Relationship management system that provides an indication of users having a relationship with a specified contact

• US 7,613,695 B1
• Filed: 12/06/1999
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RELX Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Original Assignee: RELX Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Inventors: Solomon, Barry, Nagy, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Kimyen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gyorfi; Thomas
• Application Number:
  US09/455,877
• Time in Patent Office: 3,620 Days
• Field of Search: 707/5, 707/8, 707/9, 707/10, 707/3, 707/104.1, 345/595, 345/853, 713/181, 380200-201, 380/203, 705/22, 705/26
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A relationship management system uses a database to store contact information related to a number of contacts and to store a number of folders, each of which reference one or more of the contacts within the database. The relationship management system also stores a set of contact-user pairs defining known relationships between users of the relationship management system and the contacts stored in the database. For each contact-user pair, an opt-in field indicating if the contact-user relationship is to be available for use in determining which users know a specified user is stored. If the opt-in flag is set, information pertaining to the nature of the relationship between the user and the contact, such as a relationship description, an indication of the type or strength of the relationship, etc. is also stored. At any desired time, a user may implement a user-contact reference routine to determine which users know a specified contact. The user-contact reference routine accesses the contact-user pairs within the database to determine the users which are associated with a contact-user pair that references the specified contact and that has an opt-in flag set to enable the contact-user relationship to be discovered. The user-contact reference routine then lists all of the determined users and may display the relationship information stored for each discovered contact-user pair.

Claims

1. A relationship management system adapted to be used with a processor, a database and a display device, comprising:

a computer readable medium;

a database storage routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to store, within the database, user information within a plurality of user folders for a plurality of users of the relationship management system, contact information within a plurality of contact folders for one or more contacts, a reference to one or more user folders within each contact folder, the database storage routine further adapted to identify the references within each contact folder to store a plurality of contact-user pairs, wherein each contact-user pair defines a relationship between one of the contacts stored within the database and one of the plurality of users of the relationship management system;

a reference routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed on the processor to access the database to determine which of the plurality of users of the relationship management system is a member of any of the plurality of contact-user pairs, wherein each of the contact-user pairs indicates that one of the plurality of users knows a specified contact; and

a display routine stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed on the processor to display, on the display device, the indication of the determined one or more of the plurality of users that know the specified contact, wherein the displayed users did not initiate the display routine.

2. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the database stores a set of-contact-folder pairs, wherein each contact-folder pair includes a contact indication that indicates one of the contacts and a folder indication that indicates one of the folders, wherein the reference routine searches the contact indications of the contact-folder pairs for the specified contact to locate one or more contact-folder pair associated with the specified contact and wherein the reference routine determines one of the plurality of users that knows the specified contact from the folder indication of the contact-folder pairs as a user having access rights to the folder specified by the folder indication of the one of the contact-folder pairs.

3. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the database stores a set of contact-user pairs, wherein each contact-user pair includes a contact indication that indicates one of the contacts and a user indication that indicates one of the plurality of users of the relationship management system, wherein the reference routine searches the contact indications of the contact-user pairs for the specified contact to locate one or more contact-user pairs associated with the specified contact and wherein the reference routine determines one of the plurality of users that knows the specified contact from the user indication of the contact-user pairs.

4. The relationship management system of claim 3, wherein each folder has one or more of the plurality of users having access rights to the folder, wherein the user indication for each of the contact-user pairs is a folder identifier and wherein the reference routine determines the user that knows the specified contact by determining that the user has access rights to the folder specified by the folder identifier of each of the contact-user pairs.

5. The relationship management system of claim 3, wherein the user indication is a user identifier uniquely identifying a user of the plurality of users of the relationship management system.

6. The relationship management system of claim 5, wherein the database storage routine stores a contact-user pair within the database when the user performs a particular action with respect to a contact.

7. The relationship management system of claim 6, wherein the database storage routine queries the user to determine if the user wants a contact-user pair to be stored in the database when the user performs the particular action.

8. The relationship management system of claim 3, wherein the database stores, for a number of the contact-user pairs, an opt-in field indicating whether the contact-user pair relationship is to be used by the reference routine to determine which one of the plurality of users knows the specified contact and wherein the display routine does not display any information for the contact-user pairs in which the opt-in field indicates that the contact-user pair is not to be used by the reference routine to determine which one of the plurality of users knows the specified contact.

9. The relationship management system of claim 3, wherein the database stores, for each of a number of the contact-user pairs, a relationship field indicating relationship information pertaining to the relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication and the user indicated by the user indication and wherein the display routine displays the relationship information for one or more of the contact-user pairs in which the contact indication indicates the specified contact.

