Patent Application
20090099854
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to social network connections. More particularly, the present invention relates to a self-monitoring system of reciprocal benefit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A person's social network can be important for improving a person's personal life, such as in finding people with similar interests, making new friends, and finding a mate. However, social networks can be of increased importance for a person's professional life at particular points in one's life or for certain segments of society. Recent college graduates, for example, typically find it difficult to transition from their lives as college students into lives in their chosen career. One of the primary difficulties in this transition is in finding a job, as college graduates typically have little or no work experience. Furthermore, in addition to help in finding a job, many recent college graduates rely on their social network connections for career advice.
In one embodiment, an indication that a first user of a social network has performed an action relating to helping a second user of the social network is received. Then a number of points is awarded to the first user based on the action performed. Then a web page is delivered to a third user, wherein the web page contains an identification of the first user and a representation of the number of points the first user has been awarded, wherein the number of points the first user has been awarded are delivered in a way that allows them to be used to benefit the first user.
Reference will now be made in detail to specific embodiments of the invention including the best modes contemplated by the inventors for carrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention is described in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to the described embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In the following description, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In addition, well known features may not have been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention.
In accordance with the present invention, the components, process steps, and/or data structures may be implemented using various types of operating systems, computing platforms, computer programs, and/or general purpose machines. In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that devices of a less general purpose nature, such as hardwired devices, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or the like, may also be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
A social network may be established to represent sets of nodes with varying degrees of separation. These nodes may be arranged with directed edges that establish connections between the nodes. The nodes can represent persons, locations, entities, information and the like. Connections may even be weighed based on relationship strength or other factors.
The social network may be overseen by a single entity or by multiple entities. Data relating to the social network may be stored in one or more servers accessible via the Internet. Users may then interact with web pages describing themselves and other users of the social network. Operations performed by the users with respect to the social network may be executed by the one or more servers. These operations may include modification of user profiles, communications with other users, and reviewing other user's profiles, among others.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, connections between people are mapped and the individuals may be assigned points for performing good deeds with respect to other nodes within the social network. These points may be utilized in many different ways. A user's points may be displayed for others to see. This can have direct benefit to the user, but may also benefit the users doing the viewing. For example, a job recruiter may take the number of “good deed” points that a candidate has in determining whether or not to offer a job interview in an interview schedule having limited spots. Likewise a potential date may be more likely to agree to go out with a user having a large number of “good deed” points. Additionally, advice or news information offered by a user having a large number of “good deed” points may be favored over advice or news information offered by users having few or no “good deed” points.
The reward for good deed points may alternatively be more automated. For example, if a job recruiter performs a search for potential job candidates, the system may select to display only those potential candidates with the highest number of good deed points. In another example, the job recruiter may select to rank the potential job candidates by their numbers of good deed points.
Points may be awarded for a variety of good deeds. This may include getting a job for another member of the social network, giving advice to another member, helping fix a resume, providing suggestions on careers, connecting one user to another, etc. As such, the term “good deed” shall be interpreted to mean any action that helps another member of the social network and does not directly result in a financial gain for the person performing the good deed. This definition helps to distinguish the good deed from, for example, a business transaction.
The good deed points may be accumulated and tracked in many different ways. In one embodiment, a server maintains good deed point totals for members of the social network. In another embodiment, good deed point totals may be encrypted and stored on the member's computer.
In another example, Fred emails Laurie for career advice. A field is then inserted into the bottom of Laurie's return email asking Fred to rate how “helpful” Laurie's advice has been. Laurie's good deed point total may then rise (or lower) based upon the rating that Fred has assigned. Subsequent emails from Fred to other people looking for advice may contain similar fields, and Fred's good deed point total may be adjusted based upon their ratings as well. In some embodiments, it may also be beneficial to limit the number that a good deed point total can be altered by a single user's ratings. For example, if Fred continuously emails Laurie for advice, it might be beneficial to weigh subsequent ratings from Fred less heavily than the initial rating, in order to prevent malicious (or innocent) manipulation of the good deed points system by a single user.
