Patent Publication Number: US-2013238701-A1

Title: Calendar Matching-up Social Network System And Method For Performing The Same

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a calendar matching-up social network system and a method for performing the same, and especially to, a calendar matching-up social network system and a method for performing the same, which join and intermediate various calendars of different users. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     In the network technology development, the earliest design merely is dedicated to a specific internal networking architecture which makes interconnections among various computerized systems with different software/hardware via wirings to share message and source with each other. Nevertheless, by successive network technology development for the past decades, the network technology has not only limited to a pure office tool and has evolved to a virtual socializing tool of human societies. Various community sites (Social Network Sites) or called “virtual social network” based on the Internet, e.g. Facebook, Twitter or Myspace, are born, accordingly. Through the internet, those members of the community sites can create, share, exchange various digital information with each other, including, for example, images, pictures, sounds, diagrams, programs, articles, news, and even a real-time video recording and broadcasting. These have greatly affected the people life, including social activity. To meet different social activities in the human societies, various kinds of social networking service (SNS) are contiguously developed, like a chartroom, a web mail, a blog, a forum and so forth. Providence of the social networking service mostly relies on execution of various kinds of web-based applications. For example, a Facebook member/group can enter a web-based calendar dedicated thereto to make an appointment or record data involving a time/schedule/event/activity/place with relation to an appointment. However, by following the progress of various technologies, the technical barriers formed among different technologies or information architectures become higher, accordingly, so that an ordinary people can not readily join them to synchronized manipulation. For example, for the same user, he/she might simultaneously own a calendar provided on the Facebook website via the internet, a calendar provided by a search portal website like Google, a calendar like ‘iCal’ dedicated to a smart phone, a calendar provided by a webmail software like ‘Outlook’, and the like calendar under different information architectures. If the user would like to record the same thing for the same time, the user might need to individually click into the Facebook website, enter the smart phone having the dedicated calendar software and the webmail software as ‘Outlook’, so as to record/update one by one with repeating operation. This would invoke the manipulation very inconvenient. 
     Besides in a common web socialization, unless the user has predicted someone&#39;s Blog website where the user can click to browse or the user needs taking time in advance to seek an event what is the user interested in, through a search portal website as Yahoo or Google by keying specific wording, it is very difficult to timely know whether any other people are interested in the same event/activity, e.g. a birthday party, group purchases, fans collections and so forth. This would make handicap in sociality. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To resolve said drawbacks of the conventional techniques, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide a calendar matching-up social network system and a method for performing the same, which are capable of generating a number of member registering data via a specific community site. Then, for the respective member registering data, the calendar matching-up social network system does not only periodically gather the respective calendared data provided under various different computerized architectures into a web-based calendar of the specific community site corresponding to the respective member for data updating/recording but according to a number of specific information, such as a time/an event/a place, contained in the respective calendared data also actively intermediates and collects all of the member registering data which have the same or similar specific information. Furthermore, the calendar matching-up social network system provides an intermediated message to the web-based calendar of the specific community site corresponding to each one of those member registering data having the same or similar specific information, whereby a social relationship among those members having the same or similar specific information can be established via the specified community site. 
     To accomplish the above inventive objective, the present invention provides a calendar matching-up social network system applied for a specific community site server, which primarily comprises a application library and a remote database, wherein the application library further includes a member generating unit, a calendared data gathering unit, a sociality matching-up unit and an output interface unit. 
     The member generating unit correspondingly generates a member registering data based on a data of at least one existing member provided from the specific community site server. Based on said member registering data, the calendared data gathering unit actively gathers at least one calendared data provided under the same or different computerized architectures and then joins the at least one calendared data into a web-based calendared data of the specific community site server corresponding to the member registering data and thereby establishes at least one member event chart. According to a number of specific information contained in the at least one member event chart, the sociality matching-up unit actively collects the member registering data, which is related to the same or similar specific information, from the at least one member event chart and thereby establishes at least one member matching-up chart. The output interface unit is configured to output the at least one member matching-up chart to a web-based calendar of the specific community site server corresponding to each one of the member registering data which is related to the same or similar specific information. The database server is employed to store the member registering data and the at least one member event chart corresponding to the member registering data therein. 
