(54) METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR FINDING Publication Classi?cation CONNECTIONS AMONG SUBSCRIBERS TO AN CAMPAIGN (51) Int- Cl

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1 US A1 (19) United States (12) Patent Application Publication (10) Pub. No.: US 2014/ A1 Chestnut et al. (43) Pub. Date: Dec. 25, 2014 (54) METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR FINDING Publication Classi?cation CONNECTIONS AMONG SUBSCRIBERS TO (71) AN CAMPAIGN (51) Int- Cl G06Q 30/02 ( ) Applicant: Rocket Science LLC, Atlanta, GA (US) H04L 29/08 ( ) (52) US. Cl. (72) Inventors: Ben Chestnut, Atlanta, GA (U S); CPC..... G06Q 30/0201 ( ); H04L 67/22 Tyrick Christian, Atlanta, GA (U S); Eli (201301) Foreman, Foley, Atlanta, Avondale Estates, John GA (US); (57)... ABSTRACT.. ChadWiCk Morris Marietta GA (Us); Enc Muntz Atlanta GA (Us); Aaron walter Athens GA (Us) Methods and s stems to?nd connections amon subscribers to a particularyelectronic mail ( ) newslet%er. A list of addresses to an campaign is representative of the subscribers to newsletters that are sent as part of the (73) Assignee: Rocket Science LLC, Atlanta, GA (US) campaign by a SOUICQ A SUbSCI iber to a Particular newsletter may receive newsletter from other sources. A determination is made as to what other newsletters of (21) Appl' NO': 14/ each subscribers of the source receive from other sources. The other newsletters of each subscriber on the list of (22) Filed: Mar. 17, 2014 addresses of a source are compared to the other subscribers on the list of addresses. newsletters common to.. subscribers on the list of addresses are noted. The Related U's' Apphcatlon Data connections between/among subscribers on the list of (60) Provisional application No. 61/800,734,?led on Mar. addresses is determined. The weight of a connection may be 15, 2013, provisional application No. 61/801,043, determined. The connection information may be provided as?led on Mar. 15,2013. a service to the source r <~ 24 2" m \ 28 1% <55 \s \ S H as Q S Sig \ (v 61 Q \ o S S Q $3 12\-ER C.TAYLOR@EASTD LLON.EDU J~VERON CA.MARS@NEPTUNE.EDU , LORD.GRANTHAM@DOWNTONABBEY.CO.UK

2 Patent Application Publication Dec. 25, 2014 Sheet 1 0f2 US 2014/ A \-ER C.TAYLOR@EASTD LLON.EDU 14J~VERON CA.MARS@NEPTUNE.EDU 16j-LORD.GRANTHAM@DOWNTONABBEYCOUK FIG.1

3 Patent Application Publication Dec. 25, 2014 Sheet 2 0f 2 US 2014/ A1 %50 RECEIVE A LIST OF ADDRESSES FROM A CUSTOMER 52 (EACH ADDRESS REPRESENTING A SUBSCRIBER I TO NEWSLETTER FROM THE CUSTOMER) DETERMINE THE OTHER NEWSLETTERS, f 54 WHICH THE SUBSCRIBERS RECEIVE/ SUBSCRIBE INDICATE A SUBSCRIBER S SUBSCRIPTION TO EACH 1-56 OF THE OTHER NEWSLETTERS WITH A 1 INDICATE A LACK OF A SUBSCRIBER S SUBSCRIPTION TO EACH f58 OF THE OTHER NEWSLETTERS WITH A 0 DETERMINE CONNECTIONS AMONG SUBSCRIBERS V40 FIG. 2