10. The relationship management system of claim 9, wherein the relationship field stores a textual string input by a user to define the nature of a relationship between one of the plurality of users and one of the contacts and wherein the database storage routine queries the user for the textual string and stores the textual string in the relationship field within the database.

11. The relationship management system of claim 9, wherein the relationship field stores an indication of a type of relationship between one of the plurality of users and one of the contacts and wherein the database storage routine queries the plurality of users to determine the indication of the type of relationship and stores the indication of the type of relationship in the relationship field within the database.

12. The relationship management system of claim 9, wherein the relationship field stores an indication of the strength of the relationship between one of the plurality of users and one of the contacts and wherein the database storage routine queries the plurality of users for the indication of the strength of the relationship and stores the indication of the strength of the relationship in the relationship field within the database.

13. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable medium is an optical storage medium.

14. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable medium is a magnetic storage medium.

15. The relationship management system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable medium is a random access memory.

16. A relationship management system, comprising:

a processor;

a display device coupled to the processor;

a database that stores user information for a plurality of users of the relationship management system within a plurality of user folders, wherein each user folder corresponds to one of the plurality of users, contact information for a plurality of contacts within a plurality of contact folders, wherein each contact folder corresponds to one of the plurality of contacts, a reference to a first set of user folders within a first set of contact folders, and a reference to a second set of user folders within a second set of contact folders, wherein the database is adapted to identify the references within the first and second sets of contact folders to store a plurality of contact-user pairs, and each contact-user pair defines a relationship between one of the plurality of contacts stored within the database and one or more of the plurality of users of the relationship management system;

a reference routine adapted to be executed on the processor to access the database to determine a third set of user folders wherein one or more members of the third set of user folders is a member of a set of the plurality of contact-user pairs, the set of the plurality of contact-user pairs indicating that each member of the third set of user folders knows a specified contact; and

a display routine adapted to be executed on the processor to display, on the display device, the third set of the plurality of users who know the specified contact, wherein the none of the third set of the plurality of users initiated the display routine.

17. The relationship management system of claim 16, wherein the database stores a set of contact-folder pairs, wherein each contact-folder pair includes a contact indication that indicates one of the contacts and a folder indication that indicates one of the folders, and wherein the reference routine searches the contact indications of the contact-folder pairs for the specified contact to locate one or more of the contact-folder pairs associated with the specified contact and wherein the reference routine determines the third set of the plurality of users who knows the specified contact from the folder indication of the one of the plurality of contact-folder pairs as a user having access rights to the folder specified by the folder indication of the one of the plurality of contact-folder pairs.

18. The relationship management system of claim 16, wherein the database stores a set of contact-user pairs, wherein each contact-user pair includes a contact indication that indicates one of the contacts and a user indication that indicates one of the plurality of users and wherein the reference routine searches the contact indications of the contact-user pairs for the specified contact to locate at least one of the contact-user pairs associated with the specified contact and wherein the reference routine determines the third set of the plurality of users who knows the specified contact from the user indication of the plurality of contact-user pairs associated with the specified contact.

19. The relationship management system of claim 18, wherein the database stores, for each folder, one or more user of the plurality of users having access rights to the folder, wherein the user indication for each of the contact-user pairs is a folder identifier and wherein the reference routine determines the third set of the plurality of users who knows the specified contact as the set of users having access to the folder specified by the folder identifier of the plurality of contact-user pairs associated with the specified contact.

20. The relationship management system of claim 18, wherein the user indication is a user identifier uniquely identifying each of the plurality of users.

21. The relationship management system of claim 20, further including a database storage routine that stores a contact-user pair in the database when one of the users performs a particular action with respect to a contact.

22. The relationship management system of claim 21, wherein the database storage routine queries the plurality of users to determine if any of the plurality of users wants a contact-user pair to be stored in the database when any of the plurality of users performs the particular action.

23. The relationship management system of claim 18, wherein the database stores, for each of the plurality of contact-user pairs, an opt-in field indicating whether any of the plurality of contact-user pairs is to be used by the reference routine to determine the one or more users who know the specified contact and wherein the display routine does not display any information for the contact-user pair if the opt-in field indicates that the contact-user pair is not to be used by the reference routine to determine the third set of the plurality of users who know the specified contact.

24. The relationship management system of claim 18, wherein the database stores, for the plurality of contact-user pairs, a relationship field indicating relationship information pertaining to the relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication and the user indicated by the user indication of the plurality of contact-user pairs.

25. The relationship management system of claim 24, wherein the relationship field stores a textual string input by a user to define the nature of the relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication and the user indicated by the user indication of the plurality of contact-user pairs.

26. The relationship management system of claim 24, wherein the relationship field stores an indication of a type of relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication and the user indicated by the user indication of the plurality of contact-user pairs.

