QUERYING SOCIAL NETWORKS

• US 20070174304A1
• Filed: 01/20/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kishore, Ajitesh, Swami, Sunil, Mahajan, Sameer, Shrufi, Adel, Anderson, Glen
• Granted Patent: US 7,702,685 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2448 for particular applications; for extensibility, e.g. user defined types
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A data model models a social network. The data model can be embodied as a person profile schema and a connector profile schema. The person profile schema defines properties of persons in the social network. The connector profile schema defines connectivity properties of persons that connect a searcher to the persons in social network that the searcher desires to find. Query languages can be based on the data model and can be used to express queries of social networks. Queries can be for persons, for connecting persons, or for both.

Claims

1. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer readable media storing a schema defining a data model of arbitrary social networks, where a social network comprises persons and relations between the persons, the schema comprising:

a definition of person nodes, the definition of person nodes defining a person node as comprising information identifying a person represented by the person node and keywords corresponding to that person; and

a definition of connectors, the definition of connectors defining a connector as including information identifying a first person node and a second person node and representing connectivity information about how the connector is related to the first person node or the second person node.

2. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the connectivity information indicates that the connector has a knows-relationship with the first person node or the second person node.

3. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the keywords of a person node describe knowledge of a person represented by the person node.

4. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the definition of the person nodes further defines a person node as having anonymity information indicating whether personally identifiable information of the node should be revealed.

5. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 4, wherein the definition of the person nodes further defines a person node'"'"'s anonymity information as indicating whether a node is anonymous or not with respect to various of the person node'"'"'s keywords.

6. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the person node definition further defines person nodes as having a relationship strength to a person requesting a search.

7. One or more computer readable media storing a search request specifying a search of a representation of a social network, the representation of the social network comprising nodes representing persons in the social network and comprising connections between the nodes that represent social connections between the persons, the search request comprising:

person information indicating properties of persons to be searched for; and

connection information indicating properties of persons who directly or indirectly connect, within the social network, a person making the search request to the persons specified by the properties of the persons to be searched for.

8. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the person information comprises a privacy indicator, and where a property of the connection information comprises information indicating whether a result match is to be provided to the searcher based on privacy settings of a result match.

9. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the connection information specifies a distance through the social network from a person making the request to a person matching the person information specified by the request.

10. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the connection information specifies a strength of a relationship in the social network between a person connecting the searcher to a person matching the person information.

11. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the connection information specifies a list of persons who contributed to connecting, in the social network, the searcher with a person matching the person information in the request.

12. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the person information specifies a social distance, within the social network, between the searcher and a person that otherwise matches the search request.

13. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, wherein the request is formatted according to schema information that defines a query language.

14. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 13, wherein the schema information comprises a person profile and a connector profile, the person information is formatted according to the person profile, and the connector information is formatted according to the connector profile.

15. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 14, further storing, either during or after storing the request, a response containing a search result corresponding to the request, where the search result is formatted according to the schema information.

16. One or more computer readable media storing information to allow a computer to send or receive queries for searching a social network or responses to such queries, where the computer performs a process comprising:

sending or receiving query statements of a query language, where the query language allows a query statement to specify target persons in the social network based on properties of the target persons and allows the query statement to specify one or more properties of persons that directly or indirectly connect, within the social network, the searcher to the target persons.

17. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, where a property of a person that connects the searcher to the target persons comprises either a social distance in the social network from the searcher to the connecting person, or a strength of matching the target persons, or a visibility of a target person to the connecting person.

18. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, wherein the process further comprises sending or receiving responses to the query statements, where the responses conform to the query language.

19. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, wherein the query statements are instances of schema information that defines the query language.

20. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, wherein the query statements comprise keywords that specify the target persons.