Consolidating input messages for social activity summarization

• US 8,495,105 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2009
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Campbell, Steve R., Collier, Jason A., Latif, Zeynep, McMahon, Michael J., Rutherford, Michael B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rayyan, Susan F
• Application Number:
  US12/644,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20110153686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,309 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/811
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Social activity content is aggregated for summarization and reporting by obtaining a plurality of input messages that each characterizes a corresponding time limited social activity, such as a sporting event, competition, etc. Each received message is associated with a corresponding social activity, information is extracted from the received messages describing an aspect of the corresponding social activity and information is generated that summarizes the corresponding social activity. Generated information may be based upon a combination of the information extracted from the associated messages, and information derived from content based assumptions utilizing knowledge of the corresponding social activity. Social activity information is further aggregated by applying context aware filtering to eliminate redundantly generated information, sequencing the filtered information into a chronology of the social activity and generating a summary of the social activity based upon the sequenced and filtered information.

Claims

1. A method of aggregating social activity content comprising:

obtaining a plurality of input messages, each obtained input message having unstructured content characterizing at least one aspect of a corresponding time limited social activity;

associating the plurality of input messages according to their corresponding social activity;

converting the unstructured content from each obtained input message into extracted unstructured content characterizing at least one aspect of the corresponding social activity;

generating, by a processor, summary information that summarizes at least one social activity, each social activity'"'"'s summary information based upon a combination of;

selected information from the extracted unstructured content of at least one input message associated with the corresponding social activity, and

derived information from content based assumptions utilizing knowledge of the corresponding social activity and selected unstructured content associated with the corresponding social activity to determine the context of the extracted content; and

generating, by the processor, a collaborative chronicle of each summarized social activity by;

applying context aware filtering so as to eliminate redundant obtained input messages associated with the social activity by consolidating the unstructured content of the redundant messages that represents the same information; and

sequencing the filtered summary information into a chronology of the social activity independent of the order in which the input messages are received.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein associating the plurality of input messages according to their corresponding social activity comprises:

ascertaining the location of where a selected input message was originated; and

determining that the sender of the corresponding selected input message is a spectator of a selected social activity associated with the ascertained location.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein ascertaining the location of where a selected input message was originated comprises:

receiving at least one of;

global positioning information, at least a portion of a phone number, a sender'"'"'s identification, identification of a subscriber account, metadata and a source address tag.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein generating summary information that summarizes at least one social activity comprises:

extracting at least one parameter of information from each received input message that is classified based upon parameters that are relevant to the associated social activity.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

obtaining a plurality of input messages comprises receiving an open ended plurality of input messages collectively obtained over a plurality of independently defined social activities; and

generating summary information that summarizes at least one social activity further comprises detecting at least one of;

a pattern and a sequence from associated input messages for each independently defined social activity.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein generating summary information further comprises:

receiving at least two input messages associated with a corresponding social activity; and

evaluating the at least two input messages together as a whole to select content utilized to generate corresponding summary information representative of the at least two input messages.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing at least one of;

rules of a corresponding social activity; and

at least one of;

known abbreviations slang, jargon, and expressions that are typical to the activity,

to provide the knowledge of the corresponding social activity utilized to derive any content based assumptions.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein applying context aware filtering so as to eliminate redundant obtained input messages associated with the social activity by consolidating the unstructured content of the redundant messages, further comprises:

utilizing context aware processing to distinguish redundant information conveyed in multiple input messages as being separate accounts of the same event by utilizing knowledge of the associated social activity.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

automatically providing updates to requestors of a corresponding summary when a change occurs to at least one parameter tracked by the associated summary.

10. A computer readable storage device with an executable program stored thereon, wherein the program instructs a processor to perform:

obtaining a plurality of input messages, each obtained input message having unstructured content characterizing at least one aspect of a corresponding time limited social activity;

associating the plurality of input messages according to their corresponding social activity;

converting the unstructured content from each obtained input message into extracted unstructured content characterizing at least one aspect of the corresponding social activity;

generating summary information that summarizes at least one social activity, each social activity'"'"'s summary information based upon a combination of;

selected information from the extracted unstructured content of at least one input message associated with the corresponding social activity, and

derived information from content based assumptions utilizing knowledge of the corresponding social activity and selected unstructured content associated with the corresponding social activity to determine the context of the extracted content; and

generating a collaborative chronicle of each summarized social activity by;

applying context aware filtering so as to eliminate redundant obtained input messages associated with the social activity by consolidating the unstructured content of the redundant messages that represents the same information; and

sequencing the filtered summary information into a chronology of the social activity independent of the order in which the input messages are received.

