Patent Publication Number: US-10778804-B2

Title: Method and apparatus for providing control of social networking sites

Description:
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/577,570, filed Dec. 19, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,110,698, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/633,605, filed Dec. 8, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,935,614, all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook®, Twitter®, MySpace®, LinkedIn®, etc., are increasing. Social networking sites allow an owner of a social network site webpage to share personal content and information, status or location information with other third party users. However, the social networking sites also allow other users associated with the owner to share thoughts on the owner&#39;s page of a social networking site. 
     Generally, allowing other users to share their thoughts on the page of the social networking site associated with the owner is not a problem because the owner only associates with those people he or she knows. However, if for some reason one of these users associated with the owner decides to post something inappropriate on the page of the social networking site associated with the owner, there is nothing the owner of the page can do to prevent this. Typically, the owner may only take some remedial action after the fact and after the inappropriate comments are already posted on the owner&#39;s page of the social networking site. However, the social networking sites do not provide owner control to control what users within a owner&#39;s group post or publish on the owner&#39;s social networking site page. 
     SUMMARY 
     In one embodiment, the present disclosure discloses a method, computer readable medium and apparatus for providing control of social networking sites are disclosed. For example, the method establishes an owner profile, receives a request from a third party user to post information on a social networking site associated with an owner, determines if the request should be granted in accordance with the owner profile and posts the information on the social networking site associated with the owner if the request is granted. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The teaching of the present disclosure can be readily understood by considering the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary network related to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a high level block diagram of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a flowchart of a method for providing control of social networking sites; and 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a high-level block diagram of a general-purpose computer suitable for use in performing the functions described herein. 
     
    
    
     To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present disclosure broadly discloses a method and apparatus for providing control of social networking sites.  FIG. 1  is a block diagram depicting an exemplary network  100  related to the current disclosure. Exemplary networks include cellular networks, internet protocol networks, packet networks, and the like. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram depicting an exemplary packet network  100  related to the current disclosure. Exemplary packet networks include packet networks, e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) networks, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks, Frame-Relay networks, and the like. An IP network is broadly defined as a network that uses Internet Protocol such as IPv4 or IPv6, and the like to exchange data packets. 
     In one embodiment, the packet network may comprise a plurality of endpoint devices  102 - 104  configured for communication with a core packet network  110  (e.g., an IP based core backbone network supported by a service provider) via an access network  101 . Similarly, a plurality of endpoint devices  105 - 107  are configured for communication with the core packet network  110  via an access network  108 . The network elements (NEs)  109  and  111  may serve as gateway servers or edge routers (e.g., broadly as a border element) for the network  110 . 
     The endpoint devices  102 - 107  may comprise customer endpoint devices such as personal computers, laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), servers, routers, and the like. The access networks  101  and  108  serve as a means to establish a connection between the endpoint devices  102 - 107  and the NEs  109  and  111  of the IP/MPLS core network  110 . The access networks  101  and  108  may each comprise a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) network, a broadband cable access network, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wireless Access Network (WAN), and the like. 
     Some NEs (e.g., NEs  109  and  111 ) reside at the edge of the core infrastructure and interface with customer endpoints over various types of access networks. An NE that resides at the edge of a core infrastructure is typically implemented as an edge router, a media gateway, a border element, a firewall, a switch, and the like. An NE may also reside within the network (e.g., NEs  118 - 120 ) and may be used as a mail server, honeypot, a router, or like device. 
     The IP/MPLS core network  110  may also comprise an application server  112  that contains a database  115 . The application server  112  may comprise any server or computer that is well known in the art, and the database  115  may be any type of electronic collection of data that is also well known in the art. In addition, it should be noted that the application server  112  may be physically within the IP/MPLS core network  110  or may be offloaded outside of the IP/MPLS core network  110  and operated by a third party. 
     In one embodiment, one or more third party applications  120   1 - 120   n  (hereinafter also collectively referred to as third party applications  120 ) may be in communication with the IP/MPLS core network  110 . For example, the third party applications  120  may be social network websites such as Facebook®, Twitter®, Linkedln®, MySpace® and the like. Social network websites are broadly described as any website that typically allows an owner of a page on one of the social networking sites to share personal information or content with other users via these websites. The endpoints  102 - 107  can access the third party applications  120  via the IP/MPLS core network  110 . 
