System for managing an exchange of questions and answers through an expert answer web site
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system for managing questions submitted by a person with a question and answered by one or more experts comprising:
- a question management server;
a question poser communication interface;
an expert communication interface;
an expert ranking database for maintaining a list of experts in one or more categories along with an item of information indicative of timeliness of an expert in providing answers and quality of answers provided by an expert;
an expert set determinator for extracting a set of experts in a particular category from the expert ranking database based on the item of information indicative of timeliness of each expert in providing answers and quality of answers provided by each expert; and
a sliding window manager for extracting a contiguous subset of the set of experts to whom to send a question received from a question poser.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A question management system for an expert advice web site maintains a database of experts in different subject matter categories. Ranking scores associated with each expert are continually updated based on the timeliness of answers provided by the experts and answer rating feedback received from the question poser. According to another aspect of the invention, method and computer readable medium is disclosed for carrying out the above method.
-
Citations
34 Claims
-
1. A system for managing questions submitted by a person with a question and answered by one or more experts comprising:
-
a question management server; a question poser communication interface; an expert communication interface; an expert ranking database for maintaining a list of experts in one or more categories along with an item of information indicative of timeliness of an expert in providing answers and quality of answers provided by an expert; an expert set determinator for extracting a set of experts in a particular category from the expert ranking database based on the item of information indicative of timeliness of each expert in providing answers and quality of answers provided by each expert; and a sliding window manager for extracting a contiguous subset of the set of experts to whom to send a question received from a question poser. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. A method on a server for managing questions received via a network from a plurality of client systems comprising steps of:
-
receiving a question from a question poser using a client system; extracting a set of experts with associated ranking scores, wherein ranking scores are based on timeliness of each expert in providing answers and the quality of the answers provided by each expert; selecting a subset of the set of experts based on the associated ranking scores; and providing the question to the subset of experts. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for operating an expert answer web site comprising steps of:
-
receiving a question from a question poser; selecting a set of experts on the basis of timeliness of each expert in providing answers and the quality of the answers provided by each expert; and notifying the set of experts of the question. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A computer readable medium containing programming instructions for managing a question answer system comprising programming instructions for:
-
receiving a question from a question poser; extracting a set of experts with associated ranking scores, wherein ranking scores are based on timeliness of each expert in providing answers and the quality of the answers provided by each expert; selecting a subset of the set of experts based on the associated ranking scores; and providing the question to the subset of experts. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. A computer readable medium for operating an expert answer web site comprising programming instructions for:
-
receiving a question from a question poser; selecting a set of experts on the basis of timeliness of each expert in providing answers and the quality of the answers provided by each expert; and notifying the set of experts of the question. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34)
-
Specification