Social Network Hub Intermediary for Global Connection Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current online social networking websites are limited in their ability to connect users beyond their registered community, failing to demonstrate the 'small world' theory of six degrees of separation and lacking an open platform to reveal relationships across different social networks.
Innovation Solution
The system allows users to register and search for connections beyond their immediate network by designating 'hubs' and using a comprehensive database to map relationship paths, enabling users to discover connections with anyone, regardless of registration status, and facilitating revenue through advertising and partnerships.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If users are limited to registered communities only, then the system maintains data quality and verification accuracy, but the network connectivity and reachability to global individuals deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces 'hubs' as intermediary nodes that connect registered users to unregistered individuals. These hubs act as mediators who can verify relationships with people outside the registered community, thereby extending network reachability while maintaining verification accuracy through the hub's confirmation role.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the network into registered users, unregistered individuals, and hub connectors. This segmentation allows different verification mechanisms to apply to different segments: direct verification for registered users and hub-mediated verification for unregistered individuals, thus maintaining overall data quality while expanding reach.
2Reliability
If the system requires registration for all users, then relationship verification reliability is improved, but the ability to demonstrate six degrees of separation theory deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Hubs serve as trusted intermediaries who can attest to relationships with unregistered individuals. This allows the system to include people who haven't registered while maintaining reliability through the hub's verification, thereby enabling demonstration of six degrees of separation across the broader population.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows unregistered individuals to be included in relationship paths through the self-attestation mechanism where hubs vouch for their connections. This self-service approach enables participation without formal registration, expanding the system's ability to demonstrate global connectivity theories.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system maps comprehensive relationship paths globally, then network connectivity and small world theory demonstration improve, but data storage requirements and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the global relationship data into local community databases and hub connection data. Each local database stores only its community members' relationships, while hub data stores connections to unregistered individuals. This segmentation reduces overall system complexity and storage requirements compared to a centralized global database.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a temporal dimension to relationship mapping by allowing relationship paths to be constructed dynamically through hub intermediaries rather than pre-storing all possible paths. This dimensional change from static complete mapping to dynamic path construction reduces data storage requirements while maintaining global connectivity capability.
4Productivity
If hubs are designated with special privileges, then connection brokerage efficiency improves, but system fairness and user equality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of user capability rather than creating permanent hierarchical privileges. Hubs gain temporary special abilities to verify unregistered connections and access broader network paths, but these are functional parameters that serve the system's goal of demonstrating global connectivity rather than creating permanent inequality.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and computer program products for facilitating the operation of Internet-based (i.e., online) social networking sites are disclosed. Such methods and computer program products allow people to discover, explore and maintain relationship paths (i.e., links) with any other person in the world by utilizing the fact that every person has one or more “relationship paths” to everyone else through varying degrees of separation. The power of the Internet, via online social networking sites, is leveraged to build a comprehensive database revealing how each person is connected to everyone by designating certain users of the site as “hubs,”“gateways” and/or “connectors.”