525 results about "Social internet of things" patented technology

A method and apparatus for calculating, displaying and acting upon relationships in a social network is described. A computer system collects descriptive data about various individuals and allows those individuals to indicate other individuals with whom they have a personal relationship. The descriptive data and the relationship data are integrated and processed to reveal the series of social relationships connecting any two individuals within a social network. The pathways connecting any two individuals can be displayed. Further, the social network itself can be displayed to any number of degrees of separation. A user of the system can determine the optimal relationship path (i.e., contact pathway) to reach desired individuals. A communications tool allows individuals in the system to be introduced (or introduce themselves) and initiate direct communication.

Embodiments of a location-based social network manager process are described. The process is executed on a server computer coupled to a plurality of location-aware mobile communication devices over a wireless network. The process determines the geographic location of a mobile communication device operated by a user within an area, displays a map representation of the area around the mobile communication device on a graphical user interface of the mobile communication device, and superimposes on the map the respective locations of one or more other users of mobile communication devices coupled to the mobile communication device over the network. The process establishes communication links between the user and the plurality of acquaintances through respective location aware mobile communication devices through a network protocol. The process facilitates the sharing information about places of interest among a plurality of users. The system stores location information for a place of interest in a region in a database along with information related to the place of interest. The location of the place of interest is displayed on each user's mobile communication device as an icon superimposed on the map shown on the display. The location of the users can be established with respect to their distance relative to a place of interest. Users can define their own places of interest as well as provide a quantitative or qualitative ranking for places of interest within a region. This information can then be shared with other users in the network.

A method, apparatus, and system are directed towards seeding a user's contacts for their online social network. The invention is arranged to automatically recommend to the user a set of seed contacts that the user may employ to invite to join their social network. The set of seed contacts may be harvested from the user's existing portal activities, as well as other sources. In one embodiment, the invention analyzes portal activity, such as email exchanges with the user, and the like, to determine a frequency of contact with the user. Other sources may include but not be limited to emails, names within an address book of the user, names within an address book of another person, a buddy list, an instant messaging list, an activity, a mailing list, an online discussion group, a membership in a category, chat group, and the like.

Disclosed is a method and structure that identifies relationships between users of a computerized network. The method extracts relationship information from databases in the network. The information includes address book information, calendar information, event information, to-do list information, journal information, and / or e-mail information. The invention evaluates the relationship information to produce relationship ratings of the users of the network. The invention determines the level of reciprocity of relations between different users; a longevity of relations between the different users; how current relations are between the different users; a frequency of relations between the different users; a level of exclusivity of relations between the different users; a level of complexity of relations between the different users; and / or a proximity of the different users.

A system and method for determining a social network. A metrics database stores virtual object indicia including document attributes, activities, and associated persons. A query engine responsive to a user request and the metrics database infers individual connections to the virtual object by individuals executing the activities. A visualization engine visualizes membership in the social network as including these individuals and the activities connecting them. The query engine further collects a plurality of documents having non-unique values on a first shared attribute into an aggregate, and the visualization engine further filters the social network to include only individuals having membership in the aggregate.

A system and method provide a mechanism for integrating social networks and for integrating voice communication with social networks. This is accomplished by an automatic importation mechanism that unifies data from multiple social networks without user intervention. A process is used that creates a universal identity for a user and a table for cross-referencing all of the user identities in different social networks. In addition, a process allows users linked in one communication mode may communicate in a second communication mode. The system includes software portions for enabling the method.

A novel system and method of predicting a user's rating of a new item in a collaborative filtering system is described. The invention incorporates social network information in addition to user ratings to make recommendations. The distance between users in the social network is used to enhance the estimate of user similarities for collaborative filtering. The social network can be constructed explicitly by users or deduced implicitly from observed interaction between users.

A mobile device, system, and method are directed towards sharing multimedia information on a mobile device based at least in part on vitality information and other social networking information. Multimedia information may be received and / or synchronized on the mobile device based on a relationship between vitality information of members of a social network. The relationship may comprise a common membership in a group, a common multimedia usage behavior, a geographical proximity of members of the social network, a degree of separation of members of the social network, a common search behavior, or the like. Multimedia information captured on the mobile device may be manually and / or automatically annotated and shared with members of the social network. The multimedia information may be displayed in an integrated live view in conjunction with other social networking information.

A method and system for associating a discussion thread with content uploaded to a social networking environment is disclosed. When a first user uploads content, an alert, in the form of an e-mail message or a link on a Web page, is transmitted to one or more second users to inform them of the content. The first user assigns access control criterion defining the second users to whom the alert is sent. Optionally, access control criteria define second users who can submit comments to the discussion thread. Second users submit comments by replying to the alert or by selecting a link on a Web page containing the content. The social networking environment maintains a Web page containing messages sent to a user. The user filters the messages based on a proximity index, relationship designators, group designators and / or tier designators.

