System and method for interactive live online voting with tallies for updating voting results

• US 6,175,833 B1
• Filed: 04/22/1998
• Issued: 01/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NBC Universal Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Sean, West, Brenden
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRINH, WILLIAM B
• Application Number:
  US09/064,567
• Time in Patent Office: 1,000 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 707/505, 707/506, 707/507, 707/508, 705/10, 705/26, 434/323
• US Class Current: 707/661
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/917 Text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

An online voting system provides a standardized database architecture that integrates editorial and production processes. The voting system has a survey database to store multiple surveys and a server to serve the surveys over a network (e.g., the Internet) to readers. Each survey consists of one or more questions and multiple answer options per question. The voting system includes an authoring tool to permit an editor to construct the surveys. The surveys are stored in a predefined survey index tables. A display handler checks reader requests for pages that contain surveys, to determine whether the reader should receive a voting form or survey results. A vote handler processes votes cast by the readers in response to the surveys. Unique identifiers of voters who respond to the surveys are collected in a votes table. This table is checked when each vote is received to prevent readers from voting multiple times for a single survey. The vote handler tallies the votes cast for the answer options in a totals table. The survey index table also has fields to hold voting results for corresponding survey questions and answer options. The vote handler periodically updates these fields with the totals kept in the totals table. This update is automatic without intervention from the editors. The same index table holds the information to present the survey questions (to first time readers) and to show the results to the survey (to readers who have cast a vote). Over time, the editor may remove one or more questions or the entire survey from the survey index table. The surveys are archived, along with all of the voting data from the three tables, in persistent storage. After archival, the voting data for the removed surveys is automatically deleted from all three tables.

Claims

1. An online voting system for facilitating live interactive online voting, comprising:

a survey database to store one or more surveys, each survey having at least one question and answer options to the question;

a server to serve the surveys over a network to users;

a vote handler to process votes cast by the users in response to the surveys;

a survey index table maintained in the survey database to hold the surveys, the survey index table correlating the survey questions, the answer options to the survey questions, and the voting results of the survey questions;

a votes table maintained in the survey database to track which users have cast the votes and which options each voter has selected;

a totals table maintained in the survey database to hold tallies of the votes in correspondence with ones of the answer options of the survey questions, the tallies being used to update the voting results in the survey index table; and

wherein the survey index table is used by the server to either (1) present the survey questions and corresponding answer options to the users, or (2) display the voting results in conjunction with the survey questions.

2. An online voting system as recited in claim 1, wherein the survey index table holds multiple different surveys.

3. An online voting system as recited in claim 1, wherein the survey index table has editorial fields to hold the surveys constructed by an editor and result fields to hold the voting results, the result fields being automatically updated from the tallies held in the totals table without intervention from the editor.

4. An online voting system as recited in claim 1, wherein the survey index table comprises:

a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for the surveys;

a question number field to list numbers of the survey questions;

a question text field to hold text of the survey question as drafted by an editor;

an option number field to identify the answer options for answering the survey questions;

an option text field to hold text of the answer options as drafted by the editor; and

a voting results field to hold the voting results.

5. An online voting system as recited in claim 4, wherein the voting results field comprises:

a totals field to hold total votes cast for corresponding ones of the survey questions and the answer options; and

a percentage field to hold the percentage of votes cast for corresponding ones of the answer options.

6. An online voting system as recited in claim 1, wherein the totals table comprises:

a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for the surveys;

a question number field to list numbers of the survey questions;

an option number field to identify the answer options for answering the survey questions; and

a totals field to hold total votes cast for corresponding ones of the answer options.

7. An online voting system as recited in claim 1 and further comprising an authoring tool to permit an editor to construct the surveys that are stored in the survey index table.

