Patent Application
20090198778
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to user communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to computer-mediated user communication.
2. Background Art
The rapid growth in the use of computers to mediate virtual interactions amongst users is beginning to redefine the social importance of these systems. Once regarded as isolating, albeit useful, information management and commercial tools, computers are increasingly valued as gateways to virtual socialization venues. The popularity of websites such as MySpace and Facebook demonstrate the growing relevance of Internet-based virtual communities, for example, as alternatives for social networking. As those popular Internet resources show, changes in the demographics of computer users to include a younger, more diverse population comfortable with technology, has led to computer-mediated virtual communities becoming true alternatives to real world communities for young people seeking to form casual social relationships.
The proliferation of socialization opportunities arising from the use of computers to access virtual communities has many potential benefits. Among those may be counted the benefits to young computer users from the broadening and tolerance engendering exposure to socialization partners of different ethnicities, as well as to socialization partners residing in geographically far removed locations, or those living under very different economic or political conditions. There can also be unpleasant or undesirable consequences resulting from socialization in a virtual forum, however, due in part to the remoteness of the interaction. Distance, as well as perhaps divergence in social mores, may lead to misunderstanding, insult, or simply uncivil expression of ideas. Unfortunately, those consequences are especially undesirable for the young and perhaps socially inexperienced computer users most likely to utilize virtual social venues.
A conventional approach to controlling communications in a virtual community has been to utilize language filters to identify and redact disallowed words. Conventionally, if a message contains words identified as offensive or unacceptable, its content is altered either by deletion of the inappropriate words, or their replacement by ellipses or other placeholders. While perhaps effective in imposing a crude level of censorship on communications exchanged in a virtual community, conventional approaches makes little or no attempt to improve the overall quality of discourse occurring there. This deficiency in conventional approaches to controlling communications in a virtual community is particularly unfortunate, because it causes an opportunity to educate younger users about good communication protocol to be missed. Moreover, because many of those same young users consider virtual socialization to be qualitatively indistinguishable from real world social interaction, failing to foster positive communication habits in the virtual realm also misses the socially useful opportunity to encourage civility in other aspects of the lives of young computer users.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a solution for managing communication amongst users of a virtual community that protects those users from inappropriate communications while also shaping and elevating the level of discourse occurring there.
There are provided methods and systems for managing discourse in a virtual community, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.
The features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present application is directed to a method and system for managing discourse in a virtual community. The following description contains specific information pertaining to the implementation of the present invention. One skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be implemented in a manner different from that specifically discussed in the present application. Moreover, some of the specific details of the invention are not discussed in order not to obscure the invention. The specific details not described in the present application are within the knowledge of a person of ordinary skill in the art. The drawings in the present application and their accompanying detailed description are directed to merely exemplary embodiments of the invention. To maintain brevity, other embodiments of the invention, which use the principles of the present invention, are not specifically described in the present application and are not specifically illustrated by the present drawings. It should be borne in mind that, unless noted otherwise, like or corresponding elements among the figures may be indicated by like or corresponding reference numerals.
Users 138a and 138b may be users utilizing virtual community server 110 to send messages to other users of the virtual community, or they may be recipient users receiving messages mediated by virtual community server 110. According to the embodiment of
Forbidden content database 112, stored on virtual community server 110, may include a plurality of key expressions associated with virtual community forbidden communications. For example, a plurality of key expressions comprising individual words, word combinations, and/or phrases may be utilized as a reference database by discourse management software application 116, when examining a message for forbidden communications, such as insults, slurs, salacious comments, or the like. Corrective content database 114, also stored on community server 110, may include a plurality of corrective prompts designed to instruct a user regarding rules of discourse in the virtual community, or guide the user to allowed alternatives to some of the plurality key expressions, for use in future communications.
Discourse management software application 116 is configured to edit the message received from virtual community user 138a or 138b communicating through client computers 130a or 130b, respectively, by deleting the entire message or filtering any of the plurality of key expressions identified in the message, and to determine a corresponding corrective prompt to the message sender, thereby managing discourse in the virtual community. In one embodiment, after the entire message is deleted and prevented from reaching the intended the recipient, discourse management software application 116 does not inform the message sender that the message was prevented from reaching the intended recipient. Alternatively, discourse management software application 116 may inform the message sender that the message was prevented from reaching the intended recipient, as part of the corrective prompts. Although in the embodiment of
As shown in
Some embodiments of the present invention will now be further described by reference to
Continuing to
Turning now to
Referring to step 310 of flowchart 300, and system 100 in
The exemplary method of flowchart 300 continues with step 320, which comprises examining the message for key expressions associated with virtual community forbidden communications. Step 320 may be performed on virtual community server 110, for example, using discourse management software application 116 and referring to a plurality of key expressions stored in forbidden content database 112. Comparison of the content of an examined message with the plurality of key expressions stored in forbidden content database 112 enables discourse management application software 116 to identify key expressions contained in the message.
Looking at the exemplary messages shown in
Flowchart 300 continues with step 330, comprising editing the message to delete the entire message or filter the identified key expressions. Editing the message may occur in one of several ways, or may proceed using a combination of several techniques. In one embodiment, editing may comprise deleting an identified key expression from the message. In another embodiment, editing may comprise deleting an entire sentence or a portion in which at least one key expression is identified. In yet another embodiment, a combination of the previous techniques may be applied depending on criteria such as the number of key expressions identified, and/or their locations within a sentence or message, for example. Alternatively, in some embodiments, identification of one or more key expressions associated with virtual community forbidden content may cause the entire message to be suppressed, preventing delivery of a substantial portion of it to its intended recipient users.
Step 340 of flowchart 300 comprises determining corrective prompts, to be sent to the message sender, corresponding to the one or more key expressions identified during examination of the message in step 320. As shown in
Moving now to step 350 of flowchart 300, step 350 comprises issuing the corrective prompt to the virtual community user. Referring to
Thus, the present application discloses a method and system for managing discourse in a virtual community. By examining a message received at a virtual community server to identify one or more of a plurality of key expressions associated with forbidden content, various embodiments of the present invention enables control over the type of discourse occurring in the virtual community. By deleting the entire message, or editing the message to filter the identified key expressions, the disclosed embodiments of the present invention protect recipient users from exposure to forbidden communications. By further issuing one or more corrective prompts to the user sending the message, embodiments of the present invention promote positive social interaction, and serve to elevate the level of discourse in the virtual community.
From the above description of the invention it is manifest that various techniques can be used for implementing the concepts of the present invention without departing from its scope. Moreover, while the invention has been described with specific reference to certain embodiments, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention. It should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of many rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the scope of the invention.
