DETERMINING AN ENTITY'S HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP VIA A SOCIAL GRAPH

• US 20150379113A1
• Filed: 03/30/2015
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Ke, Guo, Songtao, Yan, Baoshi, Lai, Alex Ching
• Granted Patent: US 10,523,736 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products for identifying a relationship between sub-units of an entity are described. The sub-units are segmented into one or more candidate related groups based on one or more general attributes and a pair of the sub-units of the one or more candidate related sub-units is selected. The pair of sub-units is analyzed to determine a relationship between the sub-units and the relationship between the sub-units is identified based on the determined relationship.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a relationship between sub-units of an entity, comprising:

segmenting the sub-units into one or more candidate related groups based on one or more general attributes;

selecting a pair of the sub-units of one of the candidate related groups;

analyzing, using a hardware processor, the pair of sub-units to determine a relationship between the sub-units of the selected pair of sub-units; and

identifying the relationship between the sub-units of the selected pair of sub-units based on the determined relationship.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the general attribute is a name of the sub-unit, a uniform resource locator, and an electronic mail address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship is a relevant relationship based on one or more metrics exceeding a corresponding threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the metric is a connection density ratio.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship is a parent-subsidiary relationship.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a sub-unit with a largest count of members is identified as a parent entity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship is determined based on information contained in one or more profiles of members of a social networking service, the information related to the sub-units and one or more relationships between the sub-units.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein members of two sub-units are well connected based on a connection density ratio being above a threshold value.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

segmenting the sub-units into one or more candidate related groups based on one or more general attributes;

selecting a pair of the sub-units of one of the candidate related groups;

analyzing, using a hardware processor, the pair of sub-units to determine a relationship between the sub-units of the selected pair of sub-units; and

identifying the relationship between the sub-units of the selected pair of sub-units based on the determined relationship.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the general attribute is a name of the sub-unit, a uniform resource locator, and an electronic mail address.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein a sub-unit with a largest count of members is identified as a parent entity.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the relationship is determined based on information contained in one or more profiles of members of a social networking service, the information related to the sub-units and one or more relationships between the sub-units.

13. A system for identifying a work function performed by workers of a company at a location, the system comprising:

a processor;

memory to store instructions that, when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

segment the sub-units into one or more candidate related groups based on one or more general attributes;

select a pair of the sub-units of one of the candidate related groups;

analyze, using a hardware processor, the pair of sub-units to determine a relationship between the sub-units of the selected pair of sub-units; and

identify the relationship between the sub-units of the selected pair of sub-units based on the determined relationship.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the general attribute is a name of the sub-unit, a uniform resource locator, and an electronic mail address.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the relationship is a relevant relationship based on one or more metrics exceeding a corresponding threshold.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the metric is a connection density ratio.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the relationship is a parent-subsidiary relationship.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein a sub-unit with a largest count of members is identified as a parent entity.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the relationship is determined based on information contained in one or more profiles of members of a social networking service, the information related to the sub-units and one or more relationships between the sub-units.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein members of two sub-units are well connected based on a connection density ratio being above a threshold value.