System, method, and computer program product for providing relational patterns between entities

Abstract

A contact intelligence data mining tool for storing, processing, displaying, and printing relational patterns between entities (e.g., business and other contacts). The tool allows proprietary individual contact data to be merged with accurate and up-to-date public information in order to explore the full scope (or sphere) of an individual's or business concern's scope of influence. It intelligently establishes and presents personal, direct contacts as well as contacts of contacts, and so on. The tool further displays, via a graphical user interface, the optimal relationship path (i.e., contact pathway) to reach desired contacts.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A contact intelligence data mining system for allowing a user to determine their sphere of influence, comprising:

a graphical user interface;

a public database containing information on members of a plurality of entities;

a private contact database containing information on personal contacts of the user;

means for accessing, in response to receiving a request from the user via said graphical user interface, said public database and said private database; and

means for processing accessed information located in said public database and said private contact database in order to display a contact pathway;

whereby said contact pathway includes the user's personal contacts and the contacts of the user's contacts thereby representing the user's sphere of influence among said plurality of entities located within said public database.

2. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 1, wherein the information on the members of said plurality of entities located in said public database is multi-national information on the members of boards of directors of companies.

3. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 1, wherein at least one entity in said plurality of entities within said public database is one of the following types of entity:

(a) university alumni clubs;

(b) political party organizations;

(c) trade groups;

(d) social clubs;

(e) military branches;

(f) members of a legislature; and

(g) company boards of directors.

4. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for displaying an optimal contact pathway, whereby said optimal contact pathway utilizes numerical weights corresponding to the level of familiarity the user has with each of their contacts and the contacts of their contacts.

5. A contact intelligence data mining system for allowing a plurality of users within an enterprise to determine spheres of influence, comprising:

a graphical user interface;

a public database containing information on members of a plurality of entities;

a computer network which allows the plurality of users to access said public database;

a plurality of private contact databases, wherein each of said plurality of private contact databases is accessible by at least one of the plurality of users;

means for accessing, in response to receiving a request from one of the plurality of users via said graphical user interface, said public database and at least one of said plurality of private contact databases; and

means for processing accessed information located in said public database and said at least one of said plurality of private contact databases in order to display a contact pathway;

whereby said contact pathway includes said at least one of the plurality of users personal contacts and the contacts of their contacts thereby representing said at least one of the plurality of users sphere of influence among said plurality of entities located within said public database.

6. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 5, wherein at least a portion said computer network comprises the Internet.

7. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 5, wherein at least one entity in said plurality of entities within said public database is one of the following types of entity:

(a) university alumni clubs;

(b) political party organizations;

(c) trade groups;

(d) social clubs;

(e) military branches;

(f) members of a legislature; and

(g) company boards of directors.

8. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 5, further comprising:

means for displaying an optimal contact pathway, whereby said optimal contact pathway utilizes numerical weights corresponding to the level of familiarity said one of the plurality of users has with each of their contacts and the contacts of their contacts.

9. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 5, further comprising:

means for allowing one of the plurality of users, who is a manager, to access a subset of said plurality of private contact databases, wherein said subset represents a number of the plurality of private contact databases associated with the plurality of users who work for said manager.

10. The contact intelligence data mining system of claim 5, further comprising:

an enterprise-level private contact database accessible to each of the plurality of users over said computer network;

whereby said contact pathway includes the enterprise's contacts and the contacts of the enterprise's contacts thereby representing the enterprise's sphere of influence among said plurality of entities located within said public database.

11. A method for populating a contact intelligence data mining tool with the private contact information of a user, comprising the steps of:

(1) receiving a private contact name input from the user;

(2) accessing a public database to search for said private contact name to determine if said private contact name is located within said public database;

(3) receiving an input from the user, when said private contact name is located within said public database, indicative of whether said private contact name represents the same contact that appears in said public database;

(4) linking, when said private contact flame represents the same contact that appears as in said public database, said private contact name with said public database; and

(5) receiving, from the user, contact information to be associated with said private contact name;

whereby said private contact name is utilized within the contact intelligence data mining tool to display a contact pathway which includes the user's personal contacts and the contacts of their contacts, thereby representing the user's sphere of influence among the entities located within said public database.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the user populates the contact intelligence data mining tool via the Internet.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of:

(6) receiving an input from the user indicative of whether other users of the contact intelligence data mining tool may access said contact information associated with said private contact information.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein step (5) comprises the step of:

receiving a numerical weight input from the user indicative of the level of familiarity said the user has with the entity associated with said private contact name.

