DISPLAYING AND NAVIGATING IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT ENTERPRISE PEOPLE RELATIONSHIPS

• US 20150249704A1
• Filed: 02/28/2014
• Published: 09/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shah, Viral, Herstad, Berit, Rasmussen, Sveinar, Jassal, Vikramjeet Singh, Kempton, Alexander, Srensen, Stle, Distel, Alexander, Dovedan, Zoran, Dijan, Ivan
• Granted Patent: US 9,531,793 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A network map of an individual'"'"'s implicit and explicit people relationships across multiple workloads is provided. Relationships between people may be leveraged and ranking for people relationships may be performed based on activities across multiple workloads. People relationships may be displayed in the network map to provide a visual understanding of relationships and connections. Navigation to any person represented in the network map may be enabled, and commonalities in relationships between a navigating user and a given person navigated to in the network map may be exposed. Trending items and activity streams for a person or group of persons may be shown in the network map.

Claims

1. A method for providing a network map, the method comprising:

receiving relationship data and activity data associated with one or more individuals from one or more information sources;

storing the relationship and activity data associated with the one or more individuals from the one or more information sources in a graph;

receiving an indication of a selection by a user to view a network map associated with a first individual; and

providing the stored relationship and activity data associated with the first individual from the one or more information sources for display in a user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving relationship data and activity data associated with the user from one or more information sources;

storing the relationship and activity data associated with the user from the one or more information sources in a graph;

after receiving an indication of a selection by the user to view a network map associated with the first individual, determining commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user; and

providing the determined commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user for display in the user interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the relationship data associated with the one or more individuals from the one or more information sources in a graph comprises establishing relationships between the individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein establishing a relationship between individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures comprises:

creating a first node in the graph for an individual;

creating a second node for a person with whom the individual interacts or a person with whom the individual is associated according to an organization or project structure;

creating a relationship edge connecting the first node and the second node;

creating a third node for an entity acted upon by the individual according to the activity data;

creating an activity edge connecting the first node to the third node;

calculating a weight for the activity edge according to a type of activity performed by the individual; and

ranking the individual'"'"'s activity edges according to the calculated weights.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein providing the stored activity data associated with the first individual from the one or more information sources for display in a user interface comprises providing an activity stream comprising a predetermined or selected number of top ranking activity edges associated with the first individual.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

calculating a weight for each relationship edge; and

ranking the individual'"'"'s relationship edges according to the calculated weights.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein calculating a weight for each edge comprises calculating a weight based on implicit and explicit signals generated through activity on the one or more information sources.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein providing the stored relationship data associated with the first individual from the one or more information sources for display in a user interface comprises providing a predetermined or selected number of top ranking relationship edges associated with the first individual.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a selection by the user to view a network map associated with a second individual; and

providing the stored relationship and activity data associated with the second individual for display in the user interface.

10. A system for providing a network map, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more processors operable to;

receive relationship data and activity data associated with a plurality of individuals from a plurality of information sources;

establish relationships between the individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures;

store the established relationships associated with the plurality of individuals in a graph;

receive an indication of a selection by a user to view a network map associated with a first individual;

determine commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user; and

provide the established relationships associated with the plurality of individuals and the determined commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user for display of the network map associated with the first individual in a user interface.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein in establishing a relationship between individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures, the one or more processors are further operable to:

create a first node in the graph for an individual;

create a second node for a person with whom the individual interacts or a person with whom the individual is associated according to an organization or project structure;

create a relationship edge connecting the first node and the second node;

create a third node for an entity acted upon by the individual according to the activity data;

create an activity edge connecting the first node to the third node;

calculate a weight for the activity edge according to a type of activity performed by the individual;

rank the individual'"'"'s activity edges according to the calculated weight; and

provide an activity stream comprising a predetermined or selected number of top ranking activity edges associated with the first individual for display in the user interface.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further operable to:

calculate a weight for each relationship edge based on implicit and explicit signals generated through activity on the plurality of information sources;

rank the individual'"'"'s relationship edges according to the calculated weights; and

provide a predetermined or selected number of top ranking relationship edges associated with the first individual for display in the user interface.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors are further operable to:

receive an indication of a selection by the user to view a network map associated with a second individual;

determine commonalities in relationships between the second individual and the user; and

provide the established relationships associated with the plurality of individuals and the determined commonalities in relationships between the second individual and the user for display of the network map associated with the second individual in the user interface.

14. A method for providing a network map, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a selection by a user to view a network map of a first individual'"'"'s people relationships across a plurality of information sources;

querying a graph for relationship and activity data associated with the first individual;

querying the graph for relationship and activity data associated with the user;

receiving relationship and activity data associated with the first individual and the user;

generating a user interface for displaying the network map comprising the relationship and activity data associated with the first individual; and

displaying the network map in the user interface.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein querying a graph for relationship and activity data associated with the first individual comprises querying the graph for the first individual'"'"'s node, for nodes connected to the first individual'"'"'s node by relationship edges, and for nodes connected to the first individual'"'"'s node by activity edges.

16. The method of claim 15, further wherein displaying the network map in the user interface comprises displaying selectable thumbnail images of people whose nodes are connected to the first individual'"'"'s node by relationship edges and displaying an activity stream of entities whose nodes are connected to the first individual'"'"'s node by activity edges.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the selectable thumbnail images are grouped according to a type of relationship the person shares with the individual, the types of relationships comprising one or more of:

a manager relationship;

a peer relationship;

a directs relationship;

a working with relationship; and

a we both work with relationship.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein selectable thumbnail images grouped according to a we both work with relationship comprises selectable thumbnail images of people whose nodes are connected to both the first individual'"'"'s node and the user'"'"'s node by relationship edges.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

querying the graph for nodes connected by activity edges to the nodes connected to the first individual'"'"'s node by relationship edges;

calculating and applying weights to the activity edges according to a type of activity;

determining one or more items that are trending around the individual according to a number of activity edges connected to the one or more items and the weight of the one or more activity edges; and

displaying the one or more item trending items in the user interface.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a selection by the user to view a network map associated with a second individual;

querying the graph for relationship and activity data associated with the second individual;

receiving relationship and activity data associated with the second individual;

generating a user interface for displaying the network map comprising the relationship and activity data associated with the second individual; and

displaying the network map in the user interface.