×

Civic issues platforms on online social networks

  • US 10,298,535 B2
  • Filed: 05/19/2015
  • Issued: 05/21/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2015
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices of an online social network:

  • accessing, by the one or more computing devices, a social graph of the online social network, wherein the social graph comprises a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

    a first node corresponding to a first user of the online social network; and

    a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of entities associated with the online social network, respectively;

    receiving, at the one or more computing devices from a first client system of the first user, a post corresponding to a civic issue on a civic-issues platform of the online social network associated with a first municipality, wherein the first municipality corresponds to a particular second node of the plurality of second nodes that is connected to the first node corresponding to the first user by a single degree of separation, and wherein the post comprises;

    text describing the civic issue;

    a location associated with the civic issue; and

    a user-reported category corresponding to the civic issue;

    extracting, by the one or more computing devices, one or more n-grams from the text of the post;

    determining, by the one or more computing devices at a public-agency database of the civic-issues platform, a classification of the post based (1) on social-networking information associated with the first user, (2) a comparison of the extracted n-grams with one or more classification-keywords stored in the public-agency database, and (3) the user-reported category associated with the civic issue, wherein each of the one or more classification-keywords are associated with one or more agencies, and wherein the determined classification is based on which agency of the one or more agencies the extracted n-grams correspond to;

    assigning, by the one or more computing devices at an issue-tracking database of the civic-issues platform, the post to a first agency of the first municipality based on the determined classification of the post and the location associated with the civic issue;

    receiving, at the one or more computing devices from second client system of a first entity associated with the online social network, a request to update the post on the civic-issues platform, the request describing a current status of the civic issue, wherein the first entity corresponds to a particular second node of the plurality of second nodes that is connected to the particular second node corresponding to the first municipality by a single degree of separation;

    updating, by the one or more computing devices at the issue-tracking database, the post on the civic-issues platform to indicate the current status of the civic issue; and

    sending, from the one or more computing devices to the client system of the first user for display in response to the update of the post, a notification indicating the post on the civic-issues platform has been updated, the notification comprising a reference to the current status of the civic issue.

View all claims
  • 2 Assignments
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×