DISPLAYING DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION OF MEMBERS DISCUSSING TOPICS IN A FORUM

• US 20100164957A1
• Filed: 12/31/2008
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lindsay, Robert Taaffe, DiPersia, Blaise Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,462,160 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Users in public forums often mention certain topics in the course of their discussions. Member'"'"'s comments in messages to other members are analyzed to obtain terms that co-occur with topics. Frequencies of co-occurrence of a term with topics are normalized based on frequency of the term in a random sample of message. The terms are ranked by their normalized frequency of co-occurrence with a topic in messages. The top terms are selected based on their rank. Analysis of demographic information associated with members that mentioned top terms associated with a topic is displayed in graphical format that highlights the relationship between the age, gender, and usage of the top terms over time. The demographic information presented includes average age of members that mentioned a top term or their gender information within a selected time interval.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of displaying top terms associated with a topic, wherein the top terms are mentioned by members of an online forum in electronic communications to other members of the forum, the method executed by a computer, and comprising:

determining a first plurality of top terms associated with a topic based on communications between the members of the forum that occurred during a first time interval;

determining for each top term a first aggregate demographic value based on a demographic attribute of each of the members that used the top term during the first time interval;

formatting for display a graph including at least one axis representing the demographic attribute associated with the members;

for each top term, formatting for display on the graph an icon representing the top terms with respect to the at least one demographic axis, wherein a location of the icon for the top term with respect to the demographic axis is based on the first aggregate demographic value, and a size of the icon is based on a frequency of use of the top term by those members that mentioned the top term in the communications.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

formatting for display a member interface control to receive an input of a time value;

receiving an input of a time value for a second time interval;

determining a second plurality of top terms associated with the topic, based on communications between members of the forum that occurred during the second time interval; and

determining for each top term a second aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of each of the members that used the top term during the second time interval;

for each top term, formatting for display on the graph an icon representing the top terms with respect to the at least one demographic axis, wherein a location of the icon for the top term with respect to the demographic axis is based on the second aggregate demographic value, and a size of the icon is based on a frequency of use of the top term by those members that mentioned the top term in the communications.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of top terms is determined based on a normalized frequency of co-occurrence of each top term with the topic.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an axis represents a weighted average of demographic information associated with members that mentioned a top term belonging to the first plurality of top terms.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the weighted average of demographic information associated with members is scaled with respect to a percentage of a population sample for the demographic information.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

formatting for display a member interface control configured to receive a selection of a subset of top terms.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one axis representing demographic information represents age of the members.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one axis representing demographic information represents gender of the members.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one axis representing demographic information represents a percentage of members of a gender.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the size of an icon for a top term is indicative of the frequency of co-occurrence of the top term with the topic.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the icon representing a top term displays the frequency of co-occurrence of the top term with the topic.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each icon is given a color to visually distinguish the icon from the icons of other top terms that are displayed proximate to each other.

13. A computer implemented method of generating a display on a display device top terms associated with a topic, wherein the top terms are mentioned by members of an online forum in electronic communications to other members of the forum, the method executed by a computer, and comprising:

formatting for display a first axis representing an aggregate age value associated with members;

formatting for display a second axis representing a second aggregate demographic value associated with members based on one of gender, ethnicity, religion, or location of members; and

formatting for display a plurality of icons with respect to the first axis and the second axis, wherein each icon is associated with a top term in a plurality of top terms associated with a topic, wherein the plurality of top terms is determined based on the communications between the members during a time interval and the top term was mentioned by a plurality of members in the communications and a location of the icon for the top term with respect to the first axis is based on the aggregate age value of the plurality of members and a location of an icon for a top term with respect to the second axis is based on the second aggregate demographic value of the plurality of members and a size of the icon is based on a frequency of use of the top term by the members in the plurality of members.

14. A computer program product having a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code for generating a user interface display for displaying top terms associated with a topic, wherein the top terms are mentioned by members of an online forum in electronic communications to other members of the forum, the user interface, once generated by the computer-executable code comprising:

a demographic axis representing a demographic attribute associated with the members; and

a first plurality of icons displayed with respect to the demographic axis, wherein each icon is associated with a top term in a first plurality of top terms associated with a topic and the first plurality of top terms is determined based on the communications between the members during a first time interval, and a location of an icon for a top term with respect to the demographic axis is based on a first aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of each of the members that used the top term during the first time interval, and a size of the icon is based on a frequency of use of the top term by those members that mentioned the top term in the communications.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the user interface further comprises:

a member interface control configured to receive a selection of a second time interval, such that responsive to receiving the selection of the second time interval, a second plurality of icons is displayed with respect to the demographic axis, wherein each icon is associated with a top term in a second plurality of top terms associated with the topic and the second plurality of top terms is determined based on the communications between the members during a second time interval, and a location of an icon for a top term with respect to the demographic axis is based on a second aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of each of the members that used the top term during the second time interval, and a size of the icon is based on a frequency of use of the top term by those members that mentioned the top term in the communications.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the first plurality of top terms is determined based on a normalized frequency of co-occurrence of each top term with the topic.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein an axis represents a weighted average of demographic information associated with members that mentioned a top term belonging to the first plurality of top terms.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the weighted average of demographic information associated with members is scaled with respect to a percentage of a population sample for the demographic information.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the at least one axis representing demographic information represents age of the members.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the size of an icon for a top term is indicative of the frequency of co-occurrence of the top term with the topic.