     In one embodiment, each of the third party applications  120  may have their own application server (not shown) for storing a page associated a variety of users. For example, each of the endpoint devices  102 - 107  may be associated with a different user. Accordingly, each user may have a page for each one of the third party applications  120 . The page of a user allows other users to post information on the user&#39;s page (hereinafter also generally referred to as a “posting”). In one embodiment, the information includes comments posted on the page, pictures or video. 
     For example a user associated with endpoint device  102  may have a page on third party application  120   1 . Thus, the user is considered an “owner” of a page associated with the third party application  120   1 . It should be noted that each third party application  120  can have multiple “owners” as each user can have their own personal page on the third party applications  120 . 
     The owner of a page on a social networking site may accept as “friends” other users associated with endpoint devices  103 - 107 . As a result, the other users associated with the endpoint devices  103 - 107  may post information on the page of third party application  120   1  belonging to the owner (i.e. the user associated with endpoint device  102 ). 
     Typically, these social networking sites provide no control over what is posted on an owner&#39;s page once the other users become accepted by the owner of the page. In other words, once an owner accepts another user, the accepted third party user is typically allowed to post information freely on the owner&#39;s page. The owner generally may only control what information is posted after the fact (i.e. after the post is already published on their page). In other words, the owner can only delete what has already been posted or “un-accept” the other third party user to prevent further postings from the other third party user. The present disclosure resolves this problem. 
     It should be noted that although only six endpoint devices, two access networks, and five network elements are depicted in  FIG. 1 , the communication system  100  may be expanded by including additional endpoint devices, access networks, network elements, application servers or third party applications without altering the scope of the present disclosure. The current disclosure discloses providing control of social network sites in a network, e.g., the network  100  illustrated in  FIG. 1  and as described above. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a high level block diagram of one embodiment of a system  200  for providing control of social networking sites in a network. In one embodiment, the system  200  includes an owner profile  210 . In one embodiment, the owner profile  210  can be embodied by hardware in an application server  112  and stored in a database  115 , as described above in  FIG. 1 . 
     The owner profile  210  acts as a gateway for access to the owner&#39;s pages on various third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . In other words, unlike current social networking sites that allow other third party users to post directly onto an owner&#39;s page, the present disclosure requires all requests by other third party users to post information on the owner&#39;s page to be filtered through the owner profile  210 . 
     For example, the owner may have a Facebook® page, a Twitter® page, a Linkedln® page and so forth represented by the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . When a third party user  250  requests to post something on the owner&#39;s page (e.g. a page on one of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n ), the request is approved or denied in accordance with various settings of the owner profile  210 . 
     An owner may establish the owner profile  210  via an interface to the application server  112 . For example, the owner may use any one of their endpoint devices  202 - 205  to define various parameters of any one of the sub-profiles of their owner profile  210 , as discussed below. Any type of interface may be used, e.g., a graphical user interface (GUI), a interactive voice response (IVR) system or interaction with a service representative of the service provider. 
     In one embodiment, the owner profile  210  includes an application profile  212 , a security profile  214 , a relationship profile  216 , an order of posting profile  218  and a queue  220 . The application profile  212  includes a profile for how postings should appear or be encoded based upon one or more endpoint devices  202 - 205  that is used to access the posting. For example, if the owner or the third party user  250  is using a laptop PC  202 , the posting may be encoded for a maximum quality and experience. For example, any pictures of video may be viewed, all comments posted may be viewed and the like. However, if the owner or the third party user  250  is using a mobile phone having limited graphical capabilities, e.g., mobile phone  203 , the posting may be encoded to only allow text to be viewed, showing only a limited number of postings and the like. 
     The security profile  214  includes parameters that define what type of postings are allowed or not allowed. In one embodiment, the owner may block any posting that includes derogatory language or images, postings about a specific topic, postings that include key words specified by the owner and the like. For example, the owner may not want any postings that include bad language. Thus, the owner may configure the security profile  214  to look for specific four letter words or images that contain explicit content. In another example, the owner may not want to offend other third party users about various topics, such as politics, and block any postings that are related to the various topics. 