15. A method for providing a user access to a contact intelligence data mining tool to display the user's contact pathway, comprising the steps of:

(1) receiving a contact name input;

(2) searching both a public database and a private database for associations between the user and said contact name; and

(3) causing a report to be displayed that includes the contact pathway for said contact name, wherein the contact pathway includes the user's personal contacts and the contacts of their contacts;

whereby said report is used by the user to determine how to reach the contact associated with said contact name input and represents the user's sphere of influence among the entities located within said public database.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the user accesses the contact intelligence data mining tool over the Internet.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said contact name represents one of the following:

(a) a person;

(b) an organization; and

(c) a person at a specific organization.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein step (3) comprises the step of:

utilizing numerical weights corresponding to the level of familiarity the user has with each contact entry in said public database and said private database to display an optimal contact pathway for said contact name.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having control logic stored therein for causing a computer to populate a contact intelligence data mining tool with a user's private contact information, said control logic comprising:

first computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive a private contact name input from the user;

second computer readable program code means for causing the computer to access a public database to search for said private contact name to determine if said private contact name is located within said public database;

third computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive an input from the user, when said contact private name is located within said public database, indicative of whether said private contact name represents the same contact that appears in said public database;

fourth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to link, when said private contact name represents the same contact that appears in said public database, said private contact name with said public database; and

fifth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive contact information to be associated with said private contact name;

whereby said private contact name is utilized within the contact intelligence data mining tool to display a contact pathway which include the user's personal contacts and the contacts of their contacts, thereby representing the user's sphere of influence among the entities located within said public database.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising:

sixth computer program product means for causing the computer to receive an input from the user indicative of whether other users of the contact intelligence data mining tool may access said contact information associated with said private contact information.

21. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having control logic stored therein for causing a computer to display a user's contact pathway, said control logic comprising:

first computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive a contact name input;

second computer readable program code means for causing the computer to search both a public database and a private database for associations between the user and said contact name; and

third computer readable program code means for causing the computer to display a report comprising the contact pathway for said contact name, wherein the contact pathway includes the user's personal contacts and the contacts of their contacts;

whereby said report is used by the user to determine how to reach the contact associated with said contact name input and represents the user's sphere of influence among the entities located within said public database.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to computer data and information systems, and more particularly to a computer tool for storing, processing, and displaying contact information.

2. Related Art

In today's technological climate, the availability of computers, telecommunications, and related technology has dramatically changed the way that business is conducted. For example, the explosion of people connected to the global Internet has dramatically increased the usage of electronic mail (e-mail) for business communications. Further, the development of high speed data networks has increased the use of video conferencing centers and related equipment for business meetings.

The rapid advancement of technology has increased the speed and reliability in which business persons can communicate with each other. Fortuitously, the increase in speed and reliability has been accompanied by a decrease in associated costs. The use of e-mail, for example, saves telephone, facsimile, and shipping costs. Similarly, the use of video conferencing saves travel costs and time.

The above noted examples are just a few among the many instances of how today's technological advances have changed the business environment. There is one aspect of business, however, that has not been affected (or aided) by today's technological advances. That aspect can be characterized as the "business relationship." More specifically, business persons depend heavily, and attribute their successfulness, on their relationships with people--known commonly as their "contacts." It is not a secret that in all human endeavors, the difference between failure and success often depends on not "what you know," but "who you know." Put quite simply, contacts (i.e., human capital) are important.

Today, every person keeps a list of their contacts in some fashion (e.g., address book, Rolodex.RTM. card tray files, electronic files, contact manager software, in their own memory, etc.). Each person typically regards their list of contacts as confidential (i.e., proprietary). This is typically true regardless of whether the person is a solo entrepreneur, part of a multi-national corporation, or a participant in any endeavor. Thus, when a business person thinks of a new venture, a common thought is: "How can I get to XYZ Company who can help me?" or "Who do I know at XYZ Company?" Similarly, when a group of business persons from the same company get together to plan a venture, a common question is: "How can we get to XYZ Company who can help us?" or "Who do we know at XYZ Company?" These questions are then followed by a series of: "Well, I know Mr. D at ABC Company who may know Ms. W at XYZ Company."

This problem is further compounded by cultural considerations. More specifically, in the United States business persons may decide to reach a company where they have no contacts (or where they may have a contact but unaware of such contact) with a "cold call." Cold calls are unsolicited business telephone calls from an unknown person. This business practice, however, is not acceptable and disfavored in certain cultures (e.g., Asia, Middle East, etc.). Thus, without the cold call option, having a contact into a company becomes even more important.

Further, business persons typically are aware of the persons (i.e., contacts) they require to meet or how to reach them via their personal contacts. That is, many business persons have a regional (i.e., territorial) or a specific business field knowledge-base. In today's global economy, however, businesses much reach and exploit cross-border and cross-industry opportunities. Thus, once again, having a contact into a company is shown to be important.

