SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE AND SYSTEM

• US 20100269158A1
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Published: 10/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ramius Corporation
• Original Assignee: Ramius Corporation
• Inventors: Ehler, Dwain, Jay, Alfred, Dame, Philippe
• Application Number:
  US12/808,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20100269158A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• 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 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

Various methods and systems are described for use in operating and maintaining a user subscribed system, such as a website or network. For example, a social networking site or network is contemplated with a member account having one or more member profiles associated with his or her member account. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the described systems and methods may provide a user selective access to member-related information, such as topic-based electronic content associated with the member, member-related or identifying information, and other such information, in accordance with member selected categorization and/or organisation. Users may be categorized hierarchically into contact groups, such that access to member-related information by user in a given contact group depends on the permission rights granted to that contact group. The methods and systems described provide a scalable infrastructure to support large volumes of users and requests in a network while ensuring a high degree of fault tolerance, so as to minimize service interruptions and unexpected data loss, for example.

Claims

1. A method for providing selective access to electronic content associated with a member of a social networking system, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) generating a member account having at least one topic-based content collection;

(b) associating at least one electronic content item with at least one of the topic-based content collections responsive to a content selection action implemented via the member account;

(c) identifying at least one user as authorized to access the at least one electronic content item responsive to a user selection action implemented via the member account; and

(d) providing access to the at least one electronic content item, associated with at least one of the topic-based content collections, only to the at least one user identified as authorized in step (c).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one electronic content item associated with at least one of the topic-based content collections includes a combination of electronic content types.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one electronic content item associated with at least one of the topic-based content collections is selected from a group consisting of:

uploaded data;

digital media files, including text, video, audio and image media files;

links to digital media files stored by a third party system;

original work generated through the social networking system, including data, text entries, commentary, blogs, event entries, digital invitations, and meeting requests.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step (c) of identifying at least one user authorized to access each of the content items comprises the steps of:

(c1) grouping the at least one user with at least one contact group,

(c2) identifying at least one contact group authorized to access the at least one content item, and

(c3) providing access to the at least one content item only to the at least one contact group identified as authorized in step (c2).

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step (c1) of grouping includes grouping the at least one user in a sub-contact group that is nested within the at least one contact group, such that the at least one contact group has a hierarchy of contact groups, and wherein the at least one user grouped in the sub-contact group has authorized access to the at least one contact group.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step (c) of identifying at least one user authorized to access each of the content items further includes the steps of:

identifying the at least one user authorized to access a given content collection, and

providing the at least one user access to at least one content item associated with the given content collection.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step (c) of identifying users authorized to access each of the content items further includes the steps of:

(c5) identifying the at least one user authorized to access a given content collection,

(c6) providing the at least one identified user access to a first content item associated with the given content collection, and

(c7) preventing the at least one identified user from accessing a second content item associated with the given content collection.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (a) further includes the step of generating in the member account at least one member profile, and wherein step (b) further includes the step of associating identifying information with at least one of said at least one member profile responsive to an information association action implemented via the member account.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step (c) of identifying at least one user as authorized to access the electronic content item includes identifying at least one user selected from a group consisting of:

family, friends, professional contacts, business contacts, colleagues, social contacts, acquaintances, teammates, and co-workers.

10. The method according to claim 1, further including the steps of:

sending, via the member account, an invitation to a non-user to register with the social networking system, and generating a shell user account for the non-user that is activated with a new member account when the non-user registers.

11. The method according to claim 1, further including the step of listing as an activity stream via a graphical user interface.

12. (canceled)

13. A method for providing selective access to identifying information associated with a member of a social networking system, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) generating a member account having at least one member profile;

(b) associating identifying information with at least one of said at least one member profile responsive to an information association action implemented via the member account;

(c) identifying users authorized to access at least one of said at least one member profile responsive to a user selection action implemented via the member account; and

(d) providing access to identifying information associated with at least one of said at least one member profile only to users identified as authorized to access said at least one member profile.

14. A method according to claim 13, further including the step of generating at least two member profiles for said member account and wherein the step (b) of associating identifying information includes, via a graphical user interface, juxtaposing the at least two member profiles for viewing by the member, and providing an option for associating identifying information in a first member profile with a second member profile in response to a member selection action.

15. The method according to claim 13, further including the step of generating at least two member profiles for said member account and wherein the step (b) includes associating identifying information in accordance with a predefined information field, and providing an option for associating different identifying information with predefined information field common to the at least two member profiles.

16. The method according to claim 13, the step (b) of associating identifying information includes, via a graphical user interface, selecting a graphically rendered identifying information item representative of identifying information and associating the graphically rendered information with a selected graphically rendered profile representation.

17. (canceled)

18. A social networking system for providing selective access to electronic content associated with a member of the system, the system comprising:

at least one data storage device for storing data associated with an account of the member and at least one topic-based content collection thereof, the data comprising collection-related data for each of the topic-based content collections, user-related data for at least one user, and content-related data associated with the electronic content; and

at least one processing module operatively coupled to the at least one data storage device and configured with;

at least two user interface components for implementing an account management interface enabling a content association function and a user association function;

a content association component for implementing, responsive to the content association function, association of the content-related data with the collection-related data of a selected topic-based content collection; and

a user association component for implementing, responsive to the user association function, association of the user-related data of a selected user with the content-related data and the collection-related data of the selected topic-based content collection;

wherein the at least two user interface components are constructed and arranged for implementing a user interface for providing access to the electronic content only to the selected user.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the at least one data storage device has a system of servers for storing the data, and wherein the system of servers has a data storage configuration for a hierarchical organization of the user-related data and the content-related data into respective nested levels.

