System and method for generating, accessing, and updating geofeeds

• US 9,055,074 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2013
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tai Technologies Inc. (Crisis24)
• Original Assignee: Geofeedia, Inc.
• Inventors: Harris, Philip B., Mitchell, Scott K., Mulroy, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): BAYARD, DJENANE M
• Application Number:
  US14/089,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20140089461A1
• Time in Patent Office: 561 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for generating a geofeed is provided. A geofeed includes a collection of content, aggregated from various content providers, that is relevant to one or more geographically definable locations. The generated content may include, for example, video, audio, images, text, hyperlinks, and/or other content that may be relevant to a geographically definable location. The content providers may include, for example, social media platforms, online knowledge databases, individual content creators, and/or other providers that can distribute content that may be relevant to a geographically definable location. The geographically definable location may be specified by a boundary, geo coordinates, an address, a place name, a point of interest, a zip code, and/or other information that can spatially identify an area. The geofeed may be presented via an interface that spatially arranges the content according to a geo-location related to the content and/or for integration with other data collection systems.

Claims

1. A method for aggregating social media content items that are relevant to geographically definable locations, the method being implemented in a computer that includes one or more processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more physical processors, programs the one or more physical processors to perform the method, the method comprising:

obtaining, by the one or more physical processors, at least a first parameter that specifies one or more geographically definable locations;

generating, by the one or more physical processors, a first request that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations in a first format used by a first social media content provider;

generating, by the one or more physical processors, a second request that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations in a second format used by a second social media content provider;

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, the first request to the first social media content provider;

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, the second request to the second social media content provider;

receiving, by the one or more physical processors, a first set of social media content items from the first social media content provider, wherein the first set of social media content items includes at least a first social media content item associated with information that indicates that the first social media content item is relevant to the one or more geographically definable locations;

receiving, by the one or more physical processors, a second set of social media content items from the second social media content provider, wherein the second set of social media content items includes at least a second social media item associated with information that indicates that the second social media content item is relevant to the one or more geographically definable locations; and

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, at least a portion of the first set of social media content items and at least a portion of the second set of social media content items.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

storing, by the one or more processors in a storage for later retrieval;

at least the portion of the first set of social media content items, at least the portion of the second set of social media content items, and/or a geofeed definition that comprises the first parameter that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations.

3. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

normalizing, by the one or more processors, at least one of;

the first set of social media content items or the second set of social media content items.

4. The method of claim 1 the method further comprising:

sorting, by the one or more processors, at least one of;

the first set of social media content items or the second set of social media content items.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

spatially arranging, by the one or more processors, at least the first social media content item and the second social media content item on a map display.

6. The method of claim 5, the method further comprising:

determining, by the one or more processors, a location from which the first social media content item was created, wherein the location from which the first social media content item was created is within the one or more geographically definable locations,

wherein spatially arranging the first social media content item and the second social media content item comprises;

spatially arranging, by the one or more processors, the first social media content item based on the location from which the first social media content item was created.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the location from which the first social media content item was created comprises:

extracting, by the one or more processors, an automatically generated geotag from the first social media content item.

8. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

filtering, by the one or more processors, the first set of social media content items to remove an undesirable social media content item prior to communicating the first set of social media content items.

9. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

performing, by the one or more processors, a data integrity check of the first social media content item;

determining, by the one or more processors, whether the first social media content item passes the data integrity check; and

removing, by the one or more processors, the first social media content item from the first set of social media content items based on a determination that the first social media content item fails the data integrity check.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the one or more processors, at least a second parameter that specifies whether to filter in or out a social media content item other than based on a location, wherein the first set of content items are filtered in or out based on the second parameter.

