SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGING SOCIAL NETWORKS BASED UPON PREDETERMINED OBJECTIVES

• US 20120143921A1
• Filed: 12/05/2011
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rexter Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Relationship Capital Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Wilson, Andrew R., Slade, John, Bouganim, Daniel, Cramer, Sean L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/798
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Relationship management systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention are configured to provide systematic ways for a user to measure, and manage relationships in the user'"'"'s social network. One embodiment of the invention includes a relationship management server system, and a database. In addition, the relationship management server system is configured to store a user account associated with a user in the database, store information concerning contacts associated with the user in the database, store event information associated with the user and at least one of the stored contacts in the database, store at least one objective in the database, score at least one relationship between the user and a contact based upon stored event information associated with the user and the contact to create a scored relationship graph, and generate a recommendation concerning an action based upon the stored objective and the scored relationship graph.

Claims

1. A relationship management system, comprising:

a relationship management server system; and

a database;

wherein the relationship management server system is configured to;

store a user account associated with a user in the database;

store information concerning contacts associated with the user in the database;

store event information associated with the user and at least one of the stored contacts in the database;

store at least one objective in the database;

score at least one relationship between the user and a contact based upon stored event information associated with the user and the contact to create a scored relationship graph; and

generate a recommendation concerning an action based upon at least one stored objective and the scored relationship graph.

2. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is configured to obtain contact information from at least one source of contact information.

3. The relationship management system of claim 2, wherein at least one source of contact information is selected from the group consisting of a web mail service, an enterprise mail system, and an online social network.

4. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is configured to obtain event information from at least one source of event information.

5. The relationship management system of claim 4, wherein at least one source of event information is selected from the group consisting of a web mail service, an enterprise mail system, a web calendaring service, an enterprise calendaring system, call data records, and an online social network.

6. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the objective relates to a specific project.

7. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the objective relates to an objective with respect to the user'"'"'s relationship graph.

8. The relationship management system of claim 7, wherein the objective relates to a specific relationship.

9. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to store information characterizing at least one relationship between the user and a contact.

10. The relationship management system of claim 9, wherein the information characterizing a relationship between the user and a contact is expressed in terms of a first value indicative of the importance of the relationship to the user, and a second value indicative of the strength of the relationship.

11. The relationship management system of claim 10, wherein the objective is expressed as a target value for the strength of a relationship.

12. The relationship management system of claim 9, wherein:

the relationship management server system is further configured to prompt the user for information characterizing at least one relationship; and

the at least one relationship is selected based upon the importance of the relationship to the generation of a recommendation concerning an action based upon the stored objective and the scored relationship graph.

13. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to store information identifying a group of contacts associated with the objective.

14. The relationship management system of claim 13, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to recommend at least one contact for inclusion in the group of contacts associated with the objective.

15. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to decrease the score assigned to a relationship between a user and a contact due to the passage of time.

16. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to increase the score assigned to a relationship between a user and a contact in response to the occurrence of an event involving at least the user and the contact.

17. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to increase the score assigned to a relationship between a user and a contact in response to the occurrence of a telephone conversation between the user and the contact.

18. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to increase the score assigned to a relationship between a user and a contact in response to the occurrence of a meeting between the user and the contact.

19. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to modify the score assigned to a relationship between a user and a contact in response to the user requesting a predetermined action from the contact.

20. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to score event information associated with the user and at least one of the contacts.

21. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to score a relationship between a user and a contact as follows:

22. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to generate a user interface displaying a list of recommendations including the generated recommendation.

23. The relationship management system of claim 22, wherein the list of recommendations is ordered based upon the importance of each recommendation to the stored objective.

24. The relationship management system of claim 22, wherein:

the stored objective is one of a plurality of stored objectives and a priority is associated with each of the plurality of stored objectives; and

the list of recommendations is ordered based upon the importance of each recommendation to the highest priority objectives.

25. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to index event information and contact information associated with the stored contacts.

26. The relationship management system of claim 25, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to identify groups of related contacts using the index.

27. The relationship management system of claim 25, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to identify contacts relevant to a search query.

28. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to:

store a plurality of user accounts in the database;

store information concerning contacts associated with each user in the database;

store event information associated with each user and at least one of the contacts associated with the user in the database;

store at least one objective for each user in the database; and

score the relationships between each user and the contacts associated with the user based upon stored event information associated with the user and the contact to create at least one scored relationship graph.

30. The relationship management system of claim 28, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to generate a recommendation for a first user based upon the scored social graph of at least a second user.

31. The relationship management system of claim 30, wherein the generated recommendation includes at least one contact and a recommended relationship target for the contact.

32. The relationship management system of claim 28, wherein the relationship management server system is further configured to benchmark the scored social graph of a first user against the scored social graph of at least a second user.

33. The relationship management system of claim 28, wherein a first user can query the relationship scores that each of a plurality of users have with a specific contact.

29. The relationship management system of claim 29, wherein the at least one scored relationship graph is a many-to-many directional social graph.

34. A method of generating a scored social graph for a user, comprising:

obtaining information concerning contacts associated with a user;

obtaining event information associated with the user and at least one of the contacts; and

scoring at least one relationship between the user and a contact based upon the event information associated with the user and the contact to create a scored relationship graph.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

obtaining at least one objective from the user; and

generating a recommendation concerning an action based upon the objective and the scored relationship graph.