Online interactive voting system for live interactive evaluation and comparison of proposals

• US 7,353,239 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2002
• Issued: 04/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fredrik Allard
• Original Assignee: Fredrik Allard
• Inventors: Allard, Fredrik
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Wilson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le; Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/470,152
• Publication Number:
  US 20040078262A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,259 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/102, 707/103.R, 707/206, 705/12, 711/101, 711/117, 711/216, 711/221, 711/215
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

An online system for conducting live interactive evaluation, comparison and selection of proposals includes a standardized database architecture that integrates proposal submission and proposal judgement procedures. The system can host multiple applications, each configured separately by the respective application administrator, each with a separate background process and each with a separate application database containing information about proposals, users, and proposals not yet judged by identified users. The separate background processes are registered in a hash table and the different application databases in a settings table in a separate system database. The proposal submission procedure allows users to submit proposals, and the judgement procedure allows users to judge submitted proposals. The respective background process rules the application by controlling the flow of proposals, and by facilitating and enhancing interaction by users.

Claims

1. An online system for live interactive evaluation and comparison of a plurality of proposals in a first group and selection of proposals among the proposals in the first group to be included in a second group, the second group including only a predetermined number of proposals, the online system comprising a server including:

a memory storing information about proposals, the memory having, for each proposal, a specific area storing information about the respective proposal; and

a processor receiving judgments concerning proposals in the first group from users;

the processor;

performing for each user connected to the server a judgment submission procedure allowing the user to enter a judgment concerning a proposal, the judgment being a grade selected by the user from a scale of grades,

performing a procedure of calculating an index indicating a measure of a need for any of the proposals included in the first group, but not included in the second group, in the case where the second group does not include the predetermined number of proposals, to receive more judgments, such judgments only being allowed from users who have not yet submitted any judgment concerning the proposal to make the proposal be included in the second group, and

performing a further procedure of determining for any of the proposals included in the first group whether a mean of received judgments for the proposal meets a predetermined selection criteria so as to be included in the second group.

2. The online system of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates, in the procedure for calculating an index, the index as depending on judgments of said proposal.

3. The online system of claim 2, wherein the processor calculates, in the procedure for calculating an index, the index as also depending on judgments of proposals different from said proposal.

4. The online system of claim 2, wherein the processor calculates, in the procedure for calculating an index, the index as also depending on judgments of a reference proposal different from said proposal.

5. The online system of claim 1, wherein the processor calculates, in the procedure for calculating an index, the index as also depending on the number of judgments of said proposal in relation to the number of judgments of a reference proposal different from said proposal.

6. The online system of claim 1, wherein the processor receives proposals by performing, for each user connected to the server and after a request from the user, a proposal submission procedure allowing the user to submit at least one proposal and by reserving, after having received a proposal, a specific area for the proposal in the memory and storing the proposal in said area in the memory.

7. The online system of claim 1, further comprising user devices for users, the user devices being connected to the server and each of the user devices comprising:

a display unit allowing a user to be informed of information stored in the specific memory areas for the proposals; and

an input unit for entering, in the judgment submission procedure performed by the server, information on judgments of proposals, this information stored in fields in the specific memory areas for the proposals.

8. The online system of claim 7, wherein the processor, in performing the judgment submission procedure for a user connected to the server, sends information to the display unit of the user, making the display unit show information of the proposal that has a value of the index indicating the highest measure of a need to receive more judgments and allowing the user to enter a judgment concerning said proposal.

9. An online system for live interactive evaluation and comparison of proposals in a first group and selection of proposals among the proposals in the first group to be included in a second group, the second group including only a predetermined number of proposals, the online system comprising a server including:

a memory storing information about proposals, the memory having, for each proposal, a specific area storing information about the respective proposal;

user devices for users, the user devices being connected to the server and each of the user devices comprising;

a display unit allowing a user to be informed of information stored in the specific memory areas for the proposals; and

an input unit for entering information on proposals; and

a processor receiving information on judgments of proposals from the user devices, each of the judgments being a grade selected by the user from a scale of grades;

the processor performing for each user connected to the server a judgment submission procedure, the judgment submission procedure including;

a procedure for sending information to the display unit of the user making the display unit show information of a proposal;

a procedure allowing the user to enter, using the input unit of the user'"'"'s input device, information on the user'"'"'s judgment of the proposal for which information is shown; and

a procedure for storing the information entered by the user in fields in the specific memory area for the proposal in the memory; and

the processor;

performing a procedure of continuously calculating an index for identifying, in the case where the second group does not include the predetermined number of proposals, that one of the proposals included in the first group but not included in the second group that needs the next judgment from a user who has not yet submitted any judgment concerning the proposal to make the proposal be included in the second group, the procedure for sending information to the display unit using information of this proposal in the sending of information to be shown on the user'"'"'s display unit, and

performing a further procedure of determining for any of the proposals included in the first group, whether a mean of received judgments for the proposal meets a predetermined selection criteria so as to be included in the second group.

10. The online system of claim 9, wherein the processor, in the procedure for continuously identifying a proposal, uses, in the identifying of the proposal, information already received from users on judgments of said proposal.

11. The online system of claim 10, wherein the processor, in the procedure for continuously identifying a proposal, uses, in the identifying of the proposal, information already received from users on judgments of proposals different from said proposal.

12. The online system of claim 10, wherein the processor, in the procedure for continuously identifying a proposal, uses, in the identifying of the proposal, information already received from users on judgments of a reference proposal different from said proposal.

13. The online system of claim 9, wherein the processor, in the procedure for continuously identifying a proposal, uses, in the identifying of the proposal, information on the number of judgments of said proposal in relation to the number of judgments of a reference proposal different from said proposal.

14. The online system of claim 9, wherein the processor further receives proposals by performing, for each user connected to the server and after a request from the user, a proposal submission procedure allowing the user to submit at least one proposal and by reserving, after having received a proposal, a specific area for the proposal in the memory and storing the proposal in said area in the memory.