In the above "how do I [or we] get to XYZ Company" or "Who do I [or we] know at XYZ Company?" process, another series of time-consuming steps usually occurs. Typically, a company may employ a research assistant to search publicly available databases to ascertain who are the top-level persons (e.g., CEO, CFO, Chairperson, President, Board member, etc.) at XYZ Company. This may involve checking such sources as corporate reports available from sources such as, for example, D&B Million Dollar Directory.RTM. database of the top 50,000 public and private U.S. companies available from the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation of Murray Hill, N.J., the Amadeus database on the top 200,000 companies in Europe available from Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing S.A., London, United Kingdom, or publications such as the countless "Who's Who" directories. After the research assistant produces a list of names, each person within the group must then check their personal contact list to see if they know any of the top-level persons at XYZ Company directly, or if they can "reach" those top-level persons indirectly via someone they know.

This inefficient process is further flawed, in the example of a group of business persons from the same company, considering that the "right" people may not even be present at the meeting. That is, a business person within the corporation may know a top-level person at XYZ Company, but that person may not be at the meeting and the persons who are at the meeting will have no knowledge of the absent person's (proprietary) contacts.

A second flaw, in both the entrepreneurial or organizational examples, is that individuals often do not remember in most instances who all their contacts are. That is, there is a human factor involved in recalling "I know so and so at so and so company," or "so and so knows so and so." This flaw is especially true considering the significant amount of people who currently retain their private contact information in memory rather than electronic file or simply an address book.

Yet a third flaw is the dependency on inaccurate public information databases and publications which may contain imprecise and/or out-of-date information. This requires the entire manual process to be repeated when it is eventually learned that a contact is no longer associated with an organization, or any other mistake in the process occurred.

While the above discussion speaks in terms of a solo entrepreneur or a group of business persons within an corporation, the same "how do I [or we] get to XYZ Company" or "Who do I [or we] know at XYZ Company?" problem is experienced by many entities. Such entities include, for example, individuals, partnerships, national corporations, multi-national corporations, trade organizations, lobbying firms, job-placement agencies, fund-raising organizations, universities, and the like. That is, any entity that utilizes (and needs) contacts to successfully operate and thrive are all faced with the above-described problem. In sum, entities currently do not take full advantage of their personal contacts, intra-entity contacts, and the contacts of their contacts. Thus, businesses and other endeavors are presently underutilizing one of the greatest assets an entity can possess--human relationships and human capital.

Therefore, what is needed is a system, method, and computer program product for providing relational patterns between entities. Such a system, method, and computer program product should allow individual (or proprietary) contact data to be merged with accurate and up-to-date public information in order to explore the full scope of an individual's or business concern's sphere of influence. Because presently, there is never a lack of information, but a lack of correlation and presentation of information, the system, method, and computer program product should intelligently establish and present the contacts of contacts and further display (and print) the optimal relationship path to reach desired contacts (i.e., persons or organizations).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention meets the above-mentioned needs by providing a system, method, and computer program product for providing relational patterns between entities.

The contact intelligence data mining system for allowing a user to display (and print) their sphere of influence, includes a graphical user interface, a public information database containing data on the members of a plurality of entities in which the user has an interest in, and a private contact information database containing the personal contacts of the user. The system also includes software code logic for accessing, in response to receiving a request from the user via the graphical user interface, the public and private databases, and software code logic for processing accessed information located in the databases in order to display a contact pathway.

The contact pathway is a graphical representation of the relational patterns between the user and the entities (through the persons associated with those entities) in the public and/or private databases. It represents the user's sphere of influence and includes the user's contacts, the contacts of the user's contacts, and so on.

The method for providing a contact pathway, according to an embodiment of the present invention, includes the steps of receiving an organization and/or person's name input, searching the public and/or private databases for associations between the user and the organization and/or person, and causing a contact pathway to be displayed. The contact pathway report is then used by the user to determine the how to reach the contact organization and/or person.

One advantage of the present invention is that a rich mixture of both public and private information is presented, allowing a user to intelligently establish and present the contacts of their contacts and further display the optimal relationship path (i.e., contact pathway) to reach other desired contacts. The optimal path presented is based on the degree of familiarity each person has (e.g., friends, golfing buddies, casual acquaintance, etc.) with the next person along the contact pathway.

Another advantage of the present invention is that relationships or associations for contacts are established, using public information, through common memberships on company boards of directors, university alumni clubs, political party organizations, trade groups, social clubs, military branches, and the like.

Another advantage of the present invention is that different public databases may be utilized, singly or jointly, and then combined with an entity's private contact data to obtain different spheres of influences for different purposes.

Another advantage of the present invention is that users may enter new contact names in their private contact database, as they meet new people, and ascertain, using the public database(s), their updated sphere of influence.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that the private contact data of each individual within a business concern (i.e., organization, corporation, and the like), may be put into use to benefit the concern as a whole, while providing different levels of security to protect each individual's private data.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that a user can establish the scope of influence of even persons not known to them in order to estimate the scope of influence they can reach if they meet such persons.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that a user may enter a private link between persons or organizations within the public database based on proprietary information they possesses. This thereby allows more (optimal) contact pathways to be generated.

