Patent Issued for Methods and systems for social awareness (USPTO 11609926): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2023 APR 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Fabrizi, Jennifer (Amherst, MA, US), Kannan, Gopika (West Hartford, CT, US), Polkowski, Robert (Boston, MA, US), filed on July 13, 2020, was published online on March 21, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11609926 is Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Human intelligence and knowledge may be becoming increasingly digitized. Knowledge may be nowadays widely recognized as a core asset for organizations around the world and as a tool for better benefits. Currently, in an information-based world, knowledge-workers must have access to the knowledge and the tools they need to make better, faster, and more-informed decisions to improve their productivity, to enhance customer relationships, and to make their businesses more competitive.

“Organizations may usually use a variety of methods and systems to discover and maintain knowledge and new ideas for the benefit or improvement of its personnel and business. One conventional approach include the generation of a manual, book, electronic mail (email), software, etc. in order to share such knowledge.

“However, the majority of new ideas and discovered knowledge may exist in the minds of an organization’s personnel. As such, there may be difficult for individuals to learn of others’ ideas and communicate their own. Consequently, knowledge may not be readily accessible by other members of an organization or project.

“Another conventional approach in the art of knowledge management may be the social media network environment, which may be used for topics of information to impact social measurements, thereby bringing generational awareness to improve community cultural and economic values. The network environment may be related to a platform for sharing knowledge and/or experiences in order to obtain intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantages within organizations. However, the sharing knowledge may be considered as the major challenge in the field of knowledge management because some individuals or employees may tend to resist sharing their knowledge with the rest of the organization. Moreover, the disclosed platform for sharing knowledge and/or experience may extract information from a database, and analyze queried occurrences to identify stored patterns for communications through a centralized system in an effort to reveal information not commonly seen.

“For the aforementioned reasons, there is a need for a method for social awareness, where any suitable social networks could be used as an effective source of project resources based on knowledge and experience in a given environment under specific conditions.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The embodiments describe a system and method for social awareness that may be based on social networks for knowledge exchange. An exemplary embodiment may refer to a component from a knowledge ecosystem, which may be used to dynamically select the suitable member(s) of a specific project team, as well as a knowledge management system, which may manage and process the flow of information within the knowledge ecosystem. The knowledge ecosystem may include the ability to connect and the associations based on an individual expertise into the realm or flow of work (enabling experts to connect and work together). Consequently, the knowledge ecosystem may allow to connect the relevant individuals associated with certain tasks at hand, and the knowledge that may be required or with uncovering unknown knowledge.

“In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving, by a computer, an input of a plurality of project attributes for a project; generating, by the computer, a record of the project having the plurality of project attributes; searching, by the computer, a social network base to match at least one of the project attributes in the record of the project with an individual associated with knowledge in a record in the social network base, wherein the knowledge has at least one of the project attributes; and in respond to searching, automatically generating, by a computer, a record of a team by selecting the individual as a team member of the project when there is a match.

“In another embodiment, a system comprises a social network database; a terminal configured to provide an interface to the social network database, receive at least one parameter for a project, and search the social network for an individual associated with knowledge that satisfies the at least one parameter; and a database configured to store records for a plurality of individuals, provide information to the terminal about the plurality of individuals when the terminal is searching the social network database, and update the records to associate at least one of the individuals with the project when the individual is associated with knowledge that satisfies at least one parameter of the project.

“In yet another embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving, by a computer, an input of at least one project having involvement by a user; determining, by the computer, a plurality of attributes of the user in a record of the user; analyzing, by the computer, each of the at least one project and the plurality of attributes of the user to determine a set of skills for each of the at least one project; and displaying, by the computer, a graphical user interface to the user presenting a skill level of the user compared to the set of skills. The exemplary embodiments described herein are directed to improving the efficiency of processing knowledge information. The systems and methods use a specially-programmed computer system that has the capability to perform the complex computations and automated functionality that cannot be reasonably performed by a person. The computations and functionality are envisioned to be performed by a non-human system, including hardware, software, and/or firmware. The computations and functionality cannot be performed by a generic computer, but rather a specially-programmed computer that is configured to perform the complex computations and functionality described herein. The techniques and processes described herein may also improve the efficiency of the specially-programmed computer by performing discrete tasks that can more optimally process data.

