PERFORMANCE OF A SOCIAL NETWORK

• US 20100198757A1
• Filed: 02/02/2009
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Smith, Marc A., Cheng, Lili, Affronti, Michael Anthony, Counts, Scott J., Fisher, Danyel Aharon
• Application Number:
  US12/364,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20100198757A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Providing for characterizing and determining effectiveness of social networks is described herein. By way of example, data descriptive of inter-relationships of persons can be employed to generate a social connectivity map for users of a communication network. Data disseminated or consumed via the communication network can be monitored and characterized in conjunction with task performance. The characterization can be compared with a performance benchmark to rate a composition of a social network, or underlying network applications and functions, in effecting user tasks or other user activities. Accordingly, individuals and organizations can determine and compare the effectiveness of a network in assisting user activities based on predetermined benchmarks, which can be tuned to various aspects, functions or applications of an underlying social network.

Claims

1. A performance characterization system for a communication network, comprising:

a memory that obtains and stores data descriptive of a subset of inter-personal relationships of a set of users of a communication network,

a tracking component that processes data transmitted via the communication network and monitors dissemination or consumption of the data by user devices; and

a rating component that compares the dissemination or consumption against a performance benchmark to establish a performance rating for an electronic representation of a social network (electronic social network) based on the subset of inter-personal relationships.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an analysis component that characterizes the dissemination or consumption of the data by measuring a rate of dissemination or consumption, a task completion rate or a degree of user-interaction in conjunction with completing a task.

3. The system of claim 1, the tracking component analyzes e-mail, text message, short message service (SMS), instant message (IM), website forum, really simple syndication (RSS) or voice-to-text communication implemented via a user device to measure the dissemination or consumption of the data.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a weighting component that scores an impact of a network communication on the dissemination or consumption of the data; and

an aggregation component that compiles impact scores to facilitate characterization of the dissemination or consumption of the data.

5. The system of claim 4, the weighting component scores data relative to a top-down or viral dissemination of the data within an organization of users.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a data store that contains a plurality of performance benchmarks each pertaining to a different network of users, a type of network or a function of a network; and

a selection component that imports a selected performance benchmark from the data store to rate a type, aspect or function of the electronic social network.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data mining component that obtains and analyzes Internet data stores, communication network data stores, user device data stores or user input to obtain the subset of the inter-personal relationships.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an optimization component that identifies changes to the communication network or composition of the electronic social network to improve the performance rating relative the performance benchmark; and

an output component that exposes the identified changes at one of the user devices.

9. A computer-implemented method for establishing performance of a communication network, comprising:

obtaining data descriptive of a subset of inter-personal relationships of a set of users of a communication network, the inter-personal relationships comprise a social network;

monitoring a user device providing an interface to the communication network for dissemination or consumption of user information; and

comparing the dissemination or consumption against a performance benchmark to establish a performance rating for a digital representation of the social network.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising employing a social network benchmark or an enterprise network benchmark as the performance benchmark.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating the performance benchmark based on a data dissemination rate, a task completion rate or a user interaction rate, accomplished via the communication network.

12. The method of claim 9, monitoring dissemination or consumption of information further comprises tracking data shared via e-mail, text message, short message service (SMS), instant message (IM), website forum or voice-to-text interfaces to the network.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising scoring the dissemination or consumption of information for each message analyzed or for groups of messages related to a common set of tasks, project groups, organizations or social groups.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising scoring data disseminated top-down from management or spread virally throughout the network.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing performance ratings of a plurality of different social or enterprise networks as network benchmarks.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising comparing the performance rating of the social network with a performance rating of at least one of the plurality of networks.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising data mining online social network websites, private personal or business web sites, user voice communications, or electronic communications employing the communication network to identify or characterize the inter-personal relationships.

18. The method of claim 9, further comprising identifying changes in the inter-personal relationships and updating the digital representation or the performance benchmark according to the changes.

19. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

identifying a performance disparity between the performance rating and the performance benchmark;

determining a change to the composition of the communication network, the inter-personal relationships or the digital representation of the social network to improve the disparity; and

outputting the determined change to a user of the communication network.

20. A network performance characterization system, comprising:

a memory that obtains and stores data descriptive of a subset of inter-personal relationships of a set of users of a communication network, the subset of inter-personal relationships comprise a social network;

a tracking component that processes data transmitted via the communication network to monitor dissemination or consumption of the data by user devices;

an analysis component that determines a task completion rate as a function of the dissemination or consumption of the data; and

a rating component that compares the task completion rate against a performance benchmark to establish a performance rating for a digital representation of the social network.