Further features and advantages of the invention as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-most digit of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIGS. 1A-1C are block diagrams illustrating the system architecture of various embodiments of the present invention, showing connectivity among the various components;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the software architecture of an embodiment of the present invention, showing communications among the various components;

FIG. 3 is an Entity-Relationship diagram of example relational database tables according to an embodiment of present invention;

FIGS. 4-24 are windows or screen shots generated by the graphical user interface of the present invention;

FIGS. 25A-B illustrate node diagrams that may be generated by the graphical user interface of the present invention to represent contact pathways;

FIG. 26 is a block diagram illustrating the system architecture of an enterprise embodiment of the present invention, showing connectivity among the various components;

FIG. 27 is a flowchart depicting an embodiment of the operation and control flow of the contact data mining tool of the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating the determination of an entity's optimal contact pathway according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 29 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system useful for implementing the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Overview

II. System (and Internet) Architecture

A. Stand-Alone Embodiments

B. Enterprise Embodiments

C. General Considerations

III. Software Architecture

IV. General System Characteristics

A. Data Representation

B. Private Contact Data Input

C. Safeguarding Data

D. Updating Data

V. Detailed Example of System Operation

A. Browser Modes

1. User's Contacts

2. Company Contacts

3. Contact Pathway

4. Public Information

B. Search Modes

1. Person

2. Organization

3. Person at an Organization (Target)

C. Detailed Search Flow Example

D. Optimal Contact Pathways

VI. Example Implementations

VII. Conclusion

I. Overview

The present invention relates to a system, method, and computer program product for providing relational patterns between entities (e.g., individuals, partnerships, national corporations, multi-national corporations, trade organizations, lobbying firms, job-placement agencies, fund-raising organizations, universities, and the like).

In an embodiment of the present invention, a stand-alone application program is provided which serves as an contact intelligence data mining tool. The application program allows a user (e.g., business person) to enter and store their private contact information. The contact intelligence data mining tool would also have access to a database containing publicly available information concerning multi-national corporation boards of directors. The data mining tool would allow the user to intelligently establish the contacts of their contacts and display, via a graphical user interface (GUI), the optimal relationship path to reach other desired contacts (i.e., their optimal "contact pathway"). A contact pathway is a graphical representation of the relational patterns between the user and the entities in the public and/or private databases. Further functionality of the tool includes allowing the user to learn the full sphere of their influence, and to learn their potential sphere of influence if the user were to create contacts with specific, yet presently unknown, persons.

In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the application program would be networked among the local or wide area network (e.g., over an Ethernet, intranet, or extranet) of an entity allowing multiple users to access and use the contact intelligence data mining tool. This enterprise embodiment would allow several sets of private data to be stored and thus matched to the public corporate contact information database to establish even wider spheres of contacts (i.e., influence). That is, not only can each member or employee of the entity find out there personal spheres of influence (i.e., contacts and contacts of their contacts), but this could be done on an entity level. Such a network version of the data mining tool would also include security measures to allow, for example, managers to access employees' private contact data, but disallow employees to access manager or fellow employee private contact data.

In each of the two above-described alternate embodiments, the contact intelligence data mining tool may be run, instead of locally or on proprietary equipment, via the global Internet. In such an embodiment, a contact intelligence service provider would allow access, on a subscriber per-use basis, to the contact intelligence data mining tool via a World-Wide Web (WWW) site on the Internet. That is, both stand-alone users or enterprise users may subscribe to the contact intelligence service provider's WWW site and pay on a per-use basis.

Also, in each of the two above-described alternate embodiments, an accurate database of public information (i.e., memberships on company boards of directors) can be provided by the contact intelligence service provider that would allow users to reliably merge their private contact data in order to ascertain their precise and up-to-date sphere of influence. Such public information database would be consistently researched and periodically updated by the service provider. The updated public information database, in order to provide the desired reliability, may then be distributed to subscribers (i.e., users) via several different means (e.g., electronic media, via Internet or FTP download, or automatically upon Internet access).

The present invention solves the above-described "how do I [or we] get to XYZ Company?" or "who do I [or we] know at XYZ Company?" problem by providing a contact pathway that maps how to get to certain persons and organizations. This is useful in today's global economy as the contact pathway supplants the "cold call," while also broadening the regional and business field focus of the user.

The present invention is described in terms of the above examples. This is for convenience only and is not intended to limit the application of the present invention. In fact, after reading the following description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the following invention in alternative embodiments (e.g., public information databases, used singly or jointly, containing data on university alumni clubs, political party organizations, trade groups, social clubs, military branches, members of a legislature, and the like).

The terms "user," "subscriber," "person," "entity," "company," "business concern," "entity," and the plural form of these terms are used interchangeably throughout herein to refer to those who would access, use, and thus benefit from the contact intelligence data mining tool of the present invention.

