Audience Management in Social Networking Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current social networking systems do not allow tagged users to expand the audience of a content item beyond the audience defined by the author, limiting the ability to replicate or share content as intended in real-world social interactions.
Innovation Solution
A communication management system within a social networking environment where the author defines a first audience for a content item and the tagged user defines a second audience, allowing the union of these audiences to view and interact with the content item, enabling the tagged user to expand the audience without the author's consent.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the author alone defines the audience for a content item, then the author maintains control over content distribution, but the tagged user cannot expand the audience beyond the author's defined scope
Solution Approach 1:
The audience management system is segmented into multiple independent components: the author's audience definition, the tagged user's audience definition, and a merging mechanism that combines both audiences. This segmentation allows each party to independently control their portion of the audience management while the system integrates them, resolving the contradiction between control and expansion capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the author's audience definition with the tagged user's audience definition to create a combined audience set. This merging mechanism enables the tagged user to expand the content's reach while the author retains control over their originally defined audience, thus allowing audience expansion without losing author control.
2Quantity of substance
If the tagged user can expand the audience, then the content reach increases, but the author loses control over who views the content
Solution Approach 1:
The author performs preliminary action by defining their audience before the tagged user expands it. The system preserves the author's original audience definition as a baseline, then allows the tagged user to add to this established foundation. This preliminary action ensures the author's control intent is captured before expansion occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system acts as an intermediary between the author and tagged user, managing the audience definition process. It receives audience definitions from both parties, merges them according to established rules, and presents the combined result. This intermediary mechanism ensures both parties' intentions are respected while enabling audience expansion.
Data Source
AI summary
A social networking system manages the accessibility of content items provided by users and directed to various audiences in the social networking system. An author provides the social networking system with a content item, a content item tag indicating an association between the content item and a tagged user, and a definition of a first audience who may view the content item. The social networking system then allows the tagged user to provide a definition of a second audience who may view the content item, where the second audience may contains users who are not in the first audience defined by the original author. The social networking system then determines whether a viewing user may view the posted content item (and tag) based on whether the viewing user is in at least one of the first audience and the second audience.