Forming Dynamic Real-Time Activity Groups

• US 20100306119A1
• Filed: 05/27/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nagar, Seema, Dasgupta, Koustuv, Mittal, Sumit, Chakraborty, Dipanjan, Banerjee, Nilanjan
• Granted Patent: US 8,219,498 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

Techniques for forming a real-time activity group are provided. The techniques include creating a set of one or more users, annotating each user in the set with one or more corresponding real-time attributes, and using the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users, wherein the one or more connections are based on an activity request.

Claims

1. A method for forming a real-time activity group, comprising the steps of:

creating a set of one or more users;

annotating each user in the set with one or more corresponding real-time attributes; and

using the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users, wherein the one or more connections are based on an activity request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are carried out using telecommunications infrastructure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more corresponding real-time attributes are derived from one or more information sources, and wherein the one or more corresponding real-time attributes comprise at least one of location, presence status, one or more interests, one or more hobbies, one or more moods and a preferred mode of communication.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a set of one or more users comprises collecting real-time information about one or more subscribers of one or more networks by applying a membership function.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a set of one or more users comprises collecting real-time information about one or more subscribers of one or more networks from one or more manually specified sources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein using the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users comprises forming a subset of one or more users whose one or more real-time attributes match with a search criteria specified in the activity request.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning one or more communication modalities between the one or more users in the real-time activity group based on one or more real-time preferences of each user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending out an invitation to one or more users to join the activity group; and

forming a group with one or more users that accept the invitation and scheduling the activity in an individual calendar of each user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining relevant information about the real-time activity group during an entire lifetime of the group.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling a user to publish an activity request.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising refining search results based on current location and presence information.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising producing search results on a mashup portal that displays one or more potential matches along with one or more attributes.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling a user to find a social network of a potential matching user and to link to one or more social networking profiles.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling a user to rate one or more activity partners.

15. A computer program product comprising a tangible computer readable recordable storage medium including computer useable program code for forming a real-time activity group, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for creating a set of one or more users;

computer useable program code for annotating each user in the set with one or more corresponding real-time attributes; and

computer useable program code for using the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users, wherein the one or more connections are based on an activity request.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer useable program code for using the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users comprises computer useable code for forming a subset of one or more users whose one or more real-time attributes match with a search criteria specified in the activity request.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

computer useable program code for enabling a user to rate one or more activity partners.

18. A system for forming a real-time activity group, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

create a set of one or more users;

annotate each user in the set with one or more corresponding real-time attributes; and

use the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users, wherein the one or more connections are based on an activity request.

19. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor coupled to the memory operative to use the one or more real-time attributes to identify one or more connections between the one or more users in the set to form a real-time activity group within the set of one or more users is further operative to form a subset of one or more users whose one or more real-time attributes match with a search criteria specified in the activity request.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor coupled to the memory is further operative to:

enable a user to rate one or more activity partners.