8. An online voting system comprising:

survey database to store one or more surveys, each survey having at least one question and answer options to the question;

a server to serve the surveys over a network to users;

a vote handler to process votes cast by the users in response to the surveys;

a survey index table maintained in the survey database to hold the surveys, the survey index table correlating the survey questions, the answer options to the survey questions, and the voting results of the survey questions;

a votes table maintained in the survey database to track which users have cast the votes and which options each voter has selected;

a totals table maintained in the survey database to hold tallies of the votes in correspondence with ones of the answer options of the survey questions, the tallies being used to update the voting results in the survey index table;

wherein the survey index table is used by the server to either (1) present the survey questions and corresponding answer options to the users, or (2) display the voting results in conjunction with the survey questions; and

a flushing process to archive the surveys automatically to persistent storage after an editor removes the surveys from online distribution.

9. An online voting system for facilitating live interactive online voting, comprising:

a survey database to store one or more surveys, each survey having at least one question and answer options to the question;

a server to serve the surveys over a network to users;

a vote handler to process votes cast by the users in response to the surveys;

a survey index table maintained in the survey database to hold the surveys, the survey index table correlating the survey questions, the answer options to the survey questions, and the voting results of the survey questions;

a votes table maintained in the survey database to track which users have cast the votes and which options each voter has selected, the votes table comprising;

(a) a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for the surveys;

(b) voter ID field to hold unique identifiers for the users who cast votes;

(c) a time stamp field to hold times when corresponding users cast their respective votes;

(d) a question number field to hold numbers of the survey questions voted on by the users; and

(e) a selected option field to hold the answer options selected by the users for corresponding survey questions;

a totals table maintained in the survey database to hold tallies of the votes in correspondence with ones of the answer options of the survey questions, the tallies being used to update the voting results in the survey index table; and

wherein the survey index table is used by the server to either (1) present the survey questions and corresponding answer options to the users, or (2) display the voting results in conjunction with the survey questions.

10. A standardized database structure stored in a computer-readable medium for facilitating interactive online voting, comprising:

editorial fields to hold content entered by an editor to construct a survey, the editorial fields holding written text of the survey and possible answer options as drafted by the editor;

at least one result field to hold voting results for the survey; and

wherein the database structure can be used to (1) present the survey to a reader without the voting results if the reader has not previously answered the survey, and (2) show the voting results if the reader has previously answered the survey.

11. A standardized data structure as recited in claim 10, wherein the editorial and result fields hold multiple surveys and correlate the multiple surveys with corresponding voting results.

12. A Web site that supports interactive online voting, comprising:

a Web server to serve the online survey and to receive votes to the survey;

a database to store the survey and the votes thereto; and

a standardized database structure as recited in claim 10 stored in the database.

13. A standardized database structure stored in a computer-readable medium for facilitating interactive online voting, comprising:

a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for one or more surveys;

a question number field to list numbers of questions in the surveys;

a question text field to bold text of the survey questions as drafted by an editor;

an option field to identify answer options for answering the survey questions;

an option text field to bold text of the answer options as drafted by the editor; and

a voting results field to hold voting results derived from multiple readers.

14. A standardized database structure as recited in claim 13, wherein the voting results field comprises:

a totals field to hold total votes cast for corresponding ones of the survey questions and the answer options; and

a percentage field to hold the percentage of votes cast for corresponding ones of the answer options.

15. A standardized database structure as recited in claim 13, wherein the question number field, question text field, option field, and option text field store data entered by the editor, and the voting results field store the voting results automatically without intervention from the editor.

16. A Web site that supports interactive online voting, comprising:

a Web server to serve the online survey and to receive votes to the survey;

a database to store the survey and the votes thereto; and

a standardized database structure as recited in claim 13 stored in the database.

17. A standardized database architecture for facilitating live online voting, the database architecture being embodied as multiple database table structures stored in a computer-readable medium, comprising:

a survey index table to hold one or more surveys, the survey index table correlating survey questions, answer options to the survey questions, and voting results of the survey questions;

a votes table to track which voters have cast votes in response to the surveys and which options each voter has selected; and

a totals table to hold tallies of the votes in correspondence with particular ones of the answer options of the survey questions, the tallies being used to update the voting results kept in the survey index table.

18. A standardized database architecture as recited in claim 17, wherein the survey index table can be read concurrently while the votes table or the totals table is being written.

