Facilitating discussion group formation and interaction

• US 8,892,630 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2008
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Curtis, Michael G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Philip B
• Application Number:
  US12/240,842
• Time in Patent Office: 2,241 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709204-206, 709223-224, 709217-219
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Facilitating discussion group formation and interaction is described. In one example, a server sends an eBook to a client device. The server determines whether the eBook is associated with at least one book club in response to sending the eBook to the client device. The server sends book club identifiers to the client device when the eBook is associated with at least one book club. The book club identifiers specify one or more book clubs associated with the eBook.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sending an electronic book (eBook) from a server to a client device;

determining, at the server, whether the eBook is associated with at least one book club in response to sending the eBook to the client device;

comparing user profile information of a user of the client device with information of a plurality of additional user profiles to identify one or more book clubs associated with the eBook to recommend to the user of the client device when the eBook is associated with at least one book club, wherein the plurality of additional user profiles are associated with respective members of the one or more book clubs and the user of the client device is not a member of the one or more book clubs;

sending book club identifiers from the server to the client device, the book club identifiers specifying the one or more book clubs associated with the eBook.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a message including an option to form a book club associated with the eBook from the server to the client device when the eBook is not associated with at least one book club.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile information includes demographic information, interests, hobbies, previous eBooks downloaded, occupation, educational level, geographic location, location of residence, discussion group memberships, additional personal information, or a combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a book club formation request at the server from the client device, the book club formation request to form a particular book club associated with the eBook.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising sending user identifiers to the client device from the server, wherein the user identifiers specify additional client device users that have downloaded the eBook.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving a request at the server from the client device to send an invitation to at least one of the additional client device users to join the particular book club associated with the eBook.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a discussion group join request from the client device for the user of the client device to join a particular discussion group of the one or more discussion groups.

8. An electronic book (eBook) reader device comprising:

a digital items data store including data associated with a number of eBooks;

a processing unit;

a system storage accessible to the processing unit, the system storage including;

a digital items module to download an eBook from a server and store the eBook in the digital items data store; and

a book club module to facilitate participating in one or more book clubs that are associated with the eBook; and

a communications module accessible to the processing unit, the communications module is configured to;

facilitate communications between the eBook reader device and a number of additional eBook reader devices associated with members of a particular book club via a first mode of communication; and

facilitate direct communications between the eBook reader device and an eBook reader device of a specified member of the particular book club via a second mode of communication while the eBook reader device is communicating with the number of additional eBook reader devices via the first mode of communication, the second mode of communication being different from the first mode of communication.

9. The eBook reader device of claim 8, wherein the communications module is configured to facilitate audio communication, video communication, text messaging, email, a chat session, or a combination thereof, with the users of the additional eBook reader devices.

10. The eBook reader device of claim 8, wherein the system storage includes an annotations module to enter an annotation with respect to a portion of the eBook.

11. The eBook reader device of claim 8, wherein the book club module is configured to provide one or more user interfaces to participate in a live online meeting of the particular book club.

12. A system comprising:

a processor; and

memory accessible to the processor, the memory including;

a digital items module to send an electronic book to a client device; and

a discussion group identification module to;

compare user profile information of a user of the client device with a plurality of additional user profiles of members of one or more discussion groups associated with the electronic book in response to sending the electronic book to the client device, wherein the user of the client device is not a member of the one or more discussion groups;

identify at least one discussion group of the one or more discussion groups associated with the electronic book to recommend to a user of the client device based, at least in part, on comparing the user profile information of the user of the client device with the plurality of additional user profiles of members of the one or more discussion groups associated with the electronic book; and

send a respective book club identifier to the client device specifying the at least one discussion group of the one or more discussion groups associated with the electronic book.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the discussion group identification module identifies the one or more discussion groups associated with the electronic book by parsing a discussion group database to identify book clubs that are currently reading the electronic book, that include the electronic book on a reading list, that are associated with an author of the electronic book, that are associated with a genre of the electronic book, or a combination thereof.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the discussion group identification module is configured to rank the one or more discussion groups associated with the electronic book according to how closely user profile information of members of each respective discussion group match user profile information of the user of the client device.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising a discussion group formation module to send a message to the client device that includes an option to form a discussion group associated with the electronic book.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the discussion group formation module is configured to receive a request to search for potential members of the discussion group.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the discussion group formation module is configured to identify the potential members of the discussion group by searching a user profile information database to identify users matching specified criteria.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the discussion group formation module is configured to identify the potential members of the discussion group by identifying users that have recently purchased the electronic book.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the discussion group meets in a physical location.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the discussion group meets online.