Informal trust relationship to facilitate data sharing

• US 20070033109A1
• Filed: 08/05/2005
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mercer, Ian, Patten, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1057 involving pre-assessment of levels of reputation of peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities

Abstract

Enabling the automatic identification of participants to a common event to enable data sharing between the participants. An event identifier embedded in the content data associates the content data with an event. A content data service maintains a list of event identifiers and a list of participants associated with each event. Each of the participants communicates with the content data service to identify the other participants. The participants communicate with each other to share content data from the common event.

Claims

1. A computerized method of enabling the sharing of content data associated with an event, said computerized method comprising:

maintaining a list of event identifiers each corresponding to an event to which content data is associated, said content data having the corresponding event identifier embedded therein;

maintaining a list of participants associated with each of the event identifiers, wherein at least a portion of the participants provide the content data; and

maintaining a trust profile for each of the participants for each of the event identifiers, wherein the participants access the content data as a function of the trust profile.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising storing metadata associated with each of the event identifiers.

3. The computerized method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving one of the event identifiers from one of the participants from the list of participants associated with said one of the event identifiers;

providing, to said one of the participants, the list of participants corresponding to said one of the event identifiers; and

providing, to said one of the participants, the metadata associated with the received one of the event identifiers.

4. The computerized method of claim 3, further comprising enabling a peer-to-peer connection between a computing device associated with one of the participants and a computing device associated with another one of the participants.

5. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the list of event identifiers comprises:

receiving a request from a user for an event identifier for an event;

defining the event identifier; and

providing the defined event identifier to the user.

6. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the trust profile comprises identifying a first participant from the list of participants who is blocked from accessing content data of a second participant.

7. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising synchronizing, among each of the participants in the list of participants for a particular event identifier, information about each of the participants.

8. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising receiving authorization from one of the participants to share content data associated with said one of the participants.

9. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein each of the event identifiers comprises one or more of the following:

a barcode, a serial number, and a uniform resource locator.

10. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the computerized method recited in claim 1.

11. A system for enabling content sharing among participants in an event, said system comprising:

a list of event identifiers each corresponding to an event with which content data is associated, said content data having the corresponding event identifier embedded therein;

a list of participants associated with each of the event identifiers, wherein at least a portion of the participants provide the content data;

a trust profile for each of the participants for each of the event identifiers, wherein the participants access the content data as a function of the trust profile;

metadata associated with each of the event identifier; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

receiving, from one of the participants, a request for the list of participants associated with a particular event identifier;

providing, to said one of the participants, the list of participants corresponding to the particular event identifier; and

providing, to said one of the participants, the metadata associated with the particular event identifier.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a web site for communicating with each of the participants.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising means for generating another event identifier responsive to a request from a user.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising means for maintaining the trust profile.

15. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components for enabling the sharing of data content associated with an event, said components comprising:

a registration component for maintaining a list of event identifiers each corresponding to an event to which content data is associated, said content data having the corresponding event identifier embedded therein;

a security component for maintaining a list of participants associated with each of the event identifiers and for maintaining a trust profile for each of the participants for each of the event identifiers, wherein at least a portion of the participants provide the content data, and wherein the participants access the content data as a function of the trust profile; and

a communications component for transmitting the list of participants to each of the participants.

16. The computer-readable media of claim 15, further comprising an event attribute component for:

storing metadata associated with each of the event identifiers; and

providing the stored metadata associated with a particular event identifier to the participants in the list of participants associated with the particular identifier.

17. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the metadata comprises one or more of the following:

an event name, a date, an event duration, an event location, and the list of participants.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the communications component enables a peer-to-peer connection between a computing device associated with one of the participants and a computing device associated with another one of the participants.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein each of the event identifiers comprises one or more of the following:

a barcode, a serial number, and a uniform resource locator.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 15, further comprising synchronizing, among each of the participants in the list of participants for a particular one of the event identifiers, information about each of the participants.