Network-community research service
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A network server computer, comprising:
- a computer-readable storage device;
an enrollment module to maintain a roster of teachers and students belonging to an online educational community, the enrollment module further configured to allow each member belonging to the online educational community to shield selected educational-community activities; and
a research module to receive, via a computer network, a research query from a requesting student belonging to the online educational community, the research module configured to answer the research query with a ranked list of community filtered research