Social network for travelers with layovers

• US 8,341,162 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intercept Incorporated (Fidelity National Financial Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Intercept Incorporated (Fidelity National Financial Incorporated)
• Inventors: Abercrombie, Charles Clinton III, Cassano, Allen D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital, Pierre
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rostami, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US11/857,977
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077061A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,924 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An application for a computer system providing a social network for traveling people includes social network software executing on a server computer for providing social network functions. The social network software maintains a list of members and, for each member, maintains a list of buddies of the member, the buddies also being in the list of members. At least one schedule is available, either internal to the social network or external to the social network and extraction software extracts layover data from the schedule(s) and analysis software finds members with layovers in the layover data. Notification software notifies the member with the layover of the overlapping layover in which the member and a buddy of the member has an overlapping layover

Claims

1. A computer system providing a social network for traveling people, the social network comprising:

a server computer;

social network software executing on the server computer for providing social network functions, the social network software maintaining a list of members and, for each member, the social network software maintaining a list of buddies of the each member, the buddies also being in the list of members;

at least one schedule, each of the at least one schedules downloaded from one or more pre-determined schedule systems, each of the at least one schedule created by the one or more schedule systems without direct input from the each member, the schedule systems being external to the server computer, each schedule comprising a plurality of records, each of the records comprising a person identifier, at least one date/time, a source location, and a destination location;

extraction software, for each of the records in the schedules in which the person identifier corresponds with any member of the list of members, the extraction software creates layover entries that comprise the any member, a layover location and a layover time period;

wherein the person identifier assists in uniquely identifying the records in the schedules with the any member of the list of members;

analysis software, the analysis software finding an overlapping layover, the overlapping layover determined by a first member of the list of members having a layover that overlaps with a layover of a buddy member, the buddy member in the list of buddies of the member; and

notification software, the notification software automatically notifying one or both persons selected from the group consisting of the first member and the buddy member who has the overlapping layover when the overlap is new or has changed.

2. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the overlapping layover occurs when the member and the buddy member are within a same location for a period of time.

3. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the at least one schedule is stored within the social network after downloading.

4. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the at least one schedule is stored external to the social network and the at least one schedule is downloaded to the social network.

5. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least one schedule includes scheduling information for flight crews.

6. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least one schedule includes scheduling information for flight attendants.

7. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least one schedule includes scheduling information for traveling people.

8. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, further comprising software executing on the server computer implementing a location thesaurus for mapping multiple geographic locations into a geographic area.

9. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 1, wherein the notification software sends a notification selected from the group consisting of an email, a text message, a voice message and a page.

10. A method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers comprising:

(aa) downloading at least one schedule from at least one pre-determined schedule system, each of the at least one schedule created by one of the at least one schedule system without direct input from the each member;

(a) extracting layover data from the at least one schedule and determining at least one layover of a first member of a social network from the layover data, the social network having a social network database, the social network database including a list of members and for each of the members, the social network database including a list of buddy members of that member

for each of the record in the schedules in which the person identifier corresponds with any member of a list of members of a social network, extracting at least one layover that comprise the any member, a layover location and a layover time period;

the social network having a social network database, the social network database including the list of members and for each of the members, the social network database including a list of buddy members of that member;

wherein the person identifier assist in uniquely identifying the records in the schedules with member of the any member of the list of members;

(b) retrieving the list of the buddy members of the first member from the social network database;

(c) extracting a current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member;

(d) searching the layover data for at least one layover of the current buddy and determining if the at least one layover of the current buddy overlaps with at least one layover of the first member;

(e) if the searching finds an overlapping layover and the overlap is new or has changed, automatically notifying the first member and the current buddy of the overlapping layover;

(f) repeating steps d and e until there are no more overlapping layovers;

(g) if there exists a next current buddy in the list of buddy members of the first member;

extracting a next current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member, setting the current buddy to the next current buddy and repeating steps d through g.

11. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the overlapping layover is when the first member and the current buddy are within a same location for a period of time.

12. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the schedule is stored within the social network after importing.

13. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the at least one schedule is stored external to the social network and the step of uploading the at least one schedule to the social network is performed before step a.

14. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein steps a and d include the following steps:

for each layover location in the schedule;

looking up the layover location in a location thesaurus to determine a layover area.

15. The method of notifying members of a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers of claim 10, wherein the step of notifying the first member and the buddy of the overlapping layover includes sending one or more messages selected from the group consisting of sending an email, sending a text message, sending a voice message and sending a page.

16. A computer system providing a social network for traveling people, the social network comprising:

a server computer;

social network software executing on the server computer for providing social network functions, the social network software having a means for maintaining a list of members and, for each member, the social network software having a means for maintaining a list of buddies of the each member, the buddies also being in the list of members;

at least one schedule, each of the at least one schedules downloaded from one or more pre-determined schedule systems, each of the at least one schedule created by the one or more schedule system without direct input from the each member, each schedule comprising a plurality of records, each of the records comprising a person identifier, at least one date/time, a source location, and a destination location;

means for extracting layover data from the plurality of records;

for each of the records in the schedules in which the person identifier corresponds with any member of the list of members, means for creating layover entries that comprise the any member, a layover location and a layover time period;

wherein the person identifier assists in uniquely identifying the records in the schedules with the any member of the list of members;

means for finding a member with a first layover in the layover data;

means for finding a buddy of the member having a second layover; and

means for automatically notifying the member of the overlapping layover if the first layover overlaps with the second layover when the overlapping layover is new or has changed.

17. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 16, wherein at least one of the at least one schedule is stored within the social network after downloading.

18. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 16, wherein the at least one schedule is stored external to the social network and further comprising a means for downloading the at least one schedule to the social network.

19. The computer system providing a social network for traveling people of claim 16, further comprising a means for mapping multiple geographic locations into a geographic area.

20. Program instructions tangibly embodied in a non transitory storage medium comprising at least one instruction configured to implement a social network of upcoming overlapping layovers, wherein the at least one instruction comprises:

(a0) computer readable instructions for downloading at least one schedule, each of the at least one schedule created by a pre-determined schedule system without direct input from the each member, each of the at least one schedules comprising a plurality of records, each of the records comprising a person identifier, at least one date/time, a source location, and a destination location;

(a1) computer readable instructions for extracting layover data from the records in which the person identifier in the record corresponds with any member of the list of members, creating layover entries that comprise the any member, a layover location and a layover time period, wherein the person identifier assists in uniquely identifying the records in the schedules with the any member of the list of members;

(a) computer readable instructions for searching the layover data for at least one layover of a first member of a social network, the social network having a social network database, the social network database including a list of members and for each of the members, the social network database including a list of buddy members, the schedule imported from an external source;

(b) computer readable instructions for retrieving the list of the buddy members of the first member from the social network database;

(c) computer readable instructions for extracting a current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member;

(d) computer readable instructions for searching the layover data for a set of layovers of the first member and a set of layovers of the current buddy and for finding an overlapping layover between the set of layovers of the current buddy and the set of layovers of the first member;

(e) if an overlapping layover is found, computer readable instructions for notifying the first member and the current buddy of the overlapping layover if the overlap is new or has changed;

(f) repeating steps d and e until there are no more overlapping layovers;

(g) if there exists a next current buddy in the list of buddy members of the first member;

computer readable instructions for extracting a next current buddy from the list of buddy members of the first member, setting the current buddy to the next current buddy and repeating steps d through g.

21. The program instructions tangibly embodied in a storage medium of claim 20, wherein the overlapping layover is when the first member and the current buddy are within a same location for a period of time.

22. The program instructions tangibly embodied in a storage medium of claim 20, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for pilots.

23. The program instructions tangibly embodied in a storage medium of claim 20, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for flight attendants.

24. The program instructions tangibly embodied in a storage medium of claim 20, wherein the schedule includes scheduling information for traveling people.

25. The program instructions tangibly embodied in a storage medium of claim 20, wherein the step of notifying the first member and the buddy of the overlapping layover includes computer readable instructions for sending one or more messages selected from the group consisting of sending an email, sending a text message, sending a voice message and sending a page.