METHOD FOR USING COLLABORATIVE POINT-OF-VIEW MANAGEMENT WITHIN AN ELECTRONIC FORUM

• US 20080120376A1
• Filed: 11/15/2007
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brent, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Brent, Inc.
• Inventors: Allsop, Brent
• Granted Patent: US 8,160,970 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A method for conducting online discussion and collecting point-of-view information on a topic of discussion that includes displaying a hierarchy of topics, each topic corresponding to a position statement representing a consensus point of view of one or more supporters of the topic. At each level of the hierarchy, topics are ordered based on user-selected attributes of the one or more supporters of the topic. A user is allowed to select a topic from the ordered hierarchy to display the corresponding position statement.

Claims

1. A method for conducting online discussion comprising:

displaying a hierarchy of topics, each topic corresponding to a position statement representing a consensus point of view of one or more supporters of the topic;

at each level of the hierarchy, ordering the topics based on user-selected attributes of the one or more supporters of the topic; and

allowing the user to select a topic from the ordered hierarchy to display the corresponding position statement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a supporter of a topic implicitly supports all other topics above the topic in the hierarchy.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the position statement corresponding to each topic at the highest level of the hierarchy comprises propositions with which supporters of a subtopic below the topic in the hierarchy agree.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one supporter of each topic contributes to the content of the position statement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one non-supporter of a topic contributes to the content of the position statement.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising enabling a user to support a topic, wherein supporting a topic indicates support for the corresponding position statement as well as support for all topics in the hierarchy above the supported topic.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein enabling a user to indicate support for a topic further comprises enabling the user to indicate whether support is direct support or delegated support, wherein direct support requires assuming responsibility to be involved in approval of changes, additions, deletions, and new drafts of the supported position statement, whether alone or with other direct supporters, for the supported statement, and wherein delegated support follows the support of a delegatee and indicates agreement with the supported topic and corresponding position statement and delegates responsibility for the position statement to the delegatee.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein displaying the position statement further comprises displaying a list of the supporters of each topic in a tree structure indicating whether a supporter'"'"'s support is direct or delegated.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising compiling into a single document all of the position statements the user supports.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the hierarchy of topics further comprises displaying a support value representing an amount of support by supporters of each topic.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein ordering the topics based on user-selected attributes of the one or more supporters further comprises weighting a value of each user-selected characteristic according to a user-specified weight.

12. A method for filtering online discussion comprising:

displaying a list of one or more attributes about supporters of one or more topics in an online discussion, wherein a topic corresponds to a position statement expressing a consensus point of view of one or more supporters of the topic;

enabling a user to select one or more attributes from the list;

displaying a hierarchy of topics ordered at each level of the hierarchy according to the number of supporters of each topic having one or more of the user-selected attributes; and

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user selecting the one or more attributes of the one or more supporters further comprises enabling a user to specify a weight for each characteristic, the weight representing the level of importance of the characteristic for purposes of ordering the hierarchy of topics.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein displaying the hierarchy of topics further comprises displaying a support value representing an amount of support by supporters of each topic.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one supporter of each topic contributes to the content of the corresponding position statement.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one non-supporter of a topic contributes to the content of the position statement.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising allowing the user to select a topic from the ordered hierarchy to display the corresponding position statement.

18. A method for conducting online discussion comprising:

displaying a hierarchy of topics, each topic corresponding to a position statement representing a consensus point of view of one or more supporters of the topic;

enabling a user to support a topic, wherein supporting a topic indicates support for the corresponding position statement as well as support for all topics in the hierarchy above the supported topic; and

allowing the user to indicate whether support is direct support or delegated support, wherein direct support requires assuming responsibility to be involved in approval of changes, additions, deletions, and new drafts of the supported position statement, whether alone or with other direct supporters, for the supported statement, and wherein delegated support follows the support of a delegatee and indicates agreement with the supported topic and corresponding position statement and delegates responsibility for the position statement to the delegatee.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein displaying the hierarchy of topics further comprises ordering the topics at each level of the hierarchy based on user support for each topic.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein online discussion includes any forum for expressing opinion information such as comments, feedback, testimonials, posts, and reviews.

21. A method for conducting online discussion comprising:

displaying a hierarchy of topics, each topic corresponding to a position statement representing a consensus point of view of one or more supporters of the topic;

enabling a user to support a topic, wherein supporting a topic indicates support for the corresponding position statement as well as support for all topics in the hierarchy above the supported topic; and

compiling into a single document the position statements of all the topics that the user supports.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein enabling a user to indicate support for a topic further comprises enabling the user to indicate whether support is direct support or delegated support, direct support requiring assuming responsibility to be involved in approval of changes, additions, deletions, and new drafts of the supported position statement, whether alone or with other direct supporters, for the supported statement, and delegated support indicating agreement with the supported topic and corresponding position statement and delegating responsibility for the position statement to another supporter.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein displaying the hierarchy of topics further comprises ordering the topics at each level of the hierarchy based on user support for each topic.