Item Data Collection Systems and Methods with Social Network Integration

• US 20140039980A1
• Filed: 08/23/2013
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Nicholas and Kristin Gross Trust U/A/D April 13 2010
• Original Assignee: John Nicholas and Kristin Gross Trust U/A/D April 13 2010
• Inventors: Gross, John Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 10,482,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

Items—including gourmet products—are evaluated and rated by participants in a controlled event, which can be coordinated by software locally or at a dedicated website. Event data, including item scores and participant scores can be shared with vendors, merchants and other commercial entities associated with the products. Promotional incentives from such entities for the products (and related products) can then be directly targeted and provided to participants and other members of the public. The participant'"'"'s activities can also be collected and disseminated to affiliates/friends of the participants through social networking sites, personalized web pages, etc.

Claims

1. A method of conducting a sampling event for items using a computing system, comprising:

providing a first routine adapted to execute on a portable electronic device, said first routine permitting a host to initiate an item sampling event for a music or movie content item;

providing a second routine adapted to permit one or more participants to join the host in the item sampling event for said music or movie content item;

wherein said item sampling event is a virtual event in which at least some of said one or more participants are in different locations and sample said music or movie content item at the same time as a group of participants;

collecting and processing item sampling event data, including at least a set of individual user ratings provided by said group of participants during said virtual event using one or more portable electronic data collection devices used by said group of participants; and

publishing at least some of said item sampling event data, or metrics derived from said item sampling event data, to web pages associated with said group of participants and selected social network friends of said group of participants, during a time period associated with the item sampling event.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining said set of one or more participants with a recommender system based on their profiles and correlation to other participants.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said host can invite selected participants based on selection criteria, including a demographic profile and/or a social network connection.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein ads or promotional content from sponsors of the items are presented during said item sampling event.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting opinion sampling data for additional unrelated items from said group of participants during said item sampling event.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying a first member of a social network that a second member of such social network correlated to said first member has also recently sampled and/or rated said rated music or movie content item.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying social network members of a friend circle of a participant of such person'"'"'s attendance in said item sampling event.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating said item sampling event data through a network to one or more electronic computing systems associated with third parties involved in one or more of the making, distributing, or selling of the items.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring one or both of promotional coupons and/or or other electronic feedback from third parties over a network to said one or more electronic data collection devices or other electronic message accounts associated with said group of participants.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said promotional coupons and/or other electronic feedback are coupled to and dynamically adjustable by one or both of said second computing routine and said first computing routine based on a geographical location of said one or more data collection devices and/or a residence address of said group of participants.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning an identifier to such sampling event which must be provided by said group of participants to attend said event.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising soliciting prediction data from said group of participants during said item sampling event, including predictions for ratings for such items that would be provided by other persons.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a group recommendation for said group of participants based on correlating individual collective ratings of members of such group.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said item sampling event is identified by one or both of said first routine and said second routine to begin at a designated time and for a designated period.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein said promotional electronic coupons are configured to only be active for a participant when he or she is detected within a first distance of one or more predetermined preferred establishments.

16. The method of claim 4, wherein said ads or promotional data includes audiovisual presentations describing the history/background of the item or a third party provider of such item.

17. A method of presenting item sampling event information to a social network, comprising:

providing a first routine adapted to execute on a portable electronic device, which first routine permits a first social network member to initiate an item sampling event for a first item;

providing a second routine which is adapted to permit one or more social network member participants to join said first social network member in said item sampling event for said first item;

wherein said item sampling event is a virtual event in which at least some of said one or more social network member participants are in different locations and sample said item at the same time as a group of participants;

collecting and processing item sampling event data at a social network website, including at least a set of individual user ratings provided by said group of participants for said item during said virtual event using one or more portable electronic data collection devices used by said group of participants;

publishing at least some of said item sampling event data, or metrics derived from said item sampling event data, to social network pages associated with said group of participants and selected social network friends of said group of participants, during a time period associated with the item sampling event.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein additional content from said item sampling event, including one or more of audio, images, and video are published to said social network pages.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein targeted advertising related to content associated with said item is presented to said group of participants during said item sampling event.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein said item sampling event data is compiled in real-time by the social networking website.

21. A method of processing sampling event item data, comprising:

receiving, at a first computing system, sampling event data for a defined set of one or more movie or music content items from one or more routines adapted to execute on separate, local computing devices and to (1) allow a host to create a virtual item sampling event during which the set of movie or music content items are sampled, and (2) allow one or more participants to join the virtual item sampling event, the sampling event data including at least a set of ratings related to the set of movie or music content items;

processing the sampling event data using the first computing system, the local computing devices, or another computing system in communication with one or both of the first computing system and the local computing devices; and

publishing at least some of the sampling event data, or metrics derived from the sampling event data, to web pages associated with the participants and selected social network friends of the participants during a time period associated with the item sampling event.