INTERACTION-BASED UPDATE DELIVERY FOR USER GENERATED CONTENT

• US 20120136929A1
• Filed: 11/29/2011
• Published: 05/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: LI, Li, SHI, Ju Wei, WANG, Wen Jie, WEN, Jia Jia
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,237 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

An apparatus and method for assisting in delivering update contents in computer networks are provided. The computer networks also comprise at least one peer client, and the assistant apparatus comprises: an evaluating unit configured to evaluate a user'"'"'s interaction preference according to the user'"'"'s interaction history; and a prefetching unit configured to evaluate, in response to the received update notification, whether to prefetch the update contents corresponding to the update notification according to the evaluated interaction preference, and, if prefetching, obtain the update contents from at least one peer client. The corresponding method is also provided. With the apparatus and method in this invention, the update contents in computer networks can be delivered between peer clients, not via the server, which reduces the server load without impairing user experience on client side.

Claims

1. A client-side assistant apparatus for assisting in delivering update contents in a computer network, the assistant apparatus comprising:

at least one peer client which can communicate with the client-side assistant apparatus;

an evaluating unit configured to evaluate a user'"'"'s interaction preference according to a user'"'"'s interaction history; and

a prefetching unit configured to evaluate, in response to an update notification received from a server of the computer network, whether to prefetch the update contents corresponding to the update notification according to the evaluated interaction preference, and, if prefetching, obtain the update contents from at least one peer client in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner and store them locally.

2. The assistant apparatus of claim 1, wherein the evaluating unit is configured to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction history by at least one of capturing user operations and capturing communications data of a browser.

3. The assistant apparatus of claim 1, wherein the evaluating unit is configured to create a content type list according to the content types involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

4. The assistant apparatus of claim 1, wherein the evaluating unit is configured to create a keyword list according to the keywords involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

5. The assistant apparatus of claim 1, wherein the evaluating unit is configured to create a friend list according to the friends involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

6. The assistant apparatus of claim 5, wherein the evaluating unit is configured to determine a concern degree of the user for each friend, and create the friend list by adding the friends with higher concern degree.

7. The assistant apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assistant apparatus further comprises:

a publishing unit configured to publish a user'"'"'s update contents, and store the update contents locally.

8. The assistant apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer network further comprises a network management device configured to deploy the network transmission between peer clients in the computer network.

9. The assistant apparatus of claim 8, wherein the assistant apparatus further comprises:

a publishing unit configured to send a publishing request to the network management device, receive a returned content ID from the network management device, store a user'"'"'s update contents and the returned content ID locally, and send the update contents and content ID to the server, such that the server may contain the content ID in the update notification when generating the update notification.

10. The assistant apparatus of claim 8, wherein the prefetching unit is configured to extract the content ID contained in the update notification, send an request for obtaining the update contents to the network management device using the content ID, and obtain the update contents from at least one peer client based on returned connection information from the network management device.

11. A method on a peer client for assisting in delivering update contents in a computer network, the method comprising:

communicately coupling at least one peer client to another peer client on a computer network;

evaluating with at least one computer processor, a user'"'"'s interaction preference according to a user'"'"'s interaction history;

in response to an update notification received from a server of the computer network, evaluating whether to prefetch the update contents corresponding to the update notification according to the evaluated interaction preference; and

in response to evaluating to prefetch, obtaining the update contents from at least one peer client in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner and storing them locally on the peer client.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising obtaining the user'"'"'s interaction history by at least one of capturing user operations and capturing communications data of a browser.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of evaluating a user'"'"'s interaction preference comprises creating a content type list according to the content types involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of evaluating a user'"'"'s interaction preference comprises creating a keyword list according to the keywords involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of evaluating a user'"'"'s interaction preference comprises creating a friend list according to the friends involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of creating a friend list comprises determining a concern degree of the user on each friend, and creating the friend list by adding the friends with higher concern degree.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

publishing a user'"'"'s update contents and storing the update contents locally.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the computer network further comprises a network management device configured to deploy the network transmission between peer clients in the computer network.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

publishing a user'"'"'s update contents, which comprises sending a publishing request to the network management device, receiving a returned content ID from the network management device, storing the user'"'"'s update contents and the returned content ID locally, and sending the update contents and content ID to the server, such that the server may contain the content ID in the update notification when generating the update notification.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of obtaining the update contents comprises, extracting the content ID contained in the update notification, sending an request for obtaining the update contents to the network management device using the content ID, and obtaining the update contents from at least one peer client based on returned connection information from the network management device.

21. A computer program product tangibly embodying computer readable non-transitory instructions which, when implemented, cause a computer to carry out the steps of a method for assisting in delivering update contents in a computer network, comprising:

communicately coupling at least one peer client to another peer client on a computer network;

evaluating with at least one computer processor, a user'"'"'s interaction preference according to a user'"'"'s interaction history;

in response to an update notification received from a server of the computer network, evaluating whether to prefetch the update contents corresponding to the update notification according to the evaluated interaction preference; and

in response to evaluating to prefetch, obtaining the update contents from at least one peer client in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner and storing them locally on the peer client.

22. The computer program product according to claim 21, further comprising obtaining the user'"'"'s interaction history by at least one of capturing user operations and capturing communications data of a browser.

23. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the step of evaluating a user'"'"'s interaction preference comprises creating a content type list according to the content types involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

24. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the step of evaluating a user'"'"'s interaction preference comprises creating a keyword list according to the keywords involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.

25. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the step of evaluating a user'"'"'s interaction preference comprises creating a friend list according to the friends involved in the interaction history so as to obtain the user'"'"'s interaction preference.