Generating communities using a mediating server and the semantic web

• US 8,291,017 B1
• Filed: 11/04/2011
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Issa, Alfredo C., Walsh, Richard J., Evans, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tammy
• Application Number:
  US13/289,000
• Time in Patent Office: 347 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/226, 455/552.1, 370/252
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system and method are provided for creating communities based on a semantic understanding of content requested by a number of user devices. More specifically, a mediating server operates to interconnect a number of user devices to destination servers. In operation, the mediating server routes requests from the user devices to the appropriate destination servers. The mediating server examines the responses from the destination servers to gain a semantic understanding of the content requested by the user devices. Thereafter, the mediating server establishes communities for the user devices based on the semantic understanding of the content requested by the user devices. For example, the mediating server may invite users of the user devices that have requested semantically similar content to join a chat session around a common topic.

Claims

1. An intermediary network node comprising:

a communication interface communicatively coupling the intermediary network node to a plurality of user devices and a plurality of destination servers; and

a control system adapted to;

receive a request for content from one of the plurality of user devices;

forward the request to an associated one of the plurality of destination servers;

receive a response including the requested content from the associated one of the plurality of destination servers;

examine the response to gain semantic understanding of the requested content;

identify a community for the one of the plurality of user devices based on the semantic understanding of the requested content;

forward the response to the one of the plurality of user devices; and

invite a user of the one of the plurality of user devices to join the identified community.

2. The intermediary network node of claim 1 wherein the requested content is a web page and the control system is further adapted to extract at least one frequently used keyword from a text portion of the web page, the at least one frequently used keyword providing a semantic meaning of the web page.

3. The intermediary network node of claim 1 wherein the community is one of a group consisting of:

a chat group around a topic related to the requested content, a peer-to-peer file sharing network, a forum around a topic related to the requested content, and an e-mail mailing list associated with a topic related to the requested content.

4. The intermediary network node of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to:

identify a second user device having requested content semantically similar to the requested content; and

invite users of the one of the plurality of user devices and the second user device to join a community.

5. The intermediary network node of claim 1 wherein the requested content is one of a group consisting of a web page, a media file, and streaming media content.

6. The intermediary network node of claim 1 wherein the control system is further adapted to examine the request to gain further semantic understanding of the requested content.

7. A method comprising:

receiving a request for content from one of a plurality of user devices;

forwarding the request to an associated one of a plurality of destination servers;

receiving a response including the requested content from the associated one of the plurality of destination servers;

examining the response to gain semantic understanding of the requested content;

identifying a community for the one of the plurality of user devices based on the semantic understanding of the requested content;

forwarding the response to the one of the plurality of user devices; and

inviting a user of the one of the plurality of user devices to join the identified community.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the requested content is a web page and examining the response comprises extracting at least one frequently used keyword from a text portion of the web page, the at least one frequently used keyword providing a semantic meaning of the web page.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

identifying a second user device having requested content semantically similar to the requested content; and

inviting users of the one of the plurality of user devices and the second user device to join a community.

10. An intermediary network node comprising:

a communication interface communicatively coupling the intermediary network node to a plurality of user devices and a plurality of destination servers; and

a control system adapted to;

receive a request for content from one of the plurality of user devices;

forward the request to an associated one of the plurality of destination servers;

receive a response including the requested content from the associated one of the plurality of destination servers;

examine the response to gain semantic understanding of the requested content;

identify one of a plurality of communities associated with a topic related to the requested content based on the semantic understanding of the requested content, wherein the plurality of communities each associated with a particular topic have been previously established;

forward the response to the one of the plurality of user devices; and

invite a user of the one of the plurality of user devices to join the identified one of a plurality of communities.

11. The intermediary network node of claim 10 wherein the control system is further adapted to identify the topic related to the requested content using an ontology.