Facilitating user relationships to organizations in a social graph

1. A method comprising:

allowing a user to select a first organization tracked by a system for social networking, wherein the system comprises a social graph including:

a plurality of nodes of a first type, referred to as system-provided nodes, wherein system-provided nodes represent entities tracked by the system and include information gathered by the system;

a plurality of nodes of a second type, different from the first type of node and referred to as ghost nodes, wherein ghost nodes represent entities created for users of the system and include information specified by users of the system;

a plurality of edges of a first type, referred to as system-provided edges, wherein system-provided edges represent relationships categorized by at least one concept category of the system between two different system-provided nodes of the social graph; and

a plurality of edges of a second type, different from the first type of edge and referred to as ghost edges, wherein each ghost edge represents relationships between a system-provided node and a ghost node of the social graph, and information on the relationships are specified by users of the system;

using at least one electronic processor, maintaining the social graph comprising:

allowing a plurality of system-provided nodes of the social graph to be directly coupled to other system-provided nodes by system-provided edges, wherein system-provided nodes and system-provided edges include information gathered by the system;

allowing a plurality of ghost nodes of the social graph to be directly coupled to system-provided nodes by ghost edges, wherein ghost edges include information specified by users of the system;

disallowing a plurality of ghost nodes from being directly coupled to other ghost nodes or to system-provided nodes using system-provided edges; and

disallowing a plurality of system-provided nodes from being directly coupled to other system-provided nodes using ghost edges;

representing the user as a first ghost node of the social graph, wherein the first ghost node and any ghost edges coupled to first ghost node are visible to the user and not to other users;

allowing the user to specify a relationship to the first organization tracked by the system;

coupling in the social graph the first ghost node with the first organization in the social graph based on the relationship specified by the user;

aggregating a list of persons connected to the first organization in the system, wherein each person of the list of persons are not directly coupled to the user in the system;

formatting the list of persons according to a strength of each person in the list of persons with the user; and

displaying the formatted list of persons.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregating a list of persons comprises identifying a first person the user has in common with persons in the list of persons.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregating a list of persons comprises identifying an organization the user has in common with persons in the list of persons.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregating a list of persons comprises identifying an interest the user has in common with persons in the list of persons.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the displaying the formatted list of persons comprises displaying the interest.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the interest is a business interest.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the interest is a non-profit interest.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the interest is a hobby.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the strength of each person in the list of persons with the user is sorted by a category of strength with the user.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the formatting the list of persons comprises:

determining a first strength in a first category of strength for a first person in the list of persons; and

determining a second strength in a second category of strength for the first person in the list of persons.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the first organization is a non-profit organization.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the maintaining the social graph further comprises:

receiving unfiltered information from an on-line source;

filtering the unfiltered information to obtain filtered information on entities;

retrieving a plurality of ontology data structures, wherein each ontology data structure of the plurality of ontology data structures include a method of representing a relationship in an unstructured data format to a data format of the social graph, wherein the data format of the social graph comprises entities represented by at least one system-provided edge and at least two system-provided nodes;

selecting ontology data structures from the plurality of ontology data structures to represent the filtered information on entities; and

creating system-provided nodes and system-provided edges in the social graph to represented the filtered information on entities based on the selected ontology data structures.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the coupling in the social graph the first ghost node with the first organization in the social graph based on the relationship specified by the user comprises coupling in the social graph the first ghost node and the first organization by at least one degree of separation.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the coupling in the social graph the first ghost node with the first organization in the social graph based on the relationship specified by the user comprises directly coupling in the social graph the first ghost node and the first organization.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the first ghost node is directly coupled by a ghost edge to the first or second system-provided nodes.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the information specified by users of the system includes information gathered from the users by the system.

