DETERMINING RELEVANCE OF ELECTRONIC CONTENT

• US 20070179945A1
• Filed: 01/16/2007
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STERLING COMPUTERS CORPORATION
• Original Assignee: BLUESPACE SOFTWARE CORP. (STERLING COMPUTERS CORPORATION)
• Inventors: Marston, Justin, Marston, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,217 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

In an electronic mail system, a user'"'"'s actions with an application for managing electronic content are monitored. Based on the user'"'"'s actions and/or on the actions of other users in the system, a relevance analysis module determines a relevance to the user of a piece of electronic content based on a likelihood of interest of the electronic content piece to the user and/or a measure of a level of significance the user has to another entity associated with the electronic content piece.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a monitoring module configured to track actions by a plurality of users associated with an application for managing electronic content;

a relevance analysis module coupled to the monitoring module and configured to determine a relevance to a user of a piece of electronic content sent from a sender to the user, the relevance being determined dependent on;

a measure of a relevance of the piece of electronic content as determined dependent on one or more actions of the user on the piece of electronic content, and

a measure of a relevance of the piece of electronic content as determined dependent on one or more actions of at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance is further determined dependent on a measure of local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance is further determined dependent on a measure of global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to identify at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and is cognate to the user and wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to determine the relevance to the user of the piece of electronic content dependent upon one or more actions of the at least one cognate recipient with respect to the piece of electronic content.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to determine the relevance to the user of the piece of electronic content responsive to contents of the piece of electronic content.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to determine the relevance to the user of the piece of electronic content responsive to one or more measures from the set consisting of:

a local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user;

a global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated;

a content relevance determined responsive to contents of the piece of electronic content; and

one or more actions with respect to the piece of electronic content of one or more of the plurality of users determined to be cognate to the user.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a content presentation module configured to present the piece of electronic content to the user in accordance with the determined relevance and to present to the user a value describing the determined relevance.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a search module configured to search the electronic content in accordance with the determined relevance.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the piece of electronic content comprises an electronic mail object in a relational mail system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic content comprises at least one of an email, a document, an instant message, and an SMS message.

11. A computer program product having a computer-readable medium having computer program instructions encoded thereon comprising:

a monitoring module configured to track actions by a plurality of users associated with an application for managing electronic content;

a relevance analysis module coupled to the monitoring module and configured to determine a relevance to a user of a piece of electronic content sent from a sender to the user, the relevance being determined dependent on;

a measure of a relevance of the piece of electronic content as determined dependent on one or more actions of the user on the piece of electronic content, and

a measure of a relevance of the piece of electronic content as determined dependent on one or more actions of at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the relevance is further determined dependent on a measure of local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the relevance is further determined dependent on a measure of global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to identify at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and is cognate to the user and wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to determine the relevance to the user of the piece of electronic content dependent upon one or more actions of the at least one cognate recipient with respect to the piece of electronic content.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to determine the relevance to the user of the piece of electronic content responsive to contents of the piece of electronic content.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the relevance analysis module is further configured to determine the relevance to the user of the piece of electronic content responsive to one or more measures from the set consisting of:

a local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user;

a global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated;

a content relevance determined responsive to contents of the piece of electronic content; and

one or more actions with respect to the piece of electronic content of one or more of the plurality of users determined to be cognate to the user.

17. A method, comprising:

tracking actions by a plurality of users associated with an application for managing electronic content;

determining a relevance to a user of a piece of electronic content sent from a sender to the user, the relevance being determined dependent on;

a measure of a relevance of the piece of electronic content as determined dependent on one or more actions of the user on the piece of electronic content, and

a measure of a relevance of the piece of electronic content as determined dependent on one or more actions of at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the relevance is further determined dependent on a measure of local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the relevance is further determined dependent on a measure of global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the relevance to the user further comprises:

identifying at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and is cognate to the user; and

determining the relevance to the user of the piece of electronic content dependent upon one or more actions of the at least one cognate recipient with respect to the piece of electronic content.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the relevance is further dependent on contents of the piece of electronic content.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the relevance is further dependent on one or more measures from the set consisting of:

a local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user;

a global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated;

a content relevance determined responsive to contents of the piece of electronic content; and

one or more actions with respect to the piece of electronic content of one or more of the plurality of users determined to be cognate to the user.