Patent ID: 8713143

Claim:
A method for use with an on-line computer service having a plurality of account holders that each has at least one account with the on-line computer service, the method comprising an act of: (A) creating a previously non-existent social network among at least a subset of the plurality of account holders for facilitating a spread of desired behavior among the subset of the plurality of account holders by: (A1) creating a network architecture comprising a set of nodes and a set of edges, wherein each one of the edges connects at least two of the set of nodes and specifies a path for a flow of information between the nodes connected by the one of the edges, wherein the network architecture is designed to facilitate and control interactions of the at least some of the subset of the plurality of account holders through the previously non-existent social network, wherein the created network architecture is pre-defined prior to any communication among account holders of the plurality of account holders via the previously non-existent social network so that each account holder is assigned neighbors and cannot, based on user action, create a new neighbor in the social network by communicating with another account holder; and (A2) populating the created network architecture by: selecting, for each of the account holders in the at least a subset of the plurality of account holders, at least one node of the set of nodes, the subset of the plurality of account holders comprising a first account holder and a second account holder, wherein the selecting comprises selecting a first node from the set of nodes for the first account holder and a second node from the set of nodes for the second account holder, the first node having a first identifier and the second node having a second identifier, the second node being directly connected to the first node via at least one of the set of edges, and associating the first account holder with the first node and the second account holder with the second node so that when at least one desired behavior is taken by the first account holder assigned to the first node, information relating to the at least one desired behavior is communicated to at least the second account holder assigned to the second node that is directly connected via the at least one of the edges to the first node, wherein the first account holder is associated with the first node by associating the first identifier with the first account holder, and wherein the second account holder is associated with the second node by associating the second identifier with the second account holder.