Patent ID: 8700560

Claim:
A method comprising: associating fields of a data source with one or more entity identities, one or more relation identities, and one or more attributes corresponding, respectively, to entity identities, relation identities and facet attributes defined in metadata of an enterprise social network that is separate from the data source; receiving data from the data source that is separate from the enterprise social network; determining, based on the data received from the data source that is separate from the enterprise social network and on the associated fields of the data source, one or more source entities, one or more source entity identities associated with each of the one or more source entities, one or more source relations, one or more source relation identities associated with each of the one or more source relations, and source facets associated with one or more source entities or source relations; and for each source entity that is determined based on the data received from the data source that is separate from the enterprise social network and on the associated fields of the data source: determining if any of the one or more associated source entity identities is identical to an entity identity of the enterprise social network; creating a new entity in the enterprise social network corresponding to the determined source entity if it is determined that none of the one or more associated source entity identities is identical to an entity identity of the enterprise social network; and updating the enterprise social network with one or more source facets associated with the determined source entity if it is determined that one or more associated source entity identities is identical to an entity identity of the enterprise social network.