SOCIAL NETWORK FOR TRAVELERS WITH LAYOVERS

• US 20090077061A1
• Filed: 09/19/2007
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intercept Incorporated (Fidelity National Financial Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Intercept Incorporated (Fidelity National Financial Incorporated)
• Inventors: Cassano, Allen D., Abercrombie, Charles Clinton III
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,162 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An application for a computer system providing a social network for traveling people includes social network software executing on a server computer for providing social network functions. The social network software maintains a list of members and, for each member, maintains a list of buddies of the member, the buddies also being in the list of members. At least one schedule is available, either internal to the social network or external to the social network and extraction software extracts layover data from the schedule(s) and analysis software finds members with layovers in the layover data. Notification software notifies the member with the layover of the overlapping layover in which the member and a buddy of the member has an overlapping layover

Claims

1. A computer system providing a social network for traveling people, the social network comprising:

a server computer;

social network software executing on the server computer for providing social network functions, the social network software maintaining a list of members and, for each member, the social network software maintaining a list of buddies of the each member, the buddies also being in the list of members;

at least one schedule;

extraction software for extracting layover data from the at least one schedule;

analysis software for finding a member with a layover in the layover data; and

notification software for notifying the member with the layover of the overlapping layover whereas the member with the layover and a buddy of the member with the layover have an overlapping layover.

2. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the overlapping layover occurs when the member with the layover and the buddy of the member with the layover are within a same location for a period of time.

3. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the schedule is stored within the social network.

4. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the schedule is stored external to the social network and the schedule is uploaded to the social network.

5. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for flight crews.

6. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for flight attendants.

7. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for traveling business people.

8. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, further comprising software executing on the server computer implementing a location thesaurus for mapping multiple geographic locations into a geographic area.

9. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the notification software sends a notification selected from the group consisting of an email, a text message, a voice message and a page.

10. A method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers comprising:

(a) searching a schedule for at least one layover of a first member of a social network, the social network having a social network database, the social network database including a list of members and for each of the members, the social network database including a list of buddy members;

(b) retrieving the list of the buddy members of the first member from the social network database;

(c) extracting a current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member;

(d) searching the schedule for an overlapping layover of the current buddy and the first member;

(e) if the searching the schedule for an overlapping layover of the current buddy and the first member finds an overlapping layover, notifying the first member and the buddy of the overlapping layover;

(f) repeating steps d and e until there are no more overlapping layovers;

(g) if there exists a next current buddy in the list of buddy members of the first member;

extracting a next current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member, setting the current buddy to the next current buddy and repeating steps d through g.

11. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the overlapping layover is when the first member and the current buddy are within a same location for a period of time.

12. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the schedule is stored within the social network.

13. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the schedule is stored external to the social network and the step of uploading the schedule to the social network is performed before step a.

14. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein steps a and d include the following steps:

for each layover location in the schedule;

looking up the layover location in a location thesaurus to determine a layover area.

15. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the step of notifying the first member and the buddy of the overlapping layover includes sending one or more messages selected from the group consisting of sending an email, sending a text message, sending a voice message and sending a page.

16. A computer system providing a social network for traveling people, the social network comprising:

a server computer;

social network software executing on the server computer for providing social network functions, the social network software having a means for maintaining a list of members and, for each member, the social network software having a means for maintaining a list of buddies of the each member, the buddies also being in the list of members;

at least one schedule;

a means for extracting layover data from the at least one schedule;

a means for finding a member with a layover in the layover data;

a means for finding a buddy of the member with a layover having a same layover; and

a means for notifying the member of the overlapping layover.

17. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 16, wherein the schedule is stored within the social network.

18. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 16, wherein the schedule is stored external to the social network and further comprising a means for uploaded the schedule to the social network.

19. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 16, further comprising a means for mapping multiple geographic locations into a geographic area.

20. A signal tangibly embodied in a propagation medium comprising at least one instruction configured to implement a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers, wherein the at least one instruction comprises:

(a) computer readable instructions for searching a schedule for at least one layover of a first member of a social network, the social network having a social network database, the social network database including a list of members and for each of the members, the social network database including a list of buddy members;

(b) computer readable instructions for retrieving the list of the buddy members of the first member from the social network database;

(c) computer readable instructions for extracting a current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member;

(d) computer readable instructions for searching the schedule for an overlapping layover of the current buddy and the first member;

(e) if the searching the schedule for an overlapping layover of the current buddy and the first member finds an overlapping layover, computer readable instructions for notifying the first member and the buddy of the overlapping layover;

(f) repeating steps d and e until there are no more overlapping layovers;

(g) if there exists a next current buddy in the list of buddy members of the first member;

computer readable instructions for extracting a next current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member, setting the current buddy to the next current buddy and repeating steps d through g.

21. The signal tangibly embodied in a propagation medium of claim 20, wherein the overlapping layover is when the first member and the current buddy are within a same location for a period of time.

22. The signal tangibly embodied in a propagation medium of claim 20, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for pilots.

23. The signal tangibly embodied in a propagation medium of claim 20, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for flight attendants.

24. The signal tangibly embodied in a propagation medium of claim 20, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for traveling business people.

25. The signal tangibly embodied in a propagation medium of claim 20, wherein the step of notifying the first member and the buddy of the overlapping layover includes computer readable instructions for sending one or more messages selected from the group consisting of sending an email, sending a text message, sending a voice message and sending a page.