     It should be noted that the above examples are not limiting. Ultimately, what is considered derogatory or explicit is controlled by the owner of the page. Thus, the security profile  214  is flexible enough to prevent whatever information the owner of the page does not want posted on their pages of one or more social networking sites. 
     The relationship profile  216  includes one or more other third party users that are accepted by the owner. The relationship profile  216  includes an associated relationship relative to the owner (e.g. friend, family, co-worker, acquaintance, etc). In addition, the relationship profile  216  may include a different access level based upon their relationship. 
     For example, the owner may allow all family members who are listed in the relationship profile  216  to have general access to post whatever they would like, within the limits of the security profile  214 , to the owner&#39;s pages of one or more of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . However, the owner may provide acquaintances read only access to the owner&#39;s pages of one or more of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . 
     The relationship profile  216  serves as a global “friends” list for all of the owner&#39;s pages of one or more of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . In other words, rather than maintaining a list of accepted third party users separately on each one of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n , the owner may maintain a single list as part of the owner profile  210  that applies to all of the owner&#39;s pages of one or more of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . 
     The owner may define which third party applications  120   1 - 120   n  each accepted third party user may have access to. For example, the owner may want friends and family to have access to all of the owner&#39;s pages of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . However, the owner may want co-workers to only have access to a specific third party application  120  (e.g. a Linkedln® page or a personal page on a corporate web site). 
     In addition, the relationship profile  216  can define which of the accepted third party users an accepted third party user can communicate with. In other words, the owner can control which accepted third parties users can interact with one another. Thus, the relationship profile  216  establishes a hub and spoke arrangement, wherein the owner can control which spokes another spoke can associate with. 
     For example, the owner may know that a first accepted third party user dislikes a second accepted third party user on the owner&#39;s relationship profile  216 . As a result, the owner can prevent interaction between these accepted third party users when both are accessing an owner&#39;s page of one of the third party applications  120 . 
     The order of posting profile  218  allows an owner to define the order of postings based upon the accepted third party user that provided the posting. Current social network sites typically post information on a page in a time ordered sequence. That is, the most recent posting is generally on top and subsequent posts are older. 
     However, the owner may feel that certain accepted third party users&#39; posts are more important to them than other accepted third party users. As a result, the owner may define how postings should be ordered. For example, the owner may want all postings from friends and family to be posted first. As a result, even if a co-worker posts information on the owner&#39;s page, the co-worker&#39;s post would still be published below any postings from friends and family of the owner even though the co-worker&#39;s post at the time is the most recent. 
     The owner may define a different order for each page of the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . For example, third party application  120   1  may be a Facebook® page and the owner may want friends and family posts to be listed first. In contrast, the third party application  120   2  may be a LinkedIn® page and the owner may want business contacts or co-worker posts to be listed first. 
     The queue  220  provides a place for posting requests to be held or stored for review by the owner. For example, the security profile  214  may not be able to catch all types of derogatory statements or inappropriate comments. As a result, the queue  220  may provide another backstop for the owner to allow the owner to review all the posting requests from third party users  250 . This allows the owner to provide a final review and ultimate permission or denial of the posting request. 
     In one embodiment, the owner may default all requests for posting information from a third party user  250  to be stored in the queue  220  until the owner reviews the request. In another embodiment, the owner may only require that requests that passed the security profile  214  be stored in the queue  220  for one final review by the owner before posting. The queue  220  may comprise any type of memory or computer storage medium that is part of the application server  112 , such as a temporary memory cache, RAM, ROM, hard disk drive and the like. 
     In one embodiment, the owner profile  210  may be used to determine whether or not the owner wants to join another user&#39;s social network. For example, the owner profile  210  of a first user may be compared against a user profile of a second user. The first user may define in the security profile  214  of the owner profile  210  that they do not want any derogatory language. However, the user profile of a second user may allow derogatory language to be posted to their page associated with a social networking site. As a result, the first user may decline to join the second user&#39;s social network due to this discrepancy in their user profiles. 