Described is a system and method for receiving personal profile data from a plurality of participants, wherein each participant is a member of a virtual community. Generating a participant profile for each of the participants as a function of the personal profile data corresponding to each participant, rating each participant as a function of an activity level within the virtual community and providing additional features to participants achieving a pre-determined rating.

A system and method for providing online insurance quotes to a client on a social network web site includes an insurance server adapted to execute a coverage calculator application and an insurance database in communication with the insurance server for storing a plurality of personas, a plurality of insurance coverage options associated with each persona, and a price quote associated with each insurance coverage option. The system is in communication with a platform application on the social network web site. The platform application is in communication with a social network database for storing user content of the social network client. In one embodiment, the platform application uses an inference engine to query the user content of the social network client and return a set of inferred characteristics. The coverage calculator application selects a persona in response to the set of inferred characteristics and selects one of the insurance coverage options in response to the selected persona.

Electronic data files are broadly characterized as “messages” and a social network is constructed by analyzing one or more messages exchanged between various entities. Additionally, messages from structured and / or unstructured data stores are correlated using one or more common / related data elements from two or more messages. Further, the social network and the concepts contained in the exchanged messages (i.e. semantic network) can be visualized using a series of multi-aspect viewing tools. Finally, in conjunction with the social network and the semantic network, a message network based on the chronological relationship of the messages (event network) can be constructed to analyze and visualize how the messages relate to each other in a time-based reference model. Once visualized, the relationship of the concepts contained in the messages as well as the relationship between the entities and the timing involved in the exchange of messages can be analyzed for desired information.

A method to easily, quickly and visually identify experts, relevant tags, information associated with the experts, important topics, and emerging trends without some of the disadvantages of the prior art is disclosed. The present invention provides a novel user interface that connects general queries, users, tags, and information sources together.

A method for enabling intelligence at the edge. Features include: triggering by sensor data in a software layer hosted on either a gateway device or an embedded system. Software layer is connected to a local-area network. A repository of services, applications, and data processing engines is made accessible by the software layer. Matching the sensor data with semantic descriptions of occurrence of specific conditions through an expression language made available by the software layer. Automatic discovery of pattern events by continuously executing expressions. Intelligently composing services and applications across the gateway device and embedded systems across the network managed by the software layer for chaining applications and analytics expressions. Optimizing the layout of the applications and analytics based on resource availability. Monitoring the health of the software layer. Storing of raw sensor data or results of expressions in a local time-series database or cloud storage. Services and components can be containerized to ensure smooth running in any gateway environment.

A mobile device, system, and method are directed towards enabling an integrated display of live views. The integrated live views are generated by employing social networking information, including moods of a person, avatars, status of a member's activities including whether they are in an IM session, or the like. Integrated live views may include a live contact list, a group view, a friend view, an activity oriented view, a list of content, or the like, based on the mobile user's social networking information. By providing the mobile user with integrated live views of their social network, the mobile user may be able communicate with other members within the mobile social networking context, to obtain, and respond to invites from a social network member, provide opportunities for activities to other members, to grow their social network, and to consume content that is displayed relative to their social network.

Methods of applying adaptive social computing systems are disclosed. The social computing systems include capabilities to generate adaptive recommendations and representations of social networks derived, at least in part, from inferences of the preferences and interests of system users based on a plurality of usage behaviors, spanning a plurality of usage behavior categories. The behavioral categories include system navigation behaviors, content referencing behaviors, collaborative behaviors, and the monitoring of physical location and changes in location. Privacy control functions and compensatory functions related to insincere usage behaviors can be applied. Adaptive recommendation delivery can take the form of visual-based or audio-based formats.

A system for a plurality of users to share resources with access, control and configuration based on pre-defined relationships of trust between the users of the system. A computer-based authority provides the services of authentication, identification and verification of each user within network. Processes are described that leads to the formation of an electronic community, which facilitates electronic communication and transactions in a defined manner.

A web site for user suggestions of products, services or other information. The Suggestor also submits tags with those suggestions. To the extent subsequent users use the same tags to access or purchase the user suggestion, the suggesting user will be rewarded. The present invention also provides mechanisms for disbursing rewards for “finding-and-buying-thru-tags”, ranking suggestions, enabling various privacy preserving communications and deal validation mechanisms among shoppers, Suggestors and their social networks.

A computer-implemented method for identifying a potential reference is disclosed. In one embodiment, a user interface (UI) object (e.g., a one-click reference search button) is provided, for example, on a web page displayed at a user's client device. When selected, the UI object causes a reference search query to be generated. The search query identifies the user performing the search, and a target person for whom the user would like a reference. The search query is communicated to, and processed by, a social networking system (e.g., through an API function call). In turn, the social networking system returns information about potential references to the client.

A computer implemented method and system enable users to create a social network providing access to other users. By providing access to such networks via a visual presentation, the system renders content available for access by other network members. Access is sometimes provided through propagation of metadata or other uniquely identifying indicia associated with the social network to all or at least certain other network members.

