ADVANCED CONTENT HOSTING

• US 20130091207A1
• Filed: 12/27/2011
• Published: 04/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Diab, Wael William
• Application Number:
  US13/337,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20130091207A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A content hosting environment enables content that is to be uploaded to a social network to be distributed and transcoded in an automated and adaptive manner to facilitate or improve content hosting. Content items may be distributed to different locations, such as social devices in a social network, a cloud computing system, or the like, based upon real or projected demand for the content item, user selections, content item properties, or the like. Instances of content items can be transcoded to different formats based upon real or projected demand for the content item, user selections, content item properties, or the like. Distributions and transcodings of instances of content items can be changed due to changed demand, elapse of a period of time, or the like.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a memory; and

processing circuitry interoperable with the memory and configured to;

store, in a first location, at least one instance of an item of content for distribution via a social network;

occasionally determine a level of demand for the item of content, the level of demand determined, at least in part, based on a frequency at which access to the item of content is requested by members of the social network;

distribute at least one additional instance of the item of content to at least a second location in response to the level of demand exceeding a first threshold level; and

in response to the level of demand falling below a second threshold, remove the additional instance of content from the at least a second location.

2. The device of claim 1, the processing circuitry further configured to:

in response to projecting that the level of demand will exceed the first threshold level, distribute at least one instance of the item of content to the social network to be stored on a plurality of other devices associated with the social network, each of the plurality of other devices storing at least one instance of the item of content.

3. The device of claim 1, the processing circuitry further configured to:

in response to projecting that the level of demand will exceed the first threshold level, distribute at least one instance of the item of content to the social network to be stored on a cloud computing network; and

in response to projecting that the level of demand will not exceed the second threshold level, distribute at least one instance of the item of content to be stored on an external local server node.

4. The device of claim 3, the at least one instance of the item of content stored on the cloud computing network is a low-quality instance, and the at least one instance of the item of content stored on an external local server node is a high-quality instance.

5. The device of claim 1, the processing circuitry further configured to:

in response to the elapsing of a period of time, limit access by at least one member of the social network to at least one instance of the item of content.

6. The device of claim 1, the processing circuitry further configured to:

transcode the at least one additional instance of the item of content to a low-quality format in response to the level of demand exceeding a first threshold level; and

7. The device of claim 1, the level of demand including a quantity of downloads of the item of content over a period of time.

8. A device comprising:

a memory; and

a processing circuitry, the processing circuitry interoperable with the memory and configured to;

acquire historical activity data associated with at least one member of a social network, the historical activity data including the at least one member'"'"'s historical interactions with at least one other member of the social network; and

based upon the historical activity data, select at least one network node to enable connections between the at least one member and other members of the social network.

9. The device of claim 8, the at least one network node is a server node that is local to the device.

10. The device of claim 8, the historical activity data is acquired via real-time data mining of information associated with the at least one member.

11. The device of claim 8, the processing circuitry further configured to:

In response to determining, based on the historical activity data, that the at least one member'"'"'s activity on the social network exceeds a threshold, select at least one network node to provide a high-bandwidth connection between the at least one member and at least one other member of the social network.

12. A device comprising:

a memory; and

a processing circuitry, the processing circuitry interoperable with the memory and configured to;

receive a notice that a user desires to upload at least one content item to a social network;

in response to receiving the notice, collect information associated with the at least one content item;

determine a level of importance to assign to the at least one content item; and

transcode a copy of the at least one content item to a first format, based on the level of importance assigned to the at least one content item.

13. The device of claim 12, the information associated with the at least one content item including a user-provided indication of a desired storage location for at least one instance of the at least one content item.

14. The device of claim 12, the information associated with the at least one content item including content metadata.

15. The device of claim 12, the level of importance assigned to the at least one content item including a projected demand for the at least one content item and the first format is a low-quality format.

16. The device of claim 12, the processing circuitry further configured to:

in response to determining that projected demand for the at least one content item is high, transcode an instance of the at least one content item to a high-quality format; and

in response to determining that projected demand for the at least one content item is low, transcode an instance of the at least one content item to a low-quality format.

17. The device of claim 12, the processing circuitry further configured to:

in response to determining that the information associated with the at least one content item has been updated, re-transcode the instance of the at least one content item to a second format.

18. The device of claim 12, the processing circuitry further configured to:

store a low-quality instance of the at least one content item on a network node, the low-quality instance available for immediate access by a member of the social network; and

store a high-quality instance of the at least one content item on a device, the high-quality instance accessible to a member of the social network based upon demand for a high-quality instance of the at least one content item.

19. The device of claim 12, the processing circuitry further configured to:

in response to receiving notification that at least one instance of the at least one content item has been accessed by at least one member of the social network, debit an account associated with the at least one member.

20. The device of claim 12, the processing circuitry further configured to:

in response to receiving notification that at least one instance of the at least one content item has been accessed by at least one other member of the social network, credit an account associated with the user.