Abstract:
Disclosed is a communication journaling and archival system which obtains content from social networks, handles re-authentication requirements which occur with respect to monitored users and social networks, includes content obtained from social networks in a journal and archiving system compatible with email journaling and archiving, and can be configured to send a journaled communication to multiple journal destinations and journal formats.

Description:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION WITH BACKGROUND INFORMATION 
       [0001]    Governmental regulatory bodies, courts, and laws required that certain communications be preserved and require that organizations and individuals respond to certain communications in prescribed manners. For example, an insurance company may be required to log (and potentially respond to) all instances in which a litigation threat is made to an insurance broker in relation to a policy written by the insurance company, even if the broker is not employed directly by the insurance company, but is an independent contractor representing multiple insurance companies. In another example, a company involved in litigation may be required to produce all communications to or from a particular employee or type of employee. In another example, a company may be required to handle credit card information in ways prescribed by contract and/or law, such as that credit card information be encrypted and/or that it not be held for longer than a specified period of time. In the United States, Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA, the Data Protection Act, the Patriot Act, and other laws require that certain communications be preserved, sometimes in different ways (such as with different security levels) and/or responded to in different ways. Hereinafter, the term “monitored user” will refer to a party whose communications need to be journaled and archived; the monitored user may be a party such as the broker discussed above, an employee of a company, or similar. 
         [0002]    Various service providers and software companies have begun to address the need to journal and archive electronic communications, such as email, and one-to-one or one-to-many instant messaging. However, many such solutions require that the email and/or instant messaging take place on computers under the control of the company with the journaling need and/or under the control of a journaling service provider. For example Microsoft, Inc., released an email journalling feature in service packs for Exchange™ dating back to 2000, 2003, and 2004. As is typical, the feature requires that rules be set to determine which emails should be journaled, rules based on a sender or recipient. Journaling and archiving systems commonly operate at the email server by copying a journaled message to a new email (often as an attachment), preserving the journaled message&#39;s original headers in the message body of the new email (if an email is merely forwarded by an email client, the original headers are often discarded or modified), optionally utilizing different protocols to record bcc recipients, recipients from distribution groups, and recipients who result from forwarding rules, and sending the new journal email to a journaling server and/or archive server. These systems represent a problem relative to the example provided in the preceding paragraph with respect to the insurance company broker who, as an independent contractor, may be using an email service not controlled by the insurance company. Steps may be taken to forward the email from the broker&#39;s site to the insurance company or a journaling/archiving service provider, though these steps assume that the broker controls the broker&#39;s email server, which may not be the case, and/or such an approach may result in forwarding too many emails to the journaling/archiving service provider, such as forwarding all of the broker&#39;s email and/or email from others at the broker&#39;s location which may meet the forwarding criteria. In addition, existing journaling and archiving systems do not address communications which take place in social media. Social media present a different set of problems in terms of identifying which and how communications are to be journaled/archived, accessing the social media providers, and maintaining access to the social media providers in a way which is not taxing to the monitored user. 
         [0003]    In addition, a journaling/archiving service provider may find that an email to be journaled and archived needs to be sent to multiple journal and archive destinations, such as if the monitored user represents a company with multiple journaling and archiving destinations or if the monitored user represents more than one company, each of which may have multiple journaling and archiving destinations. For example,  FIG. 3  (not showing prior art) presents a diagram of a monitor  305 . The monitor  305  may be engaged by one or more monitor customers  303  to monitor the communications sent and received by the monitored users  301 .A through  301 .C from communicators  105 .A through  105 .C (who may be anyone the monitored users  301  communicate with, including the monitor customer  303  and others). The monitor  305  may maintain its own journal servers  221  and archives  223  to journal and archive monitored communications; the monitor customer  303  may also require that communications be sent to a 3rd party monitor  307 , separate from the monitor  305 ; the 3rd party monitor may maintain journal servers and archives (not shown) or may perform other operations with respect to monitored communications, such as (for example) indexing content to improve a search algorithm. The multiple archives  223 .A through  223 .C and archives and/or other processors of the 3rd party monitor  307  may utilize different formats, may have different security requirements, or generally have different structures. In this case, the multiple journaling and archiving destinations may accept the message to be journaled in different formats. 
