Communications network system and service provider

• US 8,341,184 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2009
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bonev
• Original Assignee: Smooth Productions Inc.
• Inventors: Bonev, Robert, Palahnuk, Samuel Louis
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THU NGUYET T
• Application Number:
  US12/437,552
• Publication Number:
  US 20090313299A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• Field of Search: 707/951, 707791-793, 707/803, 715/781, 715/963
• US Class Current: 707/791
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

In order to help system users organize the user data and communications, a service provider system organizes the user data according to a specific system data architecture using W⁴ technology to facilitate organization of user communications, content, and data. The system provides a data structure that organizes data using the human metaphor and provides a user interface to access and manipulate the data using a human metaphor. As a result, users may intuitively interact with, manipulate, and create data without having to learn specific rules and steps based on of file-size, format, and directory structures, among others. In addition, the service provider system provides a single, intuitive to manipulate interface to manage all user communications.

Claims

1. A data processing system including one or more data storage devices configured to store data accessed by an application program being executed by the data processing system, the data processing system comprising:

a data structure organizing items stored in the one or more data storage devices, the data structure organizing information resident in a user database used by said application program, the data structure including;

a primary user data structure for each user of the system configured to organize each data item associated with the user into one of four categories including;

a Who data set configured to organize data items associated with who the user communicates with including contacts the user, a What data set configured to organize data items associated with what the user does including daily activities the user engages in, a Where data set configured to organize data items associated with locations including places of interest to the user, and a When data set configured to organize data items associated with when the user is doing something including calendar information for events of the user, wherein each data set identifies data items stored in a corresponding Who database, What database, Where database, and When database for system users; and

one or more data processing devices configured to execute the application program and access the data structure to generate an interactive graphical user interface for presentation by a user device, the graphical user interface configured to present data items of the user organized thematically according to the four categories in a manner that is intuitive to the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the who data items are presented in one or more of a people lozenge and a group lozenge of the graphical user interface.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the what data items are presented in one or more of an activity lozenge, a to-do lozenge, and shopping lozenge group lozenge of the graphical user interface.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the where data items are presented in a locations lozenge of the graphical user interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the when data items are presented in a calendar lozenge of the graphical user interface.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more data processing devices are configured to generate the graphical user interface for presentation by the user device by configuring the graphical user interface to present data items of the user in lozenges organized thematically into strips corresponding to each of the four categories.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein at least one of the one or more processing devices is configured to:

receive a user input from the user device indicating user interaction with one of the lozenges; and

dynamically adjust the size of the one of the lozenges in response to the received user input and to automatically and reciprocally adjust the size of the other lozenges within a strip and the other strips within the graphical user interface to always present within the graphical user interface each of the strips, at least one lozenge within each strip, and some of the data items associated with the at least one lozenge presented in each strip.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein at least one of the one or more processing devices is configured to:

receive a user input from the user device indicating user interaction with one of the data items presented by a lozenge; and

dynamically adjust the data items presented by the other lozenges of the graphical user interface in response to the received user input and access of the data structure to focus the data items presented by each lozenge to present at least those data items that are more likely of interest to a user based on the received user input and application of the data structure.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the one or more processing devices is configured to:

receive a user input from the user device indicating user interaction with one of the data items of the graphical user interface; and

dynamically adjust the data items presented by the graphical user interface in response to the received user input to focus the data items presented to present data items that are more likely of interest to a user based on the received user input.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an advertisement database configured to store a plurality of graphical advertisements (GLADs) data configured by system partners, each GLAD including one or more configurable filter conditions, each filter condition configured to target particular system users, wherein at least one of the one or more processing devices is configured to determine whether the configurable filter conditions of any one of the GLADs match the data items of the data sets of the user, and to serve one or more GLADS determined to match as content configured for presentation by the user device.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the one or more processing devices is configured to:

access an advertisement database configured to store a plurality of graphical advertisements (GLADs) data configured by system partners, each GLAD including one or more filter conditions that are configurable a system partner to target particular system users;

determine whether the one or more configurable filter conditions of any one of the GLADs match the data items of the data sets of the user; and

serve one or more GLADS determined to match as content configured for presentation by the user device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processing devices are configured to automatically scan the data structure to:

determine one or more data items of the data sets;

access an advertisement database configured to store a plurality of graphical advertisements (GLADs) data comprising one or more configurable filter conditions;

determine whether the determined data items match the one or more configurable filter conditions of the glad the GLADs, and

serve at one least one of the GLADs to the user device that matches the one or more configurable filter conditions of the at least one of the GLADs.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processing devices are configured to automatically scan the data structure to:

determine an event of the user;

determine a predetermined window of time in the future;

determine whether the scheduled time or date of the event occurs during the predetermined window of time;

access an advertisement database configured to store a plurality of graphical advertisements (GLADs) data when it is determined the scheduled time or date occurs during the predetermined window of time; and

serve at one least one of the GLADs to the user device corresponding to the predetermined window of time.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more data processing devices are configured to access the data structure and data items to generate the graphical user interface for presentation by the user device by configuring the graphical user interface to simultaneously present four strips corresponding to each of the four categories, each of the four strips including at least one lozenge organizing one or more data items.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one of the one or more processing devices is configured to:

receive a user input from the user device indicating user interaction with one of the lozenges; and

dynamically adjust the size of the one of the lozenges in response to the received user input and to automatically and reciprocally adjust the size of the other lozenges within a strip and the other strips within the graphical user interface to always present within the graphical user interface each of the four strips, at least one lozenge within each strip, and some of the data items associated with the at least one lozenge presented in each strip.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one of the one or more processing devices is configured to:

receive a user input from the user device indicating user interaction with one of the data items presented by a lozenge; and

dynamically adjust the data items presented by the other lozenges of the graphical user interface in response to the received user input and access the data structure to focus the data items presented by each lozenge to present at least those data items that are more likely of interest to a user based on the received user input and application of the data structure.