Viral engine for network deployment

• US 20060080284A1
• Filed: 11/07/2003
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Plaxo Incorporated (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Plaxo Incorporated (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Masonis, John T., Ring, Cameron T., Carey, Richard J., Parker, Sean
• Granted Patent: US 7,389,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A private network system operates over a public network to provide an asymmetric service to members with information from other members and non-members. The system includes central servers and databases connected via the public network to client systems of public network users. The users may be members who communicate with a private protocol or non-members who communicate with the public protocol. A process for the private service includes communication of information between users via the private service servers. The private service server implements the private service, which includes a viral engine for network deployment. Features of the viral engine include genetic algorithms, data mining, personalization, frictionless service setup, user maximization, and member-controlled privacy. A sample setup process and contact update wizard that include several viral engine features are described.

Claims

1. A network deployment method for building a membership based private network between users of a public communications network, the method comprising:

receiving from a first member at least one identifier for a user of the public network, wherein the user is one of a member or a non-member of the private network;

determining, based at least in part on the identifier, whether the user is one of a member or a non-member of the private network;

requesting information from the user via a public communications protocol in response to determining that the user is a non-member of the private network;

receiving information from the non-member via the public communications network; and

populating at least part of a data object in a database record associated with the first member with the information received from the non-member.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving from the first member a second identifier for a second user of the public network;

determining that the second user is a second member of the private network;

creating a link between the database record associated with the first member and a second database record associated with the second member for automatically providing the first member with access to information regarding the second member.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the access is controlled by the second member and wherein the information regarding the second member is configurable to be divided into a plurality of information sets each with a different member controlled access level.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of information sets include one from a group consisting of a plurality of virtual personas and a plurality of member information cards.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the membership based private network comprises an asymmetric service.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the asymmetric services comprises a contact information updating service and the public network is a network of electronic mail users.

7. The method of claim 5, the asymmetric service further comprising:

identifying electronic mail users with an electronic mail address referenced in at least one electronic mail message stored in an electronic mail folder of the first member by data-mining the electronic mail messages within the first member'"'"'s electronic mail folders for adding the identified electronic mail users to a contact list of the first member, the contact list comprising contact information for a subset of the electronic mail users of the public network; and

receiving input from the first member for personalizing an invitation to join the private network, the invitation to join the private network for transmission to the subset of electronic mail users in the first member'"'"'s contact list.

8. The method of claim 7, the asymmetric service further comprising:

composing the invitation to join the private network with a subset of aesthetic appeal related features from a variety of aesthetic appeal related features, the subset of the aesthetic appeal related features selected based on empiric data showing the subset of the aesthetic appeal related features statistically determined to prompt a response to the invitation to join the network; and

analyzing the electronic mail messages within the first member'"'"'s electronic mail folders to select electronic mail users that are non-members of the private network and who based on the analysis are likely to respond to an invitation to join the network, the analysis including producing a report in the form of a frequency bar graphically representing the frequency of electronic email communication with the selected electronic mail users;

wherein the requesting information from the non-member via a public communications protocol includes transmitting an electronic mail message including the invitation to join the private network.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising transmitting a plurality of electronic mail messages to the electronic mail users listed in the first member'"'"'s contacts list, the electronic mail messages inviting the electronic mail users to join the private network, the plurality of electronic mail messages including information regarding at least one of automatically updating contact information or automatically generating a signature block.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising synchronizing the database record associated with the first member with a local database at a first member client system.

11. The method of 2, further comprising providing enhanced features between the first member and the second member as part of the private network service, the enhanced features comprising at least one from a group consisting of an automatic contact information update, an authentication feature, a federated payment processing, an automated calendar synchronization, and a transaction trust feature.

12. A system for providing an asymmetric data sharing service to members of a private network and between users of a public network, the system comprising:

a server communicatively coupled to the public network and configured to communicate based on a public protocol and a private protocol, the server for implementing features of the asymmetric data sharing service by communicating with members of the private network based on the private protocol and by communicating with non-members based on the public protocol; and

a database coupled to the server for storing data received from non-members and for maintaining links between data shared among members of the private network.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a web server communicatively coupled to the public network for providing a graphical user interface accessible to non-members and communicatively coupled to the database for providing non-member data for storage in member data objects;

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the public network is the Internet and the graphical user interface is a plurality of web-pages configured to display information related to the data sharing service.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising a Database Management System and Data Mining Server coupled to the server and to the database for applying data mining algorithms to public protocol communications received from non-members to derive service related data for storage in member data objects within the database.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the public protocol is an electronic mail protocol.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the asymmetric data sharing service includes at least one of a universal address book, a federated payment processing feature, a trust service feature, an authentication feature for inter-member transactions, and a personal information synchronization feature.

18. A viral engine for implementing features to rapidly deploy a member based private network over a public network of users by providing a data sharing service for members of the private network configurable to receive data from non-members of the private network, the viral engine comprising:

a service messaging module coupled to the public network for composing and transmitting service messages to members and non-members of the private network;

a data-mining module communicatively coupled to a data storage of member'"'"'s communication records for implementing data mining algorithms to derive non-member information usable for transmitting service messages bearing private network membership information to the non-members;

a personalization module communicatively coupled to the service messaging module for receiving member input and composing service related messages bearing personalized invitations to join the private network, the service related messages for transmission to non-members over the public network as part of the service; and

a genetic algorithm module communicatively coupled to the service messaging module and the public network, the genetic algorithm module configured to apply conversion rate related statistics in selecting aesthetic related features for generating new versions of service messages and graphical user interfaces for transmission over the public network to non-members.

19. The viral engine of claim 18, wherein the non-member information derived by the data-mining module includes a unique identifier usable to address communications over the public network to a non-member uniquely identified by the unique identifier.

20. The viral engine of claim 19, wherein the unique identifier is one of an electronic mail address, a wireless telephone number, or an instant messaging user identification.

21. The viral engine of claim 18, wherein the non-member information derived by the data-mining module includes a measure of a relationship between the member and the non-member.

22. The viral engine of claim 21, wherein the measure of the relationship between the member and the non-member includes a frequency of communication configurable to be graphically displayed as a frequency bar.

23. The viral engine of claim 18, wherein the data-mining algorithms include at least one of a natural language processing algorithm and a heuristic algorithm.

24. The viral engine of claim 18, further comprising a scheduling module coupled to the service messaging module for scheduling subsequent transmissions of a service message to a first non-member in response to a failure to receive a first member'"'"'s service response communication.