II. System (and Internet) Architecture

A. Stand-Alone Embodiments

Referring to FIG. 1A, a block diagram illustrating the physical architecture of a contact intelligence data mining (CIDM) system 100, according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing connectivity among the various components, is shown. The embodiment of FIG. 1A represents the stand-alone, locally-run version of the CIDM tool.

The CIDM system 100 includes a public information database 102 and a private contact information database 104. In an embodiment of the present invention, these two databases can be mirrored for fault tolerance and thus shown as databases 102a-b and 104a-b. The CIDM system 100 also includes a personal computer (PC) 106 (e.g., an IBM.TM. or compatible PC workstation running the Microsoft.RTM. Windows 95/98.TM. or Windows NT.TM. operating system, Macintosh.RTM. computer running the Mac.RTM. OS operating system, or the like), connected to the databases 102 and 104. The CIDM tool would execute (i.e., "run") on the PC 106 and during its operation provide users a graphical user interface (GUI) "front-end" screens 108. In general, PC 106 may be any processing device including, but not limited to, a desktop computer, laptop, palmtop, workstation, set-top box, personal data assistant (PDA), and the like.

Referring to FIG. 1B, a block diagram illustrating the physical architecture of a CIDM system 100, according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing network connectivity among the various components, is shown. The embodiment of FIG. 1B represents the stand-alone, Internet subscriber version of the CIDM tool.

As explained above, the CIDM system 100 includes a public information database 102 and a private contact information database 104. In an embodiment of the present invention, these two databases can be mirrored for fault tolerance and thus shown as databases 102a-b and 104a-b.

The components of the CIDM system 100, as shown in FIG. 1B, are divided into two regions--"inside" and "outside." The components appearing in the inside region refer to those components that the contact intelligence service provider would have as part of their infrastructure in order to provide the tools and services contemplated by the present invention. As will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s), all of components "inside" of the CIDM system 100 are connected and communicate via a wide or local area network (WAN or LAN) running a secure communications protocol (e.g., secure sockets layer (SSL)).

The CIDM system 100 includes a server 110 which serves as the "back-bone" (i.e., CIDM processing) of the present invention. The CIDM system 100 includes a second server 112 which provides the "front-end" for the CIDM system 100. The server 112 is a typical Web server process running at a Web site which sends out web pages in response to Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests from remote browsers (i.e., subscribers of the contact intelligence service provider). That is, the server 112 provides the GUI to users of the CIDM system 100 in the form of Web pages. These Web pages sent to the subscriber's PC 106 would result in GUI screens 108 being displayed. In an embodiment of the present invention, the server 112 would be implemented using a Windows NT.TM. server platform.

The server 112 is connected to a router 114. As is also well known in the relevant art(s), routers forward packets between networks and are available from many vendors such as Cisco Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. The router 114 forwards network packets from inside the inside region of system 100 to the outside over the Internet 118.

The connection to the Internet 118, which includes the WWW 120, however, is through a firewall 116. The firewall 116 serves as the connection and separation between the LAN 101, which includes the plurality of network elements (i.e., elements 102-116) "inside" of the LAN 101, and the global Internet 118 "outside" of the LAN 101. Generally speaking, a firewall is a dedicated gateway machine with special security precaution software. It is typically used, for example, to service Internet 118 connections and dial-in lines, and protects the cluster of more loosely administered network elements hidden behind it from external invasion. Firewalls are well known in the relevant art(s) and are available from many vendors such as Check Point Software Technologies Corporation of Redwood City, Calif.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the relevant art(s), this configuration of router 114, firewall 116, and Web server 112 is flexible and can be omitted in certain embodiments. Additional routers 114 and/or firewalls 116 can also be added.

B. Enterprise Embodiments

Referring to FIG. 1C, a block diagram illustrating the physical architecture of a CIDM system 100, according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing network connectivity among the various components, is shown. The embodiment of FIG. 1C represents the enterprise, locally-run version of the CIDM tool.

As explained above, the CIDM system 100 includes a public information database 102 and a private contact information database 104. In an embodiment of the present invention, these two databases can be mirrored for fault tolerance and thus shown as databases 102a-b and 104a-b.

The CIDM system 100 includes a server 110 which serves as the "back-bone" (i.e., CIDM tool processing) of the present invention. The front-end of the system 100 would be provided by a plurality of PCs 106 (shown as PC 106a-n). During operation of the CIDM tool, the PCs 106 provide a GUI "front-end" screens 108 (shown as GUIs 108a-n) to the several users.

As will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s), all of components of the CIDM system 100 are connected and communicate via a WAN or LAN 122. Further, in alternate embodiments of the present invention, aside from an Ethernet LAN implementation, the system 100 may be implemented as an intranet or extranet.

