Networking system

• US 20050262197A1
• Filed: 06/25/2002
• Published: 11/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chua Chien Liang
• Original Assignee: Chua Chien Liang
• Inventors: Liang, Chua Chien
• Granted Patent: US 7,756,918 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A method to generate a group of entities from a plurality of participating entities, the method comprising: one of the participating entities expressing by indication which others of the participating entities they wish to meet; selecting to be a first member of the group an entity which has indicated at least one other of the participating entities it wishes to meet; adding a new entity to the group by selecting the new entity from the set of indications of the last member added to the group.

Claims

1. A method to generate a group of entities from a plurality of participating entities, said method comprising:

(a) One of said participating entities expressing by indication which others of said participating entities they wish to meet;

(b) Selecting to be a first member of the group an entity which has indicated at least one other of said participating entities it wishes to meet;

(c) Adding a new entity to the group by selecting said new entity from the set of indications of the last member added to said group.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of indications of an entity are the set of other entities that said entity indicated it is interested in meeting.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

repeatedly adding new members until at least one indication of the set of indications of the last new member added to said group includes one of the current members of the group.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising using a look ahead method of choosing which one of the set of indications to choose from the last new member where the look ahead consist of N generations.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the first generation is the set of indications of the last new member and the Nth generation is the set of entities combined from the set of indications of all of the entities of N−

1 generation.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein if one of the entity (named X) from the first generation to the N generation is a member off the group, then the look ahead has succeeded and the new members added to the group will consist of the set of entities that follows the link of indications from the last new member to the entity that has said entity named X as a member of its set of indications.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising using a look back method of choosing which one of the set of indications to choose from the last new member where the look back consists of N generations.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the first generation is the set of entities whose set of indications includes at least one of the current members of the group and the Nth generation is the set of entities whose set of indications include one of the entity of the N−

1 generation.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein if one entity (named X) from the first generation to the N generation is also the last new member of the group, then the look back has succeeded and the new members added to the group will consist of the set of entities that follows the link of indications from the last new member which is also said entity named X back to the first generation of the look back.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising a combined Look ahead and backwards;

said method consisting of looking ahead N generations and looking backwards M generations where if there is an entity X that is common to the look ahead from 1 to N generations and the look back is from 1 to M generations, then the combined look ahead and backwards has succeeded and the new members added to the group will consist of the set of entities that follows the link of indications from the last new member to X and from X to the first generation of the look back.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising repeatedly increasing N and M by steps of amount N1 and M1 until the combined look ahead and backwards has succeeded or N or M equal or exceed a predetermined value.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the entities under consideration are already pre-selected for in terms of having already indicated a common time and a common place to meet.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising stopping the process of generation of new members of said group when the quantity of members of the group reaches a predetermined quantity.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the entities are people.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the entities are corporations or a combination of corporations and people.

16. A system to generate groups to meet for the purpose of enabling participating entities to meet others of said participating entities more effectively, the system comprising:

a computer readable storage medium;

linkages to said participating entities by input/output devices;

wherein the particulars of said participating entities and indications can be fed in and stored in the computer readable storage medium and resultant groups generated posted to the entities via the same input/output devices; and

computer programming stored on the storage medium.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the computer programming stored on said system is configured to be readable from the computer readable storage medium by a computer and thereby cause the computer to operate so as to:

pick an entity to be the first member of the group;

add a new entity to the group by picking it from the set of indications of the last new member of group, where the set of indications of an entity are the set of other entities that an entity indicated it is interested in.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the process of generating groups is stopped when the quantity of the member of the group equals or exceeds a specific quantity.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the stored computer programming is further configured to cause the computer to operate so as to:

repeatedly add new members until the set of indications of the last new member include one of the current member of the group.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the stored computer programming is further configured to cause the computer to operate as to:

use a look ahead method of choosing which one of the set of indications to choose from the last new member where the look ahead consist of N generations.

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