Management of Group-Sourced Contacts Directories, Systems and Methods

• US 20170012987A1
• Filed: 03/09/2015
• Published: 01/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Diro, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Diro, Inc.
• Inventors: Gupta, Vishal
• Granted Patent: US 10,237,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time

Abstract

Systems and methods for group-sourced contacts directories are presented. A first member of a shared contacts directory can add contact information of a second user to the directory. Upon addition of the contact information of the second user, the contacts directory discovery system automatically sends a notification to the second user and provides the second user editing rights to the contact information of the directory. Changes made in the directory is automatically synchronized to the across the user devices associated with the members of the directory.

Claims

1. A group-sourced contact list discovery system, comprising:

a group-sourced contact directory database storing a contact directory comprising a first contact associated with a first person;

a discovery engine comprising a processor, and further comprising a memory storing program instructions, that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the steps of;

providing a first interface to a first user device that enables the first person to add a second contact associated with a second person to the contact directory, and

based on the addition of the second contact to the contact directory, automatically (1) transmitting a notification to a second user device associated with the second person and (2) providing the second person with editing rights to all contacts included in the contact directory, wherein the notification comprises information regarding the contact directory.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the editing rights comprise any or a combination of a right to add a new third contact to the contact directory, a right to remove the first contact from the contact directory, and a right to edit contact information associated with the first contact.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein addition of the second contact comprises adding contact information related to the second contact, wherein the contact information includes a phone number.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the program instructions further cause the processor to perform the steps of:

receiving a request to add a third contact associated with a third person to the contact directory; and

based on the addition of the third contact to the contact directory, automatically (1) transmitting a notification to a third user device associated with the third person and (2) providing the third user with editing rights to all contacts included in the contact directory, wherein the notification comprises information regarding the contact directory.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the request is received from one of the first device and the second device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact list was inaccessible by the second person before the second contact was added to the contact directory.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the program instructions further cause the processor to perform the steps of:

receiving a request to remove the first contact from the contact directory; and

upon the removal of the first contact from the contact directory, removing editing rights of the contact list from the first person.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the request is received from the second device.

3. (canceled)

4. (canceled)

11. A computer-implemented method of managing contact directories, the method comprising using a computing device to:

receive contact information related to a new user of a discovery engine in a group-sourced contacts directory ecosystem;

select a unique identifier from the contact information;

search a contacts directories database for the unique identifier to identify a contact directory in which contact information for a contact in the contact directory includes the unique identifier;

for an identified contact directory, provide information regarding the identified contact directory to a user device associated with the new user; and

grant editing rights to the new user, thereby allowing the new user to edit information in the identified contact directory.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identified contact directory is a shared contact directory, multiple persons represented by contacts in the shared contact directory are members of the contact directory, and each member has a right to edit contact information in the shared contact directory.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the editing rights comprise any or a combination of a right to add a contact to the shared contact directory, and a right to remove a contact from the shared contact directory.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising to reconcile a conflict arising from inconsistent edits by two or more members.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the identified contact directory is associated with context criteria, further comprising to:

receive a personal contact directory from the new user, wherein at least one contact in the personal contact directory is associated with at least one attribute;

identify a subset of contacts in the personal contact directory that satisfies the context criteria by comparing the at least one attribute of the contacts in the personal contact directory with the context criteria;

automatically update the shared contact directory by adding the subset of the contacts to the shared contact directory; and

automatically synchronize the shared contact directory with copies of the shared contact directory.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the subset of contacts comprises an added contact associated with an added member, wherein the method further comprises to provide the added member a right to edit the shared contact directory.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the shared contact directory was inaccessible to the added member before the subset of contacts was added to the shared contact directory.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the contact information of a first member is used to determine a location of the first member.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the location of the first member is used to determine a local time of the first member.

14. (canceled)

21. A discovery engine, comprising:

a memory including processor-readable instructions; and

a processor configured to read the instructions and execute the instructions, such that when executed, the instructions cause the processor to;

receive from a first member of a shared contact directory a first contact information update related to a first contact in the shared contact directory;

receive from a second member of the shared contact directory a second contact information update related to the first contact in the shared contact directory;

identify that the first contact information update is in conflict with the second contact information update;

select one of the first contact information update and the second contact information update to retain as a retained update;

edit the shared contact directory with the retained update;

store the shared contact directory with the retained update as a new version of the shared contact directory; and

synchronize copies of the shared contact directory to the new version.

22. The discovery engine of claim 21, wherein the instructions include instructions to cause the processor to:

associate a first time stamp with the first contact information update;

associate a second time stamp with the second contact information update;

compare the first time stamp and the second time stamp; and

select the update to retain based on the comparison.

23. The discovery engine of claim 21, wherein the retained update is the first contact information update, wherein the instructions include instructions to cause the processor to:

after receiving the first contact information update, create a first update version by editing the shared contact directory with the first contact information update, and synchronize the copies of the shared contact directory;

after receiving the second contact information update, create a second update version by editing the shared contact directory with the second contact information update, and synchronize the copies of the shared contact directory; and

after selecting the first contact information update as the retained update, edit the shared contact directory with the retained update by rewinding to the first update version.

24. The discovery engine of claim 23, wherein the instructions include instructions to cause the processor to:

add a keyword from the second contact information update to a negative keyword list.

25. A computer-implemented method of managing contact lists, the method comprising using a computing device to execute the following steps:

obtaining a sharable contact directory comprising a first contact associated with a first person and a second contact associated with a second person, the sharable contact directory associated with context criteria that define characteristics of the contacts of the first sharable contact directory,

retrieving a first private contact directory comprising a set of contacts from a first user device associated with the first contact, wherein each contact in the set of contacts is associated with at least one attribute;

identifying a subset of the set of contacts that should be included in the sharable contact directory by comparing the at least one attribute of each contact in the set of contacts against the context criteria of the sharable contact directory;

automatically updating the sharable contact directory by adding the identified subset of the set of contacts to the sharable contact directory; and

automatically synchronizing the sharable contact directory with other user devices associated with contacts of the sharable contact directory.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising a step of providing the first device editing rights to the sharable contact directory.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the editing rights comprise any or a combination of a right to add a new contact to the sharable contact directory, a right to remove the second contact from the sharable contact directory, and a right to edit contact information in the sharable contact directory.

30. The method of claim 26, further comprising the steps of:

receiving edits to the sharable contact directory from the first user; and

automatically synchronizing the edited sharable contact directory with the other devices.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising a step of providing a second user device associated with the second person editing rights to the sharable contact directory.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising a step of reconciling a conflict arising from inconsistent edits by the first and second persons.

33. The method of claim 25, further comprising the steps of:

retrieving a second private contact directory comprising a set of contacts from a second user device associated with the second contact, wherein each contact in the set is associated with at least one attribute;

identifying a subset of the set of contacts that that should be included in the sharable contact directory by comparing the at least one attribute of each contact in the set of contacts against the context criteria of the sharable contact directory;

automatically updating the sharable contact directory by adding the identified subset of the set of contacts to the sharable contact directory; and

automatically synchronizing the sharable contact directory with the first device.

34. The method of claim 25, wherein the subset of the set of contacts comprises a third contact associated with a third person, wherein the method further comprises the step of providing a third user device associated with the third contact editing rights to the sharable contact directory.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the sharable contact directory was inaccessible to the third user before the third contact was added to the sharable contact directory.

36. The method of claim 25, wherein the first group contact list comprises a digital clock coupled with one or more contact information, wherein the clock provides local time information of the one or more contact information.

28. (canceled)

29. (canceled)

37-72. -72. (canceled)