System for creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions

• US 20010047290A1
• Filed: 02/10/2001
• Published: 11/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quick Comments Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Involve Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Thompson, Craig P., Parham, Flori N., Petras, Gregory J., Zywicki, Jeffrey T., Thomas, Rachael A., Osborn, Cory, Mason, Andrew F., Riffel, Connie, Hill, Richard W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,143,089 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions about subjects, particularly exceptional experiences. Described is an Internet system assisting/motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings about which natural-language terms best describe a particular subject, enabling user searches of the subject database to be by way of preferred such descriptive natural-language terms, which terms are further preferred to be evaluative and approving.

Claims

1. A system for creating and maintaining information in a database of subjects, available to a population of users, comprising:

a) describing a database subject using a plurality of natural-language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to the subject according to an involved subset of such population of users;

b) rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject according to each of such involved subset of such population of users;

c) associating, in such database, such respective natural-language terms and respective degrees of relevance with each such database subject; and

d) computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject.

2. The system according to

claim 1

, further comprising:

a) associating with a particular user a set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms from such plurality of natural-language terms;

b) using such particular user'"'"'s preferred such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms, searching such database for database subjects associated with such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms;

c) determining a set of relevant such database subjects as are correlated with a high aggregate degree of relevance among such respective overall degrees of relevance of such set of respective particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms; and

d) presenting to such particular user information about such relevant database subjects.

3. The system according to

claim 1

further comprising:

a) presenting to a particular user information about a particular such database subject and such associated respective relevant natural-language terms with such respective overall degrees of relevance;

b) collecting, from such particular user, such particular user'"'"'s opinions about respective degrees of relevance to such particular database subject of such respective presented natural-language terms;

c) adding such particular user to such involved subset of such population of users and adding such particular user'"'"'s opinions to such database; and

d) updating, in association with such particular database subject, in such database, such overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms associated with such particular database subject.

4. The system according to

claim 2

further comprising:

a) presenting to a particular user information about a particular such database subject and such associated respective relevant natural-language terms with such respective overall degrees of relevance;

b) collecting, from such particular user, such particular user'"'"'s opinions about respective degrees of relevance to such particular database subject of such respective presented natural-language terms;

c) adding such particular user to such involved subset of such population of users and adding such particular user'"'"'s opinions to such database; and

d) updating, in association with such particular database subject, in such database, such overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms associated with such particular database subject.

5. The system according to

claim 4

further comprising:

a) providing a software management system to directly manage such database and such population of users essentially without outside management; and

b) providing for variables in such software management system to be configurable without affecting such direct management operations;

c) wherein such software management system comprises;

i) soliciting of sufficient information from such users for automatic role qualification enhancing software selection and maintenance of a management sub-community;

ii) measuring management efforts of each of such management sub-community;

iii) queing of qualified users for a next opening in such management sub-community;

iv) setting of goals for each of such management community; and

v) managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community.

6. The system according to

claim 1

further comprising:

a) collecting, from each user of such involved subset of such population of users, information about such user'"'"'s knowledge of and experience with such database subject;

b) assessing, based at least in part upon such information, a relative weight to be given to such user'"'"'s opinions about such database subject; and

c) for the purposes of computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject, applying a respective such relative weight for each respective such user'"'"'s such rating of such degree of relevance in such manner that a more-knowledgable such user'"'"'s such rating counts for more in such “

overall”

computing than does a less-knowledgable such user'"'"'s such rating.

7. The system according to

claim 6

further comprising:

a) determining first such user'"'"'s role as member or contributor;

b) assigning a multiplier-value based on such first determining;

c) determining second whether such user has personally experienced the subject;

d) assigning a multiplier-value based on such second determining;

e) determining third such user'"'"'s self-reported qualification to judge such subject;

f) assigning a multiplier-value based on such third determining;

g) determining fourth other users'"'"' overall ratings of subjects added by such user;

h) assigning a multiplier-value based on such fourth determining;

i) determining fifth other users'"'"' degree of agreements with comments added by such user;

j) assigning a multiplier-value based on such fifth determining; and

k) multiplying together all such multiplier-values to determine such relative weight.

8. The system according to

claim 1

further comprising:

a) rating the relative overall value of each such database subject according to the opinion of each of such involved subset of such population of users;

b) collecting comments about each such database subject according to the opinion of each of such involved subset of such population of users; and

c) associating, in such database, respective such ratings of relative overall value and respective such collected comments with respective such database subjects.

