AUTOMATIC DETERMINATION OF AN ENTITY'S SEARCHABLE SOCIAL NETWORK USING ROLE-BASED INFERENCES

• US 20100057772A1
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Manolescu, Dragos, Meijer, Erik
• Application Number:
  US12/200,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20100057772A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Techniques and systems for determining a first entity'"'"'s social network are provided herein. Data is extracted from one or more data sources associated with the first entity. Once data is extracted, a role of a second entity may be inferred using inference algorithms, rules, keywords, and/or tags in the data extracted. The first entity'"'"'s social network may be determined by linking the first entity to the second entity and the second entity'"'"'s role(s) in relation to the first entity. It will be appreciated that the first entity may also search his/her/its network and/or other entities'"'"' social networks if the first entity has been granted access by the other entities, for example. Additionally, information about entities found during the first entity'"'"'s search may be added to a data source associated with the first entity.

Claims

1. A method for determining a first entity'"'"'s social network, comprising:

extracting data from one or more data sources associated with the first entity;

identifying a second entity;

inferring a role of the second entity in relation to the first entity as a function of the data extracted from the one or more data sources; and

determining the first entity'"'"'s social network by linking the first entity to the second entity and the second entity'"'"'s role in relation to the first entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the role comprises at least one of the following:

a biological role;

business role;

social hierarchical role; and

a social role.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the role of the second entity is identified using inference algorithms that infer the role of the second entity as a function of the information extracted from the data source.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the inference algorithms are designed using at least one of:

machine learning;

natural language processing; and

artificial intelligence.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the inference algorithms are trained as a function of a first entity'"'"'s input.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising linking the first entity to n number of entities and the entities'"'"' roles in relation to the first entity by extracting data, identifying the n number of entities and inferring the entities'"'"' roles.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising conducting a search of the second entity'"'"'s social network by the first entity.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising selecting an entity from the second entity'"'"'s social network and adding the selected entity to the first entity'"'"'s social network.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving approval from the first entity before linking the second entity and the second entity'"'"'s role in relation to the first entity to a third entity and the third entity'"'"'s role in relation to the first entity.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising detecting supplementary information about the second entity from the data extracted from the one or more data sources associated with the first entity.

11. The method of claim 10, the supplementary information comprising at least one of:

contact information;

geographic location; and

demographic information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second entity is identified as a function of the data extracted from the one or more data sources associated with the first entity.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of more data sources is at least one of the following:

private electronic documents;

private resources;

personal devices;

personal information management systems;

corporate electronic documents;

corporate resources;

corporate information systems;

public electronic documents;

public resources; and

search results.

14. A system for determining a first entity'"'"'s social network, comprising:

a crawler configured to collect data from one or more data sources associated with the first entity;

a classifier configured to infer the role of a second entity in relation to the first entity as a function of data collected by the crawler; and

a storage component configured to determine the first entity'"'"'s social network by linking the first entity to the second entity and the second entity'"'"'s role in relation to the first entity.

15. The system of claim 14, the classifier configured to detect the second entity prior to inferring the role of the second entity in relation to the first entity.

16. The system of claim 14, the crawler configured to receive notifications from the one or more data sources when data in the one or more data sources is modified.

17. The system of claim 16, the one or more data sources configured to notify the crawler when modifications have been made to data associated with the one or more data sources.

18. The system of claim 14, comprising a social search engine configured to search the storage component and select entities from the first entity'"'"'s social network that relate to terms used to conduct the search.

19. The system of claim 14, the crawler configured to extract data from one or more data sources as a function of an entity selected by the first entity from another entity'"'"'s social network, wherein the first entity conducted a search of another entity'"'"'s social network.

20. A method of determining a first entity'"'"'s social network, comprising:

extracting data from one or more data sources associated with the first entity,

wherein the one or more data sources is at least one of the following;

private electronic documents;

private resources;

personal devices;

personal information management systems;

corporate electronic documents;

corporate resources;

corporate information systems;

public electronic documents;

public resources; and

search results;

identifying a second entity;

inferring a role of the second entity in relation to the first entity as a function of the data extracted from the one or more data sources,

wherein the role of the second entity is identified using inference algorithms,

wherein the inference algorithms are designed using at least one of;

natural language processing;

artificial intelligence;

machine learning;

determining the first entity'"'"'s social network by linking the first entity to the second entity and the second entity'"'"'s role in relation to the first entity; and

conducting a search of one or more entities'"'"' social network,

wherein an entity selected from a different entity'"'"'s social network is added to a data source of the entity conducting the search.