Patent ID: 7467212

Claim:
A method of sharing resources on a social network, the method comprising: monitoring communications between a plurality of users and a user having a shared resource coupled to a computer system of the user, the shared resource to be shared amongst one or more of the plurality of users; determining social network data from the communications between each of the plurality of users and the user having the shared resource, wherein each of the plurality of users has an ongoing relationship with the user having the shared resource and the social network data is based on varying degrees of interactions between each of the plurality of users and the user having the shared resource, wherein the communication includes communicating via emails between each of the plurality of users having the shared resources, wherein the emails are identified and counted; determining an access level for each of the plurality of users based on the social network data including the identified and counted emails, wherein the access level is selected from a group consisting of a read-only access, a read/write access, an execute access, a create access, an owner access, a no access, an all access, and a control access; and configuring an access control list to provide each of the plurality of users the access level determined for accessing the shared resource.