SOCIAL CHOICE ENGINE

• US 20120246579A1
• Filed: 11/15/2011
• Published: 09/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Overstock.com Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Overstock.com Incorporated
• Inventors: Byrne, Patrick Michael, Park, Susan
• Granted Patent: US 9,047,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers

Abstract

A social choice engine is disclosed for eliciting and receiving responses to questions or issues and ranking the responses using the Borda ranking system. The social choice engine provides a user interface to a survey administrator that allows for the defining of the social choice survey. The social choice engine also provides a pick list of possible participants, where the possible participants are members of an online community. To administer the social choice survey, the social choice engine sends electronic notifications to selected participants. The participants respond to the social choice survey through a user interface that includes interactive features. The results of the social choice survey are then displayed to the survey administrator.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate conducting a social choice survey of members of an online community associated with a computer network, the system comprising:

a computer accessible to the computer network, the computer defining a social choice administrator server, the social choice administrator server having a memory coupled to a processor;

operational instructions stored in the memory of the social choice administrator server that, when executed by the processor of the social choice administrator server, cause the social choice administrator server to selectively perform the operations of;

generate a first user interface on a computer display associated with a survey administrator,

prompt the survey administrator with the first user interface to define the social choice survey,

receive the social choice survey defined by the survey administrator with the first user interface,

prompt the survey administrator with the first user interface to define a group of participants from the members of the online community to participate in the social choice survey,

receive the group of participants defined by the survey administrator with the first user interface,

generate a second user interface on a computer display associated with each of the participants, the second user interface providing an interactive portion to receive a participant'"'"'s response to the social choice survey,

receive and register each of the participants'"'"' responses to the social choice survey collected with the second user interface,

amalgamate the participants'"'"' responses to the social choice survey to thereby determine a result of the social choice survey, and

show the result of the social choice survey on a computer display.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operational instructions, that, when executed by the processor, cause the social choice administrator server to further perform the operations of:

sending an electronic message over the computer network to each of the participants in the group of participants, the electronic message indicating that the participant has been selected to participate in the social choice survey.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the electronic message comprises a link to the second user interface.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the electronic message comprises the second user interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive portion of the second user interface comprises a virtual slider that allows a participant to select a response within a preset range.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive portion of the second user interface comprises drag and drop virtual objects that allow a participant to rank answers by order of preference.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive portion of the second user interface comprises virtual buttons.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operational instructions, that, when executed by the processor, cause the social choice administrator server to further perform the operations of:

prompting the survey administrator with the first user interface to define a choice set in conjunction with the social choice survey.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operational instructions, that, when executed by the processor, cause the social choice administrator server to further perform the operations of:

amalgamating the participants'"'"' responses to the social choice survey using a single-winner election algorithm.

10. A method of administering a social choice survey to members of an online community associated with a computer network, the method comprising:

generating a first user interface on a display associated with a survey administrator;

prompting the survey administrator with the first user interface to define the social choice survey;

receiving the social choice survey defined by the survey administrator with the first user interface at a social choice administrator server;

prompting the survey administrator with the first user interface to define a group of participants from the members of the online community to participate in the social choice survey;

receiving the group of participants defined by the survey administrator with the first user interface at the social choice administrator server;

generating a second user interface on a display associated with each of the participants, the second user interface providing an interactive portion to receive a participant'"'"'s response to the social choice survey;

receiving and registering each of the participant'"'"'s responses to the social choice survey entered through second user interface at the social choice administrator server;

amalgamating the participants'"'"' responses to the social choice survey to thereby determine a result of the social choice survey using the social choice administrator server; and

generating a display of the result of the social choice survey.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending an electronic message over the computer network to each of the participants in the group of participants, the electronic message indicating that the participant has been selected to participate in the social choice survey.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the electronic message comprises a link to the second user interface.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the electronic message comprises the second user interface embedded therein.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the interactive portion of the second user interface comprises a virtual slider that allows a participant to select a response within a preset range.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the interactive portion of the second user interface comprises drag and drop virtual objects that allow a participant to rank responses by order of preference.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the interactive portion of the second user interface comprises virtual and clickable buttons.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising prompting the survey administrator with the first user interface to define a choice set in conjunction with the social choice survey.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising amalgamating the participants'"'"' responses to the social choice survey using a single-winner election algorithm.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising maintaining a list of participants who have not yet taken the social choice survey.

20. A system to facilitate conducting a social choice survey of members of an online community associated with a computer network, the system comprising:

a server computer at a site accessible to the computer network the server computer having a processor, memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein, and a graphical display coupled to the processor of displaying graphical images;

a data storage accessible to the processor of the server computer and containing database records about social choice surveys;

operational instructions stored in the memory of the computer server that, when executed by the processor of the computer server, cause the computer server to selectively perform the operations of;

generate a first user interface on a computer display associated with a survey administrator,

prompt the survey administrator with the first user interface to define the social choice survey,

receive the social choice survey defined by the survey administrator with the first user interface,

prompt the survey administrator with the first user interface to define a group of participants from the members of the online community to participate in the social choice survey,

receive the group of participants defined by the survey administrator with the first user interface,

generate a second user interface on a computer display associated with each of the participants, the second user interface providing an interactive portion to receive a participant'"'"'s response to the social choice survey,

receive and register each of the participants'"'"' responses to the social choice survey collected with the second user interface,

amalgamate the participants'"'"' responses to the social choice survey to thereby determine a result of the social choice survey, and

show the result of the social choice survey on a computer display.