Method and user interfaces for monitoring, interpreting and visualizing communications between users

1. A computer implemented method for automatically finding a quantifiable measure of characteristics in a plurality of communications between a first correspondent and a second correspondent, the method comprising:

receiving metadata for each of the plurality of communications;

receiving digital content for each of the plurality of communications;

determining one or more measures of association between the first and second correspondent based upon the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents to automatically find the quantifiable measure of characteristics, wherein the one or more measures of association includes at least one of a measure of importance and a measure of closeness of a relationship between the first correspondent and the second correspondent, and said determining comprises identifying one or more indicators of association in said metadata and searching the digital content of the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents for indicators of association wherein the indicators of association include emotive content;

storing in memory the one or more measures of association between the first and second correspondents, the one or more measures of association based upon the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents;

determining a closeness score based on the one or more indicators of association in said metadata and the indicators of association in the digital content, wherein the closeness score indicates a closeness of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent; and

displaying at least one of the one or more measures of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent and the closeness score indicating a closeness of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent on a display.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of communications are received over a predetermined period of time.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of communications include any one or more of: a phone call, an email, and an electronic message.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicators of association include a frequency of communications between the first and second correspondent.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicators of association include one or more of: a ratio of inbound and outbound communications within the plurality of communications, a quantity of related communications within the plurality of communications, a size of a communication, a time of a communication, a ratio of inbound and outbound correspondence within a communication, a latency between related communications within the plurality of communications, a difference in timing of one of the plurality of communications relative to another of the plurality of communications, a quantity of correspondents associated with a communication, and a format of communication.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the emotive content includes one or more of: a sound of laughter, and an emoticon.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein, in the digital content, the indicators of association include at least one of: an external link, a meeting arrangement, an urgency indicator, or an indication to change communication means.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein, in the digital content the indicators of association include detectably informal content, said detectably informal content comprising one or more of: spelling errors, and humour flags.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein, in the digital content the indicators of association include content in more than one language.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining comprises calculating a score based on weighted sums of said indicators of association.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said score is further based on a weighted sum of quantity of content indicative of association.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein weighting is determined by machine learning.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining one or more measures of association between the first correspondent and each of a plurality of correspondents.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

retrieving from memory the one or more measures of association corresponding to each of the plurality of correspondents;

displaying on the display:

a base icon representative of the first correspondent; and

target icons corresponding to each of the plurality of correspondents, wherein the target icons are displayed with one or more attributes, each attribute being functionally dependent on one of the degrees of association of the corresponding correspondent.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the attribute is at least one of a distance of the target icon from the base icon, a size of the target icon, or a colour of the target icon.

16. A computer system for automatically finding a quantifiable measure of characteristics in a plurality of communications between a first correspondent and a second correspondent, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory comprising instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to:

receive metadata for each of the plurality of communications;

receive digital content for each of the plurality of communications;

determine one or more measures of association between the first and second correspondent based upon the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents to automatically find the quantifiable measure of characteristics, wherein the one or more measures of association includes at least one of a measure of importance and a measure of closeness of a relationship between the first correspondent and the second correspondent, and said determining comprises identifying one or more indicators of association in said metadata and search the digital content of the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents for content indicative of association, and wherein the content indicative of association includes emotive content;

store in memory the one or more measures of association between the first and second correspondents, the one or more measures of association based upon the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents;

determine a closeness score based on the one or more indicators of association in said metadata and the indicators of association in the digital content, wherein the closeness score indicates a closeness of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent; and

displaying at least one of the one or more measures of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent and the closeness score indicating a closeness of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent on a display.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium for automatically finding a quantifiable measure of characteristics in a plurality of communications between a first correspondent and a second correspondent, the non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon for implementing a method, the method comprising:

receiving metadata for each of the plurality of communications;

receiving digital content for each of the plurality of communications;

determining one or more measures of association between the first and second correspondent based upon the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents to automatically find the quantifiable measure of characteristics, wherein the one or more measures of association include at least one of a measure of importance and a measure of closeness of a relationship between the first correspondent and the second correspondent, and said determining comprises identifying one or more indicators of association in said metadata and searching the digital content of the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents for content indicative of association, and wherein the content indicative of association includes emotive content;

storing in memory the one or more measures of association between the first and second correspondents, the one or more measures of association based upon the plurality of communications between the first and second correspondents;

determining a closeness score based on the one or more indicators of association in said metadata and the indicators of association in the digital content, wherein the closeness score indicates a closeness of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent; and

displaying at least one of the one or more measures of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent and the closeness score indicating a closeness of association between the first correspondent and the second correspondent on a display.