19. A standardized database architecture as recited in claim 17, wherein the survey index table comprises:

a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for the surveys;

a question number field to list numbers of the survey questions;

a question text field to hold text of the survey question as drafted by an editor;

an option field to identify the answer options for answering the survey questions;

an option text field to hold text of the answer options as drafted by the editor; and

a voting results field to hold the voting results.

20. A standardized database architecture as recited in claim 19, wherein the voting results field comprises:

a totals field to hold total votes cast for corresponding ones of the survey questions and the answer options; and

a percentage field to bold the percentage of votes cast for corresponding ones of the answer options.

21. A standardized database architecture as recited in claim 17, wherein the votes table comprises:

a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for the surveys;

a voter ID field to hold unique identifiers for the users who cast votes;

a time stamp field to hold times when the users cast their respective votes;

a question number field to hold numbers of the survey questions voted on by the users; and

a selected option field to hold the answer options selected by the users for corresponding survey questions.

22. A standardized database architecture as recited in claim 17, wherein the totals table comprises:

a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for the surveys;

a question number field to list numbers of the survey questions;

an option field to identify the answer options for answering the survey questions; and

a totals field to hold total votes cast for corresponding ones of the answer options.

23. A method for operating an interactive online vote in which a Web site provides surveys inviting readers to cast votes using their computers, the method comprising the following steps:

creating a survey having one or more questions, each question having answer options from which readers are to select when casting a vote;

storing the survey in a survey index table;

upon receipt of first time requests from readers, downloading the survey from the survey index table to the readers;

tallying the votes to the survey from the readers;

storing the voting results in the survey index table in correlation with the questions and answer options;

upon receipt of non-first time requests from the readers, downloading the voting results from the survey index table to the readers; and

removing the survey from the survey index table.

24. A method as recited in claim 23, further comprising the following steps, prior to the removing step:

creating a second survey having one or more questions, each question having answer options from which readers are to select when casting a vote;

storing the second survey in the survey index table along with the first survey;

upon receipt of first time requests from readers, downloading the second survey from the survey index table to the readers;

receiving votes to the second survey from the readers;

tallying the votes to the second survey to derive voting results for the second survey; and

storing the voting results for the second survey in the survey index table in correlation with the questions and answer options in the second survey.

25. A method as recited in claim 24, further comprising the following step:

automatically archiving the survey, along with the voting results.

26. A method for operating an interactive online voting system in which a Web site provides surveys inviting readers to cast votes using their computers, the voting system having a survey database to store one or more surveys with each survey having at least one question and multiple answer options to the question and a server to serve the surveys over a network to the readers, the method comprising the following steps:

storing survey questions and answer options for a survey in a survey index table;

receiving votes cast by the readers for individual answer options in response to the survey;

recording identifiers associated with the individual readers who cast votes along with the answer options selected by the readers in a votes table;

cumulating the vote totals for the individual answer options in a totals table;

tallying the vote totals for individual survey questions;

periodically recording the vote totals for the survey questions and the answer options in the survey index table;

and

removing the survey from the survey index table.

27. A method as recited in claim 26 further comprising the step of concurrently reading data from the survey index table while writing data to the votes table or the totals table.

28. A method as recited in claim 26 further comprising the following step:

automatically archiving the survey, along with the vote totals for the survey.

29. A data structure, stored in a computer-readable medium, forming a votes table for use in online voting, the votes table comprising:

a survey ID field to hold unique identifiers for the survey;

a voter ID field to hold unique identifiers for the user who cast votes;

a time stamp field to hold times when corresponding users cast their respective votes;

a question number field to hold numbers of the survey questions voted on by the users; and

a selected option field to hold the answer options selected by the users for corresponding survey questions.

30. A method for operating an interactive online vote in which a Web site provides surveys inviting readers to cast votes using their computers, the method comprising:

presenting a survey to the readers, the survey having one or more questions, each question having answer options from which the readers select to cast a vote;

receiving votes for the survey from the readers; and

correlating a time stamp to each vote received which indicates the time when the reader cast that particular vote.