Patent ID: 8775517

Claim:
A method comprising: allowing a first user to become a member of a system; allowing a second user to become a member of the system; allowing the first and second users to search and access system-provided nodes of a graph maintained by the system, wherein each system-provided node comprises information about a person or organization, and system-provided edges between the system-provided nodes indicate relationships between the system-provided nodes; maintaining the graph of system-provided nodes comprising gathering information from an on-line source, not a member of the system, and adding the information to a first system provided node of the system; creating a first user-provided node for the first user, wherein the first user-provided node is populated with information received from the first user; creating a second user-provided node for the first user, wherein the second user-provided node is populated with information received from the second user; adding the first and second user-provided nodes to the graph and user-provided edges between the first and user-provided nodes and at least one system-provided node; for the first user, displaying on a first computer screen edge connections between the first user-provided node and the first system-provided node of the graph maintained by the system; for the second user, receiving a request to show edge connections of the first system provided node; determining an edge connection of the first system-provided node couples to the first user-provided node; displaying on a second computer screen for the second user a result of the request, wherein the result does not include the edge connection that couples to the first user-provided node; and generating a listing of one or more shared entities, represented by system-provided nodes, that form a path in the graph connecting the first system-provided node and a first entity of the graph, wherein the shared entities comprises a second entity which has a first connection to the first entity and a third entity which has a second connection to the first entity, the first and second connections are monetary connections, and the second connection has a greater value than the first connection and the generating a listing comprises: sorting the listing comprising the second and third entities based on values of the first and second connections; and indicating in the listing that the third entity has greater influence on the first entity than the second entity, wherein the first connection is represented by a first ontology data structure, wherein the first ontology data structure specifies how a donation relationship from a first party tracked by the system is made to a second party, represented by system-provided nodes or a system-provided edge of the graph.