Trust Level Based Task Assignment in an Online Work Management System

• US 20090204471A1
• Filed: 02/10/2009
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clearshift Corporation
• Original Assignee: Clearshift Corporation
• Inventors: Nudd, Geoffrey, Krishnan, Rajesh, Weyl, Stephen, Elenbaas, Daniel J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,540,616 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group

Abstract

An online work management system provides a marketplace for multiple job owner and workers. The job owners provide a job description that defines task. The job description may be processed to generate task descriptions that may be published for workers'"'"' application. The task descriptions specify the qualification or restrictions for workers to have the task assigned. The online work management system also provides various functions supporting coordination and management of task assignment such as determining the trust level of the user'"'"'s identity, search the tasks or workers, monitoring the progress of job, managing payment to workers, training and testing the workers, evaluating the review by the job owners, and generation of surveys.

Claims

1. A method for managing a job in an online work management system accessible to a plurality of users by one or more user terminals, the method comprising:

receiving a set of information associated a first user;

generating a trust quotient responsive to receiving the set of information, the trust quotient representing the trustworthiness of the first user;

assigning the first user to a task responsive to determining that the trust quotient of the first user exceeds a set trust quotient required for the task; and

sending assignment information indicating assigning of the first user to the task for display on at least one of the user terminals.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an application for the task from a second user;

requesting a second user to provide additional information associated with the second user responsive to receiving the application and the trust quotient of the second user not exceeding the set trust quotient; and

rejecting the second user responsive to the second user failing to provide the additional information.

3. The method of claim 1, where the trust quotient indicates at least one of reliability of the first user'"'"'s identity or likelihood that the user will complete an assigned task.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the trust quotient indicates reliability of the first user'"'"'s identity and likelihood that the user will complete an assigned task

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of information comprises at least one of biometric data, government identification card, a history of tasks previously performed by the first user, and information about disputes with other users pertaining to tasks previously performed by the first user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving at least part of information in the set of information from a third party source.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the third party source comprises at least one of a government agency database, a private database, and information provided by a field investigator.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

confirming presence of discrepancy in the set of information; and

flagging the worker'"'"'s identity for investigation responsive to detecting the discrepancy.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing data stored in a data repository to determine presence of patterns of transactions or activities indicative of the first user'"'"'s fraudulent identity.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the threshold required for the task responsive to a number of users satisfying the threshold being less than a predetermined number.

11. A computer-implemented online work management system accessible to a plurality of users for managing a job, the system comprising:

a trust management module configured to generate a trust quotient responsive to receiving a set of information for verifying an identity of a user, the trust quotient representing reliability of the user'"'"'s identity to receive a set of information; and

a workflow engine configured to assign the user to a task responsive to determining that the trust quotient exceeds a threshold required for the task.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the workflow engine is further configured to receive an application for the task from a second user and request a second user to provide additional information associated with the second user responsive to receiving the application and the trust quotient of the second user not exceeding the set trust quotient, the workflow engine further configured to reject the second user responsive to the second user failing to provide the additional information.

13. The system of claim 11, where the trust quotient indicates at least one of reliability of the first user'"'"'s identity or likelihood that the user will complete an assigned task.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the trust quotient indicates reliability of the first user'"'"'s identity and likelihood that the user will complete an assigned task.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of information comprises at least one of biometric data, government identification card, a history of tasks previously performed by the first user, and information about disputes with other users pertaining to tasks previously performed by the first user.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the trust management module is configured to receive at least part of information in the set of information from a third party source.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the third party source comprises at least one of a government agency database, a private database, and information provided by a field investigator.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the trust management module is further configured to confirm presence of discrepancy in the set of information, the trust management module further configured to flag the worker'"'"'s identity for investigation responsive to detecting the discrepancy.

19. The system of claim 11, where the trust management module is further configured to analyze data stored in a data repository to determine presence of patterns of transactions or activities indicative of the first user'"'"'s fraudulent identity.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the workflow engine is further configured to modify the threshold required for the task responsive to a number of users satisfying the threshold being less than a predetermined number.