Polling in a geo-spatial environment

• US 20090063252A1
• Filed: 08/28/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fatdoor Incorporated
• Inventors: Abhyanker, Raj Vasant
• Granted Patent: US 8,204,776 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system of polling in a geo-spatial environment are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes generating a community network of user profiles, each user profile associated with a specific geographic location, determining a geographic region associated with a neighborhood, determining a first group of user profiles, the specific geographic location of each user profile associated with the geographic region, generating a first play view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network and the first group of the user profiles represented at locations in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic location of each user profile, generating a poll associated with the first group of user profiles and receiving poll results associated with the poll via a communication mode. The method may also include automatically tabulating the poll results and publishing, via the communication mode, the poll results.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating a community network of user profiles, each user profile of the user profiles associated with a specific geographic location;

determining a geographic region associated with a neighborhood;

determining a first group of user profiles, the specific geographic location of each user profile of the first group of user profiles associated with the geographic region;

generating a first display view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network and the first group of the user profiles represented at locations in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic location of each user profile of the first group of user profiles;

generating, via a communication mode, a poll associated with at least the first group of user profiles; and

receiving, via the communication mode, poll results associated with the poll.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically tabulating the poll results.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing, via the communication mode, the poll results.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising generating a second display view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network, a second group of user profiles represented at locations in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic location of each user profile of the second group of user profiles, and the poll results, each poll result of the poll results associated with a user profile of the second group of user profiles.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising publishing the poll results to include at least one of respondents'"'"' names, a response associated with each respondent of the respondents, a response category, and a percentage associated with a response category.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising visualizing a poll group.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining a geographic region associated with a neighborhood;

determining a third group of user profiles, wherein the specific geographic location of each user profile of the third group of user profiles is associated with the geographic region; and

generating a third display view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network and the third group of the user profiles represented at locations in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic location of each user profile of the third group of user profiles.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising forming a poll group associated with at least a portion of the third group of user profiles.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating poll group invitations, each poll group invitation associated with a user profile of the third group of user profiles; and

receiving poll group responses associated with the poll group invitations.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating with the poll, a claim invitation associated with claiming an unclaimed user profile of the first group of user profiles.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

authenticating an email address associated with the unclaimed user profile of the first group of user profiles; and

enabling a claim of the unclaimed user profile of the first group of user profiles.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing search categories;

selecting at least one search category of the search categories;

generating a search of the user profiles based on the at least one search category; and

displaying, in the three-dimensional map view, the user profiles matching the at least one search category, represented at locations in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic location of each user profile matching the at least one search category.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the search categories include elections, candidates, debates, elected officials, neighborhood groups, and neighbor profiles.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the poll is associated with a category selected from a group comprising an interest, a political subject, and a neighborhood issue.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the political subject includes at least one of an election, a political party, a political issue, a platform, a candidate, and a vote.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication mode includes at least one of an online mode and a physical mode.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the online mode includes at least one of a webpage, an email, an instant message, and a telephone.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the physical mode includes at least one of a physical mailing and a newspaper.

19. The method of claim 1 in a form of a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

20. A system, comprising:

a geo-spatial environment;

a community network module of the geo-spatial environment, to include user profiles, each user profile of the user profiles to include a specific geographic location;

a geographic region module of the geo-spatial environment to determine a geographic region;

a group module of the geo-spatial environment to determine a first group of user profiles, the specific geographic location of each user profile of the first group of user profiles associated with the geographic region;

a map module of the geo-spatial environment to include map data which serves as a basis to render a three-dimensional map view in the geo-spatial environment which identifies at least some residences, businesses, and civic structures having specific geographic locations;

a display module of the geo-spatial environment to generate a first display view of the three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network and the first group of user profiles, each user profile of the first group of user profiles represented at a location in the three-dimensional map view corresponding to the associated specific geographic location; and

a poll module of the geo-spatial environment to generate, via a communication mode, a poll associated with the first group of user profiles and to receive, via the communication mode, poll results associated with the poll.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a tabulate module of the geo-spatial environment to automatically tabulate the poll results.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising a publish module of the geo-spatial environment to publish, via the communication mode, the poll results.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising a webpage module of the geo-spatial environment to generate a webpage associated with a second display view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network, a second group of user profiles associated with the poll results, each user profile of the second group of user profiles represented at a location in the three-dimensional map view corresponding to the associated specific geographic location, and the poll results, each poll result of the poll results associated with a user profile of the second group of user profiles.

24. The system of claim 20, further comprising a visualize module of the geo-spatial environment to enable visualization of a poll group associated with a particular geographic region.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a group generator module of the geo-spatial environment to generate poll group invitations, each poll group invitation associated with a user profile of a third group of user profiles, and to receive poll group responses associated with the poll group invitations.

26. The system of claim 20, further comprising a claim invitation module of the geo-spatial environment to generate, with the poll, a claim invitation associated with an unclaimed user profile of the first group of user profiles.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising a claim user profile module of the geo-spatial environment to authenticate an email address associated with the unclaimed user profile and to enable a claim of the unclaimed user profile.

28. The system of claim 20, further comprising a search module of the geo-spatial environment to generate search categories and to search the user profiles based on at least one search category of the search categories.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the search categories include elections, candidates, debates, elected officials, neighborhood groups, and neighbor profiles.

30. The system of claim 20, further comprising a wiki profile module of the geo-spatial environment to generate, in the display view, a wiki profile associated with a user profile of the user profiles.

31. The system of claim 30, further comprising an append module of the geo-spatial environment to generate, with the wiki profile, content associated with the wiki profile.

32. The system of claim 20, wherein the poll results include at least one of respondents'"'"' names, a response associated with each respondent of the respondents, a response category, and a percentage associated with the response category.

33. The system of claim 20, wherein the poll is associated with a category selected from a group comprising an interest, a political subject, and a neighborhood issue.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the political subject includes at least one of an election, a political party, a political issue, a platform, a candidate, and a vote.

35. The system of claim 20, wherein the communication mode includes at least one of an online mode and a physical mode.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the online mode includes at least one of a webpage, an email, an instant message, and telephone.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the physical mode includes at least one of a physical mailing and a newspaper.

38. The system of claim 20, wherein the geographic region is based on a street address associated with a user profile of the user profiles, a city, a county, a state, and a country.

39. A geo-spatial environment, comprising:

a first instruction set to enable a community network, to include a map database associated with map data and a user database associated with user profiles, each user profile of the user profiles associated with a specific geographic location identifiable in the map data;

a second instruction set integrated with the first instruction set to determine a geographic region associated with a neighborhood;

a third instruction set integrated with the first instruction set and the second instruction set to generate a group of user profiles, the specific geographic location of each user profile of the group of user profiles associated with the geographic region;

a fourth instruction set integrated with the first instruction set, the second instruction set and the third instruction set to display a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network and the group of user profiles represented at locations in the three-dimensional map view corresponding to the associated specific geographic location; and

a fifth instruction set integrated with the first instruction set, the second instruction set, the third instruction set and the fourth instruction set to generate a poll, via a communication mode, associated with the group of user profiles.

40. The geo-spatial environment of claim 39, further comprising a sixth instruction set to visualize a poll group and to form a poll group.

41. The geo-spatial environment of claim 39, further comprising a seventh instruction set to generate a search of the user profiles based on at least one search category of search categories.