Trusted social network

• US 20120179764A1
• Filed: 09/22/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Abdullah Celik Erdal
• Original Assignee: Abdullah Celik Erdal
• Inventors: Erdal, Abdullah Celik
• Granted Patent: US 9,241,000 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

A technique for trusted social networking involves enabling parties to join a social network and provide a list of trusted content sources. The system can maintain folders associated with each of the trusted content sources for a first member. If one of the trusted content sources is a second member that indicates the first member is trusted, then the system can maintain a master folder for the first and second member.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a one-way trust lists datastore including a first one-way trust list of a first member and a second one-way trust list of a second member;

a master reciprocated trust folders datastore;

a reciprocated trust management engine coupled to the one-way trust lists datastore and the master reciprocated trust folders datastore;

wherein, in operation, the reciprocated trust management engine;

matches a first entry in the first one-way trust list with the second member;

matches a second entry in the second one-way trust list with the first member;

creates a reciprocated trust folder for a group of members including the first member and the second member;

maintains the reciprocated trust folder in the master reciprocated trust folders datastore.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a contact information input engine;

a one-way trust list creation engine coupled to the contact information input engine and the one-way trust lists datastore;

wherein, in operation;

the contact information input engine receives contact information associated with the first member;

the one-way trust list creation engine creates the first one-way trust list for the first member including at least some of the contact information, wherein the at least some of the contact information includes data sufficient for the reciprocated trust management engine to match the first entry in the first one-way trust list with the second member.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first member and the second member are members of a first subnetwork, further comprising:

a social network aggregation engine configured to aggregate the first subnetwork and a second subnetwork including a third member into a trusted social network including the first member, the second member, and a third member, wherein the first member and the second member are members of the first subnetwork and the third member is a member of the second subnetwork after aggregation.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a members datastore;

a trusted party identification engine coupled to the members datastore;

a reciprocal trust confirmation engine coupled to the trusted party identification engine;

wherein;

in operation;

the trusted party identification engine determines in association with the first entry in the first one-way trust list whether the second member initially has an associated entry in the members datastore;

the reciprocal trust confirmation engine sends a confirmation to the second member to confirm that the second member trusts the first member, and receives second member one-way trust list data sufficient to enable the reciprocated trust management engine to match the second entry in the second one-way trust list with the first member.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

a social network invitation engine coupled to the trusted party identification engine;

a member registration engine coupled to the social network invitation engine;

wherein, in operation;

when the second member does not initially have an associated entry in the members datastore

the social network invitation engine sends an invitation to the second member and receives an acceptance of the invitation;

the member registration engine stores an associated entry in the members datastore for the second member.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an administrative engine, wherein, in operation, the administrative engine identifies a source as constructively trusted by the first member.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a trust folder creation engine;

a trusted source identification engine;

a content management engine;

a trusted destination identification engine;

a trust folders datastore coupled to the trust folder creation engine, the trusted source identification engine, the content management engine, and the trusted destination identification engine;

wherein, in operation;

the trust folder creation engine creates a first member trust folder for a content source identifiable as trusted from the first one-way trust list;

the trusted source identification engine determines whether received content is from the content source

the content management engine puts the received content in the first member trust folder when the received content is from the content source;

the trusted destination identification engine determines whether outgoing content from the first member is to the content source;

the content management engine puts the outgoing content in the first member trust folder when the outgoing content is to the content source.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein when the reciprocated trust management engine creates the reciprocated trust folder for the group of members, the reciprocated trust management engine converts the first member trust folder into the reciprocated trust folder.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a content management engine configured to store a message directed to the group of members in the reciprocated trust folder;

an access control engine configured to limit access to the message to members of the group of members.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a content management engine configured to enable one-to-many communication from the first member to other members of the group of members by putting a message in the reciprocated trust folder;

an access control engine configured to limit access to the message in accordance with time-constrained or file characteristic-constrained access control settings.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an access control engine configurable to control group member dissemination of content from a trust folder.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a content management engine configurable to enable a content blocking rule sliding scale ranging from blocking no content sources at a first end point of the sliding scale to blocking all content sources that are not identifiable from the first one-way trust list at a second end point of the sliding scale.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a content management engine configured to enable one-to-many communication from the first member to other members of the group of members by putting a message in the reciprocated trust folder;

an access certification engine configured to indicate that a member of the group of members has received the message in the reciprocated trust folder.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a content management engine, wherein, in operation, the content management engine:

puts content directed to the group of members in the reciprocated trust folder;

forwards content directed to the group of members to destinations that the content management engine cannot identify as corresponding to members of the group of members;

puts replies to forwarded messages in the reciprocated trust folder.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a member certification engine configured to establish a global trust level for the first member based upon the quality of data provided by the first member;

a member monitoring engine configured to obtain data regarding activity of the first member;

a ranking engine configured to adjust the global trust level of the first member based upon the activity of the first member;

a rating engine configured to adjust the global trust level of the first member based upon input from a third member;

a global trust level indication engine configured to provide an indication of the global trust level for the first member to assist a fourth member in a determining whether to trust the first member.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an access certification engine configured to check credentials of the first member to access certified content in the reciprocated trust folder;

an access control engine configured to grant the first member access to the certified content only after the access certification engine checks the credentials of the first member.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the reciprocated trust folder includes temporary data and historical data.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a server-client synchronization engine configured to synchronize a client with a server including the reciprocated trust management engine.

19. A system comprising:

a means for matching a first entry in a first one-way trust list with a second member;

a means for matching a second entry in a second one-way trust list with a first member;

a means for creating a reciprocated trust folder for a group of members including the first member and the second member;

a means for maintaining the reciprocated trust folder in a master reciprocated trust folders datastore.

20. A method comprising:

matching a first entry in a first one-way trust list with a second member;

matching a second entry in a second one-way trust list with a first member;

creating a reciprocated trust folder for a group of members including the first member and the second member;

maintaining the reciprocated trust folder in a master reciprocated trust folders datastore.

21. A method, comprising:

accessing one or more transferable files in a file datastore accessible to electronic messaging users in a trust list of electronic messaging users authorized to access the one or more transferable files;

facilitating transmission of an electronic message containing a link to the one or more transferable files to each electronics messaging user in the trust list of electronic messaging users;

receiving a request from one of the electronic messaging users in the trust list of electronic messaging users to access the one or more transferable files based on selection of the link in the electronic message;

facilitating transmission, based on the request, of the one or more transferable files from the file datastore to the one electronic messaging user based on the request.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the one or more transferable files comprises a plurality of transferable files.

23. A method, comprising:

creating a trust folder for a group of members of a trusted social network, the group of members comprising a first member and a second member;

creating a trust relationship between the first member and the second member;

storing a first set of messages comprising one or more electronic messages from the first member to the second member in the trust folder;

storing a second set of messages comprising one or more electronic messages from the second member to the first member in the trust folder;

creating a sender-recipient category that categorizes the first set of messages and the second set of messages according to the trust relationship;

facilitating display of the first set of messages and the second set of messages according to the sender-recipient category.