Determining relevance of electronic content

• US 7,716,217 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2007
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STERLING COMPUTERS CORPORATION
• Original Assignee: BLUESPACE SOFTWARE CORP. (STERLING COMPUTERS CORPORATION)
• Inventors: Marston, Justin, Marston, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hocker, John P
• Application Number:
  US11/623,653
• Publication Number:
  US 20070179945A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,211 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 3, 707/726, 707/749
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

In an electronic mail system, a user'"'"'s actions with an application for managing electronic content are monitored. Based on the user'"'"'s actions and/or on the actions of other users in the system, a relevance analysis module determines a relevance to the user of a piece of electronic content based on a likelihood of interest of the electronic content piece to the user and/or a measure of a level of significance the user has to another entity associated with the electronic content piece.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for determining a relevance score of a piece of electronic content sent from a sender to a user, the relevance score determined with respect to the user, the computer-implemented system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing computer program modules configured to execute on the computer processor, the computer program modules comprising;

a monitoring module configured to track actions by a plurality of users associated with an application for managing electronic content;

a first relevance measurement module coupled to the monitoring module and configured to determine a first measure of relevance of the piece of electronic content based at least in part on one or more actions of the user on the piece of electronic content;

a second relevance measurement module coupled to the monitoring module and configured to;

identify at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and that is cognate to the user, and

determine a second measure of relevance of the piece of electronic content as based at least in part on one or more measures derived from the group consisting of;

a local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user,

a global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated,

a content relevance determined responsive to content of the piece of electronic content, and

one or more actions on the piece of electronic content of the at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and that is cognate to the user; and

a relevance analysis module configured to determine the relevance score of the piece of electronic content sent from the sender to the user, the relevance score being determined based at least in part on the first determined measure of relevance and on the second determined measure of relevance.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a content presentation module configured to present the piece of electronic content to the user in accordance with the determined relevance score and to present to the user a value describing the determined relevance score.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a search module configured to search the electronic content in accordance with the determined relevance score.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the piece of electronic content comprises an electronic mail object in a relational mail system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic content comprises at least one of an email, a document, an instant message, and an SMS message.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one other of the plurality of users that is cognate to the user comprises analyzing historical actions of the at least one other of the plurality of users with respect to historical actions of the user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one other of the plurality of users is cognate to the user, and the user is not cognate to the at least one other of the plurality of users.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the electronic mail object includes one or more submessages.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the submessages are represented in the electronic mail object as references to submessage content stored in a data store of the relational mail system.

12. The system of claim 4, wherein the electronic mail object has an associated job code representing a business process with which the electronic mail object is associated.

6. A computer program product for determining a relevance score of a piece of electronic content sent from a sender to a user, the relevance score determined with respect to the user, the computer-program product having a computer-readable storage medium having computer program instructions encoded thereon comprising:

a monitoring module configured to track actions by a plurality of users associated with an application for managing electronic content;

a first relevance measurement module coupled to the monitoring module and configured to determine a first measure of relevance of the piece of electronic content based at least in part on one or more actions of the user on the piece of electronic content;

a second relevance measurement module coupled to the monitoring module and configured to;

identify at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and that is cognate to the user, and

determine a second measure of relevance of the piece of electronic content based at least in part on one or more measures derived from the group consisting of;

a local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user,

a global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated,

a content relevance determined responsive to content of the piece of electronic content, and

one or more actions on the piece of electronic content of the at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and that is cognate to the user; and

a relevance analysis module configured to determine the relevance score of the piece of electronic content sent from the sender to the user, the relevance score being determined based at least in part on the first determined measure of relevance and on the second determined measure of relevance.

13. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising:

a content presentation module configured to present the piece of electronic content to the user in accordance with the determined relevance score and to present to the user a value describing the determined relevance score.

14. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising:

a search module configured to search the electronic content in accordance with the determined relevance score.

15. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the electronic content comprises at least one of an email, a document, an instant message, and an SMS message.

16. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the piece of electronic content comprises an electronic mail object in a relational mail system.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the electronic mail object includes one or more submessages that are represented in the electronic mail object as references to submessage content stored in a data store of the relational mail system.

7. A computer-implemented method for determining a relevance score of a piece of electronic content sent from a sender to a user, the relevance score determined with respect to the user, the computer-implemented method comprising:

tracking actions by a plurality of users associated with an application for managing electronic content;

identifying at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and that is cognate to the user,

determining a first measure of relevance of the piece of electronic content based at least in part on one or more actions of the user on the piece of electronic content;

determining a second measure of relevance of the piece of electronic content based at least in part on one or more measures derived from the group consisting of;

a local importance describing an importance of the sender to the user,

a global importance describing an importance of the sender within an organization with which the plurality of users are associated,

a content relevance determined responsive to content of the piece of electronic content, and

one or more actions on the piece of electronic content of the at least one other of the plurality of users that is a recipient of the piece of electronic content and that is cognate to the user; and

determining the relevance score of the piece of electronic content sent from the sender to the user, the relevance score being determined based at least in part on the first determined measure of relevance and on the second determined measure of relevance.

18. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

presenting the piece of electronic content to the user in accordance with the determined relevance score and presenting to the user a value describing the determined relevance score.

19. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

searching the electronic content in accordance with the determined relevance score.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the piece of electronic content comprises an electronic mail object in a relational mail system.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the electronic mail object includes one or more submessages that are represented in the electronic mail object as references to submessage content stored in a data store of the relational mail system.

22. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying at least one other of the plurality of users that is cognate to the user comprises analyzing historical actions of the one other of the plurality of users with respect to historical actions of the user.