Abstract:
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to response subscriptions and provide a method, system and computer program product for centralized response tracking across social networks. In one embodiment of the invention, a social networking response tracking method can be provided. The method can include associating subscribers with a user or a group of users based upon a posting by the user or a user in the group of users within a centralized response tracking system, aggregating different postings from the user to correspondingly different forums disposed about a global computer communications network within the centralized response tracking system, and, notifying the subscribers of the aggregated postings from the centralized response tracking system.

Description:
REFERENCE TO CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS FOR PATENT 
     The present application is related to the following co-assigned U.S. patent applications, which are expressly incorporated by reference herein: 
     U.S. application Ser. No. 11/972,305, entitled “CLIENT SIDE SOCIAL NETWORK RESPONSE TRACKING”, filed on Jan. 10, 2008. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to the field of social networking and more particularly to tracking authored content amongst multiple different social networks. 
     Description of the Related Art 
     Collaborative computing refers to the shared responsibility for content elements in a computing system. Originating from notions in project management more than two decades ago, collaborative computing environments now span mere project management and calendaring and scheduling systems to full-fledged activity-centric environments. Recent developments in Internet technologies—namely second generation Web based communities, often referred to as social networks—have injected new life into collaborative computing systems. Exemplary technologies that have broadened the collaborative capabilities of such social networking systems include integration with Wikis, blogs, discussion forums, team rooms, shared bookmarks, syndicate feeds and the like. 
     Wikis, blogs, forums and team rooms share similar qualities in that all involve a basic post and response paradigm. A post and response paradigm refers to the posting of content by one collaborator and the responsive posting of content by a responsive collaborator and so forth. The progenitor to the post and response paradigm can be found in the basic threaded message board discussions three decades old. Whereas a discussion forum is akin to a message board discussion, a team room is an advanced combination of different collaborative elements including discussion forums to provide collaborative tools for a team of collaborators in order to advance a team goal. A blog is a form of discussion forum where a single individual provides the driving content and other collaborators optionally can post commentary addressing the postings of the single individual. Thus, the blog can be viewed as a publicly viewable diary. 
     Wikis provide a variation on the discussion forum in that the permitted topics of a wiki are terms to be defined and the definitions are provided by the collaborators in order to converge upon a socially acceptable term definition amongst the collaborators. Finally, shared bookmarks are bookmarks to content shared amongst collaborators and associated with commonly specified tags. The more individuals applying the same tags to associated content, the more popular the content will be viewed and will be visually represented as such in the form of “tag clouds”. 
     Within a social network, individual users identify other users sharing similar ideas, career paths, job responsibilities or team responsibilities. Whether or not different users actually know each other, as part of the relationship between user postings by a given user can be automatically routed to other interested users, as can responses. Referred to as a subscription or a syndicated feed, interested users can link to many different forums, Wikis, blogs and the like in order to be assured a notification when a user publishes content. Of import, a subscription to the postings of a user always relates to the forum in which the posting is provided, whether that forum be a Wiki, blog, discussion forum, team room or other such similar space. 
     Still, for many, the interest in the postings of a user in one forum is not limited to the forum alone and it can be desirable to subscribe to the postings of the same user in different forums. To achieve a set of subscriptions for postings of a single user in multiple different forums, correspondingly different subscriptions to correspondingly different forums must be performed. To the extent that one is not aware of the various forums publishing the postings of the single user, one is compelled to search the Internet for content. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to response subscriptions and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for response tracking across social networks. In one embodiment of the invention, a social networking response tracking method can be provided. The method can include associating subscribers with a user or a group of users based upon a posting by the user or a user in the group of users within a centralized response tracking system, aggregating different postings from the user to correspondingly different forums disposed about a global computer communications network, and, notifying the subscribers of the aggregated postings. 
     In an aspect of the embodiment, aggregating different po stings from the user to correspondingly different forums disposed about a global computer communications network can include receiving notifications from the content browser associated with the user of the different postings to the correspondingly different forums, and, for each notification, retrieving an associated posting from a corresponding one of the forums and storing the retrieved posting in a data store in response to the notification. In another aspect of the embodiment, aggregating different postings from the user to correspondingly different forums disposed about a global computer communications network can include receiving notifications from the different forums of the different postings by the user, and, for each notification, retrieving an associated posting from a corresponding one of the forums and storing the retrieved posting in a data store in response to the notification. 
     In yet another aspect of the embodiment, associating subscribers with a user based upon a posting by the user within a centralized response tracking system can include receiving a request from a user interface control in a content browser that has been configured to request an association with the user corresponding to a selected posting shown in the content browser. Notably, notifying the subscribers of the aggregated postings can include filtering notifications for the subscribers according to forum type for the correspondingly different forums. Further, the method can include rendering a posting in one of the forums by the user in a content browser of a subscriber, locating other postings by the user in others of the different forums amongst the aggregated different postings, and listing the located postings in the content browser. Finally, the method can include providing a search engine interface to the aggregated different postings. 
