Social Categorization in Electronic Mail

• US 20080040126A1
• Filed: 08/08/2006
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Campailla, Alexis, Estrada, Julio
• Application Number:
  US11/463,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20080040126A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Associating communication objects based on the content of the communication objects using social category tags. Communication objects are collected for a user. Each communication object has a type describing characteristics of each said communication object. An instruction is received from the user for assigning a social category tag to each one of the collected communication objects. A subset of the collected communication objects is associated based on their assigned tags. The associated subset of communication objects is presented to the user such that more than one type of communication objects is included in the subset.

Claims

1. A method for associating communication objects based on the content of the communication objects, said method comprising:

collecting communication objects for a user, said each communication object having a type describing characteristics of each said communication object;

receiving an instruction from the user for assigning a tag to each one of the collected communication objects;

associating a subset of the collected communication objects based on their assigned tags; and

presenting the associated subset of communication objects to the user such that more than one type of communication objects are included in the subset.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag describing a category identifier based on the content of each communication object.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising pre-defining tags describing a collection of known categories associated with the types of communication objects.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising automatically recommending or applying the pre-defined tags or assigned tags to the communication object.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising evaluating relevancy of the collected communication objects to identify related communication objects, and wherein automatically recommending or applying comprises automatically recommending or applying the assigned tags to the related communication objects.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the type describing characteristics of the communication object comprises one of the following:

an electronic mail message, a contact entry, a task item, an electronic appointment requests, a calendar event, and an instant message conversation.

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

8. A system for associating communication objects based on the content of the communication objects, said system comprising:

an interface for collecting communication objects for a user, said each communication object having a type describing characteristics of each said communication object;

a processor configured for executing computer-executable instructions for;

receiving an instruction from the user for assigning a tag to each one of the collected communication objects;

associating a subset of the collected communication objects based on their assigned tags; and

a user interface for presenting the associated subset of communication objects to the user such that more than one type of communication objects are included in the subset.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the tag describing a category identifier based on the content of each communication object.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to pre-defining tags describing a collection of known categories associated with the types of communication objects.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to automatically recommend or apply the pre-defined tags to the communication object.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to determine an inherency relationship among a plurality of associated subset based on the assigned tags of communication objects within each of the associated subset.

13. The system of claim of 12, wherein the processor is configured to automatically recommend or apply tags to communication objects as a function of the inherency relationship.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the type describing characteristics of the communication object comprises one of the following:

an electronic mail message, a contact entry, a task item, an electronic appointment request, a calendar event, and an instant message conversation.

15. One or more computer-readable media having stored thereon a data structure for a social category tag associated with a communication object, said communication object having a content, said data structure comprising:

a first data field including social category tag content;

a second data field including data identifying a owner of the social category tag associated with the communication object;

a third data field including data identifying the social category tag;

a fourth data field including data identifying the communication object associated with the data included in the third data field; and

a fifth data field including data identifying one or more other users associated with the data identified in the second data field.

16. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the social category tag describing a category identifier based on the content of the communication object.

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

an electronic mail message, a contact entry, a task item, an electronic appointment request, a calendar event, and an instant message conversation.

18. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein each type of the communication object comprises parameters associated with the communication object.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the data in each of the fifth data field comprises data relating to the one or more other users as a function of the parameters of the communication object.

20. The computer-readable media of claim 15, further comprising a sixth data field including tag association data, said tag association data being determined as a function of at least the content of the communication object and the first data field.