SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING PREFERENCES FROM INFORMATION MASHUPS

• US 20090248690A1
• Filed: 08/20/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gruhl, Daniel Frederick, Grandison, Tyrone Wilberforce Andre, Bhagwan, Varun, Pieper, Jan Hendrik
• Application Number:
  US12/195,126
• Publication Number:
  US 20090248690A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A system and method for determining preferences from information mashups and, in particular, for determining preferences from cross-modality information based on a social welfare function is disclosed. An exemplary embodiment of the invention uses a social welfare function (SWF) to identify a vote computing method from among a group of vote computing methods. The SWF embodies subjective values, e.g. business objectives. The embodiment uses the SWF to identify the vote computing method that combines cross-modality information into a single information mashup in a manner that is most congruent with the subjective values relative to the other vote computing methods. The information mashup may be in the form of a single, merged ranked list.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining preferences from cross-modality information mashups, the method comprising:

receiving a social welfare function (SWF);

identifying two or more vote computing methods;

for each of the two or more vote computing methods, using the vote computing method to combine information on preferences into a combined list ranking the preferences, wherein the information is from a set of two or more sources, and wherein the set is heterogeneous in modality;

for each combined list, inputting the combined list into the SWF to compute a score; and

outputting the combined list of the vote computing method associated with the highest score.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of two or more sources includes data from websites indicating preferences within a certain domain of interest.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information from the set of two or more sources includes structured data from a first source and unstructured data from a second source.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising processing the unstructured data using natural language mining.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the SWF comprises receiving a custom constructed SWF based on a set of business objectives.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or more vote computing methods includes a parameterized vote computing method.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of preferences being ranked is at least an order of magnitude more in number than the number of sources.

8. A computer program product for determining preferences from cross-modality information, said computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

first program instructions stored on the computer readable medium, the first program instructions to identify two or more vote computing methods;

second program instructions stored on the computer readable medium, the second program instructions to, for each of the two or more vote computing methods, use the vote computing method to combine information on preferences into a combined list ranking the preferences, wherein the information is from a set of two or more sources, and wherein the set is heterogeneous in modality;

third program instructions stored on the computer readable medium, the third program instructions to, for each combined list, input the combined list into a social welfare function to compute a score; and

fourth program instructions stored on the computer readable medium, the fourth program instructions to output the vote computing method associated with the highest score.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising

fifth program instructions stored on the computer readable medium, the fifth program instructions to output the combined list of the vote computing method associated with the highest score.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the information from the set of two or more sources includes structured data from a first source and unstructured data from a second source.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the second source is selected from the group consisting of:

an online blog, an online forum, and an online social networking website.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the social welfare function is selected from the group consisting of:

Bergson-Samuelson, Precision Optimal Aggregation, and Spearman Footrule.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the social welfare function is a custom constructed social welfare function.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the two or more vote computing methods includes a parameterized vote computing method.

15. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the number of preferences being ranked is at least an order magnitude more in number than the number of sources.

16. A system for determining preferences from cross-modality information, the system comprising:

a communications interface;

memory storing computer usable program code; and

a processor coupled to the communications interface to receive information on preferences from an external device and coupled to the memory to execute the computer usable program code stored on the memory;

wherein the computer usable program code comprises;

computer usable program code configured to identify two or more vote computing methods;

computer usable program code configured to, for each of the two or more vote computing methods, use the vote computing method to combine the information on preferences into a combined list ranking the preferences, wherein the information is from a set of two or more sources, and wherein the set is heterogeneous in modality;

computer usable program code configured to, for each combined list, input the combined list into a social welfare function to compute a score; and

computer usable program code configured to identify the vote computing method associated with the highest score.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer usable program code further comprises:

computer usable program code configured to output the combined list of the vote computing method associated with the highest score.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the set of two or more sources includes data from websites indicating preferences within a certain domain of interest.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the information from the set of two or more sources includes structured data from a first source and unstructured data from a second source.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor is coupled to the communications interface to receive the information on preferences from a server.