     Thus, with the various parameters associated with the owner profile  210  and the sub-profiles  212 - 220  in the owner profile  210 , the owner profile  210  serve as a gateway for postings to one or more of the owner&#39;s pages on the third party applications  120   1 - 120   n . As a result, the owner is provided complete control over what is posted on their page of a social networking site. The present disclosure allows a page owner of a social networking site to stop derogatory or offensive postings before they are published on their page. 
     As a result, the posted information requested by the third party  250  is actually generated and posted on the owner&#39;s page of a third party application  120   1 - 120   n  by the owner. In other words, the information posted on the owner&#39;s page of a third party application  120   1 - 120   n  is not generated by the third party user  250  making the request to post information. For example, in one embodiment if a third party user&#39;s request to post information is approved by the owner profile  210 , then the owner may generate and post the information on their page. Alternatively, the owner may have the application server  112  automatically generate and post the approved information on the owner&#39;s page on behalf of the owner. Thus, the present disclosure provides an owner complete control of their social networking sites. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates a flowchart of a method  300  for providing control of social networking sites. In one embodiment, one or more steps of the method  300  may be implemented by the application server  112  storing one or more profiles of the system  200  or a general purpose computer having a processor, a memory and input/output devices as discussed below with reference to  FIG. 4 . 
     The method  300  begins at step  302 . At step  304 , the method  300  establishes an owner profile. As discussed above, the owner of a page on a social networking site may establish an owner profile  210  and one or more of the associated sub profiles  212 - 220 . The owner may configure the owner profile  210  and one or more of the associated sub profiles  212 - 220  via any type of interface discussed above, e.g., a GUI, a IVR system or a service representative of the service provider. 
     At step  306 , the method  300  receives a request from a third party user to post information on a social networking site associated with the owner. The information may be any type of information, e.g., a comment, a picture, a video, a link to another webpage, and the like. 
     At step  308 , the method  300  determines if the request should be granted in accordance with the owner profile. As discussed above, the request and the content of the information in the request is examined. If the information contains any information that violates the owner profile  210 , then the request is denied. For example, the third party user may not be an accepted third party user that is listed in the relationship profile  216 . The information may contain information that is banned by the security profile  214 . Alternatively, the request may be stored in queue  220  and upon later review by the owner, at which time the user may not want to publish the information in the request for whatever reason. 
     If the request is denied, the method  300  proceeds to step  312 . At step  312 , the method  300  does not post the information on the social networking site associated with the owner if the request is denied. The method  300  proceeds to step  314  where the method  300  ends. 
     However, if the request is granted, the method  300  proceeds to step  310 . At step  310 , the method  300  posts the information on the social networking site associated with the owner if the request is granted. The method  300  then proceeds to step  314  where the method  300  ends. 
     It should be noted that although not explicitly specified, one or more steps of the methods described herein may include a storing, displaying and/or outputting step as required for a particular application. In other words, any data, records, fields, and/or intermediate results discussed in the methods can be stored, displayed, and/or outputted to another device as required for a particular application. Furthermore, steps or blocks in the accompanying Figures that recite a determining operation or involve a decision, do not necessarily require that both branches of the determining operation be practiced. In other words, one of the branches of the determining operation can be deemed as an optional step. 
       FIG. 4  depicts a high-level block diagram of a general-purpose computer suitable for use in performing the functions described herein. As depicted in  FIG. 4 , the system  400  comprises a processor element  402  (e.g., a CPU), a memory  404 , e.g., random access memory (RAM) and/or read only memory (ROM), a module  405  for providing control of social networking sites, and various input/output devices  406  (e.g., storage devices, including but not limited to, a tape drive, a floppy drive, a hard disk drive or a compact disk drive, a receiver, a transmitter, a speaker, a display, a speech synthesizer, an output port, and a user input device (such as a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, and the like)). 
     It should be noted that the present disclosure can be implemented in software and/or in a combination of software and hardware, e.g., using application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), a general purpose computer or any other hardware equivalents. In one embodiment, the present module or process  405  for providing control of social networking sites can be loaded into memory  404  and executed by processor  402  to implement the functions as discussed above. As such, the present method  405  for providing control of social networking sites (including associated data structures) of the present disclosure can be stored on a computer readable storage medium, e.g., RAM memory, magnetic or optical drive or diskette and the like. 
     While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodiment should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.