     Besides the present invention further provides a method for performing a calendar matching-up social network system applied in a specific community site server, which comprises the following steps of:
     based on a data of at least one existing member provided from the specific community site server, utilizing a member generating unit correspondingly generating a member registering data and storing the member registering data into a database;   based on said member registering data, utilizing a calendared data gathering unit actively gathering at least one calendared data provided under the same or different computerized architectures, and merging the at least one calendared data into a web-based calendared data of the specific community site server corresponding to the member registering data and thereby establishing at least one member event chart, and then storing the at least one member event chart into a location on the database which corresponds to said member registering data;   according to a number of specific information contained in the at least one member event chart, utilizing a sociality matching-up unit, actively gathering the member registering data, which is related to the same or similar specific information, from the at least one member event chart and thereby establishing at least one member matching-up chart; and   outputting the at least one member matching-up chart via an output interface unit to a web-based calendar of the specific community site server corresponding to each one of the member registering data which is related to the same or similar specific information.   

     The advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention may best be understood through the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1A  shows a schematic diagram of a calendar matching-up social network system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention applied in the internet architecture; 
         FIG. 1B  shows an architectural schematic diagram of the calendar matching-up social network system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  shows a schematic diagram of a member event chart generated by the calendar matching-up social network system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  shows a schematic diagram of a web-based calendar where a number of member registering data related to the same or similar specific information output by the calendar matching-up social network system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  shows a schematic diagram of a member matching-up chart generated by the calendar matching-up social network system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  shows a flow chart of a member-registering procedure of a method of performing the calendar matching-up social network system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 6  shows a flow chart of an actively matching-up procedure of the method of performing the calendar matching-up social network system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Firstly referring to illustration shown in  FIG. 1A , a calendar matching-up social network system  10  according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is applied for a specific community site server  12  and linked to the internet  16  in architecture, which primarily includes a application library  14  and a remote database  28 , wherein the application library  14  is configured in the specific community site server  12  and accesses the remote database  28  via the internet  16 . In this embodiment, the specific community site server  12  is realized as the Facebook website server and the remote database  28  is realized as a database server. As shown in  FIG. 1A , any one existing member (e.g. an existing member/group of the Facebook) belonging to the specific community site server  12  can utilizes various computerized architectures located on far ends, including, for example, a desktop computer  40 , a notebook computer  52 , a mobile phone  56  or a handset electronic apparatus  58  (like PDA), via an area network  50  or a wireless telecommunication network server linked to the internet  16  and thereby acquires a web-based data provided from the specific community site server  12 . By the application library  14  where the web-based data is linked, any one existing member of the specific community site server  12  can simultaneously determine whether to activate the calendar matching-up social network system  10  of the present invention so as to actively match up social activities among the existing members of the specific community site server  12 . 
     Further referring to  FIGS. 1A and 1B , the application library  14  primarily includes a member generating unit  20 , a calendared data gathering unit  22 , a sociality matching-up unit  24  and an output interface unit  26 , wherein based on a data of at least one existing member provided from the specific community site server  14 , i.e. an account data allocated on the specific community site server  14  (e.g. an account of the Facebook), the member generating unit  20  correspondingly generates a member registering data including the data of the at least one existing member and a number of setting values related thereto. The related setting values are parameters used by any one of the existing members of the specific community site server  12  (e.g. the existing member/group of the Facebook) for manipulating the various computerized architectures, such as a mail account and password of a search website (e.g. Google), a calendar (e.g. iCal) parameter dedicated of a specific smart phone and a parameter of webmail software (e.g. Outlook). 
     Based on said member registering data, the calendared data gathering unit  22  actively gathers at least one calendared data provided under a variety of the same or different computerized architectures which are manipulated by at least one of the existing members of the specific community site server  14 , wherein the at least one calendared data contains a number of specific information (e.g. a time information, an event information and a place information). Then, the calendared data gathering unit  22  joins the at least one calendared data into a web-based calendared data of the specific community site server  12  where the member registering data corresponds, and thereby establishes a member event chart. Said same or different computerized architectures, except for those as shown in  FIG. 1A  including a desktop computer  40 , a notebook computer  52 , a mobile phone  56 , a handset electronic apparatus  58  (like PDA) and various types of hardware devices, further includes a documentation architecture, an application and/or operating system and various types of software configurations, wherein the operating system further including a networking operating system, a computerized operating system and a smart phone operating system, and the application includes a networking application and/or a computer application. For example, based on the setting values contained in said member registering data, the calendared data gathering unit  22  actively gathers a calendared data of the search website mail as Google, a calendared data as iCal dedicated of a smart phone and a calendared data of a webmail software as Outlook, as what the existing members of the Facebook website remotely use, into a web-based calendared data of the Facebook website. Then, the calendared data gathering unit  22  produces a member event chart as shown in  FIG. 2 , based on said gathered web-based calendared data. 
