Real-time social networking - Social networking within an organization (SAP) - Patent Application - PRIOR ART REQUEST

Question

AN OVERBROAD PATENT ON exploring social connections from an in-memory database - This application from SAP seeks to patent the idea of...Identifying an attribute in a profile associated with a first user, executing a query including the identified attribute, and identifying a second user based on the query! 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on twitter to help.

QUESTION - Have you seen anything that was published before 12/5/2011 that discusses:

• Implementing social networking based on data objects in an in-memory database

If so, please submit evidence of prior art as an answer to this question. We welcome multiple answers from the same individual.

EXTRA CREDIT - Examples of attributes may include contact information, expertise, past projects, current projects, manager, supervisor etc. Data objects may include a variety of objects that store business data, reference data from content sources, such as web content, feeds, REST services, business data repositories, reports, status updates, discussions, wikis, blogs etc.

TITLE: Identifying social networks within an organization based on business data of the organization stored in an in-memory database

Summary: [Translated from Legalese into English] Identifying an attribute in a profile associated with a first user, executing a query including the identified attribute against data objects stored in an in-memory database, identifying a second user from the results of query based on a relationship between data objects associated with the second user and the attribute of the first user, and displaying information of the second user.

• Publication Number: US 20130144957 A1
• Application Number: US 13/310,913
• Assignee: SAP
• Prior Art Date: Seeking prior Art predating 12/5/2011
• Link to Google Prior Art Search - "Find Prior Art"

Claim 1 requires each and every step below:

A computer-implemented method performed with a computing system for exploring social connections in an in-memory database, the method comprising:

1. Identifying a user profile associated with a first user;

2. Identifying one or more updates to one or more attributes of the user profile

3. Updating, in real-time, the user profile, based on the one or more updates, as the one or more updates are identified;

4. Identifying a particular attribute of the one or more attributes in the updated user profile that is associated with the first user;

5. Executing a query against a data element stored in an in-memory database, the query including the particular attribute in the updated user profile;

6. Identifying a second user from results of the query, the second user associated with the data element based on a relationship between the second user and the first user defined by the attribute; and

7. Generating displayable information associated with the second user.

In English this means:

A method for exploring social connections in an in-memory database, comprising:

1. Identifying the profile of a first user;

2. Identifying updates to the first user profile;

3. Updating the user profile based on the updates;

4. Identifying a particular attribute of the updated profile and executing a a database query (in an in-memory database) for the particular attribute;

5. Identifying a second user based on a relationship between data objects associated with the second user and the first user defined by the particular attribute; and

6. Displaying information related to the second user.

Good prior art would be evidence of a system that did each and every one of these steps prior to 12/5/2011

You're probably aware of ten pieces of art that meet this criteria already... separately, the applicant is claiming Data sources from various enterprise systems are replicated to the in-memory database before executing the query against the data element stored in the in-memory database.

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"Exploring social connections from an in-memory database" from the Applicant

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What is good prior art? Please see our FAQ.

Want to help? Please vote or comment on submissions below. We welcome you to post your own request for prior art on other questionable US Patent Applications.

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Answer 1

As I said in my comment, there were dozens of applications with similar user facing functionality long before 2011. If what is important is that it is in memory and that the data is a cube, I will say that way back in 1992 the social network analysis software UCINet could do 2-Mode network analysis in DOS. 2-Mode analysis means that there are nodes of two types (like individuals and projects). It can handle multiple networks and does profile similarity analysis too. https://sites.google.com/site/ucinetsoftware/history, http://www.analytictech.com/

Answer 2

http://www.mcobject.com/November10/2008 "In-Memory Database Scales Massively For Social Networking Web Site"

http://users.dcc.uchile.cl/~cgutierr/ftp/sunbelt.pdf "A Database Perspective of Social Network Analysis Data Processing"

http://www.itworld.com/article/2759107/enterprise-software/how-social-networking-works.html "How Social Networking Works" refers to Memcached users - Twitter, Facebook

Answer 3

This patent is limited to in-memory databases. That can be argued to be relatively new, however moving an existing idea into using newer technology (like in-memory databases) lacks novelty (ie, inventive step) required for issuing a patent. As stated in Wikipedia you cannot get a patent for "claimed subject matter [that] was actually not new, or was obvious to the person skilled in the art, at the time the application was filed".