17. A method comprising:

allowing a user to select a first organization tracked by a system, wherein the system comprises a social graph including:

a plurality of nodes of a first type, referred to as system-provided nodes, wherein system-provided nodes represent entities tracked by the system and include information gathered by the system;

a plurality of nodes of a second type, different from the first type of node and referred to as ghost nodes, wherein ghost nodes represent entities created for users of the system and include information specified by users of the system;

a plurality of edges of a first type, referred to as system-provided edges, wherein system-provided edges represent relationships categorized by at least one concept category of the system between two different system-provided nodes of the social graph; and

a plurality of edges of a second type, different from the first type of edge and referred to as ghost edges, wherein each ghost edge represents relationships between a system-provided node and a ghost node of the social graph, and information on the relationships are specified by users of the system;

allowing each ghost node and any ghost edge directly coupled to that ghost node to be visible to the user and not to others users of the system;

using at least one electronic processor, maintaining the social graph comprising:

allowing a plurality of system-provided nodes of the social graph to be directly coupled to other system-provided nodes by system-provided edges, wherein system-provided nodes and system-provided edges include information gathered by the system;

allowing a plurality of ghost nodes of the social graph to be directly coupled to system-provided nodes by ghost edges, wherein ghost edges include information specified by users of the system;

disallowing a plurality of ghost nodes from being directly coupled to other ghost nodes or to system-provided nodes using system-provided edges; and

disallowing a plurality of system-provided nodes from being directly coupled to other system-provided nodes using ghost edges;

representing the user as a first ghost node of the social graph;

allowing the user to specify a relationship to the first organization tracked by the system;

coupling in the social graph the first ghost node with the first organization in the social graph based on the relationship specified by the user;

aggregating a list of persons connected to the first organization in the system wherein each person of the list of persons are not directly coupled to the user in the system;

formatting the list of persons according to a strength of each person in the list of persons with the user, wherein the strength of each person in the list of persons with the user is based on a plurality of categories of strength; and

displaying the formatted list of persons.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein a first category of strength is a person the user has in common with a person from the list of persons.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein a second category of strength is an organization the user has in common with a person from the list of persons.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein a third category of strength is an interest the user has in common with a person from the list of persons.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein each ghost edge of the social graph is directly coupled to at most one ghost node.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein each ghost node of the social graph is one-degree of separation from at least one system-provided node of the social graph.

23. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

disallowing system-provided edges from directly coupling two ghost nodes; and

disallowing ghost edges from directly coupling two ghost nodes or two system-provided nodes.

24. A method comprising:

allowing a user to select a first organization tracked by a system;

aggregating a list of persons connected to the first organization in the system, wherein each person of the list of persons are not directly coupled to the user in the system comprises a social graph including:

a plurality of nodes of a first type, referred to as system-provided nodes, wherein system-provided nodes represent entities tracked by the system and include information gathered by the system;

a plurality of nodes of a second type, different from the first type of node and referred to as ghost nodes, wherein ghost nodes represent entities created for users of the system and include information specified by users of the system;

a plurality of edges of a first type, referred to as system-provided edges, wherein system-provided edges represent relationships categorized by at least one concept category of the system between two different system-provided nodes of the social graph; and

a plurality of edges of a second type, different from the first type of edge and referred to as ghost edges, wherein each ghost edge represents relationships between a system-provided node and a ghost node of the social graph, and information on the relationships are specified by users of the system;

representing the user as a first ghost node, wherein the first ghost node and any ghost edges coupled to first ghost node are visible to the user and not to other users;

using at least one electronic processor, maintaining the social graph comprising:

allowing a plurality of system-provided nodes of the social graph to be directly coupled to other system-provided nodes by system-provided edges, wherein system-provided nodes and system-provided edges include information gathered by the system;

allowing a plurality of ghost nodes of the social graph to be directly coupled to system-provided nodes by ghost edges, wherein ghost edges include information specified by users of the system;

disallowing a plurality of ghost nodes from being directly coupled to other ghost nodes or to system-provided nodes using system-provided edges; and

disallowing a plurality of system-provided nodes from being directly coupled to other system-provided nodes using ghost edges;

representing the user as a first ghost node of the social graph;

allowing the user to specify a relationship to the first organization tracked by the system;

coupling in the social graph the first ghost node with the first organization in the social graph based on the relationship specified by the user;

sorting the list of persons according to a strength of each person in the list of persons with the user; and

displaying the sorted list of persons.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the sorted list is based on an interest the user has in common with a person from the list of persons.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the interest is a sector of industry.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the interest is a geographical region.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein the first user is allowed to modify information associated with the first ghost node and disallowed to modify information associated with a first system-provided node representing the first organization.

29. The method of claim 24 wherein each ghost edge of the social graph is directly coupled to at least one ghost node.

30. The method of claim 24 wherein each ghost edge of the social graph is directly coupled to at most one system-provided node.