Data mining electronic communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9529864-B2
Application number	US-55018909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2009
Priority date	Aug 28, 2009
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

User insights derived from communication data may be provided. Communications associated with a user may be collected and analyzed to derive insights about the user. The insight may then be provided to the user, such as for modifying an application functionality, creating a message processing rule, providing new information to the user, and updating an application display or user interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing electronic communication data mining, the method comprising:
collecting a plurality of communications associated with a user, wherein the plurality of communications comprise a plurality of data types comprising at least two of the following: an e-mail, an instant messages (IM), a short message service (SMS) message, a voicemail, a search query, a public posting, a document authored by the user, a directory of a plurality of users, a contact list, a calendar appointment, and a task entry;
delivering the plurality of collected communications to at least one data analyzer module, the at least one data analyzer module comprising a plurality of weighted workflows, each of the plurality of weighted workflows comprising a different level of processing for generating insights and updating insights based on at least one of batch data, collected data and generated data, the plurality of weighted workflows comprising at least a medium weight workflow for updating existing insights based on the at least one of the batch data and a lightweight workflow for at least one of generating and updating the insights in real-time, the plurality of workflows being executed on a plurality of machines in a high availability cluster, the plurality of machines including at least one active node utilized by the lightweight workflow and one passive node utilized by the medium weight workflow, the medium weight workflow utilizing a resource intensive batch analysis that is executed using spare cycles of the passive node;
deriving, utilizing one or more of the plurality of weighted workflows, an insight about the user from the collected plurality of communications, the insight about the user being based on at least one of the following: a processor type used to derive the insight and a communication type for at least one of the collected communications from which the insight is derived; and
modifying at least one application functionality based on the derived insight.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the derived insight comprises at least one of the following: a habit, a preference, an interest, a relationship, a prioritization, an area of expertise, and a demographic factor, an active topic, and a triage behavior.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the derived insight is stored on a server accessible by the user from a plurality of clients.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning a confidence to the derived insight.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the derived insight according to analysis of at least one of the following: a newly received communication and a newly sent communication.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving an edit to the derived insight.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the edit to the derived insight is received from at least one of the following: the user and an administrator.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the at least one application comprises at least one of the following: creating a contact group, re-ordering a message list, applying a visual property to a message associated with the insight, creating a processing rule to be applied to incoming communications, creating an alert associated with a communication associated with another user, creating a processing rule for future communications, modifying a processing rule for future communications, reorganizing stored data associated with the application, and creating an association of a plurality of data associated with the application.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying an explanation of the derived insight to the user.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein displaying the explanation of the derived insight to the user comprises displaying at least one factor used to derive the insight and a user interface element operative to edit the at least one factor used to derive the insight.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising cleansing the collected plurality of communications prior to analysis.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein deriving the insight comprises extracting, from at least one of the plurality of communications, at least one of the following: a name, a phone number, a key word, a contact address, an urgency, an associated topic, a subject area, a type of communication, a date, a user action, a user feedback, a relationship between the user and a sender of the at least one of the plurality of communications.

13. A tangible computer-readable device which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing communication data mining, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:
analyzing a plurality of communications associated with a user utilizing at least one data analyzer module, the at least one data analyzer module comprising a plurality of weighted workflows, each of the plurality of weighted workflows comprising a different level of processing for generating insights and updating insights based on at least one of batch data, collected data and generated data, the plurality of weighted workflows comprising at least a medium weight workflow for updating existing insights based on the at least one of the batch data and a lightweight workflow for at least one of generating and updating the insights in real-time, the plurality of workflows being executed on a plurality of machines in a high availability cluster, the plurality of machines including at least one active node utilized by the lightweight workflow and one passive node utilized by the medium weight workflow, the medium weight workflow utilizing a resource intensive batch analysis that is executed using spare cycles of the passive node, wherein the plurality of communications comprise a plurality of data types comprising at least two of the following: an e-mail, an instant messages (IM), a short message service (SMS) message, a voicemail, a search query, a public posting, a document authored by the user, a directory of a plurality of users, a contact list, a calendar appointment, and a task entry;
deriving an insight based on the analyzed plurality of communications; and
providing the insight to the user when the insight based on at least one of the following: a processor type used to derive the insight and a communication type for at least one of the collected communications from which the insight is derived, wherein providing the insight to the user comprises at least one of the following: creating a message processing rule, providing at least one new piece of information to the user, updating an application display, and adding at least one functionality to an application.

14. The tangible computer-readable device of claim 13 , further comprising storing the insight on a server accessible by the user from a plurality of locations.

15. The tangible computer-readable device of claim 13 , wherein creating a message processing rule comprises:
deriving the insight using a property associated with the plurality of communications,
creating the message processing rule according to the derived insight to be applied to at least one newly received communication, and
modifying the at least one newly received communication, wherein the at least one newly received communication matches the property used to derive the insight.

16. The tangible computer-readable device of claim 15 , wherein the property used to derive the insight comprises at least one of the following: a sender, a recipient, a subject, a time, a priority, and a keyword.

17. The tangible computer-readable device of claim 15 , wherein p

Assignees

• Sundelin Tore L
• Kleewein James C
• Clark Bradford R
• Pereira Jorge
• Edelen James J
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Sundelin Tore L
• Kleewein James C
• Clark Bradford R
• Pereira Jorge
• Edelen James J

Classifications

• G06F16/2465 Primary

  Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases · CPC title

• G06F16/24575

  using context · CPC title

• G06F17/30528

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30539 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic