Patent Document ID: 9485313
Application ID: 14562615
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of group management in a social network, the social network being implemented on an apparatus comprising at least one computing device coupled to a computer network, the social network having a first entity and a plurality of other entities, the first entity and each entity of the plurality of other entities being associated with a plurality of characteristics, the method comprising: assigning by the apparatus a value to each characteristic of the first entity and said each entity of the plurality of other entities to obtain (1) a first dataset associated with the first entity, the first dataset comprising the values of the characteristics of the first entity, and (2) a plurality of datasets of the plurality of other entities, a dataset of the plurality of datasets per entity of the plurality of other entities, each dataset of the plurality of datasets comprising the values of the characteristics of the entity with which said each dataset is associated, the step of assigning being performed for the first entity based at least on information regarding the characteristics provided by the first entity, the step of assigning being performed for said each entity of the plurality of other entities based at least on information regarding the characteristics provided by said each entity of the plurality of other entities; computing by the apparatus for said each entity of the plurality of other entities a distance in a first conceptual space between (1) a point in the first conceptual space defined by the first dataset, and (2) a point in the first conceptual space defined by values of the characteristics of the dataset of said each entity of the plurality of other entities, thereby obtaining a plurality of distances in the first conceptual space, a distance of the plurality of distances corresponding to a different entity of the plurality of other entities, wherein each dimension of the first conceptual space corresponds to a different one of said plurality of characteristics, and wherein distances along at least one of the dimensions in the first conceptual space are weighted by a weight assigned by the first entity to characteristic associated with said at least one of the dimensions; and selecting by the apparatus entities for a first group from the plurality of other entities so that distance in the first conceptual space corresponding to each entity included in the first group is within a first predetermined distance limit.