     It is found in  FIG. 2  that substantially the member event chart contains the member registering data (as the member 1) therein, and with relation to the member registering data, all of said gathered calendared data (as the calendared data of the Google mail, the calendared data dedicated for a smart phone, the calendared data of the Outlook and Facebook calendared data used by the member). Meanwhile, the respective calendared data records a number of specific information therein. These specific information like some information recorded on a common calendar by the user, primarily containing each time information (as the time 1, 2, 3 . . . ), each place information (as the places, 1, 2, 3 . . . ) and each event information (as the events 1, 2, 3 . . . ). For example, a time information is “Feb. 22, 2011”, an event information is “signing session”, and a place information is “Taipei”. However, the time information is not limited to a time and can be a period. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1A and 1B , the remote database  28  realized as a remote database server is linked to the application library  14  via the internet  16  so that the application library  14  can store/acquire the member registering data and a member event chart corresponding to the member registering data (as shown in  FIG. 2 ) in/from the remote database  28 . It means that for the respective member registering data, the application library  14  can correspondingly generates a member event chart to store within the remote database  28 , and the calendared data gathering unit  22  of the application library  14  periodically updates the member event chart corresponding to respective member registering data with reliance on calendar variances. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1A and 1B , the sociality matching-up unit  24  of the application library  14  actively determines whether there are the same or similar specific information (as a time information, an event information or a place information and the likes) found in a number of member event charts of all of different member registering data in the remote database  28 . If so, the member registering data that are related to the same or similar specific information are actively gathered from these member event charts and are counted in amounts. Then, the amount is output to a web-based calendar of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to the respective member registering data related to the same or similar specific information via the output interface unit  26  (as a graphic user interface or human-computer interface). For example, as shown in  FIG. 3 , when a web-based calendar of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to the respective member registering data related to the same or similar specific information (as the Facebook) is opened, the web-based calendar shows that there are 72 people matching the “birthday party” event on the date of the seventh in a calendar time, there are 13 people matching the “interview” event on the eleventh 11, and there are 106 people matching the “finding a designer” event on the sixteenth. If not finding any same or similar specific information, the sociality matching-up unit  24  will contiguously make analysis and gathers in the remote database  28 . 
     Besides while the sociality matching-up unit  24  receives an instruction message transmitted from the web-based calendar of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to the respective member registering data related to the same or similar specific information, for instance, one of the related members clicks a date column of the seventh in the web-based calendar as shown in  FIG. 3 , the sociality matching-up unit  24  further establishes a member matching-up chart regarding those 72 people. It should note that in this embodiment, the member matching-up chart is just a temporary save file and would not be stored to the remote database  28 . However, in another embodiment, the member matching-up chart is further stored to the remote database  28 . For example, since the same time 1 and the same event 1 are respectively found from a number of member event charts regarding a number of different member registering data (e.g. the members 1, 2, 3 . . . ), the number of different member registering data (as the members 1, 2, 3 . . . ) having the same time 1 and the same event 1 is gathered into a member matching-up chart as shown in  FIG. 4 . If a plurality of the partial same or similar specific information, such as the same time and event information or the same time and place information, are found from a number of member event charts of all of the member registering data in the remote database  28 , a number of member matching-up charts can be established. 
     Each of said member matching-up charts can be output via the output interface unit  26  to the web-based calendar of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to the respective member registering data (as the members 1, 2, 3 . . . ) related to the same or similar specific information and thereby be elected by any one of the related members. Since any one of the social data (including a time, event or place) recorded/added by the members in these networking calendars or scheduling such as the Google Calendar or Facebook Calendar is pre-output to save into the remote database  28 . By the calendar matching-up social network system  10  of the present invention based on matching-up of the same social time or an approaching period, the members can search the past or the present social data such as a member name, activity detail and so forth from the social activities data stored within said member matching-up chart, and thereby share the related social data or further add other social data like image files. Thus, the calendar matching-up social network system  10  of the present invention can facilitate rapid introductions of the members with arrangement of the similar sociality into each other through networking and therefore establish sociality with each other. Furthermore, the calendar matching-up social network system  10  of the present invention is not limited to usage of a specific social network sites such as Facebook.com or Myspace.com and capable of being applied for any other web socialization platform or on-line social networking. 