4 US 2014/ A1 Dec. 25, 2014 METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR FINDING CONNECTIONS AMONG SUBSCRIBERS TO AN CAMPAIGN CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application claims priority to and ben e?t of the prior?led co-pending and commonly owned pro visional applications,?led in the United States Patent and Trademark Of?ce on Mar. 15, 2013, assigned Ser. No. 61/800, 734, and entitled Methods and Systems for Making Use of a Bounce Rate, and on Mar. 15, 2013, assigned Ser. No. 61/801, 043, and entitled Methods and Systems for Finding Targets for an Campaign. Both provisional applications are incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention relates to communications, and par ticularly, relates to electronic mail, and even more particu larly, relates to information that may be gleaned from data on campaigns. BACKGROUND [0003] A business may send out newsletters periodi cally to a list of addresses representing subscribers or recipients who have agreed to receive the newsletters. The business, however, may be in the dark about what may be done to expand its list of subscribers or to better mount its campaigns by way of advertising and marketing. SUMMARY [0004] Stated generally, the invention relates to?nding connections among subscribers to a particular electronic mail newsletter from a source, and to?nding the weight of the connections. A source of newsletters may be interested in the connections and weighted connections among its sub scribers to advance its own advertising and marketing efforts. A service provider that stores and has access to a lot of data about the source s campaigns as well as cam paigns of other sources may provide a connection determina tion service that may prove to be advantageous to the source. [0005] Other features and advantages of the invention may be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description and by reference to the appended drawings and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0006] FIG. 1 is a table illustrating an exemplary embodi ment of the invention. [0007] FIG. 2 is a?ow diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0008] The invention is described herein with reference to exemplary embodiments, alternative embodiments, and drawings. The invention, however, may be embodied in many different forms and carried out in a variety of ways that are not speci?cally described herein. For example, the invention may be practiced without many of the speci?c details provided herein. [0009] Well-known machines or processes have not been described herein in particular detail in order to avoid unnec essarily obscuring the invention. For example, reference may be made to Wood, United States Patent Publication US 2010/ , published Jun. 17, 2011 for information on an exemplary computer system. For information on the infra structure of ESPs, ISPs, and spam?lters see Wood, as well as Kuhlmann et al., United States Patent Publication US 2006/ , published Feb. 2, Both Wood and Kuhlmann et al., which are incorporated herein by reference. [0010] There are entities that have access to a lot of infor mation or data about communications. By the nature of the services it provides, an service provider (ESP) is such an entity. With regard to this invention, the term service provider refers to an entity that sends s such as newsletters on behalf of its customers and/or that facili tates marketing for customers. An ESP also may be referred to as an broadcast service provider or an ESP (marketing). Even though the exemplary embodiments are described with respect to an ESP, the invention is not to be limited to ESPs. [0011] An ESP has customers on whose behalf the ESP may conduct campaigns. An campaign is a ser vice that the ESP provides a customer generally in return for payment. As part of an campaign, the customer may provide the ESP with an communication such as an newsletter and a list of addresses to which the communication is to be sent. [0012] Through the course of conducting many cam paigns on behalf of many customers, an ESP may store and have ready access to a vast amount of data on cam paigns. Obviously, the ESP has information on the recipients of a particular customer s newsletterbased on the list of addresses for the recipients provided to the ESP by the customer. These recipients also may be referred to as sub scribers to the customer s newsletter. [0013] By an ESP having a lot of customers, each of which may send an newsletter to a lengthy list of address of subscribers, and including some customers which may send more than one newsletter, an ESP has a lot infor mation on subscribers to an ESP s customer s newslet ter. The information may relate to other subscriptions held by the customer s subscribers. The customer may be unaware of this information about its own subscribers or may not have access to it, etc. For example, an ESP may have a record that a subscriber receives newsletter A from customer Z, newsletter B from customery, and newsletter C from customer X. Typically, the customers Z, Y, and X do not have that information on the subscriptions of the subscriber. Yet, that information may be valuable to the customers Z, Y, and X. The information may show a customer trends among its subscribers, and show content with which its subscribers are engaged. The customer may use this information to better target its customers or proposed new customers, etc. [0014] Reference is made to FIG. 1, which is an exemplary table 10 with three rows 12, 14, 16. Each row includes an address for a subscriber to a customer s newsletter. The table 10 also includes seven columns 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28. Each column relates to an newsletter. In this example, the seven newsletters represent the newsletters the subscribers receive besides the newsletter of the ESP s customer. But not all subscribers receive the same newsletters. The table 10 includes a 1 in the square connecting a subscriber to an newsletter that the sub

