U.S. patent application number 12/405291 was filed with the patent office on 2010-09-23 for shared feed reader and method of shared feed reading.
Invention is credited to Eran Belinsky, Ido Guy, Michal Jacovi, Elad Shahar, Eyal Sonsino.
Application Number | 20100241964 12/405291 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 42738711 |
Filed Date | 2010-09-23 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100241964 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Belinsky; Eran ; et
al. |
September 23, 2010 |
Shared Feed Reader and Method of Shared Feed Reading
Abstract
A shared feed reader for multiple users and a method for sharing
feed reading are provided which provide group collaboration
features. The shared feed reader includes a server including a
processor hosting the shared feed reader for remote access by
multiple users, and a user interface for each of the multiple users
including an aggregator of web feeds subscribed to by the user. The
shared feed reader includes: a mechanism for defining a group of
users, wherein web feeds subscribed to by users in the group are
exposed to the other users in the group; and a mechanism for
sharing a read status of a web feed post across the group, wherein
the read status indicates which users have read the post. The
shared feed reader may also include a mechanism for receiving a
meta-feed of meta-posts, wherein meta-feeds and meta-posts relate
to activities of users in the group on shared feeds and posts.
Inventors: |
Belinsky; Eran; (Haifa,
IL) ; Guy; Ido; (Haifa, IL) ; Jacovi;
Michal; (Rakefet, IL) ; Shahar; Elad;
(Rehovot, IL) ; Sonsino; Eyal; (Haifa,
IL) |
Correspondence
Address: |
IBM CORPORATION, T.J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
P.O. BOX 218
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS
NY
10598
US
|
Family ID: |
42738711 |
Appl. No.: |
12/405291 |
Filed: |
March 17, 2009 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
715/738 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/958 20190101;
G06Q 10/10 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/738 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/048 20060101
G06F003/048 |
Claims
1. A shared feed reader for multiple users, comprising: a server
including a processor hosting the shared feed reader for remote
access by multiple users; a user interface for each of the multiple
users including an aggregator of web feeds subscribed to by a user;
a mechanism for defining a group of users, wherein web feeds
subscribed to by users in the group are exposed to the other users
in the group; a mechanism for sharing a read status of a web feed
post across the group, wherein the read status indicates which
users have read the post; wherein any of said mechanism for
defining a group of users and mechanism for sharing a read status
are implemented in either of computer hardware or computer software
and embodied in a computer readable medium.
2. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, including an
interface input mechanism to request a post be read by other users
in the group.
3. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 2, wherein the
interface input mechanism to request a post be read assigns a
specified user in the group to read the posting.
4. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 2, wherein the
interface input mechanism to request a post be read includes a
request for a summary of the post.
5. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, including an
interface input mechanism for providing a summary of a post to the
other users in the group.
6. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, including an
interface input mechanism for indicating that a user has committed
to reading a post.
7. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
mechanism for defining a group of users includes one of the group
of: extraction of a group from an organisational structure;
extraction from external applications; or explicitly
specifying.
8. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, including an
interface input mechanism for recommending a post to the group.
9. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, including a user
interface for each of the multiple users including an aggregator of
web feeds subscribed to by the user which are not shared with the
group.
10. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, wherein a user
can be defined in multiple groups with different sub-sets of the
user's subscribed web feeds exposed to different groups.
11. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, including a
mechanism for exposing other user activities in relation to feeds
and posts to the other users in the group.
12. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 11, wherein the
mechanism for exposing other user activities generates a meta-feed
of meta-posts, wherein meta-feeds and meta-posts relate to
activities of users in the group on shared feeds and posts.
13. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 12, including a
mechanism for display of the meta-feed and the meta-posts relating
to activities of users in the group in the feed reader user
interface in a distinguished manner from regular feeds and
posts.
14. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 11, wherein the
other user activities include one or more of the group of: adding
or removing fees from a collection, user reading a post, user
rating a post, user commenting on a post, user recommending a post,
user deleting a post.
15. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 1, including a
mechanism for displaying statistics relating to the group
activities, wherein the statistics include one or more of: coverage
of posts; reading frequency; average rating.
