Method and apparatus for collecting and storing information about individuals in a social network

• US 20070162458A1
• Filed: 01/10/2006
• Published: 07/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stay Awake, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Stay Awake, Inc.
• Inventors: Fasciano, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 7,620,636 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0279 Fundraising management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Method and apparatus for collecting and storing information about individuals in a social network. A member account is created by verifying a user'"'"'s identity and collecting user identity data from the user. The user sends an invitation to one or more members or non-members. The one or more members or non-members can accept or decline the user'"'"'s invitation. If the one or more non-members accept or decline, they must create a member account. The one or more members post paid comments or free comments about the user and one or more user weight values are calculated based on one or more of the following: a number of members in a user'"'"'s group and their one or more user weight values, a total value of posted paid comments about the user and volume of posted comments about the user. The user can post a reply to the posted comment by the one or more members.

Claims

1. A method for collecting and storing information about individuals in a social network, comprising:

creating a member account by verifying a user'"'"'s identity and collecting user identity data from the user;

allowing the user to send an invitation to one or more members or non-members;

allowing the one or more members or non-members to accept or decline the user'"'"'s invitation, wherein the one or more non-members must create a member account in order to accept or decline the user'"'"'s invitation;

allowing one or more members to post paid comments or free comments about the user;

calculating one or more user weight values based on one or more of the following;

a number of members in a user'"'"'s group and their one or more user weight values, a total value of posted paid comments about the user and volume of posted comments about the user; and

allowing the user to post a reply to the posted comment by the one or more members.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the user identity data, invitation data and user member data in a repository, wherein the invitation data comprises a member name, status of the invitation, date and time invitation was sent, the total number of invitations sent, the total number of invitations accepted, not responded to or rejected and if applicable, date and time the invitation was accepted or rejected, and the user member data comprises the user'"'"'s name, email address, number of comments posted about the user, and date and time the user became a member.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein proceeds or a portion of the proceeds from the paid comments are donated to one or more selected or default charities.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein verifying a user'"'"'s identity comprises a zero-value transaction on a credit card owned by the user or a zero-value transaction on a credit card owned by a parent or guardian with the same last name as the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user identity data includes the user'"'"'s full name, email address, nickname, date of birth, home address, work address, high school, college, degree, place of employment, work history, maiden name, country, or any information that the user includes to identify themselves.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the invitation to one or more members or non-members is sent by email.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the invitation comprises an invitation to join the user'"'"'s group, an invitation to create a member account, an invitation to post paid comments, or an invitation to post free comments.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more members can opt-out of the user'"'"'s group after accepting the invitation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more members or non-members may accept the user'"'"'s invitation within a predetermined time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the paid comment is in a predetermined amount or an amount determined by the one or more members.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more members can retract the posted comment after it is posted.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating one or more user weight values is repeated for every new posted comment by one or more members.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user weight values are associated with and displayed for each user when the user is referenced.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user weight values can be calculated based on the accuracy of the total number of posted comments about the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the paid comments are ranked by an amount paid and displayed in descending order of the amount paid, with a highest amount first.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the free comments are ranked by the user weight value of the member and displayed after the paid comments, with a higher user weight value first.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more members can vote on accuracy of the posted comment.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the user can create a poll for the one or more members or non-members.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing any individual to search the posted paid comments or posted free comments for a given member by identifying one or more terms of the user identity data.

20. An apparatus for collecting and storing information about individuals in a social network, comprising:

creating means for creating a member account by verifying a user'"'"'s identity and collecting means for collecting user identity data from the user;

first allowing means for allowing the user to send an invitation to one or more members or non-members;

second allowing means for allowing the one or more members or non-members to accept or decline the user'"'"'s invitation, wherein the one or more non-members must create a member account in order to accept or decline the user'"'"'s invitation;

third allowing means for allowing one or more members to post paid comments or free comments about the user;

calculating means for calculating one or more user weight values based on one or more of the following;

a number of members in a user'"'"'s group and their one or more user weight values, a total value of posted paid comments about the user and volume of posted comments about the user; and

fourth allowing means for allowing the user to post a reply to the posted comment by the one or more members.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising means for storing the user identity data, invitation data and user member data in a repository, wherein the invitation data comprises a member name, status of the invitation, date and time invitation was sent, the total number of invitations sent, the total number of invitations accepted, not responded to or rejected and if applicable, date and time the invitation was accepted or rejected, and the user member data comprises the user'"'"'s name, email address, number of comments posted about the user, and date and time the user became a member.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein proceeds or a portion of the proceeds from the paid comments are donated to one or more selected or default charities.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein verifying a user'"'"'s identity comprises a zero-value transaction on a credit card owned by the user or a zero-value transaction on a credit card owned by a parent or guardian with the same last name as the user.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the user identity data includes the user'"'"'s full name, email address, nickname, date of birth, home address, work address, high school, college, degree, place of employment, work history, maiden name, country, or any information that the user includes to identify themselves.

25. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the invitation to one or more members or non-members is sent by email.

26. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the invitation comprises an invitation to join the user'"'"'s group, an invitation to create a member account, an invitation to post paid comments, or an invitation to post free comments.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the one or more members can opt-out of the user'"'"'s group after accepting the invitation.

28. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the one or more members or non-members may accept the user'"'"'s invitation within a predetermined time.

29. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the paid comment is in a predetermined amount or an amount determined by the one or more members.

30. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the one or more members can retract the posted comment after it is posted.

31. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein calculating one or more user weight values is repeated for every new posted comment by one or more members.

32. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the one or more user weight values are associated with and displayed for each user when the user is referenced.

33. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the one or more user weight values can be calculated based on the accuracy of the total number of posted comments about the user.

34. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the paid comments are ranked by an amount paid and displayed in descending order of the amount paid, with a highest amount first.

35. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the free comments are ranked by the user weight value of the member and displayed after the paid comments, with a higher user weight value first.

36. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the one or more members can vote on for accuracy of the posted comment.

37. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the user can create a poll for the one or more members or non-members.

38. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising means for allowing any individual to search the posted paid comments or posted free comments for a given member by identifying one or more terms of the user identity data.

39. A computer readable storage medium including computer executable code for collecting and storing information about individuals in a social network, comprising:

code for creating a member account by verifying a user'"'"'s identity and collecting user identity data from the user;

code for allowing the user to send an invitation to one or more members or non-members;

code for allowing the one or more members or non-members to accept or decline the user'"'"'s invitation, wherein the one or more non-members must create a member account in order to accept or decline the user'"'"'s invitation;

code for allowing one or more members to post paid comments or free comments about the user;

code for calculating one or more user weight values based on one or more of the following;

a number of members in a user'"'"'s group and their one or more user weight values, a total value of posted paid comments about the user and volume of posted comments about the user; and

code for allowing the user to post a reply to the posted comment by the one or more members.

40. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, further comprising code for storing the user identity data, invitation data and user member data in a repository, wherein the invitation data comprises a member name, status of the invitation, date and time invitation was sent, the total number of invitations sent, the total number of invitations accepted, not responded to or rejected and if applicable, date and time the invitation was accepted or rejected, and the user member data comprises the user'"'"'s name, email address, number of comments posted about the user, and date and time the user became a member.

41. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein proceeds or a portion of the proceeds from the paid comments are donated to one or more selected or default charities.

42. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein verifying a user'"'"'s identity comprises a zero-value transaction on a credit card owned by the user or a zero-value transaction on a credit card owned by a parent or guardian with the same last name as the user.

43. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the user identity data includes the user'"'"'s full name, email address, nickname, date of birth, home address, work address, high school, college, degree, place of employment, work history, maiden name, country, or any information that the user includes to identify themselves.

44. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the invitation to one or more members or non-members is sent by email.

45. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the invitation comprises an invitation to join the user'"'"'s group, an invitation to create a member account, an invitation to post paid comments, or an invitation to post free comments.

46. The computer readable storage medium of claim 45, wherein the one or more members can opt-out of the user'"'"'s group after accepting the invitation.

47. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the one or more members or non-members may accept the user'"'"'s invitation within a predetermined time.

48. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the paid comment is in a predetermined amount or an amount determined by the one or more members.

49. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the one or more members can retract the posted comment after it is posted.

50. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein calculating one or more user weight values is repeated for every new posted comment by one or more members.

51. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the one or more user weight values are associated with and displayed for each user when the user is referenced.

52. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the one or more user weight values can be calculated based on the accuracy of the total number of posted comments about the user.

53. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the paid comments are ranked by an amount paid and displayed in descending order of the amount paid, with a highest amount first.

54. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the free comments are ranked by the user weight value of the member and displayed after the paid comments, with a higher user weight value first.

55. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the one or more members can vote on for accuracy of the posted comment.

56. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the user can create a poll for the one or more members or non-members.

57. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, further comprising code for allowing any individual to search the posted paid comments or posted free comments for a given member by identifying one or more terms of the user identity data.