9. The system according to

claim 3

further comprising:

a) accumulating, storing, and analyzing all associations, including subject categorizations, of all such overall degrees of relevance of all of such plurality of natural-language terms associated with all such database subjects;

b) determining preferred such natural-language terms, according to such population of users, for selected categories of subjects.

10. The system according to

claim 2

wherein such determining a set of relevant such database subjects as are correlated with a high aggregate degree of relevance among such respective overall degrees of relevance of such set of respective particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms comprises determining an ordered set of relevant such database subjects as are correlated with a highest aggregate degree of relevance among such respective overall degrees of relevance of such set of respective particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms.

11. The system according to

claim 10

wherein such presenting to such particular user information about such relevant database subjects includes presenting to such particular user an ordered set of relevant such database subjects as are correlated with a highest aggregate degree of relevance among such respective overall degrees of relevance of such set of respective particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms.

37. A system as in any one of claims 1-36 in which such subjects consist essentially of exceptional experiences.

38. A system as in any one of claims 1-36 in which such natural-language terms are essentially evaluative.

39. A system as in any one of claims 1-36 in which such natural-language terms are essentially evaluative and essentially indicate approval.

40. A system as in any one of claims 1-36 in which:

a) such subjects consist essentially of exceptional experiences; and

b) such natural-language terms are essentially evaluative.

41. A system as in any one of claims 1-36 in which:

a) such subjects consist essentially of exceptional experiences; and

b) such natural-language terms are essentially evaluative and essentially indicate approval.

12. An Internet website client-server computer system, for use to determine a level of subject interest for each one of a population of users by capturing other users'"'"' (of such population of users) opinions about the degree of relevance of each of a respective set of natural language descriptive terms to each of a respective set of subjects, comprising:

a) a server database system of subjects, each associated with a set of relevant natural-language terms for describing each such subject;

i) wherein each of a respective subset of such terms has been assigned, by each of a subpopulation of such population of users, a degree of relevance with respect to a respective such subject;

b) a client interface system arranged so that such one user may select a set of preferred such natural-language terms which, to such one user, best describe preferred “

subjects of interest”

to such one user;

c) a server computer processor system connected with said server database system and said client interface system; and

d) a server computer software system, operational with said server computer processor system, arranged to provide search processing using such server database system to;

i) determine an overall, according to such population of users, degree of relevance of each such preferred natural-language term to each such associated subject of such server database system, and

ii) determine a set of search-return “

subjects of interest”

each having at least a specified aggregate degree of relevance considering each such overall degree of relevance of each such preferred natural-language descriptive term to each associated such subject; and

iii) return such set of search-return “

subjects of interest”

to such client interface system of such one user.

13. The system according to

claim 12

wherein such set of search-return “

subjects of interest”

is ordered according to relative such aggregate degree of relevance.

14. A business system, for a developer of web computer systems of the type involving supporting a community of users searching for particular subject information, to achieve additional revenue from customers using such computer systems, comprising the steps of:

a) providing for such computer systems to operate essentially without customer website management;

b) providing for such computer systems to directly motivate and automatically manage the direct collection of sponsor revenue from respective entities desiring to sponsor a respective particular item of such subject information; and

c) charging such customer, for use of such computer systems, an amount comprising a portion of such sponsor revenue.

15. The business system according to

claim 14

wherein such particular item of such subject information comprises an exceptional user experience, thereby motivating location-based such entities and a product-based such entities to paying for a plurality of sponsorships.

16. A business system, for a developer, for use by customers having websites, of web computer systems of the type involving supporting a community of users interacting with a database searching for particular subject information, comprising:

a) providing for such computer systems to comprise software management systems to directly manage such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management; and

b) providing for variables in such software management systems to be configurable by such customer without affecting such direct management operations;

c) wherein such software management systems comprise;

i) soliciting of sufficient information from users for automatic role qualification enhancing software selection and maintenance of a management sub-community;

ii) measuring management efforts of each of such management sub-community;

iii) queing of qualified users for a next opening in such management sub-community;

iv) setting of goals for each of such management community; and

v) managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community.

