Determining logical groups based on both passive and active activities of user

• US 8,959,153 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2013
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mallet, Vincent, Cheng, Jessica, Fiedel, Noah, Gillum, Eric William, Ramanarayanan, Ganesh, Woods, Nicholas James
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Michael C
• Application Number:
  US14/034,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20140214951A1
• Time in Patent Office: 512 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 707/999.005, 715/800
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17306 Intercommunication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 : User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 : Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 : Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 : Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 : Version management

Abstract

Systems and methods for adding a first user to a first group of users are presented. First, logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of users is accessed. Then potential membership of a first user in a first group of users is determined based on the logical relationship information, by selecting the first group from a plurality of possible groups, the selecting being based on scores generated, for each of the plurality of possible groups, by a candidate scorer module, the scores based at least partially on both passive and active interactions between the first user and other users, the first group of users containing a plurality of users, including one or more users who are not logically connected to the first user. Then the first user is added to the first group of users.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of users;

generating, by a candidate scoring module, scores for each of a plurality of possible groups based at least partially on the logical relationship information and both passive and active interactions between the first user and other users;

selecting a first group from the plurality of possible groups based on the scores, wherein the first group contains more than one users, including both one or more users who are not logically connected to the first user in the accessed logical relationship information and one or more users who are logically connected to the first user in the accessed logical relationship information;

adding the first user to the first group;

measuring affinity levels among the users of the first group, the affinity levels based at least partially on both passive and active interactions between the first user and other users in the first group; and

removing the first user from the first group in response to a determination that the affinity level between the first user and the other users in the first group has dropped below a preset threshold over time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the scores are based on content sent by the first user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the scores are further based on location of the first user when the content was sent and locations of other users in the plurality of possible groups at times when the other users sent content.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the scores are further based on a current location of the first user and current locations of other users in the plurality of possible groups.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the passive interactions include a user device left in close proximity to other user devices for a period of time.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a length of time the user device is left in close proximity to the other user devices is a factor in calculating the scores.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein a physical distance between the user device and the other user devices is a factor in calculating the scores.

8. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory to store a plurality of modules comprising instructions for execution on the at least one processor, the modules comprising;

a candidate scorer module configured to generate scores for each of a plurality of possible groups based at least partially on the logical relationship information and both passive and active interactions between the first user and other users; and

a group candidate indexer module configured to select a first group from the plurality of possible groups based on the scores, wherein the first group contains more than one users, including both one or more users who are not logically connected to the first user in the accessed logical relationship information and one or more users who are logically connected to the first user in the accessed logical relationship information, add the first user to the first group, measure affinity levels among the users of the first group, the affinity levels based at least partially on both passive and active interactions between the first user and other users in the first group, and remove the first user from the first group in response to a determination that the affinity level between the first user and the other users in the first group has dropped below a preset threshold over time.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the scores generated by the candidate scorer module are based on content sent by the first user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the scores generated by the candidate scorer module are further based on location of the first user when the content was sent and locations of other users in the plurality of possible groups at times when the other users sent content.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the scores generated by the candidate scorer module are further based on a current location of the first user and current locations of other users in the plurality of possible groups.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the first user is added to the first group without explicit authorization from the first user.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

accessing logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of users;

generating, by a candidate scoring module, scores for each of a plurality of possible groups based at least partially on the logical relationship information and both passive and active interactions between the first user and other users;

selecting a first group from the plurality of possible groups based on the scores, wherein the first group contains more than one users, including both one or more users who are not logically connected to the first user in the accessed logical relationship information and one or more users who are logically connected to the first user in the accessed logical relationship information;

adding the first user to the first group;

measuring affinity levels among the users of the first group, the affinity levels based at least partially on both passive and active interactions between the first user and other users in the first group; and

removing the first user from the first group in response to a determination that the affinity level between the first user and the other users in the first group has dropped below a preset threshold over time.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the scores are based on content sent by the first user.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the scores are further based on location of the first user when the content was sent and locations of other users in the plurality of possible groups at times when the other users sent content.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the scores are further based on a current location of the first user and current locations of other users in the plurality of possible groups.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the passive interactions include a user device left in close proximity to other user devices for a period of time.