     In another embodiment of the invention, a social networking data processing system can be provided. The system can include response tracking logic executing in a host server, and a data store of responses coupled to the host server. The response tracking logic can include program code enabled to associate subscribers with a user based upon a posting by the user to one of a number of different forums coupled to the host server over a computer communications network, to aggregate different postings from the user to the different forums in the data store, and to notify the subscribers of the aggregated postings as the postings occur. For example, the different forums can include wikis, blogs, threaded discussion forums, team rooms and shared document libraries. 
     Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspects of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a pictorial illustration of a process for response tracking across social networks; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a social networking system configured for response tracking across social networks; and, 
         FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating a process for response tracking across social networks. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for response tracking across social networks. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the postings of a user can be tracked across different forums. Subscribers to the postings of the user, in turn, can be notified of the postings on the different forums as the postings occur irrespective of the forum in which the postings occur and irrespective of whether or not the subscribers are aware of the forums. The tracking and notification can occur in logic coupled to each subscriber in concert with a remote response tracking database, in logic coupled to participating forums in concert with the remote response tracking database. In this way the subscribers can track the postings of a user of interest without searching out the different forums to which the user of interest posts. 
     In further illustration,  FIG. 1  is a pictorial illustration of a process for response tracking across social networks. As shown in  FIG. 1 , a subscriber  150  can subscribe to the forum postings  120 A,  120 B,  120 N of a user  130  and an automated response tracking process  140  can monitor the postings  120 A,  120 B,  120 N of the user  130  to different forums  110 A,  110 B,  110 N irrespective of whether or not the subscriber  150  knows of the different forums  110 A,  110 B,  110 N. Rather, the postings  120 A,  120 B,  120 N can be reported to the automated response tracking process  140  which in turn can aggregate the postings  120 A,  120 B,  120 N for delivery to the subscriber  150 . In this way, the subscriber  150  need not locate and subscribe to each of the different forums  110 A,  110 B,  110 N in order to read the postings of the user  130 . 
     Notably, the automated response tracking process  140  can be managed in a social networking system either as part of the clients of the system, the different forums in the system or some combination of both. In illustration,  FIG. 2  schematically depicts a social networking system configured for response tracking across social networks. The system can include a plurality of computing systems  240  each supporting a different discussion forum  250  and each being configured to receive postings and to provide viewing of the postings by end users over computer communications network  220 . To that end, the discussion forum  250  can range from a blog to a wiki to a threaded discussion forum to a team room, to a shared document library to name only a few variations. 
     Different users  210  (only a single user shown for purposes of illustrative simplicity) can provide postings and responses to postings (collectively, “postings”) to different forums  250  from over the computer communications network  220 . Notably, each of the users  210  can be an individual, or alternatively a grouping of individuals. Response tracking logic  280  executing in host  270  can track the postings of the user  210  in a data store of responses  260  coupled to the host  270 . In this regard, the response tracking logic  280  can include program code enabled to receive notification of the postings of the user and to aggregate the postings in the data store of responses  260 . The program code of the response tracking logic  280  further can be enabled to notify different subscribers  230  to the postings of the user  210  of the postings from over the computer communications network. 
     In this regard, each of the subscribers  230  need only specify the user  210  and not any particular one of the forums  250  in order to receive notification of the postings by the user  210  to the forums  250  from the response tracking logic  280 . Optionally, the subscribers  230  can limit the notifications of the postings based upon the nature of the forums  250  to which postings have occurred. For example, different ones of the subscribers  230  can limit notifications to postings to wikis and threaded discussion forums, but not blogs. Yet further, a user interface add-on can be provided to the content browser of each of the subscribers  230  permitting the subscribers to activate the add-on when selecting a posting of the user  210  in order to subscribe to an aggregation of postings by the user  210  across all or selected ones of the forums  250 . Even yet further, access to the postings by the user  210  can be limited for each of the subscribers  230  based upon an established security policy. 
     Further, the program code of the response tracking logic  280  can trap the postings as they occur in the client of the user  210 , or the response tracking logic  280  can query or passively receive notification of the postings by the different forums  250  registered with the response tracking logic  280 , or the program code of the response tracking logic can scan each of the forums  250  seeking out new postings by the user  210 . Optionally, the activities of the user  210  can be auto-tagged where meta-data is stored for the user  210  in respect to the activities. Once the data store of responses  260  has been populated with postings of the user  210 , the data store of responses  260  can be searched using a content searching engine to provide further filtering and aggregating possibilities for the subscribers  230 . 
     In yet further illustration of the operation of the response tracking logic  280 ,  FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating a process for response tracking across social networks. Beginning in block  310 , a posting by a user in a forum can be detected and in block  320  the user can be compared to a list of tracked users. In decision block  330 , it can be determined whether or not the user is a tracked user. If so, in block  340  the posting can be aggregated with other postings from other forums. Thereafter, in block  350  a list of subscribers to the postings of the user can be retrieved. Finally, in block  360  notification of the posting can be provided to each subscriber in the list excepting for those subscribers whom have expressed a preference not to receive postings from a forum type shared by the forum in which the posting had been detected. 
     Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. 
     For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. 
     A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.