         [0004]    In existing approaches, multiple journaling and archiving systems must be setup separately to address the monitored users  301 . In addition, the monitor  305  would not handle social media. In addition, different journaling and archiving systems maintained by monitor  305  and 3rd party monitor  307  do not work together.  0005  In the context of email, emails generally have a structure comprising an envelope, one or more headers, a message body (or simply “body”), and attached messages. Email format is generally described in Request for Comments (“RFC”) 5322, published by the Network Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (“IETF”), with additional information in RFC 5321, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (“SMTP”). The envelope generally contains addressing information which is used by email servers to route the email, generally the “to” address and a “from” or “on behalf of” address. The header generally contains addressing and additional information (such as subject and date/time), though the header information is not necessarily used by email servers to route the email. The message body generally contains text in ASCII format. Email attachments are generally in a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (“MIME”) format, which makes possible text in character sets other than ASCII (including for use in supporting non-ASCII header information), non-text data attachments, message bodies with multiple parts, and as otherwise specified in the following RFCs: 2045, 2046, 2047, 4288, 4289, and 2049. As used herein, emails are discussed as comprising an outer message comprising an envelope, header, body, and attachments (if any), as well as potentially comprising an inner message. The inner message may comprise the same parts (envelope, header, body, and attachments), though the envelope of the inner message is not generally used to route the inner message. The inner message is carried in the message body of the outer message or as an attachment to the outer message. The inner message is not routed separately from the outer message (which is routed). The inner message is an email message which is attached to or made part of (the body of) the outer message 
         [0005]    An email journal message or journal message is an outer email message which includes an inner message comprising content from a new email message. The journal message (including both outer and inner parts) may be journaled, analyzed and archived, while the new message (just the inner part of the email journal message) is sent (separately from the email journal message) to the intended recipient. In addition to the inner message comprising content from the new email message, the journal message may contain metadata related to the new message, such as times, dates, names/physical location of/identifiers for individuals involved in the communication, and/or a class or category assigned to the message by a person or by rules executed by a software program. The journal message generally follows an email transport format, such as SMTP, and is sent as an email to an email journal server. The journal message may be encrypted and/or may not be accessible to the end-user who generated the new email message which was journaled. The journal message may be handled as an email by existing communication infrastructure. 
         [0006]    Archiving generally refers to backing up a communication, often to an off-site location or to files not actively used by an end user&#39;s email client. A journaling system may be used as an interface to an archival system. 
         [0007]    Recently, social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, and similar) have become widely used as communication forums. Social media present many challenges in the context of journaling and archiving communications, including that authorization is required from the social media forum to perceive the communication, that social media authentication and authorization systems change frequently, that the presentation of communications to users within a social media context may depend on a host of factors (there is not necessarily a “sender” and a “recipient”), and that a wide range of communication modes are possible, including video, photographs, text exchanges taking place across short or long time frames, communications composed of content from multiple contributors selected by the social media operator and advertisers, and communications directed algorithmically at groups, rather than from one individual to another or through broadcasts. 
         [0008]    Needed is a communication journaling and archiving system which i) obtains specified content from a social media network, re-authenticates with the social media network as necessary, ii) stores email, instant message, and content from social media networks in a system compatible with email journaling and archiving systems, and iii) can be configured to send a journaled communication to multiple journal destinations and journal formats. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0009]    Disclosed is a communication journaling and archival system which obtains content from social networks, handles re-authentication requirements which occur with respect to monitored users and social networks, includes content obtained from social networks in a journal and archiving system compatible with email journaling and archiving, and can be configured to send a journaled communication to multiple journal destinations and journal formats. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0010]      FIG. 1  depicts parties, devices, and certain communication paths in a functional block diagram. 
