Distributed moderation and dynamic display of content annotations

• US 10,146,758 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2016
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dorner, Charles Shearer, Haitani, Robert Yuji, Lee, Jongwoo
• Primary Examiner(s): Dyer, Andrew R
• Application Number:
  US15/281,614
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• Field of Search: 715230, 715232, 715233
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

Features are provided for the distributed moderation of content annotations and the dynamic display of the moderated annotations. The annotations can be selectively distributed to subsets of user devices currently viewing a content item, thereby limiting the number of annotations that each user device receives. By selectively distributing only subsets of new annotations, users can give more attention to individual annotations and provide meaningful moderation information (e.g., ratings, “likes,” responses, etc.) regarding individual annotations. The annotations can be displayed in a manner that emphasizes the more highly-rated annotations and/or commonly-submitted annotations over other annotations. The annotations can also be displayed in a manner that provides visual cues regarding the sources of individual annotations.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising, as performed by a content management system comprising a server computing device configured to execute specific instructions:

establishing a content presentation session, wherein individual portions of a content item are provided to each of a plurality of user devices concurrently during the content presentation session, and wherein the plurality of user devices are permitted to submit annotations concurrently during the content presentation session;

receiving, from a first user device of the plurality of user devices, an annotation associated with the content item;

determining a target amount of annotation content per unit of time to be distributed to individual user devices of the plurality of user devices;

selecting a first subset of the plurality of user devices based at least partly on a quantity of the plurality of user devices and the target amount of annotation content per unit of time;

transmitting the annotation to the first subset of the plurality of user devices;

receiving moderation information regarding the annotation from at least a portion of the first subset of the plurality of user devices;

determining that the moderation information satisfies a moderation criterion; and

transmitting a plurality of annotations associated with the content item to a second subset of the plurality of user devices, wherein the plurality of annotations includes the annotation.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein selecting the first subset of the plurality of user devices is based at least partly on prior moderation information received from individual user devices of the plurality of user devices.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the annotation comprises at least one of:

a textual comment, a link to a second content item, an image, a video, or an audio recording.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content item comprises at least one of:

a video of a live event, a previously-recorded video, an audio content item, a product information page, an online conference, or a slide show presentation.

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

determining to group the annotation with a second annotation, received from a second user device, based at least partly on an analysis of content of the annotation with respect to content of the second annotation;

selecting the annotation as representative of both the annotation and the second annotation; and

transmitting, to the second subset of the plurality of user devices, metadata regarding displaying the annotation as representative of both the annotation and the second annotation.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein displaying the annotation as representative of both the annotation and the second annotation comprises displaying a visual effect associating the annotation with a first display object associated with the first user device at a first time, and a second display object associated with the second user device at a second time.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, to the second subset of the plurality of user devices, information regarding the plurality of user devices, wherein individual user devices in the second subset of the plurality of user devices are configured to display objects representing user devices of the plurality of user devices.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the plurality of annotations associated with the content item, wherein the plurality of annotations includes the annotation;

determining that a quantity of the plurality of annotations satisfies a threshold number of annotations received in a predetermined period of time;

in response to determining that the quantity satisfies the threshold, determining to provide a subset of the plurality of annotations to the first subset of the plurality of user devices.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the target amount of annotation content per unit of time comprises determining a target quantity of words of annotation content per unit of time.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the target amount of annotation content per unit of time comprises determining a target quantity of annotations per unit of time.

11. A non-transitory computer storage medium storing executable code, wherein the executable code configures a computing system to perform a process comprising:

establishing a content presentation session, wherein individual portions of a content item are provided to each of a plurality of user devices concurrently during the content presentation session, and wherein the plurality of user devices are permitted to submit annotations concurrently during the content presentation session;

receiving, from a first user device of the plurality of user devices, an annotation associated with the content item;

determining a target amount of annotation content per unit of time to be distributed to individual user devices of the plurality of user devices;

selecting a first subset of the plurality of user devices based at least partly on a quantity of the plurality of user devices and the target amount of annotation content per unit of time;

transmitting the annotation to the first subset of the plurality of user devices;

receiving moderation information regarding the annotation from at least a portion of the first subset of the plurality of user devices;

determining that the moderation information satisfies a moderation criterion; and

transmitting a plurality of annotations associated with the content item to a second subset of the plurality of user devices, wherein the plurality of annotations includes the annotation.

12. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein determining that the moderation information satisfies the moderation criterion comprises:

determining a threshold quantity of moderation tags that are to be applied to the annotation before the annotation is permitted to be provided to additional user devices;

determining a quantity of moderation tags applied to the annotation by the first subset of the plurality of user devices; and

determining that the quantity of moderation tags satisfies the threshold quantity.

13. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a threshold quantity of moderation tags that are permitted to be applied to a second annotation before the second annotation is not to be provided to additional user devices;

determining a quantity of moderation tags applied to the second annotation by the first subset of the plurality of user devices; and

determining that the quantity of moderation tags satisfies the threshold quantity.

14. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises:

determining that the annotation comprises a question; and

transmitting, to the second subset of the plurality of user devices, information indicating that the annotation is to be displayed using a different display configuration than at least a portion of other annotations in the group of annotations.

15. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises transmitting, to the second subset of the plurality of user devices, display metadata associating a first portion of the group of annotations with a primary display region and a second portion of the group of annotations with a secondary display region, wherein individual user devices of the second subset of the plurality of user devices are configured to display the group of annotations in a multi-region view according to the display metadata.

16. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises transmitting, to the second subset of the plurality of user devices, display metadata associating a first portion of the group of annotations with a first display time and a second portion of the group of annotations with a second display time, wherein individual user devices of the second subset of the plurality of user devices are configured to display the group of annotations according to the display metadata.

17. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises transmitting the content item, the annotation, and display metadata to a user device, wherein the metadata indicates a time at which the annotation is to be displayed, and wherein the time corresponds to a relative time, within the content item, at which the annotation was created.

18. A system comprising:

a computer-readable memory storing executable instructions; and

one or more hardware computing devices in communication with the computer-readable memory, the one or more hardware computing devices programmed by the executable instructions to at least;

establish a content presentation session, wherein individual portions of a content item are provided to each of a plurality of user devices concurrently during the content presentation session, and wherein the plurality of user devices are permitted to submit annotations concurrently during the content presentation session;

receive, from a first user device of the plurality of user devices, an annotation associated with a portion of the content item;

determine a target quantity of annotations per unit of time to be distributed to individual user devices of the plurality of user devices;

select a first subset of the plurality of user devices based at least partly on a quantity of the plurality of user devices and the target quantity of annotations per unit of time;

transmit the annotation to the first subset of the plurality of user devices;

receive moderation information regarding the annotation from at least a portion of the first subset of user devices;

determine that the moderation information satisfies a moderation criterion;

transmit a group of annotations to a second subset of the plurality of user devices, wherein the group of annotations includes the annotation; and

transmit display metadata to the second subset, wherein the display metadata is associated with display characteristics of individual annotations in the group of annotations.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the executable instructions to determine that the moderation information satisfies the moderation criterion comprise executable instructions to at least:

determine a threshold quantity of moderation tags that are to be applied to the annotation before the annotation is permitted to be provided to additional user devices;

determine a quantity of moderation tags applied to the annotation by the first subset of user devices; and

determine that the quantity of moderation tags satisfies the threshold quantity.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the display metadata associates a first portion of the group of annotations with a lower display layer, wherein the display metadata associates a second portion of the group of annotations with an upper display layer, and wherein individual user devices of the second subset are configured to display the group of annotations in a multi-layer view according to the display metadata.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more computing devices are further programmed by the executable instructions to at least:

determine that moderation information regarding a second annotation does not satisfy the moderation criterion; and

exclude the second annotation from the group of annotations transmitted to the second subset.