Revealing connections for persons in a social graph

• US 8,892,651 B1
• Filed: 07/12/2012
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: BoardEx LLC (Delinian Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Relationship Science LLC (Delinian Ltd.)
• Inventors: Goldman, Neal, Dingee, John C., Ambas, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Wen-Tai
• Application Number:
  US13/547,918
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• 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 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

An on-line system utilizing a social graph allows users to establish an account with the system and establish connections to nodes in the system. The social graph uses system-provided nodes that are created and maintained by the system, so that users cannot edit the system-provided nodes. The system aggregates and analyzes the social graph to present information in ways useful to its users. For example, the system reveals connections between persons in the system, with a corresponding strength of each connection.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

allowing a user to select a first person and a second person tracked by a system, wherein the system comprises a social graph comprising;

a first type of node, referred to as a user-provided node, and a first type of edge, referred to as a user-provided edge; and

a second type of node, referred to as a system-provided node, and a second type of edge, referred to as a system-provided edge;

using at least one electronic processor, managing the social graph comprising;

allowing system-provided nodes to be coupled to other system-provided nodes by system-provided edges, wherein system-provided nodes and system-provided edges include information gathered by the system;

allowing user-provided nodes to be coupled to system-provided nodes by user-provided edges include information supplied by users of the system;

disallowing user-provided nodes from being coupled to other user-provided nodes using system-provided edges;

disallowing user-provided nodes from being coupled to system-provided nodes using system-provided edges; and

disallowing system-provided nodes from being coupled to other system-provided nodes using user-provided edges;

aggregating a set of paths from the social graph, wherein each path of the set of paths comprise a plurality of persons, the first person in a first position of the path, and the second person in a last position of the path;

formatting the set of paths by a strength of each path relative to each other path in the set of paths; and

displaying the formatted set of paths.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the strength of each path relative to each other path in the set of paths is based on a length of each path.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein at least one path of the set of paths comprise at least four persons.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein a first path of the set of paths is associated with a higher strength than a second path of the set of paths.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each person of at least one path for the set of paths is displayed on a single screen.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of persons are system-provided persons and the plurality of relationships are system-provided relationships.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a first path of the set of paths comprises a third person and a fourth person, wherein the third person and the fourth person are connected by a first relationship.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the first relationship comprises a familial relationship, an employment relationship, or a board member relationship.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising displaying the third person, the fourth person, and the first relationship.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of persons and the plurality of relationships are tracked in a social graph.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the plurality of persons are represented as nodes and the plurality of relationship are represented as edges.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying an executive summary of the first person.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the managing the social graph further comprises:

maintaining a plurality of ghost nodes in the social graph including a first ghost node that is representative of the user, wherein the system is capable of preventing the user from accessing information on a ghost node other than the first ghost node.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving unfiltered information from an on-line source comprising a plurality of news events;

filtering the unfiltered information to obtain information on entities;

filtering the unfiltered information to obtain filtered information on entities;

retrieving a plurality of ontology data structures from an ontology database, wherein each ontology data structure of the plurality of ontology data structures include a method of representing a relationship in an unstructured data format to a data format of the social graph and the data format of the social graph comprises information represented by at least one system-provided edge and at least two system-provided nodes;

selecting ontology data structures from the plurality of ontology data structures to represent the filtered information on entities; and

creating system-provided edges in the social graph to represented the filtered information on entities based on the selected ontology data structures.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second types of nodes are stored in a single social graph structure.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein managing the social graph further comprises:

allowing a plurality of users to provide a first information stored in the social graph structure of the system, wherein the first information from each user of the plurality of users is associated with a user-provided node representing the specific user; and

disallowing the plurality of users from providing a second information stored in the social graph structure of the system, wherein the second information from each user of the plurality of users is associated with a user-provided node other than the user.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein managing the social graph further comprises:

allowing a plurality of users to provide a first information stored in the social graph structure of the system, wherein the first information from each user of the plurality of users is associated with a user-provided node; and

disallowing the plurality of users from providing a second information stored in the social graph structure of the system, wherein the second information from each user of the plurality of users is associated with a system-provided node.

13. A method comprising:

allowing a user to select a first person and a second person tracked by a system;

providing a social graph comprising;

a first type of node, referred to as a user-provided node, and a first type of edge, referred to as a user-provided edge; and

a second type of node, referred to as a system-provided node, and a second type of edge, referred to as a system-provided edge;

using at least one electronic processor, managing the social graph comprising;

allowing system-provided nodes to be coupled to other system-provided nodes by system-provided edges, wherein system-provided nodes and system-provided edges include information gathered by the system;

allowing user-provided nodes to be coupled to system-provided nodes by user-provided edges include information supplied by users of the system;

disallowing user-provided nodes from being coupled to other user-provided nodes using system-provided edges;

disallowing user-provided nodes from being coupled to system-provided nodes using system-provided edges; and

disallowing system-provided nodes from being coupled to other system-provided nodes using user-provided edges;

determining a first system-provided node of the social graph represents the first person in the social graph;

determining a second system-provided node of the social graph represents the second person in the social graph;

aggregating a set of paths, wherein each path of the set of paths comprise a plurality of system-provided nodes, representing a plurality of persons, and a plurality of system-provided edges, representing relationships between the system-provided nodes, and the first person in a first position of the path represented in the social graph as the first system-provide node, and the second person in a last position of the path represented in the social graph as the second system-provide node;

formatting the set of paths by a strength of each path relative to each other path in the set of paths; and

displaying a first path of the formatted set of paths, wherein the first path comprises a plurality of persons and a plurality of relationships, each relationship of the plurality of relationships comprises an influence indicator based on the relationship, wherein determining the influence indicator comprises calculating a plurality of weights of each system-provided edge in a given path of the plurality of paths.

14. The method of claim 13 comprising displaying the plurality of relationships with a corresponding influence indicator for each of the plurality of relationships.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the first path comprises at least three relationships.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the displaying a first path of the formatted set of paths includes an executive summary of the first person.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

displaying a second path of the formatted set of paths after the first path, wherein the second path comprises a plurality of persons and a plurality of relationships and the first path is more relevant than the second path.

26. The method of claim 13 wherein the user is represented in the social graph as a first user-provided node and the first user-provided node is not directly coupled to the first system-provided node.

18. A method comprising:

allowing a user to select a first person and a second person tracked by a system;

providing a social graph comprising;

a first type of node, referred to as a user-provided node, and a first type of edge, referred to as a user-provided edge; and

a second type of node, referred to as a system-provided node, and a second type of edge, referred to as a system-provided edge;

using at least one electronic processor, managing the social graph comprising;

allowing system-provided nodes to be coupled to other system-provided nodes by system-provided edges, wherein system-provided nodes and system-provided edges include information gathered by the system;

allowing user-provided nodes to be coupled to system-provided nodes by user-provided edges include information supplied by users of the system;

disallowing user-provided nodes from being coupled to other user-provided nodes using system-provided edges;

disallowing user-provided nodes from being coupled to system-provided nodes using system-provided edges; and

disallowing system-provided nodes from being coupled to other system-provided nodes using user-provided edges;

aggregating a set of paths and determining a strength of each path of the set of paths, wherein each path is associated with a system-provided edge of the social graph; and

displaying a plurality of persons associated with a first path of the formatted set of paths, wherein each person of the plurality of persons is represented by a system-provided node of the social graph.

19. The method of claim 18 comprising displaying a relationship between a third person and a fourth person of the first path.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the relationship includes an influence indicator.