Social Event Notification via User Affinity Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional online calendaring tools fail to leverage social information to help users decide on attending events and are inadequate for organizing extemporaneous plans between social networking system users.
Innovation Solution
A social networking system that structures notifications by using user affinities to encourage attendance, where event creation is based on communications between users, and notifications are sent to unaccepted invitees about other users' responses, with different responses being published on event walls or news feeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional online calendaring tools are used to distribute invitations and track invitees, then the basic event scheduling function is achieved, but the tools fail to leverage social information to help users decide whether to attend events
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by notifying users of other users' responses to invitations. When a user receives an invitation, they are notified when invited connections accept or decline, providing social proof that influences their decision-making process. This feedback loop transforms static invitation tracking into dynamic social information sharing.
Solution Approach 2:
The notification system segments information delivery by targeting specific user groups differently. The system identifies invited connections and provides them with tailored notifications about their connections' responses, while the event creator receives comprehensive attendance information. This segmentation ensures relevant social information reaches the right users.
2Quantity of substance
If conventional calendaring tools share invitations broadly, then visibility is increased, but they are inadequate for organizing extemporaneous plans between social networking system users
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts invitation distribution based on the planning context. For extemporaneous plans, invitations are automatically shared with the event creator's invited connections through notifications, rather than requiring pre-configured broad distribution. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt to different planning scenarios including last-minute events.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides self-service functionality where the invitation sharing mechanism automatically identifies and notifies relevant connections without requiring manual configuration. When an event is created, the system autonomously determines which users should receive notifications based on their connection to the event creator, enabling rapid extemporaneous planning.
3Loss of information
If users are notified of all invitation responses, then complete information is provided, but the notification system becomes complex and overwhelming
Solution Approach 1:
The notification system applies local quality by providing differentiated information to different user groups. Invited connections receive notifications specifically about their connections' responses, while event creators receive comprehensive attendance information. This localized information delivery reduces complexity for individual users while maintaining complete information availability system-wide.
Data Source
AI summary
A social networking system identifies an event based on a thread including messages from users of the social networking system and communicates invitations to the event to one or more invited users. The social networking system receives a response to an invitation from a responding user and identifies a group of users invited to the event that have not responded to the invitation. From the users invited to the event that have not responded to the invitation, a subset of users having a threshold affinity to the responding user are selected. The social networking system notifies the subset of users of the responding user's response to the invitation and may also provide the subset of users with a suggestion for attending the event.