Peer discovery and connection management based on context sensitive social networks

1. A method for responding to a networking request, comprising:

intercepting, by a network response mechanism, a network request from an initiating party on an initiating communication device sent to a recipient communication device of a user;

identifying the initiating party, the user, and a communication channel for the network request;

using a dynamic social network model to determine whether the initiating party is a contact of the user, the dynamic social network model characterizing a user's social network based on monitoring data automatically collected from network interactions of the user with contacts that the user communicates with over a network;

using the dynamic social network model to determine whether the communication channel for the network request matches a communication channel for a previous communication between the initiating party and the user; and

determining whether to grant the network request based on the determination of whether the initiating party is a contact of the user and the determination of whether the communication channel for the network request matches a communication channel for a previous communication between the initiating party and the user.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising automatically generating a response to the network request by:

denying the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is not a contact of the user;

granting the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is a contact of the user and the context for the network request matches a previous context for communication between the initiating party and the user; and

prompting the user to select whether to grant the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is a contact of the user and the context for the network request does not match a previous context for communication between the initiating party and the user.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

generating new dynamic communication information based on the response; and

sending the new dynamic communication information to a dynamic social network modeling mechanism to update the dynamic social network model of the user.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

monitoring communications between the user and one or more other users; and

updating the dynamic social network model based on the monitored communications;

wherein updating comprises storing context data that identifies communication channels used for communications between the user and other users, the communication channels comprising an instant message (IM) channel.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein

the monitoring communications includes:

identifying each of the other users;

observing communication activities between the user and each of the other users; and

extracting communication context information relevant to each of the communication activities;

and wherein the updating comprises:

recording communication context information relevant to the communication activities; and

modeling the social network of the user according to the identity and the recorded communication context information.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the communication context information includes:

channel data to identify a type of communication channel associated with a communication activity, the channel data to distinguish between at least two activity types from the group consisting of electronic mail (email), on-line chat, on-line calendar, and file transport communication activities; and

time data to identify a date and a time associated with the communication activity.

7. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:

classifying the contacts into one of three or more relationship categories, each relationship category corresponding to a different degree of closeness between the user and the contact.

8. A system for responding to a networking request, comprising:

a computer-readable medium containing a dynamic social network model to store data pertaining to a user, wherein the dynamic social network model includes communication information automatically collected while the user utilized a communication device to interact with other communication device users over a network; and

an automatic networking response mechanism to perform operations comprising:

receiving a network request sent from an initiating party to the communication device to establish a connection with the communication device;

identifying the initiating party, the user, and a communication channel for the network request;

using the dynamic social network model to determine whether the initiating party is a contact of the user;

using the dynamic social network model to determine whether the communication channel for the network request matches a communication channel for a previous communication between the initiating party and the user; and

automatically determining whether to grant the networking request based at least in part on the determination of whether the initiating party is a contact of the user and the determination of whether the communication channel for the network request matches a communication channel for a previous communication between the initiating party and the user.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the automatic networking response mechanism comprises:

a networking request receiver to intercept the networking request sent by the initiating party before reaching the communication device of the user;

an identifying mechanism to identify the identity of the initiating party;

a contact look-up mechanism to determine the status of the initiating party with respect to the dynamic social network of the user;

a context matching mechanism to determine whether a context under which the initiating party issues the networking request is permitted by the dynamic social network model; and

a social network sensitive responding mechanism to determine how to respond to the networking request based on the results from both the contact look-up mechanism and the context matching mechanism.

10. The system according to claim 8 , further comprising:

the automatic networking response mechanism operable to automatically generate a response to the network request by:

denying the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is not a contact of the user;

granting the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is a contact of the user and the context for the network request matches a previous context for communication between the initiating party and the user; and

prompting the user to select whether to grant the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is a contact of the user and the context for the network request does not match a previous context for communication between the initiating party and the user.

11. The system according to claim 10 , further comprising:

the automatic networking response mechanism operable to perform operations comprising:

generating new dynamic communication information based on the response; and

sending the new dynamic communication information to a dynamic social network modeling mechanism to update the dynamic social network model of the user.

12. The system according to claim 8 , further comprising:

the automatic networking response mechanism operable to perform operations comprising:

monitoring communications between the user and one or more other users; and

updating the dynamic social network model based on the monitored communications;

wherein updating comprises storing context data that identifies communication channels used for communications between the user and other users, the communication channels comprising an instant message (IM) channel.

13. The system according to claim 12 , wherein monitoring communications comprises:

identifying the other users involved in communication activities with the user; and

extracting communication context information relevant to the communication activities;

and wherein the updating comprises:

recording communication context information relevant to the communication activities; and

modeling the social network of the user according to the identity and the recorded communication context information.

14. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the dynamic social network model comprises:

channel data to identify a type of communication channel associated with a communication activity, the channel data to distinguish between at least two communication channel types from the group consisting of electronic mail (email), on-line chat, on-line calendar, and file transport communication channels.

15. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the dynamic social network model comprises:

relationship data to classify the contacts into one of three or more relationship categories, each relationship category corresponding to a different degree of closeness between the user and the contact.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a tangible, computer-readable medium; and

instructions in the medium which, when executed, perform operations comprising:

intercepting a network request from an initiating party on an initiating communication device, the network request addressed to a recipient communication device of a user;

identifying the initiating party, the user, and a communication channel for the network request;

using a dynamic social network model to determine whether the initiating party is a contact of the user, the dynamic social network model characterizing a user's social network based on monitoring data automatically collected from network interactions of the user with contacts that the user communicates with over a network;

using the dynamic social network model to determine whether the communication channel for the network request matches a communication channel for a previous communication between the initiating party and the user; and

determining whether to grant the network request based on the determination of whether the initiating party is a contact of the user and the determination of whether the communication channel for the network request matches a communication channel for a previous communication between the initiating party and the user.

17. An apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:

automatically generating a response to the network request by:

denying the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is not a contact of the user;

granting the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is a contact of the user and the context for the network request matches a previous context for communication between the initiating party and the user; and

prompting the user to select whether to grant the network request in response to a determination that the initiating party is a contact of the user and the context for the network request does not match a previous context for communication between the initiating party and the user.

18. An apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise:

generating new dynamic communication information based on the response; and

sending the new dynamic communication information to a dynamic social network modeling mechanism to update the dynamic social network model of the user.

19. An apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:

monitoring communications between the user and one or more other users; and

updating the dynamic social network model based on the monitored communications;

wherein updating comprises storing context data that identifies communication channels used for communications between the user and other users, the communication channels comprising an instant message (IM) channel.

20. An apparatus according to claim 19 , wherein monitoring communications comprises:

identifying the other users involved in communication activities with the user; and

extracting communication context information relevant to the communication activities;

and wherein the updating comprises:

recording communication context information relevant to the communication activities; and

modeling the social network of the user according to the identity and the recorded communication context information.

21. An apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:

updating the dynamic social network model with context data pertaining to communications between the user and one or more other users;

wherein the context data comprises channel data to identify a type of communication channel associated with a communication activity, the channel data to distinguish between at least two communication channel types from the group consisting of electronic mail (email), on-line chat, on-line calendar, and file transport communication channels.

22. An apparatus according to claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:

updating the dynamic social network model with context data pertaining to communications between the user and one or more other users;

wherein the context data comprises relationship data to classify the contacts into one of three or more relationship categories, each relationship category corresponding to a different degree of closeness between the user and the contact.