           [0011]      FIG. 2  depicts devices and certain communication paths of a monitor in a functional block diagram. 
           [0012]      FIG. 3  is a functional block diagram depicting an example of devices and certain communication paths. 
           [0013]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart of a process described in these papers. 
           [0014]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart of a process described in these papers. 
           [0015]      FIG. 6  is a functional block diagram of an exemplary computing device and some data structures and/or components thereof. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]      FIG. 1  diagrams parties involved in a set of communications used as an example in these papers. Components  101 .A through  101 .C depict example representatives of service providers, service providers depicted by components  103 .A through  103 .C; these parties may be, for example, stock/bond brokers, dealers, banks, insurance companies, or other product or service providers. The representatives  101 .A- 101 .C are labeled as “3rd party Representatives,” though they may be employees of one or more of the service providers  103 .A- 103 .C. A line is drawn between each of the representatives  101 .A- 101 .C and the service providers  103 .A- 103 .C, each line representing a one-to-one or one-to-many communication connection, such as may be provided by email or instant messaging. Communication lines (not shown) may also exist between the representatives as well as between service providers. The representatives  101  and service providers  103  are also referred to herein as “monitored users” and are also depicted in  FIG. 3  as monitored users  301 .A through  301 .C. 3rd party Representatives  101  (or monitored users  301 ) as well as others (such as service providers  103 .A- 103 .C) may also be customers of a journaling and archiving service (also referred to as a monitor  305 ), in which case they are referred to herein as “monitor customers  303 .” 
         [0017]    Surrounding the representatives  101  and the service providers  103  are communicators  105 . The communicators  105  may be customers of the representatives  101 , the service providers  103 , or both. The communicators  105  may also be those who are not customers, but who may nonetheless have legally significant communications with the representatives  101  and/or the service providers  103 , which communications need to be preserved. The communicators may communicate with one another and the other parties shown in  FIG. 1  via email, instant messaging, through social media networks  107 , through phone, videophone, physical mail, and in-person. 
         [0018]    Around the representatives  101 , service providers  103 , and communicators  105  in  FIG. 1  is depicted a social media network  107 . More than one social media network  107  may exist. The social media network  107  may, for example, provide an Internet based forum for exchanging identity information, text, pictures, audio, video (collectively referred to herein as “content”), and computer applications (referred to herein as “apps”) between users of the social media network  107 . The users of the social media network  107  may (without limitation) include the representatives  101 , the service providers  103 , the communicators  105 , and the regulators  109 . A user of the social media network, such as a communicator  105 , may have a “home,” “wall,” “landing page” or similar within the user interface of the social media network where the social media network user can post and manage content, interact with apps, identify other users with whom the user is associated (referred to herein as “friends”), and search the social media network  107  and/or the Internet. The social media network  107  may provide users with a set of permissions defining whether and how various of the user&#39;s content may be accessed by others, including other users, advertisers, app developers, and users of the Internet in general. The permissions may be set with respect to particular content items (such as a photograph, a video, the user&#39;s name, address, or similar) or groups of items (such as all photos, all videos, folders, etc.) and may specify how far the permission may propagate, such as to a friend, a friend-of-a-friend, app providers, etc. Permissions may last indefinitely or may time out. Permissions in social media networks  107  may be changed by users as well as by the operator of the social media network  107 . 
         [0019]    Permissions may be managed, for example, through the use of an OpenID identifier or OAUTH credential or token (referred to herein as an “OAUTH credential”). Instead of providing the user&#39;s credentials (typically a username and password), the monitored user  301  (or a social media network acting on behalf of the user) may provide an OAUTH credential which provides access to some or all of a user&#39;s content in the social media network  107  for a period of time (ranging from indefinite to for a specified period). The user may provide the OAUTH credential by interacting with, for example, a “flow” supported by the social media network  107 , such as a user-agent flow, a web server flow, a device flow, or others. 