Computerized methods and systems are provided for enabling electronic introductions of users of an online community. In one embodiment, a user may select a subset of users in his social network via a graphical or web interface to request that they be introduced. These users can be introduced electronically and invited or made to join each other's respective social networks.

The embodiments of the present system include a review engine that is connected to support modules and databases that receive, store and retrieve reviews, based upon the subject and the users' relationship to the authors of the reviews. The review engine comprises a social network engine, a rate and rank engine, a credentials engine and a privacy engine. These engines allow reviews to be sorted, filtered and ordered in terms of relevance when presented to the user. Numerous methods are also provided by the system that receive, store and retrieve reviews.

Embodiments of a location-based social network manager process are described. The process is executed on a server computer coupled to a plurality of mobile communication devices over a wireless network. Each mobile device is a location-aware mobile communication device. The process determines the geographic location of a mobile communication device operated by a user within an area, displays a map representation of the area around the mobile communication device on a graphical user interface of the mobile communication device, and superimposes on the map the respective locations of one or more other users of mobile communication devices coupled to the mobile communication device over the network. The process establishes communication links between the user and the plurality of acquaintances through respective location aware mobile communication devices through a network protocol. The user can create one or more groups of acquaintances based on one or more characteristics common to members of each group. The process facilitates the transmission of a user specified message or a pre-defined message to one or more acquaintances of the groups of acquaintances within a pre-defined distance to the user. The contents of the user specified message and pre-defined message is based on the characteristics of the group and the relative distance of the members to the user. The process can also be configured to automatically transmit a message to a user who is within a pre-defined distance to a point of interest within the displayed area.

The present invention relates to methods of advertising, social networking systems, and individualized profiles located within social networking systems. According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method of advertising within a Social Networking System is provided, which is carried out by providing a group of users with access to a Social Networking System, wherein the Social Networking System provides each of its users with individualized profiles. The method further includes providing at least one “Social Network E-Commerce and Advertisement Tracking System” (referred to herein as “SNEATS” or “SNEATS server”), wherein the SNEATS server provides each user of the Social Networking System with the ability to access and incorporate one or more advertising objects into his or her individualized profile. In other embodiments, the SNEATS server provides third party vendors with the ability to access and incorporate one or more advertising objects into a user's individualized profile, provided such advertising objects are acceptable to such user. Upon incorporating an advertising object into an individualized profile, users of the Social Networking System may activate such advertising object, which causes an advertising scheme to be launched (e.g., an image, flash file, or secondary website) that promotes a particular good or service. The invention provides that, upon activating such advertising object, the user affiliated with the individualized profile that contains such advertising object is awarded advertising revenue.

Methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for generating a social network graph to model one or more social networks of related authors of online social media and their corresponding posts of online social media conversations relevant to subject matter of interest in a category. Embodiments are configured to harvest and aggregate posts of online social media conversations from one or more online social media sources; to perform content scraping on the posts of online social media conversations to obtain raw data that includes user-profile information of a social media author corresponding to each individual post of online social media conversations; and performing social network analysis processing on the raw data to obtain the social network graph.

Systems and methods are provided that enable searches of social networks by acting as a “compass” that assists users in navigating the social network. Individual user participation is not required in response to queries from other users. The systems and methods offer navigational assistance or information as opposed to a traditional search which returns requested information, thus currently acceptable social mechanisms for arbitrating trust can be exploited. As a result, users do not make their personal information publicly searchable, while at the same time, they are protected from potential misrepresentations of facts.

The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates self-regulation of a social network system based at least in part on user behavior, and in particular on good or desirable user behavior. The system and method involve monitoring user behavior such as user activity and user interactions with other users and the network itself. Several factors can be weighed to determine whether the user behavior is good. Network assets or rights can be allocated to good users in the form of gifts or trade exchange opportunities whereas less desirable or bad users may not receive such gifts or trade opportunities or assets and rights might be revoked from them. By watching user behavior and promoting good behavior in this manner, the social network can be managed and self-regulated to optimize the utilization and distribution of both limited and unlimited assets (e.g., network created and user created assets or resources).

A method is provided for automatically and efficiently propagating information using previously established social methods of communication (e.g., email, instant messaging (IM), social network message posting, and short message services). In conjunction with the method, a system for collecting and disseminating information on a social network is provided, which includes: (a) a server for providing a user interface (e.g., a user facing web site) which allows a user to exchange information with one or more external services, wherein the information exchange includes receiving a message from the user that the user intends to disseminate through the external services; (b) a message module which prepares the message received from the user for dissemination; and (c) a communication module coupled to the user interface, the message module and the external services to mediate the information exchange between the user and the external services.

An adaptive system applied to social network and process network applications is disclosed. These adaptive social networking and tagging systems, and adaptive process network systems, apply algorithms for monitoring user usage behaviors across a plurality of usage behavior categories associated with a computer-based system, and generating recommendations based on inferences on user preferences and interests based, at least in part, on usage behaviors. Additional functions for effectively and efficiently managing social and process networks, such as social network measurement and analysis features, community tagging functions, and process network recombination functions are also described.