Methods and apparatuses for selectively providing privacy through a dynamic social network system

• US 7,765,257 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhu, Lei, Zhu, Min, Chen, Weidong
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart; Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): AILES, BENJAMIN A
• Application Number:
  US11/171,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20070005695A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,854 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 370/260, 715/733, 715/753
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

In one embodiment, the methods and apparatuses initiate a collaboration session from a presenter participant; select an available profile from a plurality of overall profiles based on a hierarchy structure of the plurality of overall profiles and a presenter profile corresponding to the presenter participant; and invite an attendee to the collaboration session by the presenter participant wherein the attendee corresponds to the available profile.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

initiating a collaboration session from a presenter device operated by a presenter participant, the collaboration session including a data or video conference to be shared by the presenter device to one or more attendee devices operated by attendee participants;

detecting the content of the data or video conference to be shared;

analyzing the content to identify key words descriptive of subject matter of the data or video conference;

selecting an available profile from a plurality of overall profiles based on the identified key words by searching a portion of the overall profiles based on the key words, the portion of the overall profiles searched limited based on a hierarchy structure of the plurality of overall profiles and a presenter profile corresponding to the presenter participant that indicates a relation to the hierarchy structure; and

inviting an available attendee participant to the collaboration session by the presenter participant so that the available attendee participant can view the data or video conference and communicate with participants of the collaborative session, wherein the available attendee participant corresponds to the available profile.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising presenting the available profile to the presenter participant.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein detecting further comprises detecting a title of the collaboration session.

4. The method according to claim 3 further comprising selecting the potential profile from the plurality of profiles based on a score.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the hierarchy structure recites an employer associated with each of the plurality of overall profiles.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the hierarchy structure recites an organization level within an employer associated with each of the plurality of overall profiles.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the collaboration session exchanges audio content among a plurality of participants of the collaboration session.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the collaboration session exchanges graphical content among a plurality of participants of the collaboration session.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the collaboration session exchanges textual content among a plurality of participants of the collaboration session.

10. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a storage module configured to store a plurality of profiles wherein each profile corresponds to a user that participates in a collaboration session;

a profile manager module configured to organize the plurality of profiles based on an attribute of each of the plurality of profiles;

a content recognition module to detect and analyze content of a data or a video conference shared between the participants to identify a subject matter of the data or video conference; and

a security manager module configured to;

control access to the profiles of each user based on information of a requesting party;

allow the requesting party to search the profiles matching particular criteria if access is authorized; and

select one of the plurality of profiles based on the attribute and on the subject matter of the data or video conference identified from the content.

11. The system according to claim 10 wherein the storage module is configured to store the attribute with the profile.

12. The system according to claim 10 wherein the attribute is a company name.

13. The system according to claim 10 wherein the attribute is a title within a company.

14. The system according to claim 10 wherein the attribute is a position based on a hierarchy with an organization.

15. The system according to claim 10 wherein the security manager module is configured to select a group from the plurality of profiles.

16. The system according to claim 15 wherein each of the profiles within the group of profiles are capable of inviting each other to the collaboration session.

17. A system comprising:

means for initiating a collaboration session from a presenter device operated by a presenter participant, the collaboration session including a data or video conference to be shared by the presenter device to one or more attendee devices operated by attendee participants;

means for detecting the content of the data or video conference to be shared;

means for analyzing the content to identify key words descriptive of subject matter of the data or video conference;

means for selecting an available profile from a plurality of overall profiles based on the identified key words by searching a portion of the overall profiles based on the keywords, the portion of the overall profiles searched limited based on a hierarchy structure of the plurality of overall profiles and a presenter profile corresponding to the presenter participant that indicates a relation to the hierarchy structure; and

means for inviting an available attendee participant to the collaboration session by the presenter participant so that the available attendee participant can view the data or video conference and communicate with participants of the collaborative session, wherein the available attendee participant corresponds to the available profile.

18. The system according to claim 17 wherein the means for selecting includes a security manager module configured to detect the hierarchy structure.

19. The system according to claim 17 wherein the means for selecting includes a security manager module configured to detect the presenter profile and compare with the plurality of overall profiles.

20. A method comprising:

establishing a collaboration session from a presenter device, operated by a presenter participant, to one or more attendee devices, operated by attendee participants, the collaboration session including a data or video conference;

selecting a subject matter of the collaboration session; and

searching a plurality of profiles of available participants to locate an additional participant to join the collaboration session, the searching based on comparing the subject matter of the collaboration session with profiles of available participants, the profiles considered in the searching limited based on a hierarchy structure of the plurality of profiles and a relation to the hierarchy structure of a presenter profile corresponding to the presenter participant; and

inviting the additional participant to join the collaboration session, so that the additional participant can view the data or video conference and communicate with participants of the collaborative session.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the selecting comprises:

detecting content to be shared in the collaboration session; and

analyzing the content to identify key words descriptive of the subject matter of the collaboration session.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the selecting comprises:

detecting a title assigned to the collaboration session.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein the hierarchy is an organization chart within a company and where subordinates on the organizational chart do not have access to profiles of superiors on the organizational chart.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein the hierarchy includes an organization chart for multiple related companies and allows searching of profiles of available participants in the multiple related companies.

25. The method of claim 20 wherein the searching ranks profiles of available participants based on the comparing of the subject matter of the collaboration session with the profiles of the available participants.

26. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory configured to store program instructions for execution on the processor, the program instructions when executed by the processor to;

establish a collaboration session between a presenter participant and one more attendee participants, the collaboration session including a data or video conference,

select a subject matter of the collaboration session,

search a plurality of profiles of available participants to locate an additional participant to join the collaboration session based on comparison of the subject matter of the collaboration session with profiles of available participants, the profiles considered in the search limited based on a hierarchy structure of the plurality of profiles and a relation to the hierarchy structure of a presenter profile corresponding to the presenter participant, and

invite the additional participant to join the collaboration session so that the additional participant can view the data or video conference and communicate with participants of the collaborative session.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the program instructions that when executed by the processor select a subject matter comprise program instructions to:

detect content to be shared in the collaboration session, and

analyze the content to identify key words descriptive of the subject matter of the collaboration session.

28. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the program instructions that when executed by the processor select a subject matter comprise program instructions to:

detect a title assigned to the collaboration session.

29. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the hierarchy is an organization chart within a company and where subordinates on the organizational chart do not have access to profiles of superiors on the organizational chart.

30. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the hierarchy includes an organization chart for multiple related companies and allows searching of profiles of available participants in the multiple related companies.

31. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the program instructions that when executed by the processor search a plurality of profiles comprise program instructions to:

rank profiles of available participants based on the comparison of the subject matter of the collaboration session with the profiles of the available participants.