Lending Digital Items to Identified Recipients

• US 20120254304A1
• Filed: 03/29/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Anbalagan, Karthik G., Anderson, Emily Margaret, Killalea, Tom, Pakhomova, Valeria A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks

Abstract

Digital items may be lent from one user to another. A lending system may facilitate matching users that have a digital item to lend with users that wish to borrow a digital item. Each user may have a reputation associated with his or her lending behavior that is represented as a lending metric. The lending metric may show whether a given user is primarily a lender or borrower of digital items. Heavy borrowers that do not engage in commensurate lending may be penalized. Multiple users that lend and borrow digital items from one another may be connected in a social network. The nature of a relationship in the social network may and the lending metrics of users are factors used to make lending decisions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with specific executable instructions,

identifying an owner of a digital item;

identifying potential borrowers of the digital item that indicate a desire to borrow the digital item;

selecting one of the potential borrowers based at least in part on a characteristic of the selected potential borrower; and

generating a recommendation that the owner lend the digital item to the selected potential borrower or initiating the lending of the digital item to the selected borrower.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the potential borrowers are connected to the lender in a social network.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the potential borrowers are part of a same social network as the lender but are not connected to the lender in the social network or are more than a threshold level of proximity removed from the lender in the social network.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the digital item comprises an electronic book.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the social network comprises a social network having a strength of connections between users in the social network based at least in part on lending and borrowing of digital items between the users of the social network.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the social network comprises a social network formed at least in part by a plurality of follower and followed relationships between members of the social network.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the potential borrowers indicates the desire to borrow the digital item by placing the digital item in a list of digital items that the potential borrower wishes to borrow.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the potential borrowers indicates the desire to borrow the digital item by placing the digital item in a list of digital items that the potential borrower wishes to purchase.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic comprises the potential borrower having a level of centrality in the social network above a threshold level.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic comprises the potential borrower having a consumption pattern of digital items that is within a threshold value as a consumption pattern of digital items as the owner.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic comprises proximity of the potential borrower to the owner in the social network.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic comprises past lending and borrowing activity between the owner and the potential borrower.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic comprises a lending metric of the potential borrower.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic comprises hardware devices associated with the potential borrower.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation is generated in a same format as content of the digital item.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the digital item comprises an electronic book and the recommendation is generated as a page of the electronic book.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, determining that the owner of a digital item has finished consuming the digital item or abandoned consuming the digital item prior to the generating the recommendation.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, facilitating a loan of the digital item from the owner to the potential borrower.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein making the loan increases a lending metric of the owner.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein receiving the loan decreases a lending metric of the potential borrower.

21. A computing system for facilitating lending and borrowing of digital items, the computing system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory accessible by the one or more processors; and

a matching module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to (i) receive, from a user, an indication of a first digital item that the user desires to borrow and an indication of one or more second digital items to lend and (ii) identify matching users that have the first digital item to lend and a desire to borrow one of the one or more second digital items.

22. The computing system of claim 21, further comprising a filtering module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to identify one of the matching users, based at least in part on a characteristic of the matching users, as an exchange partner.

23. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the characteristic comprises proximity of the user and the matching users in a social network.

24. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the characteristic comprises membership in a social network with the user without a connection to the user in the social network.

25. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the characteristic comprises geographical proximity of the matching users to the user.

26. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the characteristic comprises lending metrics associated with each of the matching users.

27. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the characteristic comprises similarity of consumption patterns of digital items between the user and the matching users.

28. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the characteristic comprises similarity of digital items in a list of digital items the user desires to borrow and a list of digital items each of the matching users desires to borrow.

29. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the characteristic comprises existence of (i) a third digital item the user desires to borrow and the exchange partner has to lend and (ii) a fourth digital item that the exchange partner desires to borrow and the user has to lend.

30. The computing system of claim 21, further comprising a recommendation module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to generate a recommendation to borrow the first digital item from the exchange partner and lend the desired one of the second digital items to the exchange partner.

31. The computing system of claim 21, further comprising a lending module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to facilitate lending the first digital item from the exchange partner to the user and lending the desired one of the second digital items from the user to the exchange partner.

32. The computing system of claim 21, wherein a lending metric of the user is decreased responsive to borrowing the first digital item from the exchange partner and the lending metric of the user is increased responsive to lending the desired one of the second digital items to the exchange partner.

33. The computing system of claim 21, further comprising a social networking module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to establish a connection in a social network between the user and the exchange partner.

34. The computing system of claim 33, wherein the connection is established upon lending the first digital item from the exchange partner to the user and lending the desired one of the second digital items from the user to the exchange partner.

35. A computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, instruct a processor to perform acts comprising:

identifying a recipient for a copy of a digital item;

facilitating lending the copy of the digital item from a lender to the recipient;

storing annotations of the digital item generated by the recipient while consuming the digital item in association with the recipient; and

facilitating return of the copy of the digital item to the lender.

36. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein the digital item comprises an electronic book and a copy of the digital item comprises a digital copy of the electronic book.

37. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein identifying the recipient comprises identification based at least in part on a characteristic of the recipient.

38. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein the annotations are stored separately from the copy of the digital item.

39. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein the facilitating lending the copy of the digital item from the lender to the recipient comprises increasing a lending metric associated with the lender and decreasing a lending metric associated with the recipient.

40. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein the facilitating return of the copy of the digital item to the lender comprises returning the copy of the digital item to the lender without the annotations generated by the recipient.

41. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein the facilitating return of the copy of the digital item to the lender comprises returning the copy of the digital item to the lender with the annotations generated by the recipient.

42. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, further comprising, presenting the annotations to the recipient when the recipient is unable to access the same or a different copy of the digital item.

43. The computer-readable storage media of claim 35, further comprising, automatically associating the annotations with a different copy of the digital item upon the recipient accessing the different copy of the digital item.