Patent ID: 7991725

Claim:
A method to determine an influence in a dimension of an intermediate entity in determining a score in the dimension of a target entity from a source entity, comprising: (a) determining using a processor a measure of influence of the intermediate entity on potential source entities, wherein the potential source entities include those with one or more directed paths to the intermediate entity on the dimension or an associated transitive dimension, wherein potential target entities include those to which one or more directed paths exist from the intermediate entity on the dimension or the associated transitive dimension, wherein the measure of influence is calculated as a function of values including a number of potential source entities, a number of potential target entities, a number of potential directed paths between any given entity and any other entity on the dimension, the number of potential directed paths that include the intermediate entity, a number of times within a defined period that a directed link from the intermediate entity is used for the target entity, combining individual scores on a direct link on one or more directed paths on a scoring directed graph to produce one or more final scores, a number of times within a defined period that a path from any source entity to any target entity is identified by performing a graph search to identify one or more directed paths from the source entity to the target entity on the dimension to generate a directed graph having therein a combination of identified directed paths, and a number of times within a defined period that a set of final scores is generated for the target entity, combining individual scores on a direct link on one or more directed paths on a scoring directed graph to generate one or more final scores.