“Numerous other aspects, features of the present disclosure may be made apparent from the following detailed description.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for identifying a user based upon the user’s social media interactions, the method comprising: monitoring, by a server, data generated from a plurality of interactions between a set of computing devices operated by a set of users and a social networking platform hosted by the server; tagging and indexing, by the server, the monitored data to identify one or more attributes associated with each user within the set of users; receiving, by the server from a computer, a request for one or more users associated with a project, the request comprising an input of at least one project attribute; generating, by the server, a first score for each user within the set of users, each first score corresponding to a probability of each user’s attributes matching with the at least one project attribute; generating a second score for each user, the second score corresponding to an availability of each user for the project; displaying, by the server, a graphical user interface on the computer, the graphical user interface comprising an indication of each user within a subset of the set of users satisfying a first score threshold, or a second score threshold, and at least one of the first or second scores generated for each respective user within the subset of the set of users; and upon receiving a selection of at least one user within the subset of the set of users, associating, by the server, a data record corresponding to the selected user with the project.

“2. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the first score corresponds to data generated based on each user’s interactions with the social networking platform that is tagged and indexed by the server for each user, the first score not being based on a profile of each user.

“3. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the first score corresponds to: data generated based on each user’s interactions with the social networking platform that is tagged and indexed by the server for each user, and a profile of each user.

“4. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the server generates a third score for each user, the third score corresponding to a preparedness of each user.

“5. The computer-implemented method according to claim 4, wherein the server assigns a weight to the first score, the second score, and the third score for each user, the server further generating a net score for each user based on a weighted first score, a weighted second score, and a weighted third score for each user.

“6. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, further comprising ranking, by the server, each user within the subset of the set of users.

“7. The computer-implemented method according to claim 6, wherein the ranking is based on at least one of each user’s respective first score, or one or more skills and techniques required to execute the project.

“8. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the server automatically selects a predetermined number of users within the subset of the set of users to be associated with the project.

“9. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the first score corresponds to a probability of each user’s attributes matching with a single attribute associated with the project.

“10. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises a phase associated with the project, wherein the server generates the first score for each user for each phase of the project.

“11. A computer system for identifying a user based upon the user’s social media interactions, the system comprising a server comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising: monitor data generated from a plurality of interactions between a set of computing devices operated by a set of users and a social networking platform hosted by the server; tagging and indexing, by the server, the monitored data to identify one or more attributes associated with each user within the set of users; receive, from a computer, a request for one or more users associated with a project, the request comprising an input of at least one project attribute; generate a first score for each user within the set of users, each first score corresponding to a probability of each user’s attributes matching with the at least one project attribute; generate a second score for each user, the second score corresponding to an availability of each user for the project; display a graphical user interface on the computer, the graphical user interface comprising an indication of each user within a subset of the set of users satisfying a first score threshold, or a second score threshold, and at least one of the first or second scores generated for each respective user within the subset of the set of users; and upon receiving a selection of at least one user within the subset of the set of users, associate a data record corresponding to the selected user with the project.

“12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the first score corresponds to data generated based on each user’s interactions with the social networking platform that is tagged and indexed by the server for each user, the first score not being based on a profile of each user.

“13. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the first score corresponds to: data generated based on each user’s interactions with the social networking platform that is tagged and indexed by the server for each user, and a profile of each user.

“14. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the server generates a third score for each user, the third score corresponding to a preparedness of each user.

“15. The computer system according to claim 14, wherein the server assigns a weight to the first score, the second score, and the third score for each user, the server further generating a net score for each user based on a weighted first score, a weighted second score, and a weighted third score for each user.

“16. The computer system according to claim 11, further comprising ranking, by the server, each user within the subset of the set of users.

“17. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein the ranking is based on at least one of each user’s respective first score, or one or more skills and techniques required to execute the project.

“18. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the server automatically selects a predetermined number of users within the subset of the set of users to be associated with the project.

“19. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the first score corresponds to a probability of each user’s attributes matching with a single attribute associated with the project.

“20. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises a phase associated with the project, wherein the server generates the first score for each user for each phase of the project.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Fabrizi, Jennifer. Methods and systems for social awareness. U.S. Patent Number 11609926, filed July 13, 2020, and published online on March 21, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11609926)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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