Contact Strength Measurement via Communication Metadata Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems fail to effectively measure and compare the strength of an individual's connections, as they do not allow for the determination of who has a specific contact, the strength of connections, communication frequency, or the active status of contacts, and lack a method for determining contacts without a contact list or across an entire organization.
Innovation Solution
A system that collects and stores contact information from mobile devices, including first name, title, company, email, and phone numbers, and determines the strength of contacts based on communication types and frequency, allowing users to search for contacts and view their strength ratings without user intervention, and calculates organizational relationship strength by aggregating individual contact ratings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If contact information is manually entered into mobile devices, then contact lists can be maintained, but it is difficult to measure connection strength and compare contacts across individuals
Solution Approach 1:
A centralized server acts as an intermediary between multiple mobile devices, collecting contact information and communication data automatically. The server performs the complex task of analyzing communication patterns, frequency, and reciprocity to calculate contact strength scores, eliminating the need for manual tracking while providing precise measurements across the entire network of contacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical process of entering and tracking contact information is replaced with automated electronic data collection. The system automatically captures communication metadata (calls, messages, emails) and uses algorithmic processing to determine contact strength, substituting human effort with computational analysis.
2Loss of information
If contact lists are synchronized across devices, then contact availability improves, but there is no indication of contact activity status or communication frequency
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors communication patterns and provides feedback about contact activity status. By analyzing the frequency, recency, and type of communications, the system generates dynamic indicators showing whether contacts are active, inactive, or have been recently contacted, giving users real-time insights into contact engagement levels.
3Measurement precision
If communication data is tracked to determine contact strength, then connection quality can be measured, but the system requires automated data collection without user intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The system leverages existing communication infrastructure and automatically collects data from routine business communications without requiring users to manually input information. The mobile device and server work together to self-collect call logs, message exchanges, and email communications, automatically processing this data to generate contact strength metrics.
4Ease of operation
If contact information is stored centrally, then search functionality improves, but organizational relationship strength across the entire organization cannot be determined
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges individual contact strength data from multiple users into aggregate organizational metrics. By combining communication patterns across the entire organization, it calculates overall relationship strength between the organization and external contacts, as well as internal relationship strengths, providing both individual and organizational-level insights simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
The method allows users of mobile devices or desktop/laptops in an organization to perform a search on a collated list of contacts for a particular contact and determine who, within the system/organization, may have that contact in their list. Contact lists from individual mobile devices are collated and stored and are searchable. A rating for the strength of each contact in a user's mobile contact list is made by determining the type of contact that the user uses to communicate with the contact and by the frequency with which the user communicates with the contact. This can be done across the contacts for the entire organization. The organization can also determine the strength of the contact list of someone in the organization or the relative strength of each contact.