20. The system according to claim 18, wherein the at least one data storage device is constructed and arranged to store the topic-based content collections and electronic content associated with the topic-based content collections, such that access by the selected user to the topic-based content collections and its associated electronic content is based on criteria selected by the member.

21. The system according to claim 18, wherein the at least one data storage device is configured with:

a master database cluster for storing a unique identifier for each user of the system and some user-related data, and for maintaining a main federated database table, and

at least one shard database cluster, operatively coupled to the master database cluster, for storing the content-related data and the collection-related data in individual shards,

wherein the main federated database table is federated into the at least one shard database cluster to enable the at least one processing module to retrieve specific data from the at least one shard database cluster.

22. The system according to claim 18, wherein the at least one data storage device has a database, configured with a high-density data storage format, for storing path ancestry information for each node in a hierarchy of nodes using a raw byte array, such that path ancestry information for each node is readily retrievable from the database.

23. The system according to claim 18,

wherein the user association component is constructed and arranged to associate user-related data with at least one contact group, and

wherein the user association component is constructed and arranged to associate the at least one contact group with the content-related data and the collection-related data of the selected topic-based content collection.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the user association component is constructed and arranged to associate user-related data with at least two contact groups, wherein at least one data storage device has a system of servers, and wherein the system of servers has a data storage configuration that provides a hierarchical organization of the at least two contact groups into nested levels.

25. The system according to claim 18, wherein the data is stored in the at least one data storage device as a bit array according to a specific bitmask class, and wherein the data is retrieved from the at least one data storage device using a bitmask to extract the status of at least one bit in the bit array.

26. The system according to claim 18, wherein the at least one storage device is constructed and arranged to store a bitmask with user-related data, such that the bitmask represents a contact group of users associated with the selected user.

27. The system according to claim 18, wherein the at least one storage device is constructed and arranged to store a bitmask with content-related data, such that the bitmask represents selected user groups having access to the content-related data.

28. The system according to claim 18, wherein the at least two user interface components are constructed and arranged for implementing a user interface that displays specified associations of the content-related data with the collection-related data of a selected topic-based content collection made within a member account.

29. The system according to claim 18,

wherein the at least two user interface components are constructed and arranged for implementing a user interface that provides a list of specific content-related data from at least one topic-based content collection, and

wherein the user interface is constructed and arranged for a given user to manipulate and modify the list within the user interface.

30. The system according to claim 18, wherein the topic-based content collection is a topic folder containing different types of electronic items selected from a group consisting of:

computer files, calendar entries, photos, formatted text postings, databases, discussion topics, videos, audio files, opinion polls, and other topic folders.

34. A system according to claim 18, wherein the system has a multi-tenant architecture, wherein the at least one storage device has a database that is constructed and arranged to virtually partition its data and configuration to provide a customized virtual application of the system to a client organization, such that members of the client organization and associated data are segregated from any other system members and their associated data.

31. A social networking system for providing selective access to identifying information associated with a member of the system, the system comprising:

at least one data storage device for storing data associated with an account of the member and at least one member profile thereof, the data comprising profile-related data for the or each of the profiles, user-related data for each of a plurality of system users, and identifying information-related data associated with the identifying information; and

at least one processing module operatively coupled to the at least one data storage device and configured with;

at least two user interface components for implementing an account management interface enabling an identifying information association function and a user association function;

an identifying information association component for implementing, responsive to the identifying information association function, association of the identifying information-related data with the profile-related data of a selected profile; and

a user association component for implementing, responsive to the user association function, association of the user-related data of a selected system user with the profile-related data of the selected profile;

wherein the at least two user interface components is further for implementing a user interface for providing access to the identifying information via the selected profile only to the selected system user.

32. A method according to claim 31, wherein said at least one member profile comprises at least two member profiles and each of the at least two member profiles has a different set of identifying information associated with the member account.

33. A system according to claim 32,

wherein the at least two user interface components are constructed and arranged for managing the at least two member profiles, such that the member profiles are displayed in a single user interface, and

wherein the single user interface is constructed and arranged to compare profile-related data and information-related data between the at least two member profiles, such that the profile-related data and information-related data within the at least one member profile can be changed.

35. A method for operating a social networking website, said site having a plurality of users, the method comprising:

receiving input from each user comprising contact information for a plurality of said user'"'"'s contacts;

receiving organizational information from each user for each of said user'"'"'s contact for use in organizing said user'"'"'s contacts into categories;

categorizing each user'"'"'s contacts based on said user'"'"'s organizational information for each contact;

for each user, presenting said user'"'"'s contacts to said user in an organized manner reflecting said user'"'"'s organizational information for each contact.

36. A method according to claim 35 wherein at least one of said user'"'"'s contacts is also a user of said site.

37. A method according to claim 35 wherein said contacts are categorized into a hierarchical organization of categories.

38. A method according to claim 37 wherein at least one category in said hierarchical organization is nested in another category.

39. A method according to claim 36 wherein, for each user, each contact'"'"'s access to said user'"'"'s content in said site is based on which category said contact is categorized into.

40. A method according to claim 36 wherein, for each user, each contact'"'"'s access to said user'"'"'s contact list in said site is based on which category said contact is categorized into.

41. A method according to claim 36 wherein, for each user having at least one profile, each contact'"'"'s access to the or each of said user'"'"'s at least one profile is based on which category said contact is categorized into.