         [0020]    In a typical flow, the monitor  305  has an account with the social media network; the monitor  305  uses the account to configure authorization requests which the monitor  305  expects to generate in relation to monitored users  301 . The monitor  305  then generates a hypertext link containing output from a hash algorithm, such as an MD5 or cryptographic algorithm, performed on an identifier for the monitored user and/or on an identifier for the monitor  305  or performed on content from the social media network associated with the monitored user, which link is sent or otherwise presented to a monitored user. When the monitored user clicks on or otherwise activates the link, the link directs the monitored user to a webserver operated by the monitor which may then redirect the monitored user to a webpage or similar generated by the social media network. The hash output identifies the monitored user  301  and the monitor  305  to the social media network. The social media network&#39;s webpage provides the monitored user  301  with an opportunity to grant permissions to the monitor  305 . If the monitored user approves the grant of permissions, then the social media network typically issues an OAUTH credential to the monitor  305 . Other flows may be used. 
         [0021]    Turning back to  FIG. 1 , regulators  109  are depicted around the other parties. The regulators  109  may include governmental regulatory bodies, courts, laws, trade group policies, contractual terms and similar which require that certain communications be preserved for prescribed times and require that organizations and individuals respond to certain communications in prescribed manners. For example, an insurance company may be required to log (and potentially respond to) all instances in which a litigation threat is made to an insurance broker in relation to a policy written by (or under) the insurance company, even if the broker is not employed directly by the insurance company, but is an independent contractor representing multiple insurance companies. In another example, a company involved in litigation may be required to produce all communications to or from a particular employee or type of employee. The regulatory requirements may be imposed on all the parties depicted in  FIG. 1 . In order to preserve and potentially respond to communications as required by the regulators  109 , one or more of the service providers  103 .A- 103 .C may obtain message journaling and archiving services, such as from the monitor  305  depicted in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . 
         [0022]      FIG. 2  depicts a single monitor  305  with a system comprising multiple components. Within these components, box  202 .A depicts a message processor and VPN (virtual private network); additional boxes  202 .B and  202 .C signify that there may be more than one set of these items (still within one message journaling and archiving service provider). Box  213  depicts components used for archiving, routing, and VPN. The components in boxes  202  and  213  may be physically located together or apart (as shown). Within box  202 , there is a component for a public Internet connection  200 , which is connected to a load balancing and firewall component  201 . The load balancing and firewall  201  may then be connected to an internal network (such as, without limitation, an ethernet network) connected to one or more message processing components  203 , one or more encrypted message processing components  205 , a web server  207 , and a VPN server  209 . The message processors  203  may receive, for example, messages such as emails, instant messages, and similar. Messages may be sent, for example, by a representative  101 , a service provider  103 , or another monitored user  301 . As discussed above, the monitored user  301  may configure the monitored user&#39;s email server to send a copy or branch of all inbound and outbound email messages to the monitor  305 , which branch maintains the original message envelope. The monitored user may configure the monitored user&#39;s instant messaging client(s) to use the IM proxy  225  of the monitor  305 . The message processors  203  may also be used to transmit email out of the monitor  305 . The outbound message processors  205  may be used if outbound communications require encryption not typically offered by the message processors  203 . 