11. The computer readable storage device of claim 10, wherein associating the plurality of input messages according to their corresponding social activity comprises:

ascertaining the location of where a selected input message was originated; and

determining that the sender of the corresponding selected input message is a spectator of a selected social activity associated with the ascertained location.

12. The computer readable storage device according to claim 11, wherein ascertaining the location of where a selected input message was originated comprises:

receiving at least one of;

global positioning information, at least a portion of a phone number, a sender'"'"'s identification, identification of a subscriber account, metadata and a source address tag.

13. The computer readable storage device according to claim 10, wherein:

generating summary information that summarizes at least one social activity comprises;

extracting at least one parameter of information from each received input message that is classified based upon parameters that are relevant to the associated social activity.

14. The computer readable storage device according to claim 10, wherein:

obtaining a plurality of input messages comprises;

receiving an open ended plurality of input messages collectively obtained over a plurality of independently defined social activities; and

generating summary information further comprises;

detecting at least one of;

a pattern and a sequence from associated input messages for each independently defined social activity.

15. The computer readable storage device according to claim 10, wherein:

generating summary information further comprises;

receiving at least two input messages associated with a corresponding social activity; and

evaluating the at least two input messages together as a whole to select content utilized to generate corresponding summary information representative of the at least two input messages.

16. The computer readable storage device according to claim 10, wherein the program further instructs the processor to perform:

utilizing a data source that stores at least one of;

rules of a corresponding social activity; and

at least one of;

known abbreviations slang, jargon, and expressions that are typical to the activity,

to provide the knowledge of the corresponding social activity utilized to derive any content based assumptions.

17. The computer readable storage device according to claim 10, wherein applying context aware filtering so as to eliminate redundant obtained input messages associated with the social activity by consolidating the unstructured content of the redundant messages, further comprises:

utilizing context aware processing to distinguish redundant information conveyed in multiple input messages as being separate accounts of the same event by utilizing knowledge of the associated social activity.

18. The computer readable storage device according to claim 10, wherein the program further instructs the processor to perform:

implementing a hierarchy of plug-ins that allow expansion to provide customized and specific processing and filtering capability that is associated with a corresponding social activity.

19. A computer readable storage device with an executable program stored thereon, wherein the program instructs a processor to perform:

processing input messages iteratively, each obtained input message having unstructured content characterizing at least one aspect of a corresponding time limited, social activity by;

extracting context information from the unstructured content of the obtained input message to determine whether the corresponding social activity is currently being monitored;

creating a new social activity summary if the corresponding social activity is not currently being monitored, otherwise, associating the obtained input message with the corresponding social activity;

converting the unstructured content from the obtained input message, the unstructured content characterizing at least one aspect of the corresponding social activity and aggregating the extracted unstructured content with any previously extracted unstructured content associated with the corresponding social activity;

generating summary information that summarizes the corresponding social activity based upon at least one of;

selected information from the aggregated content associated with the corresponding social activity, and

derived information from content based assumptions utilizing knowledge of the corresponding social activity and selected content associated with the corresponding social activity;

applying context aware filtering so as to eliminate redundant input messages associated with the social activity by consolidating the unstructured content of the redundant messages that represents the same information;

sequencing the filtered summary information into a chronology of the social activity independent of the order in which the input messages are received; and

generating a collaborative chronicle of the social activity based upon the sequenced and filtered summary information.

20. The computer readable storage device according to claim 19, wherein generating summary information further comprises summarizing each social activity according to event topics that are context relevant to the subject of the social activity.

21. The computer readable storage device according to claim 19, wherein the program further instruct the processor to:

building, dynamically, collaborative chronicles of multiple social activities identified by a community of users, and

building the content of the summarized social activities based upon input messages derived from a community of observers of the associated social activities.

22. The computer readable storage device according to claim 19, wherein the program further instructs the processor to perform:

sending updates to identified processing devices based upon trigger conditions identifying a change to an associated social activity.