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

• US 7,620,636 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2006
• Issued: 11/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Stay Awake, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Stay Awake, Inc.
• Inventors: Fasciano, Mark Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANNAVAJJALA, SRIRAMA T
• Application Number:
  US11/328,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20070162458A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• Field of Search: 705 8- 926, 705 39- 40, 705/35, 705/43, 709220-225, 707 1- 2, 707/10, 707/200, 707/100
• 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 of encouraging charitable donations by users of a social network, where users may benefit from donations of money to one or more charities by association with social causes represented by the one or more charities and by public recognition of their donations, comprising:

providing an online social network for users to obtain information about other users, wherein the online social network is accessible to users who use a first computer which is connected to an Internet;

allowing a user to become a member of the online social network by creating a user account and assigning a part of a memory of a second computer to that user account;

collecting user identity data inputted using the first computer by the user, wherein the user identity data comprises the user'"'"'s name, email address, nickname, date of birth, home address, work address, high school, college, degree, place of employment, work history, maiden name, country of residence, country of birth, or any other identification information;

associating the user identity data with the user account by storing the user identity data in the part of the memory assigned to the user account;

allowing the user to create a user profile containing information about the user by inputting such information using the first computer;

associating the user profile with the user account by storing the user profile information in the part of the memory assigned to the user account;

allowing one or more different users of the online social network to view the user profile;

allowing the user to send an invitation to the one or more different users to donate money to the one or more charities to post a descriptive comment about the user on the online social network, wherein the one or more different users post a descriptive comment about the user if and only if the one or more different users, in order to post the descriptive comment, donate money to the one or more charities;

allowing the one or more different users to post at least one descriptive comment comprising a word or group of words describing a character or trait of the user on the social network if the one of more different users donate money to one or more charities in order to post the at least one descriptive comment about the user, wherein the user does not benefit financially from the money donated to the one or more charities;

storing the posted comment in a part of the memory assigned to the posted comment;

associating the amount of money donated to the one or more charities with the posted comment by storing the amount of money donated in a part of the memory assigned to the posted comment;

calculating a user weight value for the user based on one or more of the amount of money donated to the one or more charities by the one or more different users and the number of descriptive comments posted by the one or more different users, wherein the user weight value is a numerical value indicative of the reliability of the reputation of the user;

calculating a different user weight value for each of the one or more different users based on the amount of money donated to one or more charities by the each of the respective one or more different users, wherein the different user weight value is a numerical value indicative of the reliability of the reputation of each of the one or more different users;

recalculating the user weight value and the different user weight value for each of the one or more different users after a new descriptive comment is posted by the one or more different users;

allowing the users of the social network to view the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users and the user weight values and the different user weight values;

allowing the user to create a poll for those using the online social network to vote on accuracy of a descriptive comment about the user posted by the one or more different users, wherein the user contributes a sum of money to be used by those voting on the accuracy of the descriptive comment about the user, the sum of money being directly proportional to the number of votes received on the accuracy of the descriptive comment about the user, and the sum being used when those voting on the accuracy of the descriptive comment about the user post different descriptive comments or contribute money to be used by those voting in other polls;

allowing users of the social network to view the amount of money donated to the one or more charities associated with the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users; and

enabling the users of the social network to evaluate the reputation of the user based upon numerical values of the user weight value of the user and content of the descriptive comments.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the invitation data and user member data in a part of the memory assigned to the user account, wherein the invitation data comprises a member name, status of the invitation, date and time invitation was sent, a total number of invitations sent, a 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 number of comments posted about the user, and date and time the user became a member.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising recalculating the user weight value for the user based on the number of invitations accepted by the one or more different users and the amount of money donated to the one or more charities by the one or more different users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the invitation sent by the user states a sum chosen by the user, and wherein the one or more different users may post a descriptive comment about the user if and only if the one or more different users, in order to post the descriptive comment, donate money to the one or more charities equal to or greater than the sum chosen by the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user weight value and the different user weight value are calculated based, in part, on the accuracy of the posted descriptive comments.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user weight value and the different user weight values increase with an increase in the amount of money donated to the one or more charities.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the one or more different users to search the posted comments by identifying one or more terms of the user identity data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the user to create a poll for the one or more different users of the online social network to vote on an issue to the user, and further comprising allowing the one or more different users to vote in the poll if the one of more different users donate money to one or more charities in order to vote in the poll, and further comprising preventing the one or more different users from voting in the poll if the one or more different users have not donated money to one or more charities in order to vote in the poll, wherein the user does not benefit financially from the money donated to the one or more charities.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the user to create a blog for the one or more different users of the online social network to post comments relating to the blog if the one of more different users donate money to one or more charities in order to post comments relating to the blog, further comprising preventing the one or more different users from posting comments relating to the blog if the one or more different users have not donated money to one or more charities in order to post comments relating to the blog, wherein the user does not benefit financially from the money donated to the one or more charities.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user weight value increases with an increase in the number of descriptive comments posted by the one or more different users.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the user to engage in an activity relating to the online social network if the user donates money to one or more charities in order to engage in the activity relating to the online social network.

