System and method for defining, refining, and personalizing communications policies in a notification platform

• US 6,745,193 B1
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Issued: 06/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Kadie, Carl M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrahi, Diane D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu M.
• Application Number:
  US09/896,188
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 707/101, 707/103.R, 455/413, 455/461, 706/46, 709/201, 709/202, 709/206
• US Class Current: 707/796
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system and method is provided for personalizing and refining policies within a general notification platform. The system includes a profile definition and selection system that receives contextual information relating to a user state. The profile definition and selection system generates and/or relays a set of control parameters based at least partially upon the contextual information, and a notification manager selectively sends a user notification and/or communication based upon the set of control parameters. Methods are provided for tuning the notification platform. This may include defining one or more context profiles, assigning values to parameters employed in one or more context profiles, determining a current user context, determining which of the one or more user profiles is consistent with the current user context, and utilizing the parameter value associated with the one or more context profiles consistent with the current user context to adjust the notification system.

Claims

1. A notification system, comprising;

a profile definition and selection system that receives contextual information relating to a user state, the profile definition and selection system generating and/or relaying a set of control parameters based at least partially upon the contextual information; and

a notification manager that selectively sends a user at least one of a notification and a communication based upon the set of control parameters; and

a user interface for adjusting the control parameters, wherein the user interface includes sliding adjustments to enable the control parameters to be increased or decreased; and

wherein the user interface utilizes display feedback to indicate anticipated system performance effects based upon the user the adjustments.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile definition and selection system is a user context component.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein user context component selects at least one of M user profiles, M being an integer, based upon the contextual information, the user profiles including at least one of N user context variables to define different states associated with a user.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the user profiles define at least one state relating to when, what, how and where.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the user profiles are provided via at least one of default files, prototype files, and survey directed files.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein user context component selects at least one of M context profiles, M being an integer, based upon the contextual information, the context profiles including at least one of N user context variable sets to define different states associated with a user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the context profiles are associated with a tuning value that is employed to adjust the notification manager.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the tuning value increases or decreases an amount of notifications associated with the context profiles.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the context profiles are defined as at least one of an empty set, a single set and a multiple set of context parameters acting upon the notification manager.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the display feedback is determined from past system performance.

11. A method for tuning a notification system, comprising:

defining one or more context profiles;

assigning a tuning value to the one or more context profiles;

determining a current user context;

determining which of the one or more user profiles is consistent with the current user context; and

utilizing the tuning value associated with the one or more context profiles consistent with the current user context to adjust the notification system.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising,

transforming multiple context profile parameters to provide a singular boost to the notification system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising,

utilizing the singular boost to at least one of compress or expand time, inflate or deflate a notification value and inflate or deflate a disruption cost determinations within the notification system.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising,

utilizing context probabilities to determine current contextual information.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising,

utilizing a weighted average to determine an expected boost, wherein the expected boost is weighted by the likelihood of the current contextual information and computed as an average boost.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising combining variables to normalize one or more resulting values.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising utilizing a first consistent context to combine variables.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising utilizing a most specific consistent context to combine variables.

19. The method of claim 18, the most specific context includes the context with the most matching literals.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising combining the most specific contexts and in the event of a tie, the tied contexts are combined.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 11.

22. A system for tuning a notification manager, comprising:

means for defining one or more context profiles;

means for assigning a tuning value to the one or more context profiles;

means for determining a current user context;

means for determining which of the one or more user profiles is consistent with the current user context; and

means for utilizing the tuning value associated with the one or more context profiles consistent with the current user context to adjust the notification system.

23. A notification system, comprising;

a profile adjustment system that enables users to define curves by directly assessing one or more points on the curves to capture the dynamics of value as a function of a single priority score; and

a notification manager that selectively sends a communication based upon the curves.

24. The system of claim 23, the curves being sigmoid decay curves.

25. The system of claim 24, the curves related to a priority value.

26. The system of claim 24, further comprising a user interface to adjust the curves and at least one of an initial value parameter, a start to lose value parameter and a most value lost after value parameter.