METHOD FOR ELECTRONIC DATA COLLECTION ABOUT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AND RELATED ELECTRONIC SYSTEM

• US 20090070197A1
• Filed: 09/11/2008
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sin&rgetica SRL
• Original Assignee: Sin&rgetica SRL
• Inventors: ERMOLLI, Alessandro
• Application Number:
  US12/208,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20090070197A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

The present invention refers to a method for electronic data collection about products and/or services through a virtual community made up of a plurality of discussion groups wherein the virtual community is managed by a company and a related electronic system. The method (100) of the present invention comprises steps consisting of receiving (110) a plurality of data about the product or service input by a plurality of users participating in a discussion group about the product or service; processing (120) the data input about the product or service in order to obtain market information about the product or service; offer the processed market information for sale (130); and redistribute (140) a percentage of the earnings obtained from the sale of the information among the users of the discussion group in terms of money or an instrument giving the users the right to a fraction of the company capital. In addition, the method for electronic data collection about products and/or services also comprises the step of remunerating (150) the users participating in a discussion group which have provided the received information in terms of instruments giving them the right to a fraction of the company capital, independently from the sale of the processed market information.

Claims

1. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services through a virtual community made up of a plurality of discussion groups wherein the virtual community is managed by a company, the method comprising the steps consisting of:

a) receiving (110) a plurality of data about the product or service from a plurality of users participating in a discussion group about a product or service;

b) processing (120) the input data in such a way as to obtain market information about the product or service;

c) offering for sale (130) the processed market information;

d) redistributing (140) a percentage of the company earnings obtained from the sale of the information among the users of the discussion group in terms of money or an instrument giving the users the right to a fraction of the company capital.

2. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 further comprising the step of:

e) remunerating (150) the users participating in a discussion group which have provided the information received in step a) in terms of instruments giving them the right to a fraction of the company capital, independently from the sale of the processed market information.

3. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 in which the percentage of earnings is redistributed to the users in a different manner, based on the frequency of participation of each user.

4. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 3 in which the plurality of users participates in the redistribution of the contribution if it has participated in at least one discussion group for a predefined time interval.

5. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 4 in which the predefined time interval is three months.

6. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 in which the step of reception (110) of a plurality of data about a product or service consists of at least one of the following steps:

a1) founding the discussion group by means of the guided definition of a questionnaire about the product or service;

a2) join the discussion group by means of completing the questionnaire;

a3) contributing to the discussion group by inputting information on the product or service;

a4) using a community credit card for purchasing goods and/or services.

7. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 6 in which the questionnaire defined during step a1) comprises open and/or closed questions.

8. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 6 in which the step a3) of contributing to the discussion group comprises creating, participating to or rating a poll, a forum, a survey or a review.

9. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 in which the plurality of data about a product or service received during the step of reception (110) includes quantitative and/or qualitative data.

10. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 in which the step of data processing (120) is based on the ratings which discussion group participants give to the collected data and/or to the activities used to collect the data and/or to other participants which entered the data.

11. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 10 in which the step of data processing (120) is further based on the rating given on a product or service by anonymous users not registered to the virtual community.

12. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 11 in which each user collects a score based on his/her activities and on the ratings which he/she has been given and the ratings given to his/her activities in the discussion groups to which he/she has participated and the percentage of the earnings is distributed to the users based on the score collected by each user.

13. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 12 in which the collected score is converted to money and/or instruments giving the member the right to a fraction of the company capital.

14. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 in which the step of redistribution of a percentage of the company earnings in terms of money, comprises the transferring of money on the community credit card of the user or on other banking instruments.

15. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 in which the data processing step (120) feeds for a proprietary search engine based on user generated ratings, attributes, tags and other content.

16. Method (100) for the electronic collection of data about products or services according to claim 1 in which the data processing step (120) generates reports on the specific product or service.

17. Electronic system (10) for the collection of data about products or services comprising a plurality of user interfaces (11) for accessing a communications network (12), the network (12) interfacing with a unit (13) for managing data about products or services, comprising

a portal (14) for receiving (110) a plurality of data about the product or service from a plurality of users through the plurality of user interfaces (11);

devices for collecting and processing data (15) in such a way as to obtain market information about the product or service; and

databases (16) for storing the data;

wherein the unit (13) for managing data about products or services is connected to at least one terminal (17) of a commissioning customer company for offering for sale (130) the processed market information;

further wherein means for redistributing a percentage of the company earnings obtained from the sale of the information among the users of the discussion group in terms of money or an instrument giving the users the right to a fraction of the company capital are provided.

18. Electronic system (10) for the collection of data about products or services comprising a plurality of user interfaces (11) for accessing a communications network (12), the network (12) interfacing with a unit (13) for managing data about products or services, comprising

a portal (14) for receiving (110) a plurality of data about the product or service from a plurality of users through the plurality of user interfaces (11);

devices for collecting and processing data (15) in such a way as to obtain market information about the product or service; and

databases (16) for storing the data;

wherein the unit (13) for managing data about products or services comprises a second portal (17a) which allows the access to the unit (13) for managing data about products or services through the communication network (12) of at least one terminal (17) of a commissioning customer company;

further wherein means for redistributing a percentage of the company earnings obtained from the sale of the information among the users of the discussion group in terms of money or an instrument giving the users the right to a fraction of the company capital are provided.

19. Electronic system (10) for the collection of data about products or services according to claim 18 in which the unit (13) for managing data about products or services comprises a third portal (18a) which allows a limited access to the unit (13) for managing data about products or services of anonymous users (18).