Peer-to-Peer Social Network

• US 20140164517A1
• Filed: 07/25/2013
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vertical Computer Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vertical Computer Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Valdetaro, Luiz Claudio
• Granted Patent: US 10,305,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/086 using security domains
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A social network includes a relay server and two or more mobile Internet devices (“MIDs”) coupled to the relay server. Each of the MIDs includes a relay agent for interfacing with the relay server, a web server, an application for operating the web server, and a memory for storing social networking information comprising a contacts list, one or more access groups, one or more albums, and one or more associations between the one or more access groups and the one or more albums to specify which contacts can view which albums.

Claims

1. A peer-to-peer network comprising:

a relay server;

two or more Internet devices coupled to the relay server, each of the Internet devices including;

a processor;

a relay agent operatively coupled to the processor and to the relay server for interfacing the Internet device to the relay server;

a web server operatively coupled to the processor and operatively coupled via the relay agent to the relay server; and

at least one application operably coupled to the relay agent for effectuating communication with the web server.

2. The network of claim 1 further comprising a memory, the memory including:

a list of contacts, each contact including the name of a user, one of the two or more Internet devices respectively associated with the user, and the address of the respective one of the two or more Internet devices;

one or more access groups, each of the one or more access groups identifying selected contacts from the list of contacts to have access associated with the respective access group;

one or more albums, each album containing selected information; and

one or more associations between the one or more access groups and the one or more albums to specify which of the one or more access groups of contacts can view which of the one or more albums.

3. The network of claim 1 wherein the network is a peer-to-peer social network.

4. The network of claim 1 wherein the network is a peer-to-peer content-sharing network.

5. The network of claim 1 further comprising an encryption module for encrypting information sent from one contact to another user.

6. The network of claim 1 wherein at least one of the two or more Internet devices is a mobile Internet device.

7. The network of claim 1 wherein at least one of the two or more Internet devices is a smartphone.

8. The network of claim 1 wherein the network is the Internet.

9. The network of claim 1 wherein the network is a cellular network.

10. A network of claim 1 further comprising a computer having at least a processor and a memory operably coupled to the processor, the memory being configured for storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform steps of:

entering and saving phone numbers of users in the memory;

creating access groups and saving the groups in the memory;

associating each of one or more users with one or more access groups in the memory;

creating albums of information and saving the albums in the memory;

determining which access groups can access which albums;

receiving an information request from a requesting user;

determining if the requesting user is associated with an access group that has access to the requested information; and

if it is determined that the requesting user is associated with an access group that has access to the requested information, sending the information via the web server and relay agent to the relay server with instructions for delivering the information to the requesting user.

11. A network of claim 1 further comprising a computer having at least one processor and a memory operably coupled to the processor, the memory being configured for storing a computer software application program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor of at least one Internet device to perform steps of:

entering and saving phone numbers of users in the memory;

creating access groups and saving the access groups in the memory;

associating each of one or more users with one or more access groups;

creating albums of information and saving the albums in the memory;

determining which access groups can access which albums;

receiving an information request from a requesting user;

determining if the requesting user is associated with an access group that has access to the requested information; and

if it is determined that the requesting user is associated with an access group that has access to the requested information, sending the information via the web server and relay agent to the relay server with instructions for delivering the information to the requesting user in an encrypted format.

12. A method for operating a network using a device having a processor coupled to a memory, the processor being further coupled via a web server and relay agent to a relay server, the memory including computer program code which, when the code is loaded into the memory and run by said processor, causes the processor to perform steps of:

entering and saving phone numbers of users in the memory;

creating access groups and saving the access groups in the memory;

associating each of one or more users with one or more access groups;

creating albums of information and saving the albums in the memory;

determining which access groups can access which albums;

receiving an information request from a requesting user;

determining if the requesting user is associated with an access group that has access to the requested information; and

if it is determined that the requesting user is associated with an access group that has access to the requested information, sending the information via the web server and relay agent to the relay server with instructions for delivering the information to the requesting user.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the information sent via the web server and relay agent to the relay server includes instructions for delivering the information to the requesting user in an encrypted format.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the network is a peer-to-peer social network.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the network is a peer-to-peer content-sharing network.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising an encryption module for encrypting information sent from one contact to another user.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein at least one of the two or more Internet devices is a mobile Internet device.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein at least one of the two or more Internet devices is a smartphone.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the network is the Internet.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein the network is a cellular network.