     Besides the present invention provides a method of performing a calendar matching-up social network system as applied in a specific community site server  12 . The method comprises a member-registering procedure. For easily understanding, the member-registering procedure can refer to an illustration shown in  FIG. 5 , as accompanying introductions of the respective components in  FIGS. 1A and 1B , and comprises the following steps of:
     in step S 500 , performing a calendar matching-up social network system  10  via the specific community site server  12  and the internet  16 ;   in step S 502 , utilizing a member generating unit  20  of the calendar matching-up social network system  10  to correspondingly generate a member registering data based on a data of at least one of existing members (e.g. an account of an existing member/group of the Facebook) provided from the specific community site server  12 , wherein the member registering data includes a number of related setting values which are realized as parameters used by any one of the existing members of the specific community site server  12  (e.g. the existing member/group of the Facebook) to manipulate the various computerized architectures (e.g. a mail account and password of a search website as Google, a calendar as iCal parameter dedicated of a specific smart phone and a parameter of webmail software as Outlook), or periodically gathered from a data zone by running under the same or different computerized architectures (as a desktop computer  40 , a notebook computer  52 , a mobile phone  56  or a handset electronic apparatus  58  located on far ends, as shown in  FIG. 1A ); and   in step S 504 , storing the member registering data into a remote database  28  of the calendar matching-up social network system  10  by the member generating unit  20 .   

     The method of performing the calendar matching-up social network according to the present invention further comprises an actively matching-up procedure applied for a specific community site server  12 . For easily understanding, the actively matching-up procedure can refer to an illustration shown in  FIG. 6 , as accompanying introductions of the respective components in  FIGS. 1A and 1B , and comprises the following steps of:
     in step S 600 , utilizing a calendared data gathering unit  22  of said calendar matching-up social network system  10  to actively gather at least one calendared data, based on the related setting values of said member registering data, from the data zone used under the same or different computerized architectures (as a desktop computer  40 , a notebook computer  52 , a mobile phone  56  or a handset electronic apparatus  58  located on far ends, as shown in  FIG. 1A ), wherein the at least one calendared data contains a number of specific information (e.g. a time information, an event information and a place information); and then joining the at least one calendared data into a web-based calendared data of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to the member registering data;   in step S 602 , utilizing the calendared data gathering unit  22  to establish/update a member event chart (as shown in  FIG. 2 ) based on said gathered web-based calendared data, and then storing the member event chart into the remote database  28  with respect to said member registering data;   in step S 604 , utilizing a sociality matching-up unit  24  of said calendar matching-up social network system  10  to actively determine whether any same or similar specific information (as the time information, the event information and/or the place information) is found or not from a number of member event charts of all of different member registering data within the remote database  28 ; If so, utilizing the sociality matching-up unit  24  to actively gather a number of member registering data related to the same or similar specific information and to count a amount of the related member registering data having the same or similar specific information, and then outputting the amount via the output interface unit  26  to the web-based calendar of the specific community site server  12  (as shown in  FIG. 3 ) corresponding to the respective member registering data related to the same or similar specific information; otherwise, if not, utilizing the sociality matching-up unit  24  to contiguously determine and gather whether any same or similar specific information is found or not;   in step S 606 , based on an instruction message transmitted from the web-based calendar of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to the respective member registering data related to the same or similar specific information, utilizing the sociality matching-up unit  24  to establish at least one member matching-up chart (as shown in  FIG. 4 ); and   in step S 608 , outputting the at least one member matching-up chart via the output interface unit  26  to the web-based calendar of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to any one of the member registering data related to the same or similar specific information.   

     Accordingly, the calendar matching-up social network system  10  of the present invention can actively intermediate and gather all of the member registering data which have the same or similar specific information, and then distribute said intermediated message into a number of web-based calendars of the specific community site server  12  corresponding to each member registering data having the same or similar specific information, and thereby facilitate establishments of social relationships among the members having the same or similar specific information via the specific community site server  12 . 
     It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set fourth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.