17. A business system, supplied by a developer, for use by customers having websites comprising web server computer systems of the type involving supporting a community of users, having client computer systems, interacting with a database searching for particular subject information, comprising providing, for website use:

a) computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management; and

b) computer software means for permitting such customer to configure a large set of variables in such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users without affecting full operation of such direct automatic management;

c) wherein such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management comprises;

i) computer software means for soliciting of sufficient information from such users for automatic role qualification enhancing automatic selection and automatic maintenance of a management sub-community;

ii) computer software means for automatically measuring management efforts of each of such management sub-community;

iii) computer software means for automatically providing queing of qualified users for a next opening in such management sub-community;

iv) computer software means for automatic setting of goals for each of such management community; and

v) computer software means for automatically managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community.

18. The business system according to

claim 17

, wherein such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management further comprises:

a) computer software means for describing a database subject using a plurality of natural-language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to such subject according to an involved subset of such community of users;

b) computer software means for rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject according to each of such involved subset of such community of users;

c) computer software means for associating, in such database, each respective natural-language term of each such plurality of natural-language terms and such associated respective degree of relevance with each such database subject; and

d) computer software means for computing, for such involved subset of such community of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject.

19. The business system according to

claim 17

, wherein such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management further comprises:

a) computer software means for automatically assisting such management sub-community to solicit subject sponsors; and

b) computer software means to permit such subject sponsors automatically to send website materials and pay fees.

20. The business system according to

claim 17

, wherein such computer software means for automatically managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community comprises:

a) a computer software system for measuring and storing each contribution, including users'"'"' comments, to the database of each of such management sub-community; and

b) making available to each of such management sub-community a contributor record of how many views other users have made of such contributions, including how many users agreed with such contributor'"'"'s comments.

21. The business system of

claim 20

wherein such contributor record is associated with the phrase, “

lives touched”

.

22. The business system according to

claim 17

wherein such computer software means for automatically managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community comprises a computer software system configurable to automatically allocate percentage rewards to a particular one of such management sub-community as a percentage of a settable pool.

23. The business system according to

claim 22

wherein such percentage rewards from such pool may be paid only to a settable percentage of such management sub-community.

24. The business system according to

claim 17

wherein such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management further comprises:

a) computer software means for automatically aggregating all user-proposed items for database adds, changes, and deletions into a review queue to which such management sub-community has access; and

b) computer software means for automatically requiring at least one of such management sub-community to review and approve any such item before website publication is implemented.

25. The business system according to

claim 24

, wherein:

a) such review queue is multi-level based essentially on item “

aging”

; and

b) escalating rewards are offered to at least a set of such management sub-community for disposal of “

older”

items.

26. The business system according to

claim 25

wherein such computer software means for automatically managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community comprises a computer software system wherein each of such management community may be motivated to perform highly specific actions to further business objectives of such business system by automatically awarding more or less rewards for specific actions to influence behavior.

27. The business system according to

claim 25

wherein such computer software means for automatically managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community may be configured “

on the fly”

.

28. A business system, supplied by a developer, for use by customers having websites comprising web server computer systems of the type involving supporting a community of users, having client computer systems, interacting with a database searching for particular subject information, comprising providing, for website use:

a) computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management; and

b) computer software means for permitting such customer to configure a large set of variables in such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users without affecting full operation of such direct automatic management;

c) wherein such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management comprises;

i) computer software means for soliciting of sufficient information from such users for automatic role qualification enhancing automatic selection and automatic maintenance of a management sub-community;

ii) computer software means for automatically measuring management efforts of each of such management sub-community;

iii) computer software means for automatically providing queing of qualified users for a next opening in such management sub-community;

iv) computer software means for automatic setting of goals for each of such management community;

v) computer software means for automatically managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community;

vi) computer software means for automatically assisting such management sub-community to solicit subject sponsors; and

vii) computer software means to permit such subject sponsors automatically to send website materials and pay fees;

viii) computer software means for automatically aggregating all user-proposed items for database adds, changes, and deletions into a review queue to which such management sub-community has access; and

ix) computer software means for automatically requiring at least one of such management sub-community to review and approve any such item before website publication is implemented;

x) wherein;

(1) such review queue is multi-level based essentially on item “

aging”

; and

(2) escalating rewards are offered to at least a set of such management sub-community for disposal of “

older”

items;

xi) wherein such computer software means for automatically managing a reward system to reward management efforts of each of such management sub-community comprises a computer software system configurable to automatically allocate percentage rewards to a particular one of such management sub-community as a percentage of a settable pool; and

xii) wherein such percentage rewards from such pool may be paid only to a settable percentage of such management sub-community.