5 US 2014/ A1 Dec. 25, 2014 scriber receives. The table 10 includes a 0 in the square connecting a subscriber to an newsletter to which the subscriber does not subscribe. [0015] The table 10 reveals the information that Veronica and Eric share three subscriptions, and Lord Grantham and Eric share two subscriptions. The shared subscriptions may provide the ESP s customer with insight and information regarding at least between the pairs of subscribers. [0016] Given that Veronica and Eric share more subscrip tions than Lord Grantham and Eric, the customer may deduce that Veronica and Eric have a closer connection than Lord Grantham and Eric. A close connection may be said to be weightier or have more weight than a connection that is not as close. The table 10, however, reveals information that may need to be taken into account when considering the weight of the connections between/ among the subscribers. The table 10 reveals that Veronica subscribes to all seven newslet ters. Thus, Veronica s apparent greater connection to Eric than Lord Grantham s connection to Eric may be cast into doubt, possibly because of the lack of discernment in Veroni ca s subscriptions to newsletters. There may be other examples of information that may need to be taken into account when considering the connections between/among subscribers. [0017] A method to handle instances such as Veronica s subscription to all newsletters is by calculation of a cosine similarity. For further information on the cosine simi larity calculation, please refer to wiki/cosine_similarity. [0018] The weight or closeness of the connection between Eric and Veronica is calculated by reference to their three shared subscriptions, the square root of Eric s total connec tions (square root of 3), and the square root ofveronica s total connections. The formula is 3 divided by the square root of 3><the square root or 7 or 3/sqrt(21) In other words, the closeness or weight of the connection between Veronica and Eric is Using the same formula, the closeness or weight of the connection between Lord Grantham and Eric is 2/sqrt (9):0.67. Despite having more subscriptions in common with Eric, Veronica s subscription to all of the newsletters results in a?nding that Lord Grantham and Eric have closer connection. [0019] If a customer of an ESP is provided with the results of the above-described analysis and calculations with respect to all of the recipients on the customer s list(s), the customer may glean interesting information. The customer may?nd little pockets or communities of subscribers who are different from the rest. The customer may adjust its advertising and marketing accordingly. [0020] FIG. 2 is a?ow diagram 30 re?ecting the actions described above in?nding connections among subscribers to a customer s newsletter. These actions may be carried out by an ESP as a service to its customer. In action 32, the ESP receives a list of addresses from a customer. Each address represents a subscriber to the newsletter of the customer. In action 34, the ESP may use its stored data on the subscribers in the address list to determine the other newsletters, which the subscribers receive or sub scribe to. A table may be constructed similar to the example of table 10 in FIG. 1 with rows for the addresses and columns for the other newsletters. For each address, in action 36, a 1 may be marked in the square that connects to an newsletter to which the subscriber asso ciated with the address subscribes. Also for each address, in action 38, a 0 may be marked in the square that connects to an newsletter to which the subscriber does not subscribe. In action 40, connections between/among the subscribers may be made. For example, the weight of a con nection between two subscribers may be determined by using the cosine similarity mentioned above. [0021] The construction of the table with l s and 0 s and the determination of the connections between/ among the sub scribers need not be literal. Rather, the table or its equivalent may be conducted by use of a formula, logic, etc., and/ or with the aid of a computer. [0022] Above, subscribers to one or more newsletters were used by way of example. The analysis and calculations relating to?nding connections and determining the weight of connections may be applied in other situations with other elements. [0023] Reference again is made to the customer of an ESP and the customer s newsletter subscribers. As noted, the customer may have thousands of subscribers for an newsletter. Also as noted, the customer may send out more than one newsletter. The large amount of information relating to the customer and its recipients is stored by the ESP. It may use the above analysis and calculations to detect pat terns in the connections between/among subscribers and to detect communities of subscribers having closer connections with each other than other subscribers. Investigation into a community of subscribers having closer connections with each other than other subscribers may reveal that the commu nity is made up of a type of subscriber. Information on the type of subscriber may be valuable to the customer of the ESP for advertising, marketing, etc. [0024] The information gained from the analysis and cal culations described above in connection with Table 1 may be used to create a graph of subscriber connections or distances. The graph may result in something like a network, web, or spider web where each subscriber is connected to every other subscriber at least by being a subscriber of the customer s newsletters. Nonetheless, there may be greater or closer connection between/among some subscribers. As the weight or closeness connection between/ among subscribers increases, the lines connecting the subscribers in the graph increase in thickness. Thus, the graph displays the weight of connections among subscribers of a customer. Advanta geously, the graph s spider web display may be more easily read and evaluated than using the analysis and calculations alone. [0025] The determination of connections between/among a customer s subscribers and/or the determination of the weights of the respective connections may provide an ESP with an opportunity to render another service to its customer. This service relates to providing the customer with informa tion on the newsletters the customer s subscribers receive other than the customer s own newsletters. [0026] For example, referring to table 10 in FIG. 1 again, the ESP may offer to provide the customer with the informa tion that Eric Taylor subscribes to TED Talks, wwo!, and Goop, that Veronica Mars subscribes to those three newsletters plus Gawker, Smashing Magazine, The Econo mist, and Ars Technica, and that Lord Grantham subscribes to woot! and Goop. The information about the other newsletter to which its subscribers subscribe may aid the ESP s cus tomer in its advertising and marketing efforts. [0027] There is another advantage, however, for the ESP s customer to receive information about other newslet

