Cascaded Address Books on Mobile Phones Within a Social Network

• US 20100005059A1
• Filed: 07/02/2008
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Banerjee, Dwip N., Venkatsubra, Venkat, Patil, Sandeep Ramesh, Mohan, Aditya
• Application Number:
  US12/166,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20100005059A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Illustrative embodiments provide a computer implemented method, a data processing system and a computer program product for locating contact information in a mobile phone network within a social network. In one embodiment, the computer implemented method permits reciprocal access between a first user'"'"'s contact information and a second user'"'"'s contact information by a first user device and a second user device, and permitting reciprocal access between the second user'"'"'s contact information and a third user'"'"'s contact information by the second user device and a third user device. The computer implemented method receives a request from the third user device to contact the first user device, wherein the first user contact information is unknown to the third user and issues a search on the mobile phone network, from the third user device, for the first user contact information. The first user contact information is located at the second user device in the social network, and the first user contact information is returned to the third user device.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for locating contact information in a mobile phone network within a social network, the computer implemented method comprising;

permitting reciprocal access between a first user contact information and a second user contact information by a first user device and a second user device, and permitting reciprocal access between the second user contact information and a third user contact information by the second user device and a third user device, wherein the reciprocal access permits access to only designated shared entries of contact information;

receiving a request from the third user device to contact the first user device, wherein a portion of the first user contact information is known to the third user;

issuing a search on the mobile phone network, from the third user device to an authorized list, for the first user contact information, using the portion of the first user contact information;

locating the first user contact information in a shared local entry at the second user device in the social network; and

returning the first user contact information directly to the third user device.

2. A computer implemented method for locating contact information in a mobile phone network within a social network of claim 1, wherein the step of permitting reciprocal access further comprises:

forming a trusted pair between the first user device and the second user device and another trusted pair between the second user device and the third user device.

3. A computer implemented method for locating contact information in a mobile phone network within a social network of claim 1, wherein issuing a search further comprises:

issuing an enhanced search function for searching among a set of address books;

wherein the enhanced search function cascades through a subset of the set of address books, wherein each address book in the subset of the set of address books contains shared local entries forming a subset of the social network wherein the search is restricted to only the shared local entries.

4. A computer implemented method for locating contact information in a mobile phone network within a social network of claim 1, wherein issuing a search further comprises:

identifying a search string and a set of trusted entries from a requesting user address book, wherein each shared local entry is a trusted entry; and

searching the set of trusted entries.

5. A computer program product for locating contact information in a mobile phone network within a social network, the computer program product comprising;

a computer-usable recordable type medium embodying computer executable instructions stored thereon, the computer executable instructions comprising;

computer executable instructions for permitting reciprocal access between a first user contact information and a second user contact information by a first user device and a second user device, and permitting reciprocal access between the second user contact information and a third user contact information by the second user device and a third user device, wherein the reciprocal access permits access to only designated shared entries of contact information;

computer executable instructions for receiving a request from the third user device to contact the first user device, wherein a portion of the first user contact information is known to the third user;

computer executable instructions for issuing a search on the mobile phone network, from the third user device to an authorized list, for the first user contact information, using the portion of the first user contact information;

computer executable instructions for locating the first user contact information in a shared local entry at the second user device in the social network; and

computer executable instructions for returning the first user contact information directly to the third user device.

6. A data processing system for locating contact information in a mobile phone network within a social network, the data processing system comprising;

a bus;

a memory connected to the bus, the memory comprising computer executable instructions;

a communications unit connected to the bus;

a display connected to the bus; and

a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the computer executable instructions to direct the data processing system to;

permit reciprocal access between a first user contact information and a second user contact information by a first user device and a second user device, and permit reciprocal access between the second user contact information and a third user contact information by the second user device and a third user device, wherein the reciprocal access permits access to only designated shared entries of contact information;

receive a request from the third user device to contact the first user device, wherein a portion of the first user contact information is known to the third user;

issue a search on the mobile phone network, from the third user device to an authorized list, for the first user contact information, using the portion of the first user contact information;

locate the first user contact information in a shared local entry at the second user device in the social network; and

return the first user contact information directly to the third user device.