Visualization of participant relationships and sentiment for electronic messaging

• US 9,076,125 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Manolescu, Dragos A., Pope, Matthew Jason, Ozzie, Raymond E., Meijer, Henricus Johannes Maria, Jones, F. David, Czerwinski, Mary P.
• Primary Examiner(s): PENG, HUAWEN A
• Application Number:
  US12/394,251
• Publication Number:
  US 20100223581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,321 Days
• Field of Search: 707/700, 715/853, 709/225
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Providing for graphical visualization of contextual information pertinent to electronic messaging is described herein. By way of example, contextual network usage information or messaging disposition can be determined for a set of participants to electronic communication. The contextual information is compiled into categories and organized at least as a function of category. The compiled data can be transformed into a visualization of user disposition or context and output to a user device as a multi-dimensional graphical rendering. By rendering contextual data graphically, the rich and diverse information available from usage histories, current user context and user dispositions can be output and consumed rapidly and efficiently, resulting in productive electronic interaction.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;

an analysis component that is stored in the memory and that is configured to evaluate an electronic message and identify participants to the electronic message;

a database that is configured to organize contextual data for each of the participants, the contextual data of each of the participants being based at least in part on the evaluation of the electronic message, the contextual data of each of the participants indicating a preferred electronic messaging application that is utilized by the participant; and

a graphics component that is stored in the memory and that is configured to transform the contextual data for each of the participants into a multi-dimensional visualization, the multi-dimensional visualization displaying visual representations that each correspond to one or more of the participants, the visual representations being organized into a first group and a second group, the first group of visual representations representing one or more of the participants that utilize a first type of electronic messaging application, the second group of visual representations representing one or more of the participants that utilize a second type of messaging application.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a rendering component configured to display the multi-dimensional visualization at a user interface display of at least one of the participants.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a feedback component configured to output suggested changes to message content or a participant list based on the contextual data of at least one of the participants.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the graphics component is configured to emphasize context within the multi-dimensional visualization to support the suggested changes.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the multi-dimensional visualization displays the visual representations arranged as nodes of a connectivity map, where positions of the nodes are based upon similarity of contextual data of each of the participants.

6. The system of claim 2,

wherein the contextual data for each of the participants further indicates the participant'"'"'s usage of electronic messaging, and the system further comprises:

a relevance component configured to weight, for at least one of the participants, the participant'"'"'s usage of electronic messaging with a degree of relatedness to a message initiator,

wherein the multi-dimensional visualization is organized based on the weighted participant'"'"'s usage of electronic messaging, or

the visualization is annotated with the weighted participant'"'"'s usage of electronic messaging.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a tracking component configured to monitor user response of at least one of the participants to the electronic message and compile or capture sentiment data based on the monitored user response, the sentiment data indicating a sentiment of the at least one of the participants toward the electronic message; and

a data server configured to submit the sentiment data to the database.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the contextual data of each of the participants further indicates a likelihood of receipt of the electronic message by the participant, the contextual data being based at least in part on an activity schedule of the participant that is obtained from a data source.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the user response is based on or includes at least one of:

biometric sensor data of the at least one of the participants;

opening, deleting, replying to or forwarding the electronic message, or an order thereof;

delay in opening, deleting, replying to or forwarding the electronic message, after receipt of the electronic message;

adding or deleting participants in a response or a forward of the electronic message;

an identity and context of added or deleted participants, relative to a recipient;

content or context of a response to the electronic message;

explicit user input from the at least one of the participants;

or

a combination thereof.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the contextual data further indicates one or more of:

a physical location or local time of the participant;

a device or application that the participant is logged onto a network with;

a preferred time of day that the participant reads or responds to messages;

a statistical characterization of the participant'"'"'s messaging activity;

or

explicit participant input.

11. A method, comprising:

analyzing content of and identifying participants to an electronic message;

referencing contextual data for each of the participants, the contextual data of each of the participants indicating a preferred electronic messaging application that is utilized by the participant;

transforming the contextual data for each of the participants into a multi-dimensional visualization, the multi-dimensional visualization displaying visual representations that each correspond to one or more of the participants, the visual representations being positioned according to a type of electronic messaging application that is used, the visual representations including a first visual representation for a participant of the participants that uses a first type of electronic messaging application and a second visual representation for a participant of the participants that uses a second type of electronic messaging application; and

outputting the multi-dimensional visualization for display at a user interface employed by at least one of the participants.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

recommending a change to message content or message recipients based on the contextual data.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

highlighting a portion of information within the multi-dimensional visualization, the portion of information being associated with the recommended change.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating a connectivity map for the participants of the communication based on prior messaging between the participants, or prior communications in a chain of messages associated with the electronic message, and displaying the connectivity map with the electronic message.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

customizing the connectivity map for a particular participant, the particular participant being a central node of the customized map.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

monitoring a response of at least one of the participants to the electronic message and determining from the response a sentiment of the at least one of the participants.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating, for each of the participants, sentiment data indicating a sentiment of at least one of the participants; and

transforming the generated sentiment data of each of the participants into a visualization of recipient message sentiment.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the transforming the contextual data into the multi-dimensional visualization includes identifying a common sentiment from among the generated sentiments of each of the participants, and spatially or temporally clustering individual sentiments based on relevance to the common sentiment.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

analyzing the contextual data to identify a most prevalent context or disposition for the participants; and

establishing the most prevalent context or disposition as a central node of a connectivity map and organizing contexts or dispositions of the participants spatially around the central node based on the commonality between each of the contexts or dispositions of the participants to the most prevalent context or disposition.

20. A visualization system, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;

an analysis component that is stored in the memory and that is configured to identify participants of an electronic message;

a database that is configured to organize contextual data for each of the participants, the contextual data indicating inter-relationships between the participants;

a tracking component that is stored in the memory and that is configured to;

monitor participant response to the electronic message, the monitoring including determining (i) whether the electronic message is opened, deleted, or forwarded and (ii) an amount of time from receiving the electronic message to opening, deleting, or forwarding the electronic message, and

compile sentiment data based on the monitored participant response, the sentiment data indicating participant sentiment toward the electronic message;

a relevance component that is stored in the memory and that is configured to employ the inter-relationships to weight participant sentiment for each of the participants based on a degree of association to a message initiator; and

a graphics component that is stored in the memory and that is configured to transform a subset of the weighted sentiment into a multi-dimensional visualization of participant sentiment toward the electronic message.