Searching electronic mail and messages

• US 7,529,803 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Levi, Avner, Arbetman, Yaron, Ur, Shmuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue; Larry D
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, BRYAN Y
• Application Number:
  US11/120,572
• Publication Number:
  US 20060031350A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,464 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method for recovering information from electronic communications, including conveying an indication of a topic of interest, from a searcher on the topic, to a computing system storing a first set of the communications of a first communicator, and searching within the first set, in response to the indication, to identify one or more first communications on the topic of interest, thereby defining a primary sub-set of communications. The method further includes determining identities of one or more second communicators who participated in the primary sub-set, searching within a second set of the communications of the one or more second communicators, in response to the indication, to identify one or more second communications on the topic of interest, thereby defining a secondary sub-set of communications, the second set of the communications being stored in the computing system, and conveying information from the searches to the searcher.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for recovering information from a plurality of electronic communications,

each of said communications conveyed from a respective sender to a respective recipient, each of said senders and said recipients having respective identities, a searcher selecting said respective sender or said recipient from a database of said senders and said respective recipients, and stored in at least one memory together with the identities, the method comprising:

determining a first communicator from a database of communicators, known by the searcher to have knowledge on a topic of interest;

configuring communications permits for a program such that the program permits override the communications permits;

conveying an indication of a topic of interest, from a searcher on a topic, to a computing system in which is stored a first set of the communications in which the first communicator has participated,

wherein said first communicator is said sender or said recipient,

wherein said indication comprises keywords and phrases relevant to said topic of interest, and

setting permit levels to determine whether said electronic communications may be transferred or published in whole or in part;

searching within the first set of the communications, in response to the indication, to identify one or more first communications that are relevant to the topic of interest;

defining a primary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more first communications, said primary sub-set of said first set of communications is a list for said first set of the communications, comprising;

text of said first set of communications, attachments of said first set of communications, identifiers of said sender and said recipient, subject of said first set of communications, and date and time of said first set of communications;

filtering said primary sub-set according to said permit levels;

determining identities of one or more second communicators who participated in the communications in the primary sub-set, wherein said second communicators are said sender or said recipient;

conveying said indication of a topic of interest to said second communicators;

searching within a second set of the communications in which one of the one or more second communicators has participated, in response to the indication, to identify one or more second communications that are relevant to the topic of interest;

defining a secondary sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more second communications, the second set of the communications being stored in the computing system;

filtering said secondary sub-set according to said permit levels;

defining a next level sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more next set of communications, the next set of the communications being stored in the computing system;

filtering said next level sub-set according to said permit levels;

conveying information from at least some of the filtered primary sub-set, the filtered secondary sub-set, and the identities of the one or more of the second communicators, to the searcher, wherein said identities include said second communicators whether or not said second communication is allowed by said permit level to transfer or publish; and

preparing summaries of said primary sub-set and secondary subset and sending said summaries to said searcher,

wherein said summaries include interactive tables and graphic displays,

wherein said summaries include said topic of interest, said permit level, and contents of said electronic communication in compressed form, and

wherein the total contents of said electronic communication are displayed to said searcher selecting said summary for said electronic communication and

displaying information that a related prior search had been made on communications of a displayed communicator.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises a server wherein are stored the first and the second set of communications.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises:

a first computer wherein are stored the first set of communications; and

a second computer wherein are stored the second set of communications, and wherein conveying the indication of the topic of interest comprises;

conveying the indication to the first computer; and

conveying the indication to the second computer.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein conveying the indication comprises conveying a rationale of a search for the information to at least one of the first and the second communicators electronically within a computer system, wherein said rationale includes the email address of said searcher, and said rationale is sent to said first and second communicators.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining, in an iterative manner, identities of one or more subsequent communicators who participated in the communications in the primary sub-set and secondary sub-set in response to the indication, wherein said subsequent communicators are said sender or said recipient;

searching, in an iterative manner, within a subsequent set of the communications as done with the primary and secondary levels of communicators and communications in which one of the one or more subsequent communicators has participated, in response to the indication, to identify one or more subsequent communications that are relevant to the topic of interest, thereby defining a subsequent sub-set of the communications comprising the one or more subsequent communications, the subsequent set of the communications being stored in the computing system; and

conveying information from at least some of the subsequent sub-set, including a topic of interest, and the identities of the one or more subsequent communicators, to the searcher.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising setting a search parameter determined by the searcher limiting a number of levels of the second and subsequent sets of communications which are to be searched.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising saving records of details of a prior search with at least one of the first and the second set of the communications, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of the communications comprises:

determining that at least some of the details of the prior search have a relation to the indication, and providing at least some of the details of the prior search to the searcher in response to the relation,

wherein summaries are created that include a listing of prior searches made by said searcher, including said topic of interest used and the identity of said searcher; and

searching the prior searches in addition to searching the communications.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assigning each of the communications in the first and the second set of communications a privacy level, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of communications comprises searching in response to the respective privacy levels,

wherein said electronic communications are classified as one of:

public, or private,

wherein said private classification of said electronic communications are sub-classified as completely private, available to members of working group, or available to project managers,

wherein said public classification of said electronic communications are sub-classified as completely public, or all employees of an organization, and

wherein said electronic communications classifications are applied to only a part of said electronic communications.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the communications comprises a first text and wherein the indication comprises a second text, and wherein searching within the first and the second set of communications comprises finding a match between the first text and the second text, and wherein conveying the information comprises conveying at least part of the first text,

wherein said electronic communications comprise small messaging service messages.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein at least one of the communications comprises at least one of audio and graphic information, or combinations of audio and graphic information, and wherein conveying the information comprises conveying the at least one of the audio and the graphic information.