Method and system for enabling the creation and maintenance of temporary user groups

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9769611-B2
Application number	US-201615168983-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2016
Priority date	Apr 7, 2006
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

Provided herein are systems, methods and computer readable media for creating and managing temporary virtual groups. An example apparatus may be configured enable an administrative entity to establish a temporary virtual group, enable the administrative entity to define configuration information for the temporary virtual group, the enabling of the administrative entity to define the configuration information comprising establishing membership criteria for admittance of one or more members to the temporary virtual group, establishing rules of interaction among the one or more members of that the temporary virtual group, establishing termination criteria, the termination criteria configured to determine when the temporary virtual group will terminate, and facilitate transmission of the message from the first member to a second member, and terminate the temporary virtual group upon determination that the termination criteria is met.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1. A temporary virtual group management apparatus comprising:
at least one processor;
one or more non-transitory memories comprising computer-executable program code instructions stored therein, the computer-executable program code instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the location-based virtual group management apparatus to:
enable an administrative entity to establish a temporary virtual group,
enable the administrative entity to define configuration information for the temporary virtual group,
the enabling of the administrative entity to define the configuration information comprising:
establishing membership criteria for admittance of one or more members to the temporary virtual group;
establishing rules of interaction among the one or more members of that the temporary virtual group;
wherein the establishment of the rules of interaction comprises:
enabling a first member of the one or more members of the temporary virtual group to broadcast a message to one or more other members of the temporary virtual group, the message comprising content; and

establishing termination criteria, the termination criteria configured to determine when the temporary virtual group will terminate; and

facilitate, according to the rules of interaction, transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group to at least one of the one or more other members of the temporary virtual group; and
terminate the temporary virtual group upon determination that the termination criteria is met.

2. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the establishment of the rules of interaction comprises enabling a bookmarking member to create a unidirectional relationship with a bookmarked member, without explicit approval of the bookmarked member.

3. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the facilitating of the transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group comprises: facilitating the transmission of the message from the bookmarking member to the bookmarked member.

4. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the facilitating of the transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group comprises: facilitating the transmission of the message from the bookmarked member to the bookmarking member.

5. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the establishment of the rules of interaction comprises enabling the first member and a second member to create a bidirectional mutually agreed-upon relationship that transcends a duration of the temporary virtual group, allowing access to information and capabilities that are not granted to other members of the temporary virtual group.

6. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the facilitating of the transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group comprises: facilitating the transmission of the message from the first member to the second member.

7. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more non-transitory memories and the computer-executable program code instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, are further configured to cause the temporary virtual group management apparatus to:
allow a non-member user to join the temporary virtual group, the non-member user meeting the admission criteria.

8. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 7 ,
wherein the one or more non-transitory memories and the computer-executable program code instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, are further configured to cause the temporary virtual group management apparatus to:
invite a non-member user physically present within a geographical boundary to join the temporary virtual group.

9. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the termination criteria is after a type of member activity.

10. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the content is one or more of a text, an image, or a video.

11. The temporary virtual group management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the facilitating of the transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group comprises: facilitating the transmission of the message, the message comprising video content, from the first member to a second member, and
wherein the termination criteria specifies termination after a specified amount of time after a type of member activity,
the one or more non-transitory memories and the computer-executable program code instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, are further configured to cause the temporary virtual group management apparatus to: terminate the temporary virtual group upon determination that the specified amount of time since the member activity.

12. A temporary virtual group management computer program product, the computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein, the computer-executable program code instructions comprising program code instructions for:
enabling an administrative entity to establish a temporary virtual group,
enabling the administrative entity to define configuration information for the temporary virtual group,
the enabling of the administrative entity to define the configuration information comprising:
establishing membership criteria for admittance of one or more members to the temporary virtual group;
establishing rules of interaction among the one or more members of that the temporary virtual group;
wherein the establishment of the rules of interaction comprises:
enabling a first member of the one or more members of the temporary virtual group to broadcast a message to one or more other members of the temporary virtual group, the message comprising content; and

establishing termination criteria, the termination criteria configured to determine when the temporary virtual group will terminate; and

facilitating, according to the rules of interaction, transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group to at least one of the one or more other members of the temporary virtual group; and
terminating the temporary virtual group upon determination that the termination criteria is met.

13. The computer program product according to claim 12 , wherein the establishment of the rules of interaction comprises enabling a bookmarking member to create a unidirectional relationship with a bookmarked member, without explicit approval of the bookmarked member.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13 , wherein the facilitating of the transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group comprises: facilitating the transmission of the message from the bookmarking member to the bookmarked member.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13 , wherein the facilitating of the transmission of the message from the first member of the temporary virtual group comprises: facilitating the transmission of the message from the bookmarked member to the bookmarking member.

16. The computer program product according to claim 12 , wherein the establishment of the rules of interaction comprises enabling the first member and a second member

Assignees

• Groupon Inc

Inventors

• Holden Jeffrey Alan
• Ayars Jeffrey M
• Conklin Gregory J
• Shariff Shafiq
• Scholl Nathaniel Blake
• Kim John

Classifications

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• H04W4/206

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W8/186

  Processing of subscriber group data · CPC title

• H04W4/023 Primary

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• H04L67/18

  Electricity · mapped topic