As will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s), the Internet subscriber, enterprise version of the CIDM tool will resemble the architecture of the system 100 presented in FIG. 1B. A notable exception, in one embodiment of the present invention, would involve the contact intelligence service provider supplying an infrastructure where each enterprise subscriber's private database 104 would be separated and secured from other subscribers' private contact data information.

C. General Considerations

While two separate databases (i.e., databases 102 and 104) are shown in FIGS. 1A-1C for ease of explanation, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) that the CIDM system 100 may utilize databases physically located on one or more computers which may or may not be the same as the PC 106 or sever 110, as applicable.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as described below in greater detail, databases 102 and 104 would reside on the same physical media, but separated as two virtual databases. Further, in alternate embodiments, CIDM system 100 can utilize many different schemes for allocating where the public and private data physically resides within the system. For example, in the Internet subscriber embodiments of the present invention, the private contact information database 104 may reside locally (i.e., within PC 106), while the public information database(s) 102 reside within the contact intelligence service provider's infrastructure and made accessible to the server 110.

The enterprise versions described above, in an alternative embodiment, may also have three levels of private contact data stored within private database 104 which the CIDM system 100 may utilize. The first level would be the entity's private contact data which includes the private contact data of each of the enteprise users who have shared their data with the entity as a whole. The second level of private contact data includes the entity's entity-wide private contact data. This type of private contact data is not based from personal relationships, but from an organization's perspective. For example, persons attending a conference sponsored by an entity may fill out an attendance or survey form. These forms may be entered into the private contact database 104 and referred to herein as the second level data. A third level includes each user's private data that they consider top secret and decide not to share with the entity as a whole. All the levels of private data may be used to generate the user's and the entity's contact pathway. However, when the third (top secret) level of contact data is used to generate the entity's contact data, the displayed contact pathway will not display any secret links along the pathway without the permission of the user who "owns" the data corresponding to that contact link in the contact pathway (see the Private field of the PersonRelation TABLE 318).

It should be understood that the particular embodiments of the contact intelligence data mining system 100, as shown in FIGS. 1A-1C are for illustrative purposes only and do not limit the present invention. For example, two of the above-mentioned versions of the CIDM system 100 (stand-alone and enterprise), in an alternative embodiment, may be accessible via telephone services or the like, rather than the Internet 118. As another example, the CIDM system 100 may be accessible via a corporate intranet (without the need for a firewall 116) or extranet rather than solely through the Internet 118. Further, referring to FIGS. 1A-1B, in an embodiment of the present invention, databases 102a-b, respectively, can be the above-mentioned multi-national corporation board of directors database 102a used in conjunction with a university alumni public information databases 102b.

III. Software Architecture

Referring to FIG. 2, a block diagram illustrating a software architecture 200 according to an embodiment of CIDM system 100, showing communications among the various components, is shown Software architecture 200 is a layered architecture which includes the GUI 108 framework layer, a business objects layer 202, and a data abstraction layer 204. The data abstraction layer 204 manages access to the databases 102 and 104. As is well known in the relevant art(s), a layered architecture allows each layer of the software architecture to be designed, written, and re-implemented independently of the other layers.

The software architecture 200 of CIDM system 100 (i.e., all layers 108, 202, and 204) includes software code (control) logic that implements the present invention and runs on the PC 106 and, in the case of the enterprise embodiments, the server 110. The code provides the user with the functionality to intelligently browse and establish the contacts of their contacts and display the optimal relationship path to reach other desired contacts (i.e., contact pathway), etc.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the code logic is implemented in an object-oriented programming language that contains "objects," which are a set of data structures encapsulated with a set of routines called "methods" which operate on the data. Thus, the architecture follows an open architecture standard for object-oriented programming languages such as, for example, the Common Object Model (COM) or the Common Object Requests Broker Architecture (CORBA), which are both well known in the relevant art(s).

In an embodiment of the present invention, the software code is written in a high-level programming language such as the Visual BASIC (VB) programming language. VB is an event-driven programming language that allows code to be invoked when a user performs certain operations on graphical on-screen objects. Thus, the use of a programming language such as VB facilitates the browsing and search functions (explained below) of the GUI screens 108.

Layer 202 is composed of a number of components or packages that encompass one or more pieces of functionality required to implement the system. Each component is comprised of one or more classes (the static definition of an object), and the decision as to which class is contained in which component is a design issue and is usually resolved so that related areas of functionality are kept within a single component. This, as with the layered implementation of the architecture, allows portions of an application written in an object-oriented manner to be re-designed independently of other components.

For example, in an embodiment where the database is implemented using relational technology, the architecture of the CIDM tool is based around the object-oriented paradigm whereas the database implementations use a relational paradigm. This leads to a problem known in the art as the object-relational impedance mis-match. Layer 204 provides a mechanism to translate the objects within the application to a relational form and additionally insulates the rest of the architecture from differences in implementation of the different databases in the various embodiments of the system.