         [0023]    The VPN server  209  at the message processor  202  is connected to a VPN server  219  at the archive, routing, and VPN component  213 . The archive, routing, and VPN component  213  is also depicted as comprising a public Internet connection  200 , a load balancing and/or firewall component  211 , which is connected to an internal network (such as, without limitation, an ethernet network) connected to components for a journal server  221 , a monitored user database  222 , an archive  223  (which may be one or more databases, one or more flat files, etc.), a management frontend  213  (which may provide a web or other interface for monitor customers  303  and the monitor  305 ), and an IM proxy  225 . The journal server  221  routes messages to other journal servers ( 221 .A through  221 .C in  FIG. 3  and potentially 3rd party monitor  307  in  FIG. 3 ) and archives ( 223 .A through  223 .C in  FIG. 3  and potentially 3rd party monitor  307  in  FIG. 3 ), according to the method discussed below. The monitored user database  222  may be one or more databases, flat files, or similar containing records associated with monitored users, such as identifiers associated with monitored users, social media provider identifiers associated with monitored users, email addresses, phone numbers, instant message identifiers and similar associated with monitored users, the output of hash algorithms performed on content associated with monitored users, the output of hash algorithms performed on identifiers associated with monitored users, time/date stamps, and similar. 
         [0024]      FIG. 4  depicts a flow chart of steps in a process wherein messages are received, journaled, and archived. The messages may include email such as may be received at a message processor  203  and/or instant messages received or sent by an instant message client utilizing the IM proxy  225 . The messages may include email comprising content from a social media network, as discussed further below in relation to  FIG. 5 . 
         [0025]    Step  403  depicts accepting a message at a scanner, which scanner may be a message processor  203 . The scanner may provide geographic redundancy and may verify that the message is a properly formatted email. The message is then sent, for example using the VPN  209 , as a journal message to the journal server  221 . The message is sent as an inner message attached to or part of an outer message. After being accepted (not shown) at the journal server  221 , the message formatting is determined  407 . If the outer message was sent by the message processor  203 , the format may be a known first format utilized by the message processor  203 . If the message is from a third party and does not conform to the first message format, the journal server  221  may determine if the format conforms to another message format, such as the message journal format used by Microsoft, Inc. or another format. The message format is determined so that in step  409  the outer message envelope may be parsed to identify what address the outer message was sent to and what address the outer message was sent from. Determining the message format may also be used to identify headers, body, and attachments, which body and attachments may further comprise one or more inner email messages. If step  409  was not successful, then step  411  may be performed to obtain address data from the outer message headers or, in further alternatives, from inner message envelopes, headers, bodies, or attachments. 
         [0026]    At step  412 , the number of monitor customers  303  associated with the addressing is determined (referred to in the claims as a “monitor customer container count”). The number of monitor customers  303  may be based on domain names and/or other email address portions obtained at step  409  (or  411 ). Specific email addresses may be assigned to specific monitor customers and/or strings or coded strings in the envelope addresses, in headers, body, or attachments may identify or be associated with monitor customers  303 . If more than one monitor customer is determined, then the process moves to step  441 . At step  441  the message is branched. Branching may mean that both the inner and outer messages are included as inner messages in a new outer message or it may mean that only the inner message is included in a new outer message. As an example, at step  443  at least one address from or associated with the monitored customers which caused the monitored customer count to exceed one is used as an address in the envelope for the outer message of the message branch. At step  445  the message branch is processed by the journal server, similar to step  405 . The message may be branched once at step  441  and the process of steps  407  to  445  iterated to address multiple customers, with one of the addresses which caused the customer count to exceed one being used, removed, or flagged on each iteration (such as by using a specified variation on the address in the envelope for the branch); alternatively, at step  441  a branch of the message may be made for each customer exceeding one, executing steps  441  through  445  in a batch process for the set of customers exceeding one. 
         [0027]    At step  413  records associated with the monitored users associated with the monitored customers are checked to determine if one or more of the monitor customers have requested multiple journal destinations and/or multiple journal sub-destinations based on the monitor customer and the sender/recipient in the addressing. For example, a monitor customer may have requested that any email sent to/from &lt;example@sample.com&gt; be sent to both one or more remote journaling service and one or more local journaling service(s). At step  414  a pre-scan may be performed. The pres-scan may analyze one or more of inner and/or outer envelopes, headers, bodies, and/or attachments to identify if the message contains content associated with a subset of the journal destinations identified in step  413 . The pre-scan step  414  may be performed before or in conjunction with step  413 . 
