Personal data mining

A computer-implemented method of mining user related information, comprising the following computer-implemented acts:

• capturing, through a computer comprising a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, user-supplied personal information supplied by a plurality of users from a plurality of user devices communicatively coupled to the computer over a network;
• receiving, through the computer, third party-supplied personal information supplied by third parties from a plurality of third party data sources communicatively coupled to the computer over the network;
• merging, through the computer, the user-supplied personal information and the third party-supplied personal information into combined personal information for each of the plurality of users;
• normalizing, through the computer, the combined personal information from a plurality of disparate taxonomies into a single taxonomy;
• aggregating, through the computer, the normalized, combined personal information across the plurality of users at various levels of granularity;
• identifying, through the computer, at least one correlation amongst the aggregated, normalized, combined personal information;
• providing, through the computer, the at least one correlation to the plurality of users through the plurality of user devices;
• determining, through the computer, a user action based on the said correlation;
• determining, through the computer, a value of the user action based on said correlation;
• and
• notifying, through the computer, a user of the user action when the value of the user action is greater than the cost of interruption.

A computer implemented system for connecting users, comprising:

• means for capturing, through the computer implemented system comprising a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, user-supplied personal information supplied by a plurality of users from a plurality of privately accessible user devices communicatively coupled to the computer implemented system over a network, the user-supplied personal information comprising a subset of information defined by the plurality of users through the privately accessible user devices, the user-supplied personal information about the plurality of users, the user-supplied personal information comprising private personal information owned by the plurality of users;
• means for receiving, through the computer implemented system, third party-supplied personal information supplied by third parties from a plurality of publicly accessible third party data sources communicatively coupled to the computer-implemented system over the network, the third party-supplied personal information about the plurality of users, the third party-supplied personal information comprising public personal information that is publicly available;
• means for merging, through the computer implemented system, the user-supplied personal information and the third party-supplied personal information into combined personal information for each of the plurality of users;
• means for normalizing, through the computer implemented system, the combined personal information from a plurality of disparate taxonomies into a single taxonomy;
• means for aggregating, through the computer implemented system, the normalized, combined personal information across the plurality of users at various levels of granularity;
• means for mining, through the computer implemented system, the aggregated, normalized, combined personal information to identify correlations amongst the aggregated, normalized, combined personal information;
• means for determining, through the computer implemented system, user actions based on the identified correlations;
• means for determining, through the computer implemented system, a value of the user actions based on the identified correlations;
• and
• means for notifying, through the computer implemented system, a user of the user actions through the plurality of privately accessible user devices when the value of the user actions is greater than cost of interruption.