DISPLAYING DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION OF MEMBERS DISCUSSING TOPICS IN A FORUM

• US 20140068457A1
• Filed: 05/12/2013
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lindsay, Robert Taaffe, DiPersia, Blaise Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 9,826,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Users in public forums often mention certain topics in the course of their discussions. Member'"'"'s comments in messages to other members are analyzed to obtain terms that co-occur with topics. Frequencies of co-occurrence of a term with topics are normalized based on frequency of the term in a random sample of message. The terms are ranked by their normalized frequency of co-occurrence with a topic in messages. The top terms are selected based on their rank. Analysis of demographic information associated with members that mentioned top terms associated with a topic is displayed in graphical format that highlights the relationship between the age, gender, and usage of the top terms over time. The demographic information presented includes average age of members that mentioned a top term or their gender information within a selected time interval.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

determining, by a computer, a first plurality of top terms top term associated with a topic based on communications between members of an online forum;

determining a first aggregate demographic value based on a demographic attribute of the members that used the top term during a first time interval;

determining a second aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of the members that used the top term during a second time interval subsequent to the first time interval; and

formatting for display, by the computer, a visualization displaying variation of the demographic attribute of the members that used the top term with respect to time based on the first aggregate demographic value and the second aggregate demographic value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a third aggregate demographic value based on a demographic attribute of the members that used the top term during a third time interval; and

formatting the visualization further based on the third aggregate demographic value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a second top term associated with the topic based on the communications between the members of the online forum;

determining a third aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of the members that used the second top term during the first time interval;

determining a fourth aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of the members that used the second top term during the second time interval; and

formatting the visualization to further display variation of the demographic attribute of the members that used the second top term with respect to time based on the third aggregate demographic value and the fourth aggregate demographic value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the top term is selected based on a normalized frequency of co-occurrence of the top term with the topic.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the visualization includes an axis representing the demographic attribute.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the visualization includes a second axis representing time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the demographic attribute comprises age.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the demographic attribute comprises gender.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an advertisement associated with the top term;

determining a first measure of effectiveness of the advertisement over the first time interval based on the first aggregate demographic value; and

determining a second measure of effectiveness of the advertisement over the second time interval based on the second aggregate demographic value.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

formatting the visualization to further display variation of the effectiveness of the advertisement with respect to time based on determined first measure of effectiveness and the determined second measure of effectiveness.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the visualization comprises one of a two-dimensional graph, a three-dimensional graph, and a histogram.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the visualization comprises an interactive slider configured to the display one of the first aggregate demographic value and the second aggregate demographic value based on the position of the slider.

13. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code comprising instructions for:

determining, by a computer, a top term associated with a topic based on communications between members of an online forum;

determining a first aggregate demographic value based on a demographic attribute of the members that used the top term during a first time interval;

determining a second aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of the members that used the top term during a second time interval subsequent to the first time interval; and

formatting for display, by the computer, a visualization displaying variation of the demographic attribute of the members that used the top term with respect to time based on the first aggregate demographic value and the second aggregate demographic value.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising instructions for:

determining a third aggregate demographic value based on a demographic attribute of the members that used the top term during a third time interval; and

formatting the visualization further based on the third aggregate demographic value.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising instructions for:

determining a second top term associated with the topic based on the communications between the members of the online forum;

determining a third aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of the members that used the second top term during the first time interval;

determining a fourth aggregate demographic value based on the demographic attribute of the members that used the second top term during the second time interval; and

formatting the visualization to further display variation of the demographic attribute of the members that used the second top term with respect to time based on the third aggregate demographic value and the fourth aggregate demographic value.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the top term is selected based on a normalized frequency of co-occurrence of the top term with the topic.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the visualization includes an axis representing the demographic attribute.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the visualization includes a second axis representing time.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the demographic attribute comprises age.

20. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the demographic attribute comprises gender.

21. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising instructions for:

determining an advertisement associated with the top term;

determining a first measure of effectiveness of the advertisement over the first time interval based on the first aggregate demographic value; and

determining a second measure of effectiveness of the advertisement over the second time interval based on the second aggregate demographic value.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising instructions for:

formatting the visualization to further display variation of the effectiveness of the advertisement with respect to time based on determined first measure of effectiveness and the determined second measure of effectiveness.

23. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the visualization comprises one of a two-dimensional graph, a three-dimensional graph, and a histogram.

24. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the visualization comprises an interactive slider configured to the display one of the first aggregate demographic value and the second aggregate demographic value based on the position of the slider.