Web community pre-population method and system

• US 8,868,651 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2010
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avon Products Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avon Products Incorporated
• Inventors: Roman, Jonathan, Irving, Cathleen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Application Number:
  US12/857,064
• Publication Number:
  US 20120042013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,527 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services

Abstract

Populating users of a web community into groups. The users may be assigned to, or otherwise associated with, one or more groups in response to an event associated with the user, with another user, with a group, or other type of event. The users may also be removed from a group in response to an event. The population of users into groups can be controlled by a configurable set of rules. These rules can include criteria for associating a user with, or removing a user from, a group in response to an event. The criteria can include criteria based on user information and criteria based on group information. The users may be related to one another in a hierarchical structure.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

monitoring, by a computer device, a web community for an event, the event related to activity of at least one user among a plurality of users of the web community and comprised of a change in a user profile of one of a plurality of users that comprises a change in status comprising a hierarchical level within a web community corresponding to downline group associations;

applying, by the computer device, a rule in response to detecting the event, said application of the rule being dependent upon a type of the detected event, said rule comprising membership criteria for a web community group and each downline group associated with the web community group, said rule applicable to a user profile for each of the plurality of users of each web community group within the web community, each user profile comprising information associated with the corresponding user;

associating, by the computer device, each user with each of the web community groups upon each user'"'"'s user profile satisfying the membership criteria for each of the web community groups; and

storing, by the computer device, the associations in at least one data store; and

sending, by the computer device, a notification to each user comprising an association with the web community, the notification indicating membership in the web community group.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the change in the group profile comprises a change in the membership criteria for the web community group.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer device, the membership criteria for the web community group;

creating, by the computer device, the rule based on the membership criteria; and

storing the rule in a data store.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer device, a modification to the membership criteria for the web community group of the rule;

modifying, by the computer device, the rule based on the modified membership criteria;

applying, by the computer device, the modified rule to the user profile for each of the plurality of users; and

associating, by the computer device, each user whose user profile meets the modified membership criteria with the web community group.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer device, a modification to the membership criteria for the web community group of the rule;

modifying, by the computer device, the rule based on the modified membership criteria;

applying, by the computer device, the modified rule to the user profile for each user comprising an association with the web community group; and

removing, by the computer device, the association with the community web server of each user whose user profile fails to meet the modified membership criteria.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the membership criteria comprises criteria configured by a user of the web community group.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded with a computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions, that when executed by a computing device, perform a method-comprising:

monitoring a web community for an event, the event related to activity of at least one user among a plurality of users of the web community comprised of a change in a user profile of one of a plurality of users that comprises a change in status comprising a hierarchical level within a web community corresponding to downline group associations;

applying a rule in response to detecting the event, said application of the rule being dependent upon a type of the detected event, said rule comprising membership criteria for a web community group and each downline group associated with the web community group, said rule applicable to a user profile for each of the plurality of users of each web community group within the web community, each user profile comprising information associated with the corresponding user;

associating each user with each of the web community groups upon each user'"'"'s user profile satisfying the membership criteria for each of the web community group;

storing the associations in at least one data store; and

sending, by the computer device, a notification to each user comprising an association with the web community, the notification indicating membership in the web community group.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the event comprises at least one of an expiration of a time period, a change in the user profile of one of the plurality of users, and a change in a group profile of the web community group.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the change in the group profile comprises a change in the membership criteria for the web community group.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving the membership criteria;

creating the rule based on the membership criteria; and

storing the rule in a data store.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a modification to the membership criteria for the web community group of the rule;

modifying the rule based on the modified membership criteria;

applying the modified rule to the user profile for each of the plurality of users; and

associating each user whose user profile meets the modified membership criteria with the web community group.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a modification to the membership criteria for the web community group of the rule;

modifying the rule based on the modified membership criteria;

applying the modified rule to the user profile for each user comprising an association with the web community group; and

removing the association with the community web server of each user whose user profile fails to meet the modified membership criteria.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the membership criteria comprises criteria configured by a user of the web community group.