Methods, Systems, and Processes for Identifying Affected and Related Individuals During a Crisis

• US 20120066139A1
• Filed: 09/09/2010
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Guzman, Carlos, Agraharam, Sanjay, Robinson, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US12/878,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20120066139A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A crisis management system may retrieve and analyze data from the social network system to identify, find, and/or locate individuals affected by a crisis. For example, when a crisis occurs, the crisis management system may retrieve data from a social network system regarding individuals that may be affected by the crisis. Crisis management system may then analyze the retrieved data to determine whether the individuals may have been located within the crisis area. Additionally, crisis management system may analyze the retrieved data to determine related individuals, such as co-workers, friends, family, relatives, or other individuals that may act as emergency contacts for the affected individuals.

Claims

1. A method for identifying an affected individual during a crisis, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a crisis, the indication including a location of the crisis;

retrieving crisis data, the crisis data including information regarding the affected individual;

determining the location of the affected individual from the crisis data;

retrieving social network data from one or more social networks, the social network data including information regarding related individuals that are connected to the affected individual through a relationship;

building a social tree for the affected individual from the retrieved social network by mapping the relationships between the related individuals and the affected individual;

when the location of the affected individual matches the location of the crisis, transmitting a notification to related individuals within the social tree to notify the related individuals that the affected individual will be affected by the crisis.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the crisis data includes at least one of profile data, skill data, human resource data, external agency data, corporate purchasing data, travel data, or credit monitoring data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the affected individual comprises:

retrieving corporate purchasing data from the crisis data;

determining the location of a last purchase made by the affected individual; and

linking the location of the last purchase made by the employee with the location of the employee.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the affected individual comprises:

retrieving network data from the crisis data, the network data including data gathered from a service provider;

determining the location of a computing device belonging to the affected individual from the network data; and

linking the location of the computing device with the location of the affected individual.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location of the affected individual comprises:

retrieving travel data from the crisis data;

determining an intended location to which the affected individual is traveling;

determining an estimated time of arrival for the affected individual to arrive at the intended location;

determining whether the estimated time of arrival matches time a crisis time; and

when the estimated time of arrival corresponds to the crisis time, linking the location of the affected individual with the location of the crisis.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating one or more documents that are necessary to secure authorization from an authorization source, the one or more documents addressing privacy concerns related to the usage of the crisis data.

7. A system for identifying an affected individual during a crisis, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory communicably coupled to said at least one processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions comprising instructions for;

receiving an indication of a crisis, the indication including a location of the crisis;

retrieving crisis data, the crisis data including information regarding the affected individual;

determining the location of the affected individual from the crisis data;

retrieving social network data from one or more social networks, the social network data including information regarding related individuals that are connected to the affected individual through a relationship;

building a social tree for the affected individual from the retrieved social network by mapping the relationships between the related individuals and the affected individual;

when the location of the affected individual matches the location of the crisis, transmitting a notification to related individuals within the social tree to notify the related individuals that the affected individual will be affected by the crisis.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the related individuals are at least one of a co-worker, friend, family, or relative to the affected individual.

9. The system of claim 7, where in the related individuals includes individuals that have a common interest with the affected individual.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein building the social tree for the employee comprises:

determining relationships between the affected individuals and the related individuals, the related individuals having at least a common interest with the affected individual; and

mapping the relationships between the affected individual and the related individuals.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein mapping the relationships comprises:

identifying an individual within the related individuals;

determining the amount of separation between the individual and the affected individuals, and

assigning a level of separation to the individual to describe the amount of separation that exists between the individual and the affected individual.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein transmitting a notification to the related individuals within the social tree comprises traversing the social tree to discover related individuals within the social tree that are capable of receiving a notification.

13. The system of claim 7, where in the social tree comprises one or more levels, the one or more levels describe the separation between the related individuals and the affected individual.

14. The system of claim 14, wherein transmitting the notification to the social tree comprises transmitting the notification to related individuals within at least one of the one or more levels.

15. A computer read able storage medium having a tangible physical structure, the medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed provide a method for identifying an individual that has skills required in a crisis, the method comprising:

retrieving crisis data, the crisis data including information skill data and information regarding a crisis;

determining one or more necessary skills to required by the crisis;

analyzing skill data to determine an individual that the one or more necessary skills necessary to alleviate the crisis;

retrieving a social tree from one or more social networks, the social tree including information regarding related individuals; and

transmitting a notification to related individuals within the social tree to notify the related individual the individual will be affected by the crisis.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the social tree describes the relationship between the individual and the related individuals.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein transmitting a notification related individuals within the social tree comprises traversing the social tree to discover related individuals capable of receiving the notification.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the social tree comprises one or more levels, the one or more levels describe the separation between the individual and the related individuals within the social tree.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising

retrieving skill information from the social tree for the related individuals;

and

analyzing the skill information to determine related individuals that processes the one or more necessary skills.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, where in transmitting a notification to the related individuals within the social tree comprising transmitting the notification to the determined related individuals that possess the one or more necessary skills.