SOCIAL NETWORK WITH FIELD LEVEL CONTROL OF DATA EXPOSURE

• US 20110289011A1
• Filed: 08/03/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slack Technologies, Inc. (Salesforce.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Inventors: Farmer, F. Randall, Hull, Mark E., Perelman, Ellen S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,953,302 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and system are directed towards seeding a user'"'"'s contacts for their online social network. The invention is arranged to automatically recommend to the user a set of seed contacts that the user may employ to invite to join their social network. The set of seed contacts may be harvested from the user'"'"'s existing portal activities, as well as other sources. In one embodiment, the invention analyzes portal activity, such as email exchanges with the user, and the like, to determine a frequency of contact with the user. Other sources may include but not be limited to emails, names within an address book of the user, names within an address book of another person, a buddy list, an instant messaging list, an activity, a mailing list, an online discussion group, a membership in a category, chat group, and the like.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method comprising:

organizing user data in a data structure representing a social network of users, said user data comprising, for a user of the social network, user data fields, each data field representing a different entry related to the user;

exposing to the user of the social network data field controls that control what user data fields may be interacted with by other users of the social network;

receiving data field instructions from the user to permit access to only certain data fields of said user data to a user selected plurality of other users; and

permitting access to the user selected plurality of other users to said user data fields in accordance with said data field instructions.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

exposing to the user of the social network a plurality of functions of the social network; and

receiving function instructions from the user to permit only certain functions of said plurality to be enabled.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

permitting access to the user selected plurality of other users to said certain functions in accordance with said function instructions.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said certain functions are accessed through a data field.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein said certain functions are accessed in accordance with said function instructions by selecting from a group consisting of other applications, other networks and other social networks.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein said plurality of functions comprises performing a function selected from a group of functions consisting of scraping, searching and filtering.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein said interaction with the user data fields by other users of the social network comprises performing an action selected from a group of actions consisting of viewing, editing, tagging, and commenting on at least one of the user data fields.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the social network is a computerized service that implements a portal environment for communicating information to and from users of the social network, the social network utilizing information available through various portal services of the portal environment that each user has interacted with, and integrating said information within the social network.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising controlling the exposure of the data fields by identifying categories for each user of the user selected plurality of other users, each category based on a user relationship between the user and each user of the user selected plurality of other users.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising establishing data field permissions for each category, the data field permissions set by the user for each category.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein each user of the user selected plurality of other users can be classified in more than one category.

32. The method of claim 21, wherein the user selected plurality of users is private to the user.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the user relationship comprises a degree of closeness between the user and each user of the user selected plurality of other users.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the categories, based on the degree of closeness between the user and members of each category, enable the user to control which user data fields can be accessed by the members of each category.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the categories, based on the degree of closeness between the user and members of each category, enable the user to manage communication with each member of each category.

36. The method of claim 29, wherein at least one of a plurality of functions are enabled within exposed data fields based at least in part on the accessing user'"'"'s category.

37. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving third party data field instructions from the user to permit access to only said certain data fields of said user data to a user selected third party.

38. A system comprising:

a database comprising stored user data;

a social network server in communication with the user data in the database, the social network server programmed to perform a plurality of operations, comprising;

organizing the user data in the database in a data structure representing a social network of users, said user data comprising, for a user of the social network, user data fields, each data field representing a different entry related to the user;

exposing to the user of the social network data field controls that control what user data fields may be interacted with by other users of the social network;

receiving data field instructions from the user to permit access to only certain data fields of said user data to a user selected plurality of other users; and

permitting access to the user selected plurality of other users to said user data fields in accordance with said data field instructions.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the social network server is programmed to perform further operations comprising:

exposing, via the social network server, to the user of the social network a plurality of functions of the social network; and

receiving, at the social network server, function instructions from the user to permit only certain functions of said plurality to be enabled.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the social network server is programmed to perform further operations comprising:

permitting, via the social network server, access to the user selected plurality of other users to said certain functions in accordance with said function instructions.