METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SOCIAL NETWORK QUALIFICATION SYSTEMS

• US 20100042511A1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Ruvini, Jean-David, Olver, Lauren, Nguyen, Hill Trung, Mitrokostas, Vasilios, Sundaresan, Neelakantan, Sarwar, Badrul M., Chiu, Chi-Hsien
• Granted Patent: US 10,402,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

There is provided a method and system for qualification testing in a social network service. Qualification testing provides access control into a social network, wherein qualification is based on answers to questions related to a topic. In one example, members admitted to the network provide guidance, notes and research assistance to another member. The social network members access the social network from an external networked computing service, such as another social network, to facilitate easy connection to potential members. The social network may be implemented as an application overlay to the external service, or may access connections in the external network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

executing instructions on a computing platform to;

providing access to a collaborative network from a networked computing service;

providing the qualification assessment to a user of the networked computing service, the qualification assessment used to determine admittance to the collaborative network;

evaluating the qualification assessment for the user to determine a user score; and

based on the user score satisfying an admittance criteria, admitting the user as a member to the collaborative network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the qualification assessment including questions related to a first topic.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing tools to use the collaborative network, to the member.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the tools are provided as a toolbar implementation presented in coordination with a user interface networked computing service.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing access to a collaborative network from a second networked computing service,

wherein members of the collaborative network share information related to the first topic.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the collaborative network provides access to an ecommerce service, and wherein the first topic is related to activities involving the ecommerce service.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing instructions for a user interface having a first view to present a collaborative space to members of the group, and having a second view to present an editing space for a member of the group to edit the qualification assessment.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user interface has a third view to present the qualification assessment, and a fourth view to present a user score on the qualification assessment.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the third view presents the qualification assessment by:

presenting questions related to the first topic and based on admittance criteria; and

receiving answers to the questions.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the second view presents options to modify the qualification assessment and options to modify the admittance criteria.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving notes from a member to present in the collaborative space;

providing the notes for presentation in the second view; and

sending the notes to an update service associated with the networked computing service, wherein users of the networked computing service receive update information as registered users with the networked computing service.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the collaborative network from the networked computing service.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the networked computing service is a social networking service.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a single sign-on is used to access the collaborative network and the networked computing service.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request to access the collaborative network;

receiving at least one user credential from the networked computing service; and

processing the request using the at least one user credential.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluating the qualification

assessment is performed after completing a first portion of the qualification

assessment to determine an interim user score, and wherein the method further comprises admitting the user as a

member based on the interim score satisfying an interim admittance criteria.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the collaborative network is to facilitate interaction with a transactional service.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first topic relates to a product, and wherein the transactional service provides access to the product.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the transactional service is an ecommerce service.

20. A system, comprising a plurality of modules, each module comprising instructions retained on at least one machine-readable storage medium, that when executed by a machine perform identified operations, wherein the modules comprise:

a social networking engine to connect members of a social network;

a qualification testing unit to;

store qualification tests for admission control to the social network,

receive answers to the qualification tests from users of a networked computing service,

score answers to the qualification tests against target answers, and

determine admission to the social network based on the scores; and

a database to store member information.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the module further comprise:

an interface to communicate with a first server, the interface to send database queries and receive query results from a first database associated with the first server.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the modules further comprise:

a collaboration unit to provide display information to members of the social network; and

a notes database to store notes received from members of the social network and provide the notes to the collaboration unit.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the modules further comprise:

a context database to store information relating to a first topic.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the context database stores information mapping the first topic to notes in the notes database.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the collaboration unit generates information to present a private note section and information to present a public note section.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the collaboration interface generates display information to present a user interface having a qualification test and presenting a test score.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the qualification testing unit is further to:

calculate an interim score for a first set of questions for a first qualification test,

compare the interim score to an interim threshold, and

present a second set of questions when the interim score exceeds the interim threshold.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the qualification testing unit is further to assign ratings to members based on scores to the first qualification test.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the qualification tests corresponds to a context, wherein the context may include multiple topics.

30. The system of claim 20, wherein the social networking engine is to provide tools to members of the social network, wherein the tools enable members to interact with the social network from the networked computing service.