Inner-circle social sourcing

• US 8,959,440 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2012
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ernst & Young US LLP (Ernst & Young LLP)
• Original Assignee: Citizen, Inc. (Ernst & Young LLP)
• Inventors: Klonsky, Andrew, Pike, Sce, Simpson, Quinn, Thurston, Annette, Carr, George Piper
• Primary Examiner(s): ABDUL-ALI, OMAR R
• Application Number:
  US13/603,817
• Publication Number:
  US 20130239019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: 715/753, 715/769
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• 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 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

A social networking environment supporting collaborative social interaction is disclosed. The social networking environment may be implemented by a computing system including a number of client computing devices and a server system that communicate with each other via a communications network. User profile and geographic location information associated with users of the social networking environment may be shared with each other. Users may request commentary from other users regarding a target user. Users may receive and fulfill requests for commentary to facilitate social interactions between two or more other users. Users may define an inner-circle of users from which commentary may be requested by that user.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

obtaining geographic position information and user profile information associated with each user of a plurality of mobile devices;

identifying a first set of users of a social networking environment having a first relationship status type relative to a subject user of the plurality of mobile devices, the first set of users defining an inner-circle of social acquaintances established by the subject user;

identifying a second set of users of the social networking environment having a second relationship status type relative to the subject user, the second set of users defining a broader group of users outside of the inner-circle of social acquaintances;

receiving a request by the subject user for commentary regarding a target user of the plurality of mobile devices, the target user selected from among the second set of users having the second relationship status type relative to the subject user;

providing a viewer environment for presentation via a graphical user interface of a computing device of a third party user, the viewer environment including the user profile information, and including icons representing a geographic position for each of the users of the plurality of mobile devices based on the received geographic position information;

responsive to the request by the subject user for commentary regarding the target user, prompting the third party user to provide a user input via the viewer environment for commentary regarding the target user, the third party user selected from among the first set of users having the first relationship status type relative to the subject user and identified based on a relationship status between the third party user and the target user within the social networking environment;

obtaining the user input via the viewer environment from the third party user, the user input including commentary regarding the target user of the plurality of mobile devices and indicating the subject user of the plurality of mobile devices that is to receive the commentary; and

providing the commentary to the mobile device of the subject user as a private message, the private message identifying the target user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewer environment includes one or more of a map view or a camera view of a mobile device, and wherein the icons form an augmented reality layer for the map view or camera view.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, updating a value associated with the third party user responsive to the commentary being provided by the third party user, the value indicating a contribution by the third party user in the form of the commentary.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile information includes, for each user, at least a user name or a photographic image of that user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile information includes relationship information between two or more users of the plurality of mobile devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the user input via the viewer environment includes:

receiving a selection at a first icon of the viewer environment representing the target user, and receiving another selection at a second icon of the viewer environment representing the subject user;

wherein the commentary includes a link created between user profile information associated with the target user and user profile information associated with the subject user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein one or more of the selections are received via a touch-sensitive display device;

and

wherein the method further includes creating the link responsive to a touch gesture received at the touch sensitive display device dragging at least one of the first icon or the second icon towards the other of the first icon or the second icon.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the user profile information associated with each user of the plurality of mobile devices includes receiving the user profile information via a programming interface of a social networking service over a wide area network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the geographic position information associated with each of the plurality of mobile devices includes receiving the geographic position information from each of the plurality of mobile devices or from an intermediary if respective users of the mobile devices have indicated that the geographic position information of the mobile devices are to be shared with other users.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the commentary to the mobile device of the subject user for presentation includes:

posting the commentary to a user profile associated with the subject user via a programming interface of a social networking service.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting one or more other users to provide commentary responsive to a request for commentary received from the mobile device of the subject user and/or the mobile device of the target user.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a compatibility value between two or more icons to be presented within the viewer environment, the compatibility value calculated based, at least in part, on the profile information associated with the plurality of users.

13. An article, comprising:

a storage system having instructions stored thereon executable by a computing device to;

send geographic position information of the computing device to a server system via a wide area network;

identify a first set of users of a social networking environment having a first relationship status type relative to a subject user, the first set of users defining an inner-circle of social acquaintances established by the subject user;

identify a second set of users of the social networking environment having a second relationship status type relative to the subject user;

present a viewer environment via a graphical user interface of the computing device, the viewer environment indicating a geographic position for each user of a plurality of mobile devices, and further indicating profile information associated with each user;

receive a user input from a subject user at the computing device, the user input directed at a target user of an individual mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, the target user being selected from the second set of users;

receive a second user input from the subject user at the computing device, the second user input indicating a third party user to which a request for commentary is to be directed by the server system, the third party user being selected from the first set of users and identified based on a relationship status between the third party user and the target user;

send a request for commentary regarding the target user to the server system via the wide area network responsive to the user input from the subject user directed at the target user and responsive to the second user input indicating the third party user, the request indicating the target user; and

receive commentary regarding the target user provided by the third party user from the server system via the wide area network, the commentary being received as a private message directed at the subject user.

14. The article of claim 13, wherein the viewer environment includes one or more of a map view or a camera view of a mobile device;

wherein the geographic position of each user is indicated by a respective icon that forms an augmented reality layer for the map view or camera view; and

wherein the instructions are further executable by the computing device to;

receive the user input and the second user input as a touch gesture received at a touch sensitive display device of the computing device, the touch gesture including dragging at least one of a first icon indicating the target user or a second icon indicating the third party user towards the other of the first icon or the second icon.