16. A shared feed reader for multiple users, comprising: a server
including a processor hosting the shared feed reader for remote
access by multiple users; a user interface for each of the multiple
users including an aggregator of web feeds subscribed to by a user;
a mechanism for defining a group of users, wherein web feeds
subscribed to by users in the group are exposed to the other users
in the group; a mechanism for exposing a meta-feed of meta-posts,
wherein meta-feeds and meta-posts relate to activities of users in
the group on shared feeds and posts; wherein any of said mechanism
for defining a group of users and mechanism for exposing a
meta-feed of meta-posts are implemented in either of computer
hardware or computer software and embodied in a computer readable
medium.
17. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 16, including a
display of the meta-feed and the meta-posts relating to activities
of users in the group in the feed reader user interface in a
distinguished manner from regular feeds and posts.
18. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 16, wherein
activities of users include one or more of the group of: adding or
removing feeds from a collection, user reading a post, user rating
a post, user commenting on a post, user recommending a post, user
deleting a post.
19. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 16, including a
mechanism for selecting a meta-post relating to a feed activity,
wherein the mechanism opens the feed in the feed reader.
20. The shared feed reader as claimed in claim 16, including a
mechanism for selecting a meta-post relating to a post activity,
wherein the mechanism opens the post in the feed reader and display
any additional information.
21. A method of collaboration in a shared feed reader for multiple
users, comprising: hosting a computer-based shared feed reader for
remote access by multiple users; aggregating web feeds subscribed
to by a user; defining a group of users, wherein web feeds
subscribed to by users in the group are exposed to the other users
in the group; and sharing a read status of a web feed post across
the group, wherein the read status indicates which users have read
the post; wherein any of said steps are implemented in either of
computer hardware or computer software and embodied in a
computer-readable medium.
22. The method as claimed in claim 21, including inputting user
inputs of the form of one or more of the following group: to
request a post be read by other users in the group, to assign a
specified user in the group to read the posting, to request a
summary of the post, to provide a summary of a post, to commit to
reading a post, to recommend a post, to tag a post.
23. The method as claimed in claim 21, including exposing other
user activities in relation to feeds and posts to the other users
in the group by generating a meta-feed of meta-posts, wherein
meta-feeds and meta-posts relate to activities of users in the
group on shared feeds and posts.
24. The method as claimed in claim 21, including displaying the
meta-feed and the meta-posts relating to activities of users in the
group in the feed reader user interface in a distinguished manner
from regular feeds and posts.
25. A computer program product for collaboration in a shared feed
reader for multiple users, the computer program product comprising:
a computer readable medium; computer program instructions operable
to: host a shared feed reader for remote access by multiple users;
aggregate web feeds subscribed to by a user; define a group of
users, wherein web feeds subscribed to by users in the group are
exposed to the other users in the group; and share a read status of
a web feed post across the group, wherein the read status indicates
which users have read the post; wherein said program instructions
are stored on said computer readable medium.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates to the field of web feed readers. In
particular, the invention relates to a shared web feed reader with
collaborative features.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The information revolution has seen an increase both in the
frequency at which new information is generated and in its volume.
New findings and developments in science, technology, finance and
law require people to keep up to date so as not to lag behind the
competition.
[0003] Keeping up to date requires first finding all the relevant
resources, and then scanning them periodically. Feed readers have
emerged as one of the prominent web 2.0 applications. A feed
reader, also known as RSS reader or feed aggregator, is usually
based on RSS or Atom standards. RSS is a family of formats
including Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91), RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9
and 1.0), and Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0).
[0004] Aggregators reduce the time and effort needed to regularly
check websites for updates, creating a unique information space or
"personal newspaper." Once subscribed to a feed, an aggregator is
able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and
retrieve the update. The content is sometimes described as being
"pulled" to the subscriber, as opposed to "pushed" with email or
IM. Unlike recipients of some "pushed" information, the aggregator
user can easily unsubscribe from a feed.
[0005] However, as feeds keep streaming new posts, and as new feeds
appear, the task of going over all posts in one's feed reader
becomes overwhelming. The difficulty is twofold: for one, the sheer
amount of posts may be very large; but on top of that, the quality
of posts is not unified, and thus one is first faced with the task
of filtering, and then with the task of actually reading. An
individual can only read a limited amount of information.
[0006] The same problem can be observed in a group of people who
are working together. Each of the group members faces the problem
individually. But also, as a group, the members want to keep up to
date on current developments. In a group, this does not mean that
each member has to read all items of relevance. It is enough that
only the relevant members of the group keep-up-date on the items
most relevant to them in a way that supports the operation of the
entire group.
[0007] There are many existing feed readers. One example is Google
Reader (Google is a trade mark of Google, Inc.). Google Reader has
a public page in which a user can expose his feeds which can be
provided as a feed to other users. Personal feed collections allow
users to peek into other users' feeds (e.g., in the case of
following a mentor and getting to know a new field by the feeds
already collected by the mentor). The public page can include the
user's comments on the web feeds. Standard features also include
tagging and rating feeds or posts. Posts can typically be browsed
by feed, by date, or you could see an aggregated feed of all the
feeds you subscribe.
[0008] Support also exists for feed collections. Topical feed
collections allow users to gather feeds about a specific topic, and
later view all posts of all feeds. Topical feed collections are
typically of a community and the whole community gathers feeds into
the collection.
[0009] An aim of the present invention is to address the problem of
covering a field of interest by a group of users. A further aim is
to collaborate on the filtering of feeds by a group of users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] According to a first aspect of the present invention there
is provided a shared feed reader for multiple users, comprising: a
server including a processor hosting the shared feed reader for
remote access by multiple users; a user interface for each of the
multiple users including an aggregator of web feeds subscribed to
by a user; a mechanism for defining a group of users, wherein web
feeds subscribed to by users in the group are exposed to the other
users in the group; a mechanism for sharing a read status of a web
feed post across the group, wherein the read status indicates which
users have read the post; wherein any of said mechanism for
defining a group of users and mechanism for sharing a read status
are implemented in either of computer hardware or computer software
and embodied in a computer readable medium.
[0011] According to a second aspect of the present invention there
is provided a shared feed reader for multiple users, comprising: a
server including a processor hosting the shared feed reader for
remote access by multiple users; a user interface for each of the
multiple users including an aggregator of web feeds subscribed to
by the user; a mechanism for defining a group of users, wherein web
feeds subscribed to by users in the group are exposed to the other
users in the group; a mechanism for exposing a meta-feed of
meta-posts, wherein meta-feeds and meta-posts relate to activities
of users in the group on shared feeds and posts; wherein any of
said mechanism for defining a group of users and mechanism for
exposing a meta-feed of meta-posts are implemented in either of
computer hardware or computer software and embodied in a computer
readable medium.
[0012] According to a third aspect of the present invention there
is provided a method of collaboration in a shared feed reader for
multiple users, comprising: hosting a computer-based shared feed
reader for remote access by multiple users; aggregating web feeds
subscribed to by a user; defining a group of users, wherein web
feeds subscribed to by users in the group are exposed to the other
users in the group; and sharing a read status of a web feed post
across the group, wherein the read status indicates which users
have read the post; wherein any of said steps are implemented in
either of computer hardware or computer software and embodied in a
computer-readable medium.
[0013] According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there
is provided a computer program product for collaboration in a
shared feed reader for multiple users, the product program product
comprising: a computer readable medium; computer program
instructions operable to: host a shared feed reader for remote
access by multiple users; aggregate web feeds subscribed to by a
user; define a group of users, wherein web feeds subscribed to by
users in the group are exposed to the other users in the group; and
share a read status of a web feed post across the group, wherein
the read status indicates which users have read the post; wherein
said program instructions are stored on said computer readable
medium.
[0014] According to a fifth aspect of the present invention there
is provided a method of providing a service to a client over a
network comprising: hosting a computer-based shared feed reader for
remote access by multiple users; aggregating web feeds subscribed
to by a user; defining a group of users, wherein web feeds
subscribed to by users in the group are exposed to the other users
in the group; and sharing a read status of a web feed post across
the group, wherein the read status indicates which users have read
the post; wherein any of said mechanism for defining a group of
users and mechanism for sharing a read status are implemented in
either of computer hardware or computer software and embodied in a
computer readable medium.
[0015] The described shared feed reader and method provide enhanced
group collaboration features that provide awareness, sharing, and
coordination, to allow users to cope better with information
discovery and overload.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly
pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the
specification. The invention, both as to organization and method of
operation, together with objects, features, and advantages thereof,
may best be understood by reference to the following detailed
description when read with the accompanying drawings in which:
[0017] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a shared feed reader as known
in the prior art;
[0018] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computer system in which the
present invention may be implemented;
[0019] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a shared feed reader in
accordance with the present invention;
[0020] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a graphical user interface
of a shared feed reader in accordance with the present
invention;
[0021] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a method in accordance with the
present invention; and
[0022] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method in accordance with an
aspect of the present invention.
