System for and method of processing business personnel information

• US 20090024428A1
• Filed: 07/19/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carnegie Research Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Carnegie Research Incorporated
• Inventors: Hudock, Robert JR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,878 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

Information for personnel of a plurality of business organizations is collected. For each person, the information includes the name of the person, the identity of a business organization that the person currently works for and biographical information containing any affiliations identified for the person. Information for a plurality of affiliations is collected and a table of the affiliations is generated, the table of affiliations being stored in computer-readable storage. From the collected information, a data structure is generated and is stored in computer-readable storage. The first data structure includes an entry for each match between the biographical information of a person and an affiliation included in the table of affiliations. A query of a user may be responded to by executing a computer-implemented process on the first data structure. Results of the query are displayed for the user.

Claims

1. A method of processing business personnel information comprising steps of:

collecting information for personnel of a plurality of business organizations including, for each person, the name of the person, the identity of a business organization that the person currently works for and biographical information, the biographical information containing any affiliations identified for the person;

collecting information for a plurality of affiliations and generating a table of the affiliations, the table of the affiliations being stored in computer-readable storage; and

from the collected information, generating a data structure, the data structure being stored in computer-readable storage and including an entry for each match between the biographical information of a person and an affiliation included in the table of the affiliations.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of responding to a query of a user by executing a computer-implemented process on the data structure and displaying results of the query for the user.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the query of the user comprises a selection of two business organizations and wherein the results comprise a list of common affiliations between personnel of the two business organizations.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the results identify a single person being affiliated with the two business organizations as one degree of separation.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the results identify two or more persons currently working for either of the two business organizations and that have a common affiliation as two degrees of separation.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the query of the user comprises a selection of a particular business organization and a particular person and wherein the results comprise a list of common affiliations and personnel between the particular business organization and the particular person.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the results identify the particular person having an affiliation with the particular business organization as one degree of separation.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the results identify the particular person having a common affiliation with another person whose current company is the particular business organization as two degrees of separation.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the query of the user comprises a selection of a particular business organization and wherein the results comprise a list of affiliations of the personnel of that business organization.

10. The method according to claim 2, wherein the query of the user comprises a selection of a particular affiliation and wherein the results comprise a list of personnel and business organizations associated with the particular affiliation.

11. The method according to claim 2, wherein the query of the user comprises a selection of a particular person and wherein the results comprise a list of affiliations of the particular person.

12. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of generating employs nicknames for the affiliations to match the biographical information of a person to the affiliations.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the nicknames are stored in a nicknames table in computer-readable storage.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the information for the affiliations is collected from sources other than sources of the information for the personnel.

15. A system for processing business personnel information comprising:

a database being stored in computer-readable storage and comprising information for personnel of a plurality of business organizations including, for each person, the name of the person, the identity of a business organization that the person currently works for and biographical information containing any affiliations identified for the person, wherein at least a portion of the information of the database is arranged into a data structure having a plurality of entries and each entry comprising an identification of the person and any affiliations identified for the person;

a processor for executing a plurality of software queries on the information contained in the database in response to input from a user; and

a display device for displaying results of the queries.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the queries of the user comprise a selection of two business organizations and wherein the results comprise a list of common affiliations between personnel of the two business organizations.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the results identify a single person being affiliated with the two business organizations as one degree of separation.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein the results identify two or more persons currently working for either of the two business organizations and that have a common affiliation as two degrees of separation.

19. The system according to claim 15, wherein the queries of the user comprise a selection of a particular business organization and a particular person and wherein the results comprise a list of common affiliations and personnel between the particular business organization and the particular person.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the results identify the particular person having an affiliation with the particular business organization as one degree of separation.

21. The system according to claim 19, wherein the results identify the particular person having a common affiliation with another person whose current company is the particular business organization as two degrees of separation.

22. The system according to claim 15, wherein the queries of the user comprise a selection of a particular business organization and wherein the results comprise a list of affiliations of the personnel of that business organization.

23. The system according to claim 15, wherein the queries of the user comprise a selection of a particular affiliation and wherein the results comprise a list of personnel and business organizations associated with the particular affiliation.

24. The system according to claim 15, wherein the queries of the user comprise a selection of a particular person and wherein the results comprise a list of identified affiliations of the particular person.

25. The system according to claim 15, further comprising a table of nicknames for the affiliations.