VOTING COMMUNICATING SYSTEM

• US 20110225024A1
• Filed: 03/15/2011
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: BT Americas Incorporated (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: Ribbit Corporation (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Breese, Dewayne Dustin, Seyer, Dan, Lee, Raymond, Potranandana, Tim
• Application Number:
  US13/048,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20110225024A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus

Abstract

A system and method that comprises receiving, at a communication system, an allocation of user votes across a set of entities eligible to receive votes. Communications from the communication system to a vote receiving system are automatically initiated in accordance with the allocation of user votes; the communications to register the user votes with the vote receiving system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a communication system, an allocation of user votes across a set of entities eligible to receive user votes; and

automatically initiating communications from the communication system to a vote receiving system in accordance with the allocation of user votes, the communications to register the user votes with the vote receiving system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically initiating the communications includes initiating a telephone call to a dedicated telephone number uniquely associated with an entity of the set of entities in order to register a user vote for the entity with the vote receiving system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically initiating the communications includes sending a message to a dedicated number uniquely associated with an entity of the set of entities, in order to register a user vote for the entity with the vote receiving system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the message is a short message service (SMS) message.

5. The method of claim 1, including the receiving, at the communication system, a communication identifier associated with a user, wherein the communication identifier is provided from the communication system to the vote receiving system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the communication system is to verify that the communication identifier is associated with the user by providing verification information to the user using the communication identifier, and receiving the verification information back from the user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the communication identifier is provided to the vote receiving system as part of the automatically initiating the communications from the communication system to the vote receiving system.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the communication identifier comprises at least one of a telephone number, an e-mail address, or a user name/password combination.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocation of user votes is received at the communication system via a vote input interface that is presented to a user.

10. The method of claim 1, including presenting a vote input user interface to a user, the vote input user interface to receive the allocation of user votes across the set of entities.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the vote input user interface is to receive a communication identifier from the user, the communication identifier to be provided from the communication system to the vote receiving system in order to identify a source of the user votes.

12. The method of claim 1, including calculating a total number of votes received at the communication system for each entity of the set of entities, and providing the total number of votes for each of the set of entities to at least one user of the communication system.

13. The method of claim 1, including determining a plurality of relationships of a user with other users, and communicating user votes, received at the communication system from the other users, for the set of entities to the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication system is to determine a plurality of relationships of a user by providing authorization information, received from the user, to a social networking system in order to authorize the social networking system to provide relationship information of the user to the communication system.

15. The method of claim 1, including receiving, at the communication system, identification information for a plurality of further users from a user, and, using the identification information, inviting the plurality of further users to register with the communication system and to provide further allocations of user votes across the set of entities.

16. The method of claim 15, including, based on a number of the plurality of further users that register with the communication system, adjusting the allocation of user votes facilitated by the communication system on behalf of the user.

17. The method of claim 1, including maintaining a record of the set of entities eligible to receive votes, at the communication system, and dynamically modifying the set of entities based on information received.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving, at a communication system, an allocation of user votes across a set of entities eligible to receive user votes; and

automatically initiating communications from the communication system to a vote receiving system in accordance with the allocation of user votes, the communications to register the user votes with the vote receiving system.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the automatically initiating the communications includes initiating a telephone call to a dedicated telephone number uniquely associated with an entity of the set of entities in order to register a user vote for the entity with the vote receiving system.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the allocation of user votes is received at the communication system via a vote input interface that is presented to a user.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the communication system is to determine a plurality of relationships of a user by providing authorization information, received from the user, to a social networking system in order to authorize the social networking system to provide relationship information of the user to the communication system.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the receiving, at the communication system, further comprises identification information for a plurality of further users from a user, and, using the identification information, inviting the plurality of further users to register with the communication system and to provide further allocations of user votes across the set of entities.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the method further comprises, based on a number of the plurality of further users that register with the communication system, adjusting the allocation of user votes facilitated by the communication system on behalf of the user.

24. A system to enrich voting experiences for contests of competitions, the system comprising:

a communication system to receive an allocation of user votes across a set of entities eligible to receive the user votes, the communication system including

a social networking interface to receive information for a social networking system;

a voting interface to receive votes from a user; and

a voting communications interface to automatically initiate communications from the communication system to a vote receiving system in accordance with the allocation of the user votes, the communications to register the user votes with the vote receiving system.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the voting communications interface is further to initiate a telephone call to a dedicated telephone number uniquely associated with an entity of the set of entities in order to register each of the user votes for a respective one of the set of entities with the vote receiving system.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the allocation of the user votes is received at the communication system via a vote input interface that is presented to the user.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the communication system is further to determine a plurality of relationships of the user by providing authorization information, received from the user, to the social networking system in order to authorize the social networking system to provide relationship information of the user to the communication system.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the communication system is further to receive identification information for a plurality of further users from the user, and, using the identification information, to invite the plurality of further users to register with the communication system and to provide further allocations of user votes across the set of entities.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein, based on a number of the plurality of further users that register with the communication system, the communication system is further to adjust the allocation of user votes facilitated by the communication system on behalf of the user.