[0023] It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of
illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily
been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the
elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity.
Further, where considered appropriate, reference numbers may be
repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous
features.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0024] In the following detailed description, numerous specific
details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding
of the invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled
in the art that the present invention may be practiced without
these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods,
procedures, and components have not been described in detail so as
not to obscure the present invention.
[0025] The use of web feeds is growing rapidly as a means of
obtaining updated information on a range of subjects. Feed readers
are used to obtain and display the web feeds for a client or for a
group of users. Feed readers may be web-based feed readers which
are hosted on remote servers. Another form of feed reader is in the
form of client software designed to collect web feed subscriptions
locally at a client.
[0026] Shared feed readers allow access by multiple users who may
each have their own login to allow personal and shared feeds to be
accessed.
[0027] The basic functionalities of a feed reader include: [0028]
Adding/removing feeds to the reader; [0029] Receiving posts from
feeds and viewing them in typical feeds lists/posts lists/display
area; [0030] Indicating which feeds have new posts and which feeds
are read or unread (typically through boldface font); [0031]
Viewing all posts of all feeds at once or focusing on the posts of
specific feeds; and [0032] Viewing a post title/full post
data/actual web content.
[0033] A web feed (also known as a syndicated feed) is a data
format used for providing users with frequently updated content.
The purpose of a web feed is to allow content providers (such as
web site owners) to push information to content consumers. Web
feeds are operated by many news web sites, weblogs, schools, and
podcasters. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby
allowing users to subscribe to it.
[0034] In the typical scenario of using web feeds, a content
provider publishes a feed link on their site which end users can
register to with a feed reader.
[0035] The kinds of content delivered by a web feed are typically
HTML (hypertext markup language) documents providing web page
content, or links to web pages and other kinds of digital media.
Often when web sites provide web feeds to notify users of content
updates, they only include summaries in the web feed rather than
the full content itself.
[0036] Web feed collections are groups of web feeds which share a
common category. A web feed collection may be a group of web feeds
that relate to a given topic which are gathered together to enable
users to subscribe to the group of web feeds by topic, and later
view all posts of all feeds. Personal feed collections allow users
to obtain other users' feed groups in order to benefit from the
other user's selection of web feeds.
[0037] Referring to FIG. 1, a shared feed reader system is shown.
The shared feed reader 100 has multiple clients 101-103 each of
which have a client interface 110-130 at the feed reader 100. Each
client interface 110 may include subscriptions 111. The feed reader
100 obtains feeds 141-161 exposed on web sites 140-160.
[0038] The feed reader 100 includes a feed subscriber 112 for
listing the feeds subscribed to by the clients 101-103, a feed
monitor 113 for checking for new content at defined intervals, a
feed retriever 114 for retrieving update posts of the feeds, and a
fetcher 115 for fetching content linked to by a post. A feed reader
100 may also include a filter 116 to sort and filter retrieved
posts into navigable categories.
[0039] Referring to FIG. 2, an exemplary system for implementing a
server for hosting a shared feed reader and for implementing
clients includes a data processing system 200 suitable for storing
and/or executing program code including at least one processor 201
coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a bus
system 203. The memory elements can include local memory employed
during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and
cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some
program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be
retrieved from bulk storage during execution.
[0040] The memory elements may include system memory 202 in the
form of read only memory (ROM) 204 and random access memory (RAM)
205. A basic input/output system (BIOS) 206 may be stored in ROM
204. System software 207 may be stored in RAM 205 including
operating system software 208. Software applications 210 may also
be stored in RAM 205.
[0041] The system 200 may also include a primary storage means 211
such as a magnetic hard disk drive and secondary storage means 212
such as a magnetic disc drive and an optical disc drive. The drives
and their associated computer-readable media provide non-volatile
storage of computer-executable instructions, data structures,
program modules and other data for the system 200. Software
applications may be stored on the primary and secondary storage
means 211, 212 as well as the system memory 202.
[0042] The computing system 200 may operate in a networked
environment using logical connections to one or more remote
computers via a network adapter 216.
[0043] Input/output devices 213 can be coupled to the system either
directly or through intervening I/O controllers. A user may enter
commands and information into the system 200 through input devices
such as a keyboard, pointing device, or other input devices (for
example, microphone, joy stick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner,
or the like). Output devices may include speakers, printers, etc. A
display device 214 is also connected to system bus 203 via an
interface, such as video adapter 215.
[0044] The described shared feed reader has the aim of leveraging a
group of people in order to cover a topic. If people know someone
else's needs, and that person trusts them to notify him when there
is something interesting--the person can save the time of sifting
through feeds and posts which trusted people in his network have
read. If there is something really important in those posts they
will tell him about it. Thus, a group of people can potentially
cover many more feeds than each individual, and in total, more
people will get more relevant information.
[0045] Referring to FIG. 3, an embodiment of a shared feed reader
system is shown. The shared feed reader 300 supports multiple users
310-313. Each user 310-313 has a user interface 320-323 though
which a user can subscribe to feeds 331 which may be defined as
personal feeds 332 and shared feeds 333.
[0046] The shared feed reader 300 pulls feeds 356 from web sites
357 who expose feeds 356 subscribed to by the users 310-313. The
shared feed reader 300 includes the general feed reader components
of a feed subscriber 351 for listing the feeds subscribed to by the
users 310-313, a feed monitor 352 for checking for new content at
defined intervals, a feed retriever 354 for retrieving update posts
of the feeds, and a fetcher 353 for fetching content linked to by a
post. The feed reader 300 may also include a filter 355 to sort and
filter retrieved posts into navigable categories.
[0047] The described shared feed reader 300 includes a mechanism
for defining groups 340 of users which may use external resources
of groups 341 for definition. For example, organizational
structures may be used to define working groups, social
applications may be used to define social network groups, etc. A
user 310-313 can belong to one or more groups and may define the
feeds he shares 333 with a group. Alternatively, the group may
define the group feeds which all the users 310-313 which are
members of the group will subscribe to.
[0048] The described shared feed reader 300 includes a group
activities tool 360. The group activities tool 360 supports
awareness between members of a group as to the activities of the
other members of the group. The group activities tool 360 includes
the following components. A mechanism for sharing read status of
posts 361 by which users in a group can see who has read a post. A
mechanism for display of annotation by the group 362 by which a
user can assign another user to read a post, can request another
user read a post, can request a summary of the post, can add a
summary of the post, can commit to read a post, or can recommend or
tag a post. A mechanism for display of statistics of the group
363
[0049] Additionally or alternatively to the group activities tool
360, the shared feed reader 300 may include a meta-feed tool 370. A
meta-feed is defined as a feed which relates to user actions on a
feed or collection of feeds. Posts within a meta-feed are referred
to as meta-posts and provide an update of an action of a user.
Meta-feeds are exposed by the feed reader 300 which provide this
function for a group of users.
[0050] The meta-feed tool 370 includes a mechanism for generating
and exposing 371 a meta-feed with meta-posts of user activity at
the feed reader 300 and a mechanism for display 372 of meta-feeds
and meta-posts to users in the group in a distinguished manner.
[0051] The following are types of features supported by the
described shared feed reader which can aid a group in covering a
topic.
[0052] Defining Groups
[0053] A user may belong to quite a few different groups where
members know each other's needs and trust each other to provide
notifications of items of interest. The shared feed reader may
provide means to define these groups in several ways: [0054] Formal
groups may be specified according to the organizational chart of an
organization, or according to membership in a project. These groups
typically have common goals and division of labour such that people
know each other's needs and interests, and people are interested in
drawing the attention of others to items of importance, to advance
not just the knowledge of the notified individual, but to benefit
the entire group. [0055] Social network groups are based on social
ties. Although social ties do not imply a common goal, they often
do imply familiarity, trust and caring. This social network
information could be extracted from external applications, or it
could be specified explicitly in the feed reader. [0056]
Topic-based communities may be formed by enrolling members who,
together, cover a set of feeds they collaboratively collect.
[0057] Coverage Indications for Feeds and Posts
[0058] A user may become aware of the following details: [0059]
Which feeds were committed to be read (and by whom)--thus other
users can visually see if all feeds are committed to be read, and
otherwise assign users to read them. Every member as an individual
of the group can see which feeds are committed to be read. In one
embodiment, people who are not members of the group may also see
commitments to read feeds by the group, unless the group specifies
a privacy option. [0060] Which posts were actually read (and by how
many, and by whom)--thus users can visually tell which posts were
read and which were not covered. It may also learn the reputation
of users as readers (reads a lot or not; meet their commitments or
not; etc.). [0061] List of readers per item: each feed item title
is decorated with the number of users that have already read it. In
one embodiment, hovering over the number reveals the full list of
readers, other embodiments may include clicking on an activator
(link, button, etc.). Presenting the readers of an item before the
user reads it serves for social navigation: in some cases it can
attract the user to read the item as well; in others it may spare
the user from reading the item, knowing that had it been an
important item, it would have been recommended.
[0062] Recommending Posts and Feeds
[0063] A user may become aware of the following details: [0064]
What score a post received--thus each member of the group may make
sure to read the posts with high score, while skipping those that
were read by others and received a low score. [0065] Summaries or
annotations left by group members--thus allowing others to skim
through and only read summaries rather than full posts. Summaries
may be implemented using personal blogs, or as add-ons to the
reader (like tags and annotations). [0066] Requests for
coverage--users may add important feeds to their readers or to the
group, but not have the time to cover them. They may indicate that
they ask the group to cover, to allow others to volunteer to commit
to reading these feeds. Requests for coverage may be published in
hope that someone commits to them, or they may be assigned as
"invitations", to which the receiver may accept, decline, or
delegate. [0067] Recommended posts--users may indicate personal
recommendations--recommending to a user (or group of users) to read
a certain post as they know it would be of interest to the user (or
group) based on their familiarity.
[0068] The Following Features Support Coverage of Information:
[0069] Views: Each person has his own feeds which he "covers"--in a
"Personal Feeds" view. There is also a view which allows a user to
see all feeds that the entire group is covering in a "Group feeds"
view. [0070] Adding Coverage Indication for Feeds: In both feed
views, feeds are visually marked, e.g., by different background
colours or hue, according to coverage by others--depending on the
amount of readers of the feed and their social proximity to the
user. This way the user can know which feeds are covered by other
people in the group, and thus could perhaps give a well-covered
feed a lower priority. For example, if the user wants to start
reading a new feed from the "Group feeds" view, he might want to
prefer less-covered feeds to provide better coverage for the group.
[0071] Adding Coverage Indication for Posts: When reading posts or
an aggregated feed, information of coverage per post can be
obtained. This would be determined by how many people in the group
have read the post, and how strongly they are related to the user
in his social network. A user could choose to not display posts
which are already "covered" above a certain threshold, or the user
can simply display the post with a grade or color which indicates
how well covered it is. Another alternative is to sort posts by
reverse coverage. Such mechanisms could allow several users who
cover the same feed to split the work of reading the feed among
them. [0072] Add Yield Indication for Feeds: an additional ranking
of feeds could be according to the number of posts from the feed
which were actually recommended or highly rated by people in the
group. Alternatively, the ratio of recommended posts (recommended
post divided by all posts in feed) could be used, because a feed
may have a lot of posts which include a lot of noise--such a feed
could provide many good posts, but may also waste time of the
readers who will need to go over many irrelevant posts.
[0073] An Activity Summary
[0074] An activity summary may be provided of: most read items,
recently added feeds, top recommenders, and a short glance of
recent actions of community members. The goal of the activity
summary is to create a sense of community, encourage discussing
commonly read items, and support serendipity.
[0075] Tagging
[0076] Tagging enables a user to tag an item and see how others
tagged it. A tag cloud per user is presented, creating a profile of
the user's reading interests.
[0077] Feed Statistics
[0078] Feed statistics are calculated and presented in a page that
includes update frequency, number of recommendations of items from
this feed, and coverage level--by each user and by the community as
a whole. Coverage of a feed is calculated by measuring the number
of items read out of the total items posted. Exploring the feed
statistics page can have different effects: users may decide to
remove a feed that is apparently not followed by them, or adopt a
feed that is highly covered by others; alternatively users may
decide to change their reading habits when discovering that an
important feed is not well covered by the community.
