the relationship directions and the relationship strengths of the entity-relationship network;

(iv) retrieve from the data storage server information associated with the first and second subsets of the entities and

(v) display the retrieved information.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the receiver receives one or more of an electronic message, an email, an instant message; a streaming data feed, a voice message, and a web page.

18. The system of claim 16 further comprising a rules engine for governing the permissible relationship types among the entities.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the relationships between entities are one or more of unidirectional and bi-directional.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the relationships between entities are bi-directional and represent a reciprocal relationship between the entities.

21. The system of claim 16 wherein the relationships between the entities comprise a strength indicator.

22. The system of claim 16 wherein the central server further comprises a messaging module for distributing modifications made to one of the entities, the relationships, and the rules to users of the system.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the messaging module distributes the modifications asynchronously.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the messaging module distributes the modifications on demand.

25. The system of claim 16 wherein the central server further comprises a permissions module for enforcing user access privileges to one or more of the entities, the relationships, and the information items associated with the entities.