         [0028]    At step  417  a decision is made regarding whether the message is to be routed to a local or a remote journal destination. If the journal destination is remote (for example, a journal not controlled by the monitor  305  and/or the party executing the process outlined in  FIG. 4 ), then at step  419  the format for the remote destination may be applied. As examples, the following formats may be utilized: an email format (delivered, for example, using SMTP); a text format (up/downloaded via FTP or secure FTP); an XML format (up/downloaded via FTP or secure FTP); an SQL format (delivered via SQL insert); and/or in a Lotus Notes format. At step  421  the message is queued and delivered at step  423 . If an email format was used, then delivery will typically use SMTP; if a text format was used, then the text file will typically be up/downloaded via FTP or secure FTP; if an XML format was used, the XML file will typically be up/downloaded via FTP or secure FTP; if an SQL format was used, then delivery will typically be via an SQL insert. Delivery of the message may be from a VPN component, such as  219  and/or  209 , and/or may follow additional criteria, such as that delivery will be not be done if it cannot be done via VPN or through another secure channel or only that best efforts will be made to deliver the message (securely or otherwise). 
         [0029]    If the journal destination is local, a determination may be made at step  431  regarding whether there is one or more than one archive to which the message is to be sent. If there is more than one archive (more than one place to sent the message to for each customer associated with a message, such as with a domain name in a message address), then at step  451  a branch of the message is made for each destination, an address is created for the message branch at step  453 , and the message branch is sent to the archive (via the address) at step  455 . To avoid a looping condition, a flag may be set and/or the address created for the message branch may be a specified address format which indicates that the message branch address is derived from an address in the message and that the created address in the message should not be used again. These are examples, other ways may be used to avoid looping conditions and/or to otherwise reduce processing of the branch. 
         [0030]    At step  433  the message components are disassembled, decoded, and analyzed, such as to obtain ASCII text, to perform optical character recognition (“OCR”), to perform lexical analysis on the text, and/or to perform image recognition or similar. At step  435  the message&#39;s sender/recipient address may be mapped to alternatives, such as an address of &lt;user1@example.com&gt; mapping to &lt;user1@2ndexample.com&gt;. The alternative address(es) may be stored in the envelope, header, or body of an outer message which contains the (now inner) message. The alternatives may be obtained, for example, from the monitored user database  222 . At step  437  the output of step  433  and/or  435  are acted on according to rules set up by the monitor customer, such as that lexical analysis at step  433  found the word “lawsuit” the output of which may cause the message to be flagged or to have the word included in message&#39;s index. 
         [0031]      FIG. 5  depicts a flow chart of steps in a process wherein content obtained from a social media network is journaled and archived. At step  501  the process starts and then proceeds, such as at step  503 , by executing the process on a schedule, such as once per minute/hour/day/week/month or similar. At step  505 , if not already performed, the social media network accounts associated with monitored users are identified, individual monitored users potentially being associated with more than one social media network account on one or more social media networks. At step  507  the capture elements are determined, such as whether a monitor customer wants to journal and archive all content, whether the monitor customer wants to exclude audio, video, or other non-static content, or similar. 
