Walled gardens

• US 20060248584A1
• Filed: 04/28/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Lili, Hughes, Richard L., Kelly, Sean U., Kott, Ryszard K., Portnoy, William L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,832,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes

Abstract

The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates a controlled communication environment which allows a user to participate in a plurality of privacy contexts with other people in a simultaneous manner in an online community. A user can assign or define varying levels of privacy to his/her information or content to control the visibility of such information by others. In particular, a first user can maintain one or more “gardens” or stores of content which may be accessible to at least a subset of the online community. Access to the contents of any one garden can be based on the privacy level of the garden and the privacy level (e.g., access parameters) granted to the person. The privacy levels and arrangement of content can be hierarchal and/or non-overlapping. Thus, a user can seamlessly communicate with multiple users at the same time regardless of their context or privacy level while maintaining the privacy boundaries of each garden.

Claims

1. A controlled communication system comprising:

a data analysis component that examines at least one of the following;

at least one person'"'"'s access input and information derived therefrom to determine the person'"'"'s privacy context with respect to content owned by at least one user; and

a context control component that regulates communication between the at least one user and the at least one person whereby the at least one user can communicate with the at least one person in more than one privacy context simultaneously.

2. The system of claim 1, the privacy context comprises at least two privacy levels.

3. The system of claim 1, the access input comprises the person'"'"'s login data.

4. The system of claim 1, the content is organized into one or more groups, such that the one or more groups are one of the following:

distinct or overlapping.

5. The system of claim 4, each group of content is assigned a privacy level.

6. The system of claim 1, the content is assigned at least one privacy level.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a multi-context communication component that facilitates user communication with other people logged into an online community at a plurality of privacy contexts at the same time and that mitigates a user from explicitly switching between different privacy contexts.

8. The system of claim 1, the person'"'"'s privacy context determines whether the person has access to at least a portion of the user'"'"'s content.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a monitor component that monitors at least one of user actions and user communications with the at least one person; and

an artificial intelligence component that is trained to automatically assign the at least one person with a privacy context for the user'"'"'s content based on at least one of the user actions and user communications with the at least one person.

10. The system of claim 1, the user'"'"'s content is organized in at least one of the following manners:

hierarchal, non-overlapping, non-hierarchal, partially overlapping, or completely overlapping.

11. A method that facilitates controlled communication in a plurality of privacy contexts comprising:

analyzing at least one of the following;

at least one person'"'"'s access input and information derived therefrom to determine the person'"'"'s privacy context with respect to content owned by at least one user; and

controlling communication between the at least one user and the at least one person whereby the at least one user can communicate with the at least one person in more than one privacy context simultaneously.

12. The method of claim 11, the privacy context comprises at least two privacy levels.

13. The method of claim 11, the access input comprises the person'"'"'s login data.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising organizing the user'"'"'s content into one or more groups.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

assigning each group a privacy context; and

assigning each person with a privacy context.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising assigning the content at least one privacy level.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

monitoring at least one of user actions and user communications with the at least one person; and

automatically assigning the at least one person with a privacy context for the user'"'"'s content based on at least one of the user actions and user communications with the at least one person.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

displaying at least a portion of the user'"'"'s content to the at least one person when the content'"'"'s privacy context corresponds to the person'"'"'s privacy context; and

allowing the person to perform at least one of the following when access to the content is obtained by the person;

blog or post at least one of text, pictures, and any other content;

view the content posted by other people;

view the content posted by the user; and

annotate to previously posted content.

19. A controlled communication system comprising:

means for examining at least one of the following;

at least one person'"'"'s access input and information derived therefrom to determine the person'"'"'s privacy context with respect to content owned by at least one user; and

means for regulating communication between the at least one user and the at least one person whereby the at least one user can communicate with the at least one person in more than one privacy context simultaneously.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for monitoring at least one of user actions and user communications with the at least one person; and

means for automatically assigning the at least one person with a privacy context for the user'"'"'s content based on at least one of the user actions and user communications with the at least one person.