6 US 2014/ A1 Dec. 25, 2014 ters the customer s subscribers receive. That advantage is that the customer may look to form a business relationship with one or more of the other newsletter publishers. The customer may contact one or more of the publishers with the idea of linking to each other and growing their respective lists organically. [0028] A customer may authorize its ESP to share informa tion about its lists of addresses and/ or the news letters those respective lists receive. There may be situations, however, where a customer of an ESP does not want its list of addresses to be used to reveal the that the cus tomer sends to that list of addresses. Thus, this service may allow a customer to designate an address list and/ or the transmitted to the list to be private and not subject to further distribution. For example, a customer who is sending an internal company newsletter, a wedding invita tion, or a one-time prize noti?cation may not want the s containing such information further distributed. CONCLUSION [0029] The above-described embodiments have been pro vided by way of example and the present invention is not limited to these examples. Multiple variation and modi?ca tions to the disclosed embodiments will occur, to the extent not mutually exclusive, to those skilled in the art upon con sideration of the foregoing description. Such variations and modi?cations, however, may fall well within the scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. 1. A method to?nd connections among subscribers to a particular electronic mail ( ) newsletter, comprising: receive a list of addresses with each address representing a subscriber to the particular news letter; determine other newsletters to which the subscribers subscribe; determine total number of the other newsletters to which each subscriber subscribes; determine which of the other newsletters are com mon to each pair of the subscribers; determine number of the other newsletters common to the each pair of the subscribers; based on the number of the other newsletters in common among to the each pair of the subscribers, the total number of the other newsletters to which a?rst of the each pair of the subscribers subscribes, and the total number of the other newsletters to which a second of the each pair of the subscribers subscribes, determine the connections among the respective pairs of the subscribers to the particular newsletter, determine a weightiest connection of the connections among the respective pairs of the subscribers; determine weightiest connection newsletters from the other newsletters with the weightiest connec tion newsletters being associated with the weighti est connection of the connections; selectively display a page of each of the weightiest con nection newsletters. 2. (canceled) 3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the con nections among the subscribers to the particular news letters comprises using a cosine similarity function. 4. (canceled) 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior to the selectively display of the page of each of the weightiest connection newsletters, determining whether each of the weightiest connection news letters is public; and only selectively displaying the page of each of the public weightiest connection newsletters. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the other news letters to which the subscribers subscribe comprise other public newsletters. 7. A method for?nding business information for a cus tomer about subscribers to an newsletter: for each subscriber to the newsletter, determining subscriptions to other newsletters; for the subscribers, determining total number of the sub scriptions to the other newsletters; for each pair of subscribers to the newsletter, deter mining which of the other newsletters the pair has in common, and how many of the other newsletters the pair has in common as common number; for each pair of subscribers to the newsletter, deter mining a connection value between the pair by dividing numerator including the common number by denominator including square root of the total num ber of the subscriptions to the other newsletters of one of the pair of subscribers multiplied by square root of the total number of the subscriptions to the other publications of the other of the pair of subscribers; and from the connection values for each pair of subscribers, determining a weightiest connection value; determining the pair of subscribers having the weightiest connection value; determining the other newsletters the pair of sub scribers having the weightiest connection value have in common; and providing the customer with the business information on the other newsletters the pair of subscribers having the weightiest connection value have in common. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the sub scriptions to the other newsletters comprises determin ing the subscriptions to other public newsletters. 9. The method of claim 7, wherein providing the customer with the business information on the other newsletters the pair of subscribers having the weightiest connection value have in common comprises providing the customer with a display of at least part of the one or more of the other newsletters the pair of subscribers having the weightiest con nection value have in common. 10. In a system that stores information about cam paigners including the respective lists of addresses for each campaign of each campaigner, the newsletters for each campaign, and whether the newsletters are public or private, a method for providing an campaigner with information about common public newsletters between two addresses on a list of addresses of the campaigner, comprising: receiving an identi?cation of the list of addresses from the campaigner; determining number of newsletters sent to a?rst address on the list of addresses;

7 US 2014/ A1 Dec. 25, 2014 determining number of newsletters sent to a second address on the list of addresses; comparing the newsletters sent to the?rst address with the newsletters sent to the second address to?nd public newsletters common to both the?rst address and the second address; determining number of common public newsletters;?nding a connection value between the?rst address and the second address by using the number of newsletters sent to the?rst address, the number of newsletters sent to the second address, and number of the public newsletters common to both the?rst address and the second address; and presenting the connection value to the campaigner. 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: selectively displaying at least a part of each of the public newsletters common to both the?rst address and the second address. * * * * *