27. The relationship management system of claim 24, wherein the relationship field stores an indication of the strength of the relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication and the user indicated by the user indication of the plurality of contact-user pairs.

28. A method of determining relationships between users and contacts, the method comprising:

storing user information pertaining to a plurality of users of a database within the database;

storing contact information pertaining to a plurality of contacts in the database, wherein each of the plurality of users of the database is capable of entering and maintaining the user information and the contact information stored in the database;

storing a contact-user pair within the database when any of the plurality of users performs a function to indicate that the user that performs the function knows the contact, wherein the contact-user pair defines a relationship between one of the plurality contacts and one of the plurality of users, and the contact-user pair indicates that one of the plurality of users knows one of the plurality of contacts;

searching the contact-user pairs to locate one or more contact-user pairs associated with a specified contact; and

displaying the existence of a relationship between one or more of the plurality of users and the specified contact based on the contact-user pairs located by the searching of the contact user pairs, wherein the displayed relationship includes one or more users that did not initiate the displaying of the existence of a relationship.

29. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 28, further including storing folder information for each of a number of folders within the database, wherein each of the folders references one or more of the contacts, wherein storing contact-user pairs includes storing, for each of the contact-user pairs, a contact indication that indicates one of the contacts and a folder indication that indicates one of the folders as a contact-folder pair, and wherein searching includes searching the contact indication of the contact-folder pair for the specified contact to locate the contact-folder pair associated with the specified contact and determining one of the users who knows the specified contact from the folder indication of the contact-folder pair associated with the specified contact as the user having access to the folder specified by the folder indication of the contact-folder pair.

30. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 28, wherein storing the contact-user pair includes storing, for the contact-user pair, a contact indication that indicates one of the plurality of contacts and a user indication that indicates one of the plurality of users and wherein searching includes searching the contact indication of the contact-user pair for the specified contact to locate one or more contact-user pairs associated with the specified contact and determining one of the plurality of users who knows the specified contact from the user indication of one of the located contact-user pairs associated with the specified contact.

31. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 30, further including storing folder information for each of a number of folders within the database, wherein each of the number of folders references one or more of the contacts, and storing, for each folder, an indication of one or more users having access to the folder, wherein storing contact-user pairs includes storing a folder identifier as the user indication for each of the contact-user pairs, and wherein determining one of the users who knows the specified contact includes determining the user having access to the folder specified by the folder identifier of the contact-user pair associated with the specified contact.

32. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 30, wherein the user indication is a user identifier uniquely identifying a user.

33. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 28, further including storing a contact-user pair in the database when a user performs a particular action with respect to a contact.

34. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 33, further including querying the user to determine if the user wants a contact-user pair to be stored in the database when the user performs the particular action.

35. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 28, further including storing, for a number of the contact-user pairs, an opt-in field indicating whether the contact-user pair is to be used to determine the one or more of the plurality of users who know the specified contact.

36. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 28, further including storing, for the contact-user pair, a relationship field indicating relationship information pertaining to the relationship between the contact indicated by a contact indication of the contact-user pair and the user indicated by a user indication of the contact-user pair.

37. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 36, wherein storing includes storing within the relationship field a textual string input by a user to define the nature of the relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication of the contact-user pair and the user indicated by the user indication of the contact-user pair.

38. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 36, wherein storing includes storing, within the relationship field, an indication of a type of relationship to define the type of the relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication of the contact-user pair and the user indicated by the user indication of the contact-user pair.

39. The method of determining relationships between users and contacts of claim 36, wherein storing includes storing within the relationship field an indication of a strength of the relationship to define the strength of the relationship between the contact indicated by the contact indication of the contact-user pair and the user indicated by the user indication of the contact-user pair.

40. In a database system, a method for determining a plurality of users that know a specific one of a plurality of contacts comprising:

storing, within the database system, a user folder for each of the plurality of users, each user folder including a unique folder identification;

storing a reference to one or more of the plurality of contacts within each of the user folders, wherein each of the plurality of contacts includes a unique contact identification and relationship information, the relationship information describing a state of association between the contact and the user of the reference;

creating a join table including;

one or more contact-folder pairs, each pair including the unique contact identification corresponding to each of the references stored in the user folder and the unique folder identification corresponding to the user folder within which the reference is stored, and

the relationship information corresponding to the contact and the user of the contact-folder pair;

identifying the specific one of the plurality of contacts from the one or more contact-folder pairs of the join table; and

displaying the plurality of users and the relationship information corresponding to the contact-folder pairs that include the specific one of the plurality of contacts;

wherein the displayed plurality of users includes one or more users that did not initiate the method.