Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Graham Arthur Wheeler

Alexandru Gavrilescu

Rohit Gupta

John L Miller

Danny B Lange

Ashley Nathan Feniello

Didier Coussemaeker

Nicolas Mai

Adrien Felon

Bhalchandra Pandit

Xiong Zhang

Hung-Chih Yang

Jason J Joyce

David M Moore

Joseph Futty

David Michael Callaghan

Zhaowei Charlie Jiang

Russell Irvin Sanchez

Greg D Schechter

John W Miller

Malek M Chalabi

Nathaniel Terrell Clinton

Lawrence Brian Ripsher

Grigori M Somin

Jean Sebastien Fouillade

Sameer Bhangar

Mark Scott Tonkelowitz

Charles F Olivier, Iii

Severan Sylvain Jean-Michel Rault

Marc Benjamin Phillips

Francois Burianek

Loic Deniel

Hui Leng Caren Quah

Joe Futty

Jason Peter Johnson

Roman Waupotitsch

Nathaniel T Clinton

Malek Chalabi

Charles F Iii Olivier

A system includes a processing device configured to execute instructions including accessing messages sent by a first user and other users. The instructions include identifying a first subset of messages that were sent by the first user and identifying a second subset of messages that are related to a first topic and were sent by the first user. The instructions include determining an authority value based on counts of the first and second subsets. The instructions include identifying a third subset of messages that resulted from the other users forwarding the second subset. The instructions include determining a power value based on a count of users that sent the third subset and computing an impact score for the first user on the first topic based on the authority and power values. The instructions include, based on the impact score, contacting the first user in relation to the first topic.

Computer system for automated assessment at scale of topic-specific social media impact

This patent relates to a system for identifying influential users of a social network platform. The system may access records of messages sent or received by a plurality of users. The system can determine a power of a user to reach other users based at least in part on the messages. The system can determine an authority of the user on a topic. The system can also compute an impact score that reflects both the power and the authority of the user on the topic. Such scores may be used to select users based on impact as part of social trend analysis, marketing or other functions.

Social media impact assessment

A system for identifying influential users of a social network platform. The system may compute a score for each of multiple users. Such a score may be topic-based, leading to a more accurate identification of influential users. Such a topic-based score may indicate authority and/or impact of a user with respect to a topic. The impact may be computed based on authority combined with other factors, such as power of the user. The authority score may be simply computed, in whole or in part, directly from a tweet log without, for example creating a retweet graph. As a result, the scores may be computed, using MapReduce primitives or other constructs that allow the computations to be distributed across multiple parallel processors. Such scores may be used to select users based on impact as part of social trend analysis, marketing or other functions.

Providing context to a target minimizes the amount of information that a user must input. Context transfer pages receive context and reformat for the target. Selection of links to such pages provide context which is then reformatted and provided to the target to pre-populate information for the user. A return link can be specified to enable the target to return further context upon user interaction completion. The return link can specify further context transfer pages which can use the returned context to direct the performance of convenience actions, including invoking other applications on the user's computing device and entering information into them. The context transfer pages can themselves collect information from the user to provide appropriate interfaces without requiring resource investment from the target.

Automated target specific format conversion of context information from a user query

A method is provided for initiating a telepresence session with a person, using a robot. The method includes receiving a request to host a telepresence session at the robot and receiving an identification for a target person for the telepresence session by the robot. The robot then searches a current location for a person. If a person is found, a determination is made regarding whether the person is the target person. If the person found is not the target person, the person is prompted for a location for the target person. The robot moves to the location given by the person in response to the prompt.

Finding a called party

To accommodate different types and versions of execution environments on mobile devices, requests for applications from a programmable device, such as a smart phone or other mobile device include status data about the characteristics of the device. Information about the display, memory, storage, and/or script engine may be forwarded with a request. At a fulfillment server, the information is evaluated so that an appropriately versioned and configured application can be custom built, or selected from a pre-built inventory of applications. This allows a user to postpone an upgrade and still receive appropriate versions of executable, optimized to the particular mobile device.

Device dependent on-demand compiling and deployment of mobile applications

Functionality is described that allows plural computing devices to share a master account. In one implementation, the functionality allows any candidate device to directly communicate with a communication system using the master account, providing that the candidate device satisfies a prescribed condition with respect to a master device. For example, the functionality can allow the candidate device to communicate with the communication system if it is within a threshold distance of the master device. In another implementation, the functionality instructs the master device and the candidate device to set up a tethering relationship. The functionality can then allow the candidate device to communicate with the communication system, via the master device, using the master account. In one implementation, the functionality can set up the tethering relationship without substantial (or any) involvement of the user (or users) who operate the master device and candidate device.

Enabling plural computing devices to communicate using a master account

This disclosure describes data conversion and techniques for sending and receiving data at a mobile device. In one implementation, a proxy server may receive data from a mobile device. The proxy server may convert the data and send the converted data to a network service. In another implementation, a mobile device may convert data and send that data to a network service. The network service may generate data in response and send that data to the mobile device directly.

Efficient transform from XML to javascript objects

Selectively caching content related to routing data in a computing device. Prior to traversing a route, one or more access points to a network are identified. An expected level of access to a network (e.g., signal strength) along the route is determined. Portions of the route are selected based on the expected level of access. Content corresponding to at least one of the selected portions is received and stored for access during traversal of the route. For example, map images for areas expected to have poor network connectivity are cached prior to traversing the route to ensure that routing data is displayed to a user when in those areas. During transversal of the route, content is obtained and cached if a current level of access is less than a defined threshold.

Caching navigation content for intermittently connected devices

A security infrastructure and methods are presented that inhibit the ability of a malicious node from disrupting the normal operations of a peer-to-peer network. The methods of the invention allow both secure and insecure identities to be used by nodes by making them self-verifying. When necessary or opportunistic, ID ownership is validated by piggybacking the validation on existing messages. The probability of connecting initially to a malicious node is reduced by randomly selecting to which node to connect. Further, information from malicious nodes is identified and can be disregarded by maintaining information about prior communications that will require a future response. Denial of service attacks are inhibited by allowing the node to disregard requests when its resource utilization exceeds a predetermined limit. The ability for a malicious node to remove a valid node is reduced by requiring that revocation certificates be signed by the node to be removed.

Peer-to-peer name resolution protocol (PNRP) security infrastructure and method

A method and data structure are provided that enables name resolution via a hierarchical or chained lookup of delegated authorities independent of requiring IP addresses of the delegated authorities. In an embodiment, the method provides for lookups by first generating cryptographic keys associated with a namespace. An authority is created using one of the cryptographic keys. Next, the method provides for enabling namespaces to refer to the authority via requesting authorities associated with the namespaces to issue a peer-to-peer type resolution so that names of the namespaces resolve to the authority. For other desired namespaces, the method provides for issuing a resolution that names the authority and names associated with the other namespaces to resolve to the other authorities. For services, the authority and a service name are published to receive and end result such as arbitrary data, an IP address, a protocol name or a port.

Secure hierarchical namespaces in peer-to-peer networks

A method and system are configured for synchronous broadcast communications by applying signature keys using hashing functions. Each subsequent transmission in a sequence includes a signature key that can be verified by hashing to a preceding signature key from a previous portion of the sequence. The first transmission in the sequence is signed using a signature key that is known by the client device, typically verified using some other mechanism such as asymmetric key signatures. Each client device can utilize an internal counter for the current time or the block number in the transmission sequence to maintain synchronized transmissions in the even that a particular portion of the sequence is missed, and to validate signature keys. Since the signature keys can be validated when they are received but not predicted before they are received, the transmission is difficult to attack while synchronization is maintained.

Cheap signatures for synchronous broadcast communication

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Graham Arthur Wheeler