In another example, John provides an online profile that includes information about his career and the company for which he works. This profile is viewed by many college students who rely on it as a mechanism to learn more about a potential career and/or place to work. The profile may include a field allowing users to rate “how helpful” John's profile is. Ratings provided by the various college students may then be used to adjust Fred's good deed point total. This encourages John to have a well-vetted profile that acts to teach other network members about potential careers or places to work, as opposed to making the profile purely self-serving.
In another example, a web page is provided to allow people to anonymously give good deed points to another. Care must be taken in such an instance to prevent fraud or manipulation, however controls can be put into place to limit such actions, such as the user giving the points not being anonymous to the social network operator, merely to the person to whom he or she is granting good deed points.
In another example, Adrienne requests a connection to Frank through Steve. If Steve passes along this connection, then Steve may be awarded good deed points.
In another example, users of the social network that add connections to their profile accumulate good deed points for doing so. The more connections added, the more good deed points. This aids the social network in weeding out one-time-only users, who merely join and then do nothing but take up space. This encourages and rewards users to be active members of the social network as opposed to passive. Additional incentives can be provided to promote activity among users, including, for example, awarding good deed points weekly as long as the user logs in to his account during the week.
In another example, when a student views representatives of a company, those with the highest number of good deed points may be placed more prominently on the web page. This would enable students to contact representatives with the highest probability of providing them with useful career advice and/or help. Privacy features may also be implemented so that those users with high good deed point totals can control the number of people who contact them.
In another example, where company recruiters choose to help students and/or provide career advice, the recruiters may be rewarded by adding to their good deed point totals. This provides company recruiters with a single spot to which they can point their bosses to show how much networking they are performing and the number of good will they have generated.
In another example, college professors may be rewarded with good deed points for helping students (either reach professional or personal goals). These good deed points may then be used to show the value these professors add to the school, which may be helpful when determining whether or not to offer these professors tenure.
At 302, a number of points are awarded to the first user based on the action performed. This may be awarded at the time the action is performed or at any time later. The awarding may be automatic or may be initiated by another user (such as the second user, who is helped by the action). The awarding may involve crediting an account created for the first user on a server that is accessible via the Internet. The number of points that are awarded may be determined by many different mechanisms. In one embodiment, a list may be maintained that correlates various types of good deeds with various point levels. When a potential good deed is performed, this list may be accessed and the corresponding point level may be awarded to the user who performed the good deed. In another embodiment, the user receiving the benefit of the good deed may partially or entirely control the number of points awarded to the user performing the good deed. For example, the user receiving the benefit of the good deed may be allowed to grant zero to five points to the user who performed the good deed.
At 304, a web page is delivered to a third user, wherein the web page contains an identification of the first user and a representation of the number of points the first user has been awarded, wherein the number of points the first user has been awarded are delivered in a way that allows them to be used to benefit the first user. The third user may be an individual user or alternatively may be a company or other non-individual entity. The delivering may include formatting the web page such that the identification of the first user appears in lieu of or more prominently than an identification of a fourth user if the first user has been awarded more points than the third user. More prominently may include appearing higher up on the page or in a larger size, for example. The representation of the number of points the first user has been awarded may be an absolute number or some sort of relative representation. For example, the representation may simply list the number of points awarded to the first user, or alternatively may indicate that the user has been awarded a “high,” “average,” or “low” amount of points. Additionally, the representation may either be explicitly shown on the web page, such as by listing the total or providing a graphical representation of the relative amount of points, or may be implicit by, for example, showing a first user higher up on the page than a second user. At 306, one or more users of the social network may be ranked based upon the number of points each has been awarded.
It should also be noted that embodiments of the present invention may be implemented on any computing platform and in any network topology in which presentation of search results is a useful functionality. For example and as illustrated in
It should also be noted that the term “web page” shall be interpreted broadly to refer to any page that is displayed on an electronic device via transmission over a network. This may include, for example, pages displayed on web browsers on computers but may also include pages displayed on cellular phones, personal data assistants, media devices or other electronic devices.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in the form and details of the disclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. In addition, although various advantages, aspects, and objects of the present invention have been discussed herein with reference to various embodiments, it will be understood that the scope of the invention should not be limited by reference to such advantages, aspects, and objects. Rather, the scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the appended claims.