[0079] The shared web feeder described in relation to FIG. 3
incorporates a meta-feed tool in which information on user
activities on web feeds is provided as a web feed itself and
displayed with web feeds in a feed reader or web site. This feature
is described further below.
[0080] A "meta-feed" is defined as the stream of meta-information
about a specific collection of feeds (e.g., the meta-information
about a person's feed collection; or the meta-information about the
Social Networks feed collection).
[0081] A meta-feed is exposed by a feed reader. The feed reader
provides the user activity on the user's feed, or about the
collective activity of a group of users. In one embodiment, the
feed reader is web-based and thus a web site and the user activity
on a feed or group activity is provided as a web application.
[0082] The collective behaviour of a user across all his/her feeds
may also be syndicated as a meta-feed by simply aggregating all
actions taken on the collection of feeds tracked by the user.
[0083] Examples of meta-information about feeds include [0084]
adding/removing feeds from a collection; [0085] user read a post;
[0086] user rated a post; [0087] user commented on a post; [0088]
user recommended a post.
[0089] A "meta-post" is defined as a single item in a meta-feed
(e.g., "User A read post X"; or "the feed `SNNews` was added to the
collection"). The described shared feed reader is enhanced feed
readers by allowing users to subscribe to meta-feeds.
[0090] The meta-feeds are to be treated as feeds and incorporated
it in the reader's view as other items, but their titles will
indicate (e.g., through italicized font, of different coloured
font) that they show meta-information. Thus meta-feeds will appear
within the feed list (though their titles will be italicized), and
meta-posts will appear in within the posts list (again, with
italicized titles).
[0091] Clicking a meta-post may have different behaviors, depending
on its type. For example: [0092] Clicking on meta-posts indicating
that a feed was added/removed, will open the posts list of the
feed, allowing the user to study the feed and possibly decide to
add the feed to his own reader. [0093] Clicking on a meta-post
indicating that a user read/rated/commented/or recommended a post,
will open the post and show the additional information (rate,
comment, recommendation), allowing the user to read too.
[0094] Meta-feeds require special treatment in two aspects: [0095]
Their exposure by feed readers that supports both "regular" feeds
and meta-feeds should expose both in a distinguishable and suitable
way. [0096] Their consumption in feed readers--feed readers should
present meta-feeds the user is subscribed to and their
corresponding entries in a special way
[0097] Referring to FIG. 4, an embodiment of a shared feed reader
graphical user interface (GUI) 400 is shown. GUIs may take many
different forms and the following is an example to show how the
described functions may be displayed.
[0098] The GUI 400 includes a login input 401 for a user to obtain
the personalised view for that user. General menu options may
include "Read" 402, "Refresh" 403, "Search" 404, "Admin" 405,
"Users" 406, and "Help" 407. The "Users" 406 option may include
options for defining user groups that a user belongs to. An input
408 allows another user to be located and added to a group in order
to view the other users shared feeds.
[0099] Different views of the content of the GUI 400 may be
provided when a user switches between groups he belongs to. For
example, the ambience (e.g., background colour) could be used to
help the user understand in which context he is--reading his
personal feeds, reading the feeds as part of group X, reading the
feeds as part of group Y, etc. Alternatively, the user interface
might change and provide different functions. For example, in group
mode (as opposed to personal reading mode) buttons may be provided
for group functionality, such as for asking for volunteers to read
a post/feed, volunteering to read a post, etc.--functions that are
irrelevant in personal reading mode.
[0100] A first area of the GUI 400 may include a list of feeds 410
including user's personal feeds 411, feeds from users belonging to
a group--these may be nested by user 412, 413, and meta-feeds
relating to the users of the group 414.
[0101] A summary 415 of posts 416 using their headings only may be
included in the GUI 400. This may be chronological or may be
filtered into categories. The summary 415 of posts may include
meta-posts 417 distinguished from the regular posts by italics or
colour or another distinguishing method.
[0102] A group activity summary 420 may be provided giving a
summary of most read items, recently added feeds, top recommenders,
and a short glance of recent actions of community members.
[0103] A group statistics 430 may also be providing in which more
detailed statistics on the group can be obtained.
[0104] In a second area 450 of the GUI 400, posts are listed in
more detail and can be selected for full display. The second area
450 may include a sub-menu of operations which may be carried out
on posts such as "Expand" 451, "Read" 452, "Recommend" 453, "Add
Summary" 454, "Tag" 455. The "Read" 452 input option may include
requests for others to read, assignment of another user to read, or
a commitment by the user to read.
