Method and apparatus for sociological data analysis

• US 8,135,711 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2009
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cataphora Incorporated
• Inventors: Charnock, Elizabeth, Thompson, Curtis, Roberts, Steven, Nystrom, Jonathan D, Schon, Keith, Bothra, Arpit, Espanol, Joanes C, Brouk, Roman
• Primary Examiner(s): LEWIS, CHERYL RENEA
• Application Number:
  US12/422,902
• Publication Number:
  US 20090287685A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,065 Days
• Field of Search: 707/728
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A method to enable improved analysis and use of sociological data, the method comprising identifying causal relationships between a plurality of documents, identifying a plurality of characteristics of a communication, including a modality used, actors involved, proximate events of relevance, and enabling a user to query based on available characteristics.

Claims

1. A method to enable improved analysis and use of sociological data, the method comprising:

identifying causal relationships between a plurality of documents;

identifying a plurality of characteristics of a communication, including a modality used, actors involved, proximate events of relevance, and a tone used by an actor in the communication; and

enabling a user to query based on available characteristics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of characteristics further comprises a predominant tone used in a discussion.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a percentage of communication with respect to a topic which utilizes a tone; and

tagging the communication with an appropriate indicator to illustrate a predominant tone.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a pattern of tonal usage on the part of an individual actor with respect to other actors;

identifying deviations from the pattern of tonal usage; and

associating specific topics, actors, events of importance, or changes in communications patterns associated with the deviation.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

identifying unusual quotes or capitalization as indications of sarcasm.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

classifying an item as hot or worthy of special examination, based on a tone associated with the item.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

displaying overall tonal content per time period for an actor, to identify anomalies.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the display is a matrix, with years displayed along the Y-axis, to enable a comparison on a seasonal basis.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, for a particular actor, divergence in tones in communications with different actors on a particular topic within a given timeframe.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

illustrating a range of tones used in communications between two actors over time, for sending and receiving messages.

11. A method comprising:

identifying causal relationships between a plurality of documents;

identifying a plurality of characteristics of a communication, including a modality used, actors involved, and proximate events of relevance;

enabling a user to query based on available characteristics; and

identifying the modality of the communication when displaying a discussion.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

establishing an actor heartbeat based on an activity level, the activity level differentiated between the modalities of communication.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

utilizing the actor heartbeat to identify periods of vacation, illness, or business travel.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

utilizing the actor heartbeat to identify missing activities or abnormally low activities to identify deletions.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the modalities include:

telephone, instant messaging, calendar, in-person meetings, creation of documents, and editing of documents.

16. A method comprising:

identifying causal relationships between a plurality of documents;

identifying a plurality of characteristics of a communication, including a modality used, actors involved, and proximate events of relevance;

enabling a user to query based on available characteristics;

evaluating actor behavior over time, to create a threshold behavior for the actor; and

identifying deviations from the threshold behavior.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

relating the deviation from the threshold behavior to relevant events.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the behavior includes one or more of the following:

a reply cycle to communications, tone used, communications modality used.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

displaying an average length and a total number of discussions for a topic selected by a user, as well as the number of discussions that ended in a meeting event.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

highlighting deviations from a normal number of such interactions for a particular occurrence of the topic.