11. A system for aggregating social media content items from a plurality of social media providers, the system comprising:

one or more processors programmed with computer program instructions to;

obtain at least a first parameter that specifies one or more geographically definable locations;

generate a first request that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations in a first format used by a first social media content provider;

generate a second request that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations in a second format used by a second social media content provider;

communicate the first request to the first social media content provider;

communicate the second request to the second social media content provider;

receive a first set of social media content items from the first social media content provider, wherein the first set of social media content items includes at least a first social media content item associated with information that indicates that the first social media item is relevant to one or more geographically definable locations;

receive a second set of social media content items from the second social media content provider, wherein the second set of social media content items includes at least a second social media item associated with information that indicates that the second social media content item is relevant to the one or more geographically definable locations; and

communicate the at least a portion of the first set of social media content items and at least a portion of the second set of social media content items.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

store in a storage for later retrieval;

at least the portion of the first set of social media content items, at least the portion of the second set of social media content items, and/or a geofeed definition that comprises the first parameters that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

normalize at least one of;

the first set of social media content items or the second set of social media content items.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

sort at least one of;

the first set of social media content items or the second set of social media content items.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

spatially arrange at least the first social media content item and the second social media content item on a map display.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

determine a location from which the first social media content item was created, wherein the location from which the first social media content item was created is within the one or more geographically definable locations,

wherein to spatially arrange the first social media content item and the second social media content item, the one or more processors are further programmed to;

spatially arrange the first social media content item based on the location from which the first social media content item was created.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein to determine the location from which the first social media content item was created, the one or more processors are further programmed to:

extract an automatically generated geotag from the first social media content item.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

filter the first set of social media content items to remove an undesirable social media content item prior to communicating the first set of social media content items.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

perform a data integrity check of the first social media content item;

determine whether the first social media content item passes the data integrity check; and

remove the first social media content item from the first set of social media content items based on a determination that the first social media content item fails the data integrity check.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:

receive at least a second parameter that specifies whether to filter in or out a social media content item other than based on a location, wherein the first set of content items are filtered in or out based on the second parameter.

21. A method for aggregating social media content items from a plurality of social media providers, the method being implemented in a computer that includes one or more processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more physical processors, programs the one or more physical processors to perform the method, the method comprising:

receiving, by the one or more physical processors, a request to retrieve a previously aggregated set of social media content items, the request comprising an identification of a geofeed definition that comprises a specification of one or more geographically definable locations;

obtaining, by the one or more physical processors, the geofeed definition based on the received request;

determining, by the one or more physical processors, the specification of the one or more geographically definable locations from the geofeed definition;

generating, by the one or more physical processors, a first request that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations in a first format used by a first social media content provider;

generating, by the one or more physical processors, a second request that specifies the one or more geographically definable locations in a second format used by a second social media content provider;

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, the first request to the first social media content provider;

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, the second request to the second social media content provider;

receiving, by the one or more physical processors, a first set of social media content items from the first social media content provider, wherein the first set of social media content items includes at least a first social media content item associated with information that indicates that the first social media content item is relevant to the one or more geographically definable locations;

receiving, by the one or more physical processors, a second set of social media content items from the second social media content provider, wherein the second set of social media content items includes at least a second social media item associated with information that indicates that the second social media content item is relevant to the one or more geographically definable locations;

aggregating, by the one or more physical processors, the first set of social media content items with the second set of social media content items to generate an aggregated set of social media content items; and

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, the aggregated set of social media content items.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein communicating the aggregated set of social media content items comprises:

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, the aggregated set of social media content items via an application programming interface.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein communicating the aggregated set of social media content items comprises:

streaming, by the one or more physical processors, the aggregated set of social media content items.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein communicating the aggregated set of social media content items comprises:

communicating, by the one or more physical processors, a user interface comprising a plurality of user-manipulable views of the aggregated set of social media content items.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of user-manipulable views comprise a map view, the method further comprising:

spatially arranging, by the one or more physical processors, the aggregated set of social media content items on the map view.

26. The method of claim 21, the method further comprising:

normalizing, by the one or more physical processors, at least one of;

the first set of social media content items or the second set of social media content items.

27. The method of claim 21, the method further comprising:

sorting, by the one or more physical processors, at least one of;

the first set of social media content items or the second set of social media content items.

28. The method of claim 21, the method further comprising:

performing, by the one or more physical processors, a data integrity check of the first social media content item;

determining, by the one or more processors, whether the first social media content item passes the data integrity check; and

removing, by the one or more processors, the first social media content item responsive to a determination that the first social media content item fails the data integrity check.

29. The method of claim 21, the method further comprising:

obtaining, by the one or more physical processors, at least a second parameter that specifies whether to filter in or out a social media content item from the geofeed definition.

30. The method of claim 21, the method further comprising:

storing, by the one or more physical processors, at least one of the social media content items or a link to at least one of the social media content items.