In an embodiment where the database is implemented using object database technology, layer 204 provides a mechanism to insulate the rest of the architecture from differences in implementation of the different databases in the various embodiments of the system.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the software code communicates with the databases 102 and 104 using the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface. As is well known in the relevant art(s), ODBC is a standard for accessing different database systems from a high level programming language application. It enables these applications to submit statements to ODBC using an ODBC structured query language (SQL) and then translates these to the particular SQL commands the underlying database product employs. In an alternate embodiment, the CIDM processing software communicates with the databases 102 and 104 using the Active Data Objects (ADO) interface.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the databases 102 and 104 are implemented using a relational database product (e.g., Microsoft.RTM. Access, Microsoft.RTM. SQL Server, IBM.RTM. DB2.RTM., ORACLE.RTM., INGRES.RTM., or the like). As is well known in the relevant art(s), relational databases allow the definition of data structures, storage and retrieval operations, and integrity constraints, where data and relations between them are organized in tables. Further, tables are a collection of records and each record in a table possesses the same fields.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the databases 102 and 104 are implemented using an object database product (e.g., Ode available from Bell Laboratories of Murray Hill, N.J., POET available from the POET Software Corporation of San Mateo, Calif., ObjectStore available from Object Design, Inc. of Burlington, Mass., and the like). As is well known in the relevant art(s), data in object databases are stored as objects and can be interpreted only using the methods specified by each data object's class.

IV. General System Characteristics

A. Data Representation

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as described below in greater detail, databases 102 and 104 would reside on the same physical media and separated as two virtual databases. Thus, the private database 104 (whose data are imported in batch or entered manually), as well as the public database(s) 102 will share similar structures within, in an embodiment, the relational database. That is, the relational tables and fields within the databases 102 and 104 would be identical. This allows greater speed of performance and reduces the complexity in implementing the CIDM system 100. As will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s), the separation of public and private data may be accomplished by using a "OwnerId" identifier within the virtual database (see TABLE 1F below). The use of the "record owner" identifier, serves not only to separate public and private data, but to separate the private contact data among the (possible) several users of the CIDM system 100 in the enterprise embodiments described above (i.e., with reference to FIG. 1C).

Given the foregoing, in an embodiment of the present invention, the virtual database that includes databases 102 and 104 may be organized into ten essential relational tables with associated fields as shown in FIG. 3, and summarized in TABLES 1A-1J below, respectively. The key data field for each table is denoted by a "*".

An AccType table 302 describes the types of accountability in the databases 102 and 104. TABLE 1A describes its fields:

                  TABLE 1A
    ______________________________________
    ACCTYPE TABLE 302
    FIELD         DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *AccTypeId    Identifies an accountability type
    AccType       Name of the accountability type
    Hierarchic    Boolean field for describing accountability
                  type
    Directional   Boolean field for describing accountability
                  type
    Leveled       Boolean field for describing accountability
                  type
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1B
    ______________________________________
    ACCOUNTABILITY TABLE 304
    FIELD            DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *AccountabilityId
                     Identifies an accountability
    AccTypeId        Identifies an accountability type
    OwnerId          Owner of the record, this is ranged
                     over party with a special value
                     denoting the various owners of the
                     public database(s) 102
    CommissionerId   The owner of relationship in an
                     accountability for example, the
                     employer in an employment
                     relationship
    ResponsibleId    The party responsible to the
                     commissioner in an accountability,
                     for example the employee in an
                     employment relationship
    Notes            Any general description about the
                     record
    Start            The start date of an accountability,
                     for example the date of appointment
                     to a board of directors
    Finish           The finish date of an accountability,
                     for example the date a board
                     membership was terminated
    SourceId         Identifies an information source, for
                     examples Annual Report, Reuters,
                     Newspaper
    SourceDate       Date of the information in the source,
                     for example the publication date of an
                     annual report or newspaper
    SourceKey        Key derived from the information
                     source, for example the year of the
                     annual report, the title of a newspaper
    LastUpdated      Date the information was last updated
    Name             Short label for displaying purposes of
                     that Accountability (e.g., director).
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1C
    ______________________________________
    CONTACTTYPE TABLE 306
    FIELD           DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *ContactTypeId  Identifies a contact type
    ContactType     Description of a contact type for
                    example "Casual acquaintance"
    ContactLevel    Numeric weighting to allow ranking of
                    different contact Types
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1D
    ______________________________________
    COUNTRY TABLE 308
    FIELD              DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *CountryCode       Identifies a country
    Country            Name of country
    DialingCode        International dialing code
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1E
    ______________________________________
    ORGANIZATION TABLE 310
    FIELD           DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *PartyId        Identifies a party
    OrgTypeId       FK to party type; allows the
                    classification of organizations (e.g.,
                    charity, social, etc.)
    Organization    Name that the organization is known as
                    generally or to the user
    LegalName       Legal name of an organization
    CountryCode     Identifies a country
    RegistrationNumber
                    Registration number of organization in
                    its home country
    RegAddressId    FK to an address table where address
                    string is stored
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1F
    ______________________________________
    PARTY TABLE 312
    FIELD       DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *PartyId    Identifies a party
    PartyTypeId Identifies a party type
    OwnerId     Owner of the record, this is ranged over party
                with a special value denoting The public database
                102
    Notes       Any general description about the record
    SourceId    Identifies an information source, for examples
                Annual Report, Reuters, Newspaper
    SourceKey   Key derived from the information source, for
                example the year of the annual report, the title of
                a newspaper
    SourceDate  Date of the information in the source, for example
                the publication date of an annual report or
                newspaper
    LastUpdated Date the information was last updated
    OrigPartyId Reference from one party object to another so as
                to link multiple copies or versions of the same
                item. Allows a different record to be kept as the
                private copy of the data, e.g., "I known the
                person's home address which is not public
                knowledge." Company names and details evolve
                over time, so the need to track old names of
                entities exists.
    Name        Short text label for display purposes of that party
    DuplicateId References any record that is a duplicate of the
                current party
    DupKey      Calculated value to estimate whether the value is
                duplicated by another party
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1G
    ______________________________________
    PARTYTYPE TABLE 314
    FIELD            DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *PartyTypeId     Identifies a party type
    PartyType        Text label to describe a party type
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1H
    ______________________________________
    PERSON TABLE 316
    FIELD       DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *PartyType  Identifies a party
    Title       Title of the person, for example Mr., Mrs., Miss,
                etc.
    Forename    A person's forename(s)
    Prefix      The prefix of a surname for example, van, de,
                van der
    Suffix      Suffix of a surname for example, II, Jr., Sr., III
    Surname     A person's surname
    Birthday    Birthday of the person
    Age         Age of the person, calculated from the Birthday if
                known, otherwise sourced manually and updated
                by using the AgeUpdated field
    AgeUpdated  Date on which the system increments the Age
                field, if Birthday is unknown
    Envelope    Person's name and title as they should be printed
                on an envelope
    Salutation  Person's name as it should appear in the
                introduction of a letter. This allows for
                personalizing of mailings, for example you might
                address someone as Mr Jones whereas your
                colleague might use Dear Bob
    CountryCode Identifies a country
    HomeAddressId
                FK to an Address table where home address string
                is stored
    WorkAddressId
                FK to an Address table where work address string
                is stored
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1I
    ______________________________________
    PERSONRELATION TABLE 318
    FIELD             DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    *AccountabilityId Identifies an accountability
    ContactTypeId     Identifies a contact type
    Private           Represents whether this personal
                      contact data will be shared in an
                      enterprise environment
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 1J
    ______________________________________
    RELATIONSHIP TABLE 320
    FIELD           DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    AccountabilityId
                    Identifies an accountability
    Department      The name of the department for a
                    organization/person relationship for
                    example "Managing Board"
    Role            The role the person is performing for
                    the organization, for example
                    "Manager"
    SubRole         The subrole the person is playing (e.g.,
                    Manager of Finance)
    ______________________________________

                  TABLE 2
    ______________________________________
    BROWSER MODE      FOLDERS
    ______________________________________
    User's Contacts:  People
                      Organizations
    Company Contacts: People
                      Organizations
                      Employees
    Contact Pathway:  User's Contact Pathway:
                      People
                      Organizations
                      Company:
                      People
                      Organizations
                      Employees
    Public Information:
                      People
                      Organizations
    ______________________________________


              TABLE 3
    ______________________________________
    SEARCHING MODE
                DESCRIPTION
    ______________________________________
    People      String search of the database (102 and/or 104) for
                a particular individual
    Organization
                String search of the database (102 and/or 104) for
                an organization
    Person at Organization
                Search of the database (102 and/or 104) which
                reveals the contact pathway, if any, for a user to
                reach a targeted person at a specific organization
    ______________________________________

• Inventors
  de l'Etraz, Paris; Fees, James R.; Hatcher, Paul; Bruderer, Otto; Fees, Christina M.;
• Assignee
  BoardWalk A.G. (CH)
• Published
  Jun-6-2000
• Current US Classes:
  705/26
  705/27
  707/102
  707/104.1
  707/4
  709/201
  709/203
• Application #
  245759
• International Classes
  G06F 017/30
• Field of Search
  707/1 707/2 707/3 707/4 707/5 707/10 707/100 707/103 707/104 705/26 705/27 709/201 709/203
• Examiner
  Choules; Jack M.
• Agent
  Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein, & Fox, P.L.L.C.
• US Patent References:
  5555403
  5628004
  5666493
  5737726
  5892909
  5918010
  5918214
  5950173