Selection Of A Consensus From A Plurality Of Ideas
First Claim
1. A method for selecting a consensus from a plurality of initial ideas, comprising:
- forming a plurality of initial idea groups from the plurality of initial ideas, each initial idea group comprising a subset of the plurality of initial ideas;
presenting the initial idea groups to a plurality of participants, each initial idea group being presented to at least one participant;
collecting a plurality of initial rankings from the plurality of participants, each initial ranking corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of participants;
determining a plurality of initial win rates from the plurality of initial rankings, each initial win rate corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of initial ideas;
comparing the plurality of initial win rates to an initial threshold win rate;
forming a plurality of secondary ideas as a subset of the plurality of initial ideas, wherein an initial idea is included in the plurality of secondary ideas if its corresponding initial win rate exceeds the initial threshold win rate;
forming a plurality of secondary idea groups from the plurality of secondary ideas, each secondary idea group comprising a subset of the plurality of secondary ideas;
presenting the secondary idea groups to the plurality of participants, each secondary idea group being presented to at least one participant;
collecting a plurality of secondary rankings from the plurality of participants, each secondary ranking corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of participants;
determining a plurality of secondary win rates from the plurality of secondary rankings, each secondary win rate corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of secondary ideas;
comparing the plurality of secondary win rates to a secondary threshold win rate; and
forming at least one tertiary idea as a subset of the plurality of secondary ideas, wherein at least one secondary idea forms the at least one tertiary idea if its corresponding secondary win rate exceeds the secondary threshold win rate.
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Abstract
A method of forming a consensus from a collection of ideas is disclosed. The ideas may be generated by a collection of participants, or may be provided to the collection of participants. The ideas are divided into non-exclusive groups for evaluation, with each group being provided to a participant for voting. Each participant chooses a favorite idea from the group, or selects a first and second choice, or a first, second and third choice. The votes are tallied, and for each idea a “win percentage” is calculated, which is defined as the ratio of the number of groups in which a particular idea wins the voting, divided by the number of groups in which a particular idea appears. Each idea that has a “win percentage” that exceeds a particular threshold is passed on to one or more subsequent rounds of voting. If desired, the voting may continue until a single idea is chosen as the consensus. In some rounds of voting, the groups are configured so that a participant does not vote on his/her own idea. In the first round of voting, the groups are configured so that no two ideas compete against each other more than once. A formulaic template is provided for generation of the groups, based on the number of ideas, the number of participants, and the number of ideas per group. In some embodiments, the template and number of ideas per group may be formulated using the sequence of integers known as the Mian-Chowla sequence.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for selecting a consensus from a plurality of initial ideas, comprising:
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forming a plurality of initial idea groups from the plurality of initial ideas, each initial idea group comprising a subset of the plurality of initial ideas; presenting the initial idea groups to a plurality of participants, each initial idea group being presented to at least one participant; collecting a plurality of initial rankings from the plurality of participants, each initial ranking corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of participants; determining a plurality of initial win rates from the plurality of initial rankings, each initial win rate corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of initial ideas; comparing the plurality of initial win rates to an initial threshold win rate; forming a plurality of secondary ideas as a subset of the plurality of initial ideas, wherein an initial idea is included in the plurality of secondary ideas if its corresponding initial win rate exceeds the initial threshold win rate; forming a plurality of secondary idea groups from the plurality of secondary ideas, each secondary idea group comprising a subset of the plurality of secondary ideas; presenting the secondary idea groups to the plurality of participants, each secondary idea group being presented to at least one participant; collecting a plurality of secondary rankings from the plurality of participants, each secondary ranking corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of participants; determining a plurality of secondary win rates from the plurality of secondary rankings, each secondary win rate corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of secondary ideas; comparing the plurality of secondary win rates to a secondary threshold win rate; and forming at least one tertiary idea as a subset of the plurality of secondary ideas, wherein at least one secondary idea forms the at least one tertiary idea if its corresponding secondary win rate exceeds the secondary threshold win rate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for selecting an idea, comprising:
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collecting a plurality of ideas from a plurality of participants, each idea originated by a particular participant; grouping the plurality of ideas into a plurality of initial idea groups, each initial idea group corresponding to a particular participant and excluding the idea originated by the particular participant; distributing the plurality of initial idea groups to the corresponding plurality of participants; and collecting a plurality of initial idea group ratings from the plurality of participants. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A method for generating a template for dividing a plurality of ideas into groups, each group of ideas to be distributed to each of a plurality of participants, comprising:
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selecting a number of ideas per group in response to the number of participants in the plurality; denoting the number of ideas per group as m; defining a plurality of first participant'"'"'s idea numbers as the first m Mian-Chowla numbers; and recursively defining a plurality of (i+1)th participant'"'"'s idea numbers as the plurality of ith participant'"'"'s idea numbers incremented by 1 and modulo the number of ideas in the plurality. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. A method for testing a ranking procedure, comprising:
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providing a full collection of ideas having an intrinsic order; parsing the full collection of ideas into idea groups, each idea group containing a subset of the full group of ideas; casting a vote for a favorite idea from each idea group; tallying the votes; ranking the full collection of ideas based on the tallied votes; and comparing the ranking to the intrinsic order. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A method of editing, comprising:
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distributing an initial idea to a group of participants; collecting from each participant in the group a revision trigger vote; tallying the revision trigger votes from the group of participants; and if the tallied revision trigger votes exceed a revision trigger threshold; providing a revised idea to the group of participants; collecting from each participant in the group a revision approval vote corresponding to a favorite selection between the initial idea and the revised idea; tallying the revision approval votes from the group of participants; and replacing the initial idea with the revised idea if the tallied revision approval votes exceed a revision approval threshold. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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Specification