Federated Voting With Criteria-Based Discrimination

• US 20080087729A1
• Filed: 10/17/2006
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Guday, Shai, Yee, Dawson, Abel, Miller Thomas, Forbes, Scott C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,887,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/386
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus

Abstract

Technology for use with computing devices, particularly mobile devices and wireless networks supporting federation, enabling people, devices, systems, or the like to join together in electronic federations for purposes of voting or the like. The votes in such voting situations may be weighted based on various criteria associated with the voter, the subject of the vote, and/or other criteria relevant to the voting scenario. The technology also enables users to monitor a voting scenario in real-time and tailor their own voting or decisions or the like to the scenario, even as it unfolds.

Claims

1. A method for federated voting with criteria-based discrimination, the method comprising:

attempting registration of a voter for a voting scenario via a device of a federation of devices;

discriminating the registration attempt using registration criteria, the registration attempt being successful only if the registration criteria are met; and

if the registration attempt is approved,

registering the voter via the device of a federation of devices for the voting scenario, and

registering the presence of the voter for the voting scenario.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accepting a vote from the voter via any device of the federation of devices;

discriminating the vote using weighting criteria, forming a discriminated vote; and

applying the discriminated vote to the voting scenario.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

receiving a request to withdraw the vote; and

discriminating the request to withdraw the vote using withdrawal criteria, the request to withdraw the vote being approved only if the withdrawal criteria are met; and

if the request to withdraw the vote is approved, canceling the discriminated vote from the voting scenario.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the registration criteria is used to discriminate based on at least one of a voter identify, authentication, association, and characteristic.

5. The method of claim 1 embodied as device-executable instructions stored on device-readable media.

6. A federated voting system comprising:

a voting scenario manager including a voting scenario list;

a registration manager operable to register a potential voter for a voting scenario in the voting scenario list, the potential voter being considered a registered voter once registered; and

a vote manager operable to provide a ballot to the registered voter and accept a vote from the registered voter, the vote associated with the ballot.

7. The system of claim 6 further comprising registration criteria usable in combination with a voter profile of the potential voter to discriminate the potential voter in determining whether or not to register the potential voter.

8. The system of claim 6 further comprising weighting criteria usable in combination with a voter profile of the registered voter to weight a vote from the registered voter.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein a user monitors voting progress via a device in real-time.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the user meets monitoring criteria.

11. The system of claim 6 further comprising withdrawal criteria usable in combination with a voter profile of the registered voter to discriminate the registered voter in determining whether or not to withdraw a vote.

12. The system of claim 6 wherein the voting scenario manager provides voting scenarios to the potential voter.

13. The system of claim 6 wherein the registration manager accepts a voter profile from the potential voter, the voter profile including a voting scenario identifier.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the ballot is associated with the voting profile identifier.

15. The system of claim 6 wherein the vote includes a voter profile of the registered voter.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the voter profile includes a voting scenario identifier.

17. A method of federated voting via devices and using discrimination criteria, the method comprising:

registering a user to vote in a voting scenario via a device if the user meets registration criteria, the device federated with a plurality of devices via a network,

receiving a vote from the user via the device;

weighting the vote using weighting criteria forming a weighted vote; and

applying the weighted vote to the voting scenario.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein a voter profile is used in combination with the registration criteria.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein a voter profile is used in combination with the weighting criteria.

20. The method of claim 17 embodied as device-executable instructions on device-readable media.