WIRELESS SOCIAL NETWORKING

• US 20080031203A1
• Filed: 08/03/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bill, David S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,037 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A first device may communicate by joining a wireless mesh network that includes at least one wireless device configured to operate a wireless routing protocol, discovering a group of other wireless devices configured to participate in the wireless mesh network, and accessing an interest metric for a second wireless device in the group of other wireless devices. The interest metric is based in part on a network topology from the wireless mesh network. The interest metric is related to an interest threshold and it is determined whether relating the interest metric to the interest threshold supports enabling messaging communications. If so, messaging communications may be enabled.

Claims

1. A method of communicating using a first wireless device, the method comprising:

joining a wireless mesh network that includes at least one wireless device configured to operate a wireless routing protocol;

discovering a group of other wireless devices configured to participate in the wireless mesh network;

accessing an interest metric for a second wireless device in the group of other wireless devices, wherein the interest metric is based in part on a network topology from the wireless mesh network;

relating the interest metric to an interest threshold;

determining whether relating the interest metric to the interest threshold supports enabling messaging communications between the first and second wireless devices; and

if so, enabling messaging communications to be exchanged between the first and second wireless devices.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein enabling messaging communications to be exchanged includes rendering an icon representing a communications pathway so that a user may interact with the icon to exchange communications.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein accessing the interest metric for the second wireless device includes accessing information that is based at least in part on characteristics of an entity operating the second wireless device.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein accessing characteristics of the entity operating the second wireless includes accessing at least one of an entity type, a content type, one or more interests of the entity, and a social interest.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein accessing the interest metric for the second wireless device includes accessing information that is based at least in part on a geographic location of the second wireless device.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein accessing information that is based at least in part on the geographic location of the second wireless device includes accessing at least one of a zip code, a state, a region, a street address, and a location based on a Global Positioning Signal.

7. The method of claim 2 further comprising rendering a participant list perceivable to the user.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein rendering the participant list includes:

identifying users;

organizing identified users into categories based on network proximity; and

displaying information for identified users.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein identifying users includes accessing privacy settings for the users being identified.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein organizing the identified users into categories includes rendering the identified users based on the privacy settings.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein organizing the identified users includes also organizing the identified users by associated interest metrics.

12. A system on configured to communicate across a wireless network on a computer readable medium, the system comprising:

a communications interface structured and arranged to;

join a wireless mesh network that includes at least one wireless device configured to operate a wireless routing protocol;

discover a group of other wireless devices configured to participate in the wireless mesh network;

a processor structured and arranged to

access an interest metric for a second wireless device in the group of other wireless devices, wherein the interest metric is based in part on a network topology from the wireless mesh network;

relate the interest metric to an interest threshold;

determine whether relating the interest metric to the interest threshold supports enabling messaging communications between the first and second wireless devices; and

if so, enable messaging communications to be exchanged between the first and second wireless devices.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein enabling messaging communications to be exchanged includes rendering an icon representing a communications pathway so that a user may interact with the icon to exchange communications.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein accessing the interest metric for the second wireless device includes accessing information that is based at least in part on characteristics of an entity operating the second wireless device.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein accessing characteristics of the entity operating the second wireless includes accessing at least one of an entity type, a content type, one or more interests of the entity, and a social interest.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein accessing the interest metric for the second wireless device includes accessing information that is based at least in part on a geographic location of the second wireless device.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein accessing information that is based at least in part on the geographic location of the second wireless device includes accessing at least one of a zip code, a state, a region, a street address, and a location based on a Global Positioning Signal.

18. The system of claim 13 further comprising rendering a participant list perceivable to the user.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein rendering the participant list includes:

identifying users;

organizing identified users into categories based on network proximity; and

displaying information for identified users.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein identifying the users includes accessing privacy settings for the users being identified.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein organizing the identified users into categories includes rendering the identified users based on the privacy settings.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein organizing the identified users includes also organizing the identified users by associated interest metrics.

23. A system on configured to communicate across a wireless network on a computer readable medium, the system comprising:

means for joining a wireless mesh network that includes at least one wireless device configured to operate a wireless routing protocol;

means for discovering a group of other wireless devices configured to participate in the wireless mesh network;

means for accessing an interest metric for a second wireless device in the group of other wireless devices, wherein the interest metric is based in part on a network topology from the wireless mesh network;

means for relating the interest metric to an interest threshold;

means for determining whether relating the interest metric to the interest threshold supports enabling messaging communications between the first and second wireless devices; and

if so, means for enabling messaging communications to be exchanged between the first and second wireless devices.