         [0032]    At step  508  a determination may be made regarding whether the monitor  305  has sufficient permissions to proceed with accessing the social media network to obtain the monitored user&#39;s content. Not shown, this step may involve accessing a database for permissions associated with the account, determining if any permissions have been granted, if granted permissions have timed out (if this can be determined from, for example, an OAUTH credential or similar), if permission requirements at the social media network  107  have changed, or similar. This step may be combined with or be part of step  509  or may be seen in a result of step  509 . As discussed above, permission to access content posted to the social media network  107  may have been memorialized through issuance of an OAUTH credential in a flow, by providing access credentials, or similar. If permissions are not sufficient, then the process may go to step  523  where the account is flagged, the permissions assembled in step  525 , and the appropriate flow executed at step  527 , during which the account holder will be requested to authorize the issuance of a new OAUTH credential or other permission token.  0034  If permissions were sufficient at step  508 , then at step  509  an API or similar for the social media network  107  may be used to query the social media network  107  or to otherwise obtain content posted to the social media network  107  by or in association with the account. If the social media network does not provide a way to obtain only new data compared to the last time that data was obtained, then at step  511  a determination may be made regarding whether the obtained content is new compared to the data which has previously been obtained. This determination may be performed by executing an MD5 message digest algorithm or similar hash function on the obtained data and comparing the obtained value to a value derived from previously obtained data. If new data is not found (not shown), then the process may proceed to step  519  (discussed below). If new data is found, then at step  513  one or more new messages, such as email messages, may be formatted to contain the new data. Email is a useful carrier for the new data because email is already used in message journaling and archival systems, the email bearing the content can be sent to a third-party message journaling and archival system, the MIME format is commonly used in both email and web-based content transmission and rendering systems, and the content can generally be formatted to be human-readable in an email. 
         [0033]    At step  515  the message containing the data is customized per instructions set by the operator of the process and/or by monitor customers. In the context of email messages, examples of this include pre-/post-pending a string into the message subject line or body, including custom formating in the message body to distinguish different instances of content posted to the social media network  107  in different parts and sub-parts of the message body, to call out the time/date (or a range of time/dates across which)the content was captured at step  509  and the time/date or range of times/dates across which the content was posted (if provided by the social media network  107 ), and mapping contact or identity information obtained from the social media network  107  to contact or identity information known to the operator of the process (obtained, for example, from the monitored user database  222 ), which mapped contact or identity information may be used in the addressing for the email message. 
         [0034]    At step  517  the message may be transmitted to, for example, a journal processing server, such as  221 , where the message may be processed, if it is an email message according to  FIG. 4 . Alternatively, the message may be transmitted to a journal, archive, or other repository as an XML, text, or Lotus Notes file or into a database through an SQL insert or similar. One message may be sent for each new content instance or for each time content (which may comprise more than one content instance) is obtained or a message may contain more than one content instance or content obtained across a range of times. 
         [0035]    At step  519  the capture status for the account relative to the social media network  107  may be updated. The capture status may be recorded through use of a time-stamped identifier, through use of output of an MD5 or similar algorithm performed on content associated with the account profile, or similar. 
         [0036]      FIG. 6  is a functional block diagram of an exemplary computing device  600  that may be used to implement one or more computers described above. The computing device  600 , in one basic configuration, comprises at least a processor  602  and memory  603 . Depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device, memory  603  may be volatile (such as RAM), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or some combination of the two. Processing units and system memory may be combined, such as in a memory-resistor unit. 
         [0037]    Computing device  600  includes one or more communication connections  608  that allow computing device  600  to communicate with one or more computers and/or applications  609 . Device  600  may also have input device(s)  607  such as a keyboard, mouse, digitizer or other touch-input device, voice input device, etc. Output device(s)  606  such as a monitor, speakers, printer, PDA, mobile phone, and other types of digital display devices may also be included. 
         [0038]    Additionally, device  600  may also have other features and functionality. For example, device  600  may also include additional storage (removable  604  and/or non-removable  605 ) including, but not limited to, solid-state media, magnetic or optical disks or tape. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Memory  603 , removable storage  604 , non-removable storage  605 , and smart cards  610  are all examples of computer storage media. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by device  600 . Any such computer storage media may be part of device  600 . 
         [0039]    Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the term “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling of connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number, respectively. The word “or,” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list. 
         [0040]    The above Detailed Description of embodiments of the system is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the system to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the system are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the system, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having operations, or employ systems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to provide alternative or subcombinations. Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed at different times. Further, any specific numbers noted herein are only examples: alternative implementations may employ differing values or ranges.