Inter-entity connection maps

• US 9,686,348 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2014
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Talmor, Alon, Tsur, Elad, Cohen, Amir, Zecharya, Yaniv, Etzion, Ran
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Wilson
• Application Number:
  US14/526,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20150120783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

The technology disclosed relates to identifying connection maps between entities (persons and organizations) and generating so-called connection stories between them based on the connection maps. The connection stories are graphic and visual representations of the connection paths that present to entities topological and chronological aspects of their relationships with other entities.

Claims

1. A method of determining relationship strength between entities, the method including:

collecting by a computer entity-related data for a multiplicity of attributes across a plurality of electronic sources;

representing by a computer a source person, a target person, and intermediate entities as nodes including a source node, a target node and a plurality of intermediate nodes;

constructing by a computer a map of connection paths from the source node to the target node through the plurality of intermediate nodes, thereby forming connected node pairs;

determining by a computer a connection story that describes a nature of connecting interactions along intermediate nodes in the connection paths from the source node to the target node;

wherein the determining a connection story that describes the nature of connecting interactions includes;

(i) crawling by a crawler implemented on the computer that extracts connection metadata from plurality of person related data sources, which connection metadata identifies online connection interactions between users, online mentions by users of other entities, co-attended events, and co-mentions together in a same data source,

(ii) analyzing the connection metadata extracted by the crawler to identify for each connection;

(a) a platform where the detected connection was formed and (b) platform characteristics associated with an environment of the platform, including at least one of event attendance information and group mentorship information, to obtain a degree of relatedness between a user and another entity in the connection, and

(iii) adding to the connection story ordered by the degree of relatedness between the user and the another entity, a connection including the user, the another entity, and the platform characteristics related to the platform from which the user and the another entity information was extracted; and

generating by a computer for display a visual representation of the connection story built from the plurality of connections.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic sources include at least one of access controlled application programming interfaces (APIs), public Internet, and social networking environments.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiplicity of attributes include at least one of biographical information, job titles, job functions, employer names, work departments, industry names, event attendances, posted feed items, endorsed feed items, group memberships, and correspondences.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a correspondence exchange between the intermediate entity and a respective source or target entity and represent an event co-attended by the intermediate entity and the respective source or the target entity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a feed item posted by the intermediate entity in response to another feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one event co-attended by the intermediate entity and the respective source or the target entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a feed item posted by the intermediate entity in response to another feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one correspondence exchange between the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a feed item posted by the intermediate entity in response to another feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one common group membership between the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent an endorsement by the intermediate entity of a feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one correspondence exchange between the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent an endorsement by the intermediate entity of a feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one educational institution co-attended by the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a common employer of the intermediate entity and a respective source or target entity and represent at least one event co-attended by the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a common job function of the intermediate entity and a respective source or target entity and represent at least one feed item posted by the intermediate entity in response to another feed item posted by the respective source or target entity.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a common work department of the intermediate entity and a respective source or target entity and represent at least one common group membership between the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a common work industry of the intermediate entity and a respective source or target entity and represent at least one correspondence exchange between the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a common job title of the intermediate entity and a respective source or target entity and represent at least one endorsement by the intermediate entity of a feed item posted by the respective source or target entity.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual representation further includes a user interaction element that links to a preview, either live or extracted from a web site, that illustrates a connecting interaction along the connection path through respective intermediate nodes.

15. A system of determining relationship strength between entities, the system including:

a hardware processor and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions configured to cause the hardware processor to;

collect entity-related data for a multiplicity of attributes across a plurality of electronic sources;

represent a source person, a target person, and intermediate entities as nodes including a source node, a target node and a plurality of intermediate nodes;

construct a map of connection paths from the source node to the target node through the plurality of intermediate nodes, thereby forming connected node pairs;

determine a connection story that describes a nature of connecting interactions along intermediate nodes in the connection paths from the source node to the target node;

wherein the determine a connection story that describes the nature of connecting interactions includes;

(i) crawling by a crawler implemented on the computer that extracts connection metadata from plurality of person related data sources, which connection metadata identifies online connection interactions between users, online mentions by users of other entities, co-attended events, and co-mentions together in a same data source,

(ii) analyzing the connection metadata extracted by the crawler to identify for each connection;

(a) a platform where the detected connection was formed and (b) platform characteristics associated with an environment of the platform, including at least one of event attendance information and group mentorship information, to obtain a degree of relatedness between a user and another entity in the connection, and

(iii) adding to the connection story ordered by the degree of relatedness between the user and the another entity, a connection including the user, the another entity, and the platform characteristics related to the platform from which the user and the another entity information was extracted; and

generate for display a visual representation of the connection story built from the plurality of connections.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a correspondence exchange between the intermediate entity and a respective source or target entity and represent an event co-attended by the intermediate entity and the respective source or the target entity.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a feed item posted by the intermediate entity in response to another feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one event co-attended by the intermediate entity and the respective source or the target entity.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a feed item posted by the intermediate entity in response to another feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one correspondence exchange between the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein one or more edges connecting the intermediate node to the source or target node represent a feed item posted by the intermediate entity in response to another feed item posted by a respective source or target entity and represent at least one common group membership between the intermediate entity and the respective source or target entity.