29. The business system according to

claim 28

wherein such computer software means for direct automatic management of such database and such community of users essentially without customer website management further comprises:

a) computer software means for describing a database subject using a plurality of natural-language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to such subject according to an involved subset of such community of users;

b) computer software means for rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject according to each of such involved subset of such community of users;

c) computer software means for associating, in such database, each respective natural-language term of each such plurality of natural-language terms and such associated respective degree of relevance with each such database subject; and

d) computer software means for computing, for such involved subset of such community of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject.

30. A computer system, usable by a large population of Internet users, for creating and maintaining information in a searchable database of defined categories of subjects, comprising, in combination:

a) storage means for storing a large corpus of natural language terms for describing such subjects;

b) relevancy storage means for storing, associated with each such defined category, at least a respective subset of such terms most relevant, according to said population, to such subject within such respective defined category;

c) processing means for updating such relevancy storage means;

d) processing means for presenting to one such user, in association with one such subject, a plurality of such terms most relevant to such subject;

e) interface processing means for assisting such user to choose from such plurality of such presented terms a plurality of such-user-preferred most-relevant such terms to such subject;

f) interface processing means for assisting such user to rate on a predefined scale the relative degree of relevance of each such most-relevant term to such one subject;

g) storage means for storing such respective ratings of such respective most-relevant terms for such respective subject according to each of a subpopulation of such respective users;

h) processing means for computing, for such subpopulation, a preselected type of overall degree of relevance to each respective such subject of each respective such most-relevant term;

i) interface processing means for assisting a particular user to base a subject search at least upon a chosen set of particular-user-preferred such natural language terms;

j) processing means for, using such particular user'"'"'s preferred such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms, searching such database for database subjects associated with such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms;

k) processing means for determining a set of relevant such database subjects as are correlated with a determined specified high aggregate degree of relevance among such respective overall degrees of relevance of such set of respective particular-user-preferred such natural-language terms; and

l) interface processing means for presenting to such particular user information about such determined set of such relevant database subjects which might be of interest to such particular user.

31. The system according to

claim 30

wherein such predefined scale, for a system for which English is the natural language comprises essentially at least three of the following levels of modifiers:

“

slight”

, “

somewhat”

, “

important”

, “

very”

, “

extremely”

.

32. The system according to

claim 30

wherein such processing means for computing, for such subpopulation, a preselected type of overall degree of relevance to each respective such subject of each respective such most-relevant term comprises:

a) a storage means for dating each such user ratings of

b) such degree of relevance of such natural-language term; and

b) a processing means for removing such user ratings of more than a selected age from being used in such computing of such overall degree of relevance.

33. The system according to

claim 30

wherein such processing means for updating such relevancy storage means comprises:

a) determine which of such natural-language terms have been used most in such defined category—

as top words;

b) determine percentage breakdown of top words by first alphabet letter of all such natural-language terms in such defined category;

c) find the selected number of such natural-language terms to be displayed in each display process;

d) for each set of first-alphabet-letter words and each such selected number, grab the specified percentage of top words; and

e) applying the above four steps once each selected timeframe to update such relevancy storage means.

34. The system according to

claim 30

wherein such interface processing means for assisting a particular user to base a subject search at least upon a chosen set of particular-user-preferred such natural language terms further comprises:

a) interface processing means for assisting such particular user to select other search options on which to co-base such subject search;

b) wherein such other search options are selected from the class which consists essentially of

i) a defined category of subjects

ii) a defined subcategory of subjects

iii) a defined location of subjects

iv) a defined subject

v) a defined organization name

vi) a defined sum of money to spend

vii) a defined amount of time to spend.

35. An Internet website client-server computer system, for use to determine by e-mail survey a level of subject approval for each one of a population of survey participants by capturing each such participant'"'"'s opinions about the degree of relevance of each of a respective set of natural language terms to each of a respective set of subjects, comprising:

a) a client interface system arranged so that a survey taker may indicate at least;

i) a defined question for the survey,

ii) a such set of subjects to be evaluated,

iii) a such set of natural-language terms to be rated as to relevancy to each subject,

iv) a participant audience, and

v) a time-frame for response;

b) a server computer processor system connected with said client interface system; and

c) a server computer software system, operational with said server computer processor system, arranged to provide survey processing comprising;

i) compiling a survey file and survey document in accordance with survey taker input,

ii) communicating such survey document to such participant audience, and

iii) receiving and tabulating responses.

36. The system according to

claim 36

further comprising displaying survey results at a publicized URL.