12. The method claim 11, wherein the activity relating to the online social network comprises posting a descriptive comment about the user or voting in a poll created by the user.

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

14. A method of encouraging charitable donations by users of a social network, where users may benefit from donations of money to one or more charities by association with social causes represented by the one or more charities and by public recognition of their donations, comprising:

providing an online social network for users to obtain information about other users by logging onto the online social network;

allowing a user to become a member of the online social network by creating a user account and storing information relating to the user account in a memory of a computer;

allowing the user to enter user identity data;

verifying that the user identity data is valid;

allowing the user re-enter the user identity data if the user identity data is invalid;

associating the user identity data with the user account by storing the user identity data in the memory;

allowing the user to create a user profile containing information about the user;

associating the user profile with the user account by storing the user profile information in the memory;

allowing the user to create a poll for one or more different users of the online social network;

allowing one or more different users of the online social network to view the user profile by inputting information identifying the user account;

allowing the one or more different users to deposit money in a prepayment account;

storing the money deposited in the prepayment account in the memory;

allowing the one or more different users to post at least one descriptive comment about the user on the online social network or to vote in the poll created by the user if the one or more different users donated, in order to post the at least one descriptive comment about the user or vote in the poll created by the user, any amount of the money deposited in the prepayment account to one or more charities, wherein the user does not benefit financially from the money donated to one or more charities;

storing the posted comment or the poll vote in the memory along with the amount of money donated to the one or more charities with the posting of the comment or the poll vote;

calculating a user weight value for the user based on the amount of money donated to the one or more charities by the one or more different users, wherein the user weight value for the user indicates the willingness of the one or more different users to donate money to a charity in order to post a descriptive comment about the user or vote in a poll created by the user;

calculating a different user weight value for each of the one or more different users based on the amount of money donated to one or more charities by each of the respective one or more different users;

allowing the users of the online social network to view the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users and the user weight values and the different user weight values;

allowing users of the social network to view the amount of money associated with the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users; and

enabling the users of the social network to evaluate the reputation of the user based upon the user weight value of the user and content of the descriptive comments posted about the user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the comments are ranked by an amount donated to the one or more charities and displayed in descending order of the amount donated, with a highest amount first.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein verifying user identity data comprises a zero-value transaction on a credit card owned by an individual with the same last name as the user.

17. A method of encouraging charitable donations through the collection and storage of information about individuals in a social network, comprising:

allowing a user to send an invitation over an Internet to one or more members or non-members, by inputting an address identifying the one or more members or non-members along with the invitation, wherein the invitation comprises an invitation to post a comment about the user by donating any amount of money to one or more selected or default charities;

allowing the one or more members or non-members to accept or to decline the user'"'"'s invitation by responding to the invitation electronically and transmitting that response to the user, wherein the one or more non-members create a member account in order to accept or to decline the user'"'"'s invitation and to become members by inputting identifying data about the one or more non-members;

allowing the one or more members to post one or more comments about the user by donating any amount of money to the one or more charities and inputting one or more comments;

assigning a value to each of the one or more posted comments by the one or more members based on the amount of money of each donation and storing each value along with the posted comments in a memory;

using the values assigned to the one or more posted comments, calculating one or more user weight values for each of the one or more members, wherein each user weight value represents a total amount of charitable donations donated by each of the one or more members to post descriptive comments;

ranking the one or more user weight values according to the numerical value of the one or more user weight values and storing the one or more user weight values in the memory, wherein the one or more posted comments are ranked in accordance with the ranking of the one or more user weight values;

using a volume of the one or more posted comments about the user, calculating a user weight value for the user, wherein the user weight value further represents a total amount of charitable donations encouraged by the user and wherein a higher user weight value for each of the one or more members results in a higher user weight value for the user; and

enabling the one or more members to evaluate of the reliability of the reputation of the user by allowing the one or more members to view the user weight values and the posted comments.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more user weight values are associated with and displayed for each of the one or more members when each respective one or more members is referenced, wherein the displayed user weight value associated with each of the members is visible to at least one member other than this member.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the comments are displayed in descending order of the user weight values, with a higher user weight value first.

20. A method of encouraging charitable donations by users of a social network, where users may benefit from donations of money to one or more charities by association with social causes represented by the one or more charities and by public recognition of their donations, comprising:

providing an online social network for users to obtain information about other users, wherein the online social network is accessible to users who use a first computer which is connected to an Internet;

allowing a user to become a member of the online social network by creating a user account and assigning a part of a memory of a second computer to that user account;

collecting user identity data inputted using the first computer by the user, wherein the user identity data comprises the user'"'"'s name, email address, nickname, date of birth, home address, work address, high school, college, degree, place of employment, work history, maiden name, country of residence, country of birth, or any other identification information;

associating the user identity data with the user account by storing the user identity data in the part of the memory assigned to the user account;

allowing the user to create a user profile containing information about the user by inputting such information using the first computer;

associating the user profile with the user account by storing the user profile information in the part of the memory assigned to the user account;

allowing one or more different users of the online social network to view the user profile;

allowing the one or more different users to deposit money in a prepayment account;

storing the money deposited in the prepayment account in the memory;

