Methods and systems for enabling analysis of communication content while preserving confidentiality

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and systems for enabling analysis of communication content while preserving confidentiality. In one embodiment, communication content is processed to increase the similarity of superficially dissimilar instances of communication content and/or to increase the distinctiveness of superficially similar instances of communications content. In this embodiment at least part of the processed communication content is hashed to obscure the actual communication content. In one embodiment, social network analysis is performed on the communication content after hashing, and visualization of the social network analysis includes thread graphs and/or circular graphs.

1 . A method of visualizing a communication interaction between at least two social units, comprising:
 choosing a period of time;   selecting at least one entire text-renderable communication between at least two social units which occurred during the chosen period of time; and   visually indicating when during the chosen period of time at least one selected communication occurred and a direction of the communication.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one technique selected from a group comprising:
 visually demonstrating which visually indicated entire communications are included in same threads, and visually distinguishing a visually indicated entire communication which begins a new thread from a visually indicated entire communication which continues a thread.   
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the text-renderable communication is at least one of: a new communication and a reply communication. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 visualizing at least one time-based statistic of the at least one entire text-renderable communication.   
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 filtering the at least one entire text-renderable communication responsive to user-selected filters.   
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 filtering the at least two social units responsive to a user-selected threshold value.   
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a social unit is removed from display if it is associated with fewer text-renderable communications than the user-selected threshold value. 
   
   
       8 . A method of visualizing a social network, comprising:
 selecting information related to a social network to visualize; and   displaying a circular node representing a social unit with a radius whose length is reflective of the information.   
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 selecting other information related to the social network to visualize; and   visually indicating the information by one technique selected from a group comprising: color coding the node dependent on the information, color coding a link connecting the node with another node in the social network based on the information, shading the node dependent on the information, shading the link connecting the node with another node in the social network based on the information, choosing a line-type for the link based on the information, displaying the node at an angle whose measure depends on the information, and shading a range of angles based on the information.   
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the circular node is further displayed with an arc corresponding to the information. 
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the information is at least one of: frequency of communication, response time, semantic category, and communication volume. 
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the circular node represents at least one of: a social context, a communication pattern, and a social unit attribute within the social network. 
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 applying at least one of: a Box-Cox power transformation and an Affifi and Clark power transformation to minimize congestion in node distribution.   
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 automatically clustering a plurality of circular nodes in the social network based on similar social network characteristics.   
   
   
       15 . A system for visualizing a communication interaction, comprising:
 a processor, the processor configured to,
 select a period of time of communications between at least two social units, 
 select a text-renderable communication between the at least two social units which occurred during the selected period of time, and 
 visually indicate when during the chosen period of time the selected communication occurred and a direction of the selected communication. 
   
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 15 , further comprising at least one technique selected from a group comprising:
 visually demonstrating which visually indicated entire communications are included in same threads, and visually distinguishing a visually indicated entire communication which begins a new thread from a visually indicated entire communication which continues a thread.   
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the text-renderable communication is at least one of: a new text-renderable communication and a reply text-renderable communication. 
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 visualize at least one time-based statistic of the at least one entire text-renderable communication.   
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 15 , the processor further configured to
 filter the at least one entire text-renderable communication responsive to user-selected filters.   
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 15 , the processor further configured to
 filter the at least two social units responsive to user-selected threshold values, wherein a social unit is removed from display if it is associated with fewer text-renderable communications than a threshold value.