SHARING DATA OVER TRUSTED NETWORKS

• US 20080209523A1
• Filed: 02/28/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Malkhi, Dahlia, Fernandess, Yaacov, Zhou, Lidong
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,630 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

Data is automatically shared over one or more contact networks which are interrelated by a trust relationship. The data can be shared using a network-based communication service and is stored as a data record in a local data store. The communication service may be implemented as an instant messaging, electronic mail, mobile phone or some other type of communication service. The data record can include data created by a user, a relevance value, a maximum share count and/or other data. The number of times that data may be shared may be configured by the user that generates the data. The relevance of the data may be updated each time the data is shared.

Claims

1. A method for sharing data, comprising:

creating a first data by a first user to be shared;

generating relevance data for the created first data;

automatically sharing the first data and relevance data through a communication service with two or more sets of contacts interrelated by trust relationships, at least one of the two or mores sets of contacts not associated with the first user; and

automatically updating the relevance value each time the data is shared.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of creating data includes:

receiving user input which specifies a relevance value for the data; and

inserting the relevance value into the data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of creating data includes:

receiving user input indicating a count value for the number of times the data may be shared; and

inserting the count value into the data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of automatically sharing includes:

detecting a share event; and

automatically transmitting the data to a first contact of a first set of contacts over the communication service, the two or more set of contacts including the first set of contacts.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said step of automatically sharing includes:

receiving the data by the first contact from a source;

retrieving relevance data from the received data; and

calculating a new relevance value as the product of the retrieved relevance data and a weight value associated with the source by the first contact.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said step of automatically sharing includes:

receiving the data including the new relevance value by a second contact from the first contact; and

automatically calculating a the product of the new relevance value and a second weight value associated with the first contact by the second contact.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of automatically sharing includes:

storing a weight value for each contact associated with the first user, the weight value stored in local memory.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data includes data relevance, the path the data is shared, and the number of times the data may be shared.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication service is an instant messaging service provided over a network.

10. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

associating data with a first relevance value by a first user;

automatically transmitting the data and the first relevance value to a second user using a communication service, the first user and second user having a first trust relationship; and

automatically determining a second relevance value based on the first relevance value for the data received by the second user and the trust relationship between the first user and the second user.

11. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein said step of associating a first relevance value includes:

receiving relevance data input for the data from a user; and

storing the relevance data as part of the data.

12. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein said step of automatically transmitting includes:

accessing a time stamp associated with the second user;

accessing a time stamp associated with the data; and

determining that the time stamp associated with the data is more recent than the time stamp associated with the second user; and

transmitting the data based on said step of determining.

13. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein said step of automatically determining a second relevance:

accessing the first relevance value;

accessing a weight value associated with the first user; and

determining the second relevance value as the result of multiplying the first relevance value by the weight value.

14. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, wherein contact information for the second user is stored in a communication service account for the first user.

15. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, the method further comprising:

automatically transmitting the data and the second relevance value to a third user using the communication service, the second user and third user having a second trust relationship; and

automatically determining a third relevance value based on the second relevance value for the data received by the third user.

16. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 10, further comprising:

accessing a list of two or more data items, each data item having a rank;

determining one of the two or more data item matches a portion of the data; and

modifying the rank of the matching data item based on said step of determining.

17. A method for sharing data, comprising:

creating data by a first user of a messaging service at a client computer;

inserting a relevance value into the data;

storing the data to local storage of the client computer;

transmitting the data to a second client computer associated with a first contact of the first user using the messaging service, the first contact and the first user having a first trust relationship;

modifying the relevance value of the data received by the first contact;

determining that the received data may be shared; and

transmitting the received data to a second contact using the messaging service, the second contact and the first contact having a second trust relationship.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said step of modifying the relevance value includes:

deriving a second relevance value from the relevance value contained in the data when it was transmitted to the second client computer.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the data includes a uniform resource locator.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

accessing a list of two or more data items, each data item having a rank;

matching one of the two or more data item to a portion of the data; and

modifying the rank of the matching data item based on said step of matching.