allowing the one or more different users to post at least one descriptive comment about the user on the social network if the one or more different users donated, in order to post the at least one descriptive comment about the user, any amount of money deposited in the prepayment account to one or more charities, wherein the user does not benefit financially from the money donated to the one or more charities, and wherein the descriptive comment comprises a word or group of words relating to a character of the user;

storing the posted comment in the memory along with the amount of money donated to the one or more charities with the posting of the comment;

allowing the user to create a poll for the users of the online social network to vote on accuracy of a descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users;

assigning an accuracy value to the descriptive comment based on results of the poll;

calculating a user weight value for the user based on the amount of money donated to the one or more charities by the one or more different users in order to post the at least one descriptive comment about the user, the number of descriptive comments posted by the one or more different users, and the accuracy value of the descriptive comment, wherein the user weight value is a numerical value indicative of the reliability of the reputation of the user, and wherein the user weight value increases with an increase in the amount of money donated to the one or more charities and an increase in the number of descriptive comments posted by the one or more different users;

calculating a different user weight value for each of the one or more different users based on the amount of money donated to one or more charities by the each of the respective one or more different users, wherein the different user weight values increase with an increase in the amount of money donated to the one or more charities, and wherein a higher different user weight value for each of the one or more different users results in a higher user weight value for the user;

allowing the users of the social network to view the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users and the user weight values and the different user weight values;

allowing users of the social network to view the amount of money donated to the one or more charities associated with the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users; and

enabling the users of the social network to evaluate the reputation of the user based upon numerical values of the user weight value of the user and content of the descriptive comments, wherein the descriptive comments are ranked by the user weight value of the member who posted the comment and displayed.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein, when a user of the online social network votes in a poll on the accuracy of a descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users, an amount of money determined by the user who created the poll is deducted from a prepayment account of the user who created the poll and added to a prepayment account of the user of the online network who votes in the poll.

22. An apparatus for encouraging charitable donations by users of a social network, where users may benefit from donations of money to one or more charities by association with social causes represented by the one or more charities and by public recognition of their donations, comprising:

first allowing means for allowing a user to become a member of the online social network by creating a user account, wherein the online social network is accessible to the user who uses a first computer which is connected to an Internet and a part of a memory of a second computer is assigned to the user account;

collecting means for collecting user identity data inputted using the first computer by the user, wherein the user identity data comprises the user'"'"'s name, email address, nickname, date of birth, home address, work address, high school, college, degree, place of employment, work history, maiden name, country of residence, country of birth, or any other identification information;

first associating means for associating the user identity data with the user account by storing the user identity data in the part of the memory assigned to the user account;

second allowing means for allowing the user to create a user profile containing information about the user by inputting such information using the first computer;

second associating means for associating the user profile with the user account by storing the user profile information in the part of the memory assigned to the user account;

third allowing means for allowing one or more different users of the online social network to view the user profile;

fourth allowing means for allowing the one or more different users to post at least one descriptive comment about the user on the social network if the one or more different users donate money to one or more charities in order to post the at least one descriptive comment about the user, wherein the user does not benefit financially from the money donated to the one or more charities;

storing means for storing the posted comment in a part of the memory assigned to the posted comment;

third associating means for associating the amount of money donated to the one or more charities with the posted comment by storing the amount of money donated in a part of the memory assigned to the posted comment;

calculating means for calculating a user weight value for the user based on one or more of the amount of money donated to the one or more charities by the one or more different users and the number of descriptive comments posted by the one or more different users, and for calculating a different user weight value for each of the one or more different users based on the amount of money donated to one or more charities by the each of the respective one or more different users, wherein the user weight value is a numerical value indicative of the reliability of the reputation of the user and the different user weight value is a numerical value indicative of the reliability of the reputation of the one or more different users, and wherein the user weight value and the different user weight value are recalculated for each of the one or more different users after a new descriptive comment is posted by the one or more different users, and wherein the user weight value increases with an increase in the amount of money donated to the one or more charities and an increase in the number of descriptive comments posted by the one or more different users, and wherein the different user weight values increase with an increase in the amount of money donated to the one or more charities, and wherein a higher different user weight value for each of the one or more different users results in a higher user weight value for the user;

fifth allowing means for allowing the users of the social network to view the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users and the user weight values and the different user weight values and for allowing users of the social network to view the amount of money donated to the one or more charities associated with the descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users; and

sixth allowing means for enabling the users of the social network to evaluate the reputation of the user based upon numerical values of the user weight value of the user and content of the descriptive comments, wherein the descriptive comments are ranked by the user weight value of the member who posted the comment and displayed.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising seventh allowing means for allowing the user to send an invitation to the one or more different users to donate money to the one or more charities to post a descriptive comment about the user on the online social network.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the information about the user comprises employment history information, educational history information or information relating to past accomplishments of the user.

25. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the descriptive comment comprises a word or group of words describing a character of the user.

26. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising seventh allowing means for allowing the user to create a poll for the users of the online social network to vote on accuracy of a descriptive comment posted by the one or more different users.

27. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the amount of money donated to one or more charities by the one or more different users is set by the user.