Patent Document ID: 20140095616
Application ID: 14039086
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method comprising: providing an online social network, the online social network comprising at least a data store for storing data relating to a plurality of connections forming a state space and a communication port for supporting communication with individuals to whom the connections relate, the individuals communicating with the online social network via a wide area communication network; providing a first seed value; providing a coupling-from-the-past process having an update function for resulting in a non-trivial state space smaller than the state space of the online social network and forming a representative sample thereof; based on the first seed value selecting at least a first node; retrieving from the online social network dataset via the wide area communication network data based on the selected at least a first node; and applying the coupling-from-the-past process having the update function to the at least a first node to determine a non-trivial state space based on the first seed value, the non-trivial state space smaller than the state space of the online social network and the non-trivial state space forming an intermediate state in determining a representative sample of the online social network, and using the non-trivial state space to form a first representative sample.