Displaying and navigating implicit and explicit enterprise people relationships

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017111237-A1
Application number	US-201615391519-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 27, 2016
Priority date	Feb 28, 2014
Publication date	Apr 20, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A network map of an individual's implicit and explicit people relationships across multiple workloads is provided. Relationships between people may be leveraged and ranking for people relationships may be performed based on activities across multiple workloads. People relationships may be displayed in the network map to provide a visual understanding of relationships and connections. Navigation to any person represented in the network map may be enabled, and commonalities in relationships between a navigating user and a given person navigated to in the network map may be exposed. Trending items and activity streams for a person or group of persons may be shown in the network map.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method for providing a network map, the method comprising:
receiving relationship data and activity data associated with one or more individuals from one or more information sources; storing the relationship and activity data associated with the one or more individuals from the one or more information sources in a graph; receiving an indication of a selection by a user to view a network map associated with a first individual; and providing the stored relationship and activity data associated with the first individual from the one or more information sources for display in a user interface.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving relationship data and activity data associated with the user from one or more information sources; storing the relationship and activity data associated with the user from the one or more information sources in a graph; after receiving an indication of a selection by the user to view a network map associated with the first individual, determining commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user; and providing the determined commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user for display in the user interface.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein storing the relationship data associated with the one or more individuals from the one or more information sources in a graph comprises establishing relationships between the individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein establishing a relationship between individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures comprises:
creating a first node in the graph for an individual; creating a second node for a person with whom the individual interacts or a person with whom the individual is associated according to an organization or project structure; creating a relationship edge connecting the first node and the second node; creating a third node for an entity acted upon by the individual according to the activity data; creating an activity edge connecting the first node to the third node; calculating a weight for the activity edge according to a type of activity performed by the individual; and ranking the individual's activity edges according to the calculated weights.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein providing the stored activity data associated with the first individual from the one or more information sources for display in a user interface comprises providing an activity stream comprising a predetermined or selected number of top ranking activity edges associated with the first individual.

6 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
calculating a weight for each relationship edge; and ranking the individual's relationship edges according to the calculated weights.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein calculating a weight for each edge comprises calculating a weight based on implicit and explicit signals generated through activity on the one or more information sources.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein providing the stored relationship data associated with the first individual from the one or more information sources for display in a user interface comprises providing a predetermined or selected number of top ranking relationship edges associated with the first individual.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an indication of a selection by the user to view a network map associated with a second individual; and providing the stored relationship and activity data associated with the second individual for display in the user interface.

10 . A system for providing a network map, the system comprising:
one or more processors; and a memory coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more processors operable to:
receive relationship data and activity data associated with a plurality of individuals from a plurality of information sources;
establish relationships between the individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures;
store the established relationships associated with the plurality of individuals in a graph;
receive an indication of a selection by a user to view a network map associated with a first individual;
determine commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user; and
provide the established relationships associated with the plurality of individuals and the determined commonalities in relationships between the first individual and the user for display of the network map associated with the first individual in a user interface.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein in establishing a relationship between individuals and people with whom the individuals interact or people with whom the individuals are associated according to organization or project structures, the one or more processors are further operable to:
create a first node in the graph for an individual; create a second node for a person with whom the individual interacts or a person with whom the individual is associated according to an organization or project structure; create a relationship edge connecting the first node and the second node; create a third node for an entity acted upon by the individual according to the activity data; create an activity edge connecting the first node to the third node; calculate a weight for the activity edge according to a type of activity performed by the individual; rank the individual's activity edges according to the calculated weight; and provide an activity stream comprising a predetermined or selected number of top ranking activity edges associated with the first individual for display in the user interface.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further operable to:
calculate a weight for each relationship edge based on implicit and explicit signals generated through activity on the plurality of information sources; rank the individual's relationship edges according to the calculated weights; and provide a predetermined or selected number of top ranking relationship edges associated with the first individual for display in the user interface.

13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors are further operable to:
receive an indication of a selection by the user to view a network map associated with a second individual; determine commonalities in relationships between the second individual and the user; and provide the established relationships associated with the plurality of individuals and the determined commonalities in relationships between the second individual and the user for display of the network map associated with the second individual in the user interface.

14 . A method for providing a network map, the method comprising:
receiving an indication of a selection by a user to view a network map of a first individual's people relationships across a plurality of information sources; querying a graph for relationship and activity data associated with the first individual; querying the graph for relationship and activity data associated with the user; receiving relationship and activity data associated with the first individual and the user; generating a user interface for displaying the network map comprising the relationship and acti

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Shah Viral
• Herstad Berit
• Jassal Vikramjeet Singh
• Kempton Alexander
• Sørensen Ståle
• Rasmussen Sveinar
• Distel Alexander
• Dovedan Zoran
• Dijan Ivan

Classifications

• G06T11/26

  Drawing of charts or graphs · CPC title

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q10/10 Primary

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L41/22 Primary

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title