[0105] A post 461 may be shown in bold until it is opened and read.
A post 462 may include annotations such as a recommendation 471, a
tag 472, a display of readers or users committed to read 473, a
summary 474 and other annotations of the described shared feed
reader. A meta-post 463 may be shown in another style, such as
italics, and may provide information on a group user action.
[0106] Referring to FIG. 5, a flow diagram 500 shows a method of
sharing feed reads. A new shared post is received 501 by a group.
One user, user 1, does not want to read the post himself, and
requests 502 that the post be read by another member of the group.
Optionally, he can specify 503 which other member of the group he
would like to read the post. He can also optionally request 504 a
summary of the post. An indication 505 is shown on the shared post
of the request to read.
[0107] A second user, user 2, wants to read the post but not right
away. User 2 indicates 506 a commit to read the post. The shared
post is marked 507 as committed to be read by user 2. User 2 then
reads 508 the post later. User 2 can optionally add annotations 509
such as a summary, tag or recommend the post to others in the
group. The post is marked 510 as read by user 2 with any
annotations which can be seen by the others in the group.
[0108] A third user, user 3, reads 511 the shared post immediately.
User 3 can optionally add annotations 512 such as a summary, tag or
recommend the post to others in the group. The post is marked 513
as read by user 3 with any annotations which can be seen by the
others in the group.
[0109] Meta-posts 521-524 are triggered and generated when a user
carries out an action. For example, in the flow diagram of FIG. 5
the following meta-posts may be triggered. If user 2 annotates,
tags or recommends the post 509, a meta-post is generated 521 of
this activity. When user 2 marks 510 as read the post, a meta-post
is generated 522. Similarly, if user 3 annotates, tags or
recommends the post 512, a meta-post is generated 523 of this
activity. When user 3 marks 513 as read the post, a meta-post is
generated 524.
[0110] Referring to FIG. 6, a flow diagram shows a method carried
out at a server back end of a shared feed reader. The server hosts
601, a shared feed reader and aggregates 602 web feeds subscribed
to by the multiple users of the shared feed reader. The feed reader
defines 603 a group of users between which web feeds subscribed to
by the users are shared and exposed to the other users. The feed
reader shares 604 a read status of a web feed post across the
group. The feed reader also generates 605 meta-posts relating to
user activities in the feed reader which are exposed as a meta-feed
606 on the feed reader. The feed reader displays 607 the meta-feeds
and meta-posts in a distinguished way from regular feeds and
posts.
[0111] This unique combination of social and collaborative features
creates a community environment that helps reducing information
overload from users and make their reading more effective. On the
one hand, they may rely on each other for filtering through
numerous irrelevant items; on the other hand, by recommendations
and collaborative coverage they may ensure they do not miss
important items. Coverage may be achieved by a single (relevant)
reader per post, the group as a whole can share the load of
filtering and thus save individual's time.
[0112] A goal of the described shared feed reader is to assist in
collaborative community coverage of shared feeds. By allowing the
users to expose their feed list and reading habits, the aim is to
transform the individual experience of feed reading into a more
collaborative one, harnessing the power of the community to ensure
users spend less time on the irrelevant items, while not missing
out on the important ones.
[0113] The shared feed reader has the aim of providing a feed
reading experience in a community, where people are familiar with
each other's interests, so they know when an item is of interest;
where trust already exists, so people can be trusted to let others
know of the item; and where intimacy is achieved, so people are
willing to share most of their reading habits. This scenario is
relevant either among close friends or in a professional setting
where reading habits are around a shared domain.
[0114] The invention can take the form of an entirely hardware
embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment
containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred
embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which
includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software,
microcode, etc.
[0115] The invention can take the form of a computer program
product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable
medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a
computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of
this description, a computer usable or computer readable medium can
be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate,
or transport the program for use by or in connection with the
instruction execution system, apparatus or device.
[0116] The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical,
electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or
device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable
medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic
tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM),
a read only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical
disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk read
only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk read/write (CD-R/W), and
DVD.
[0117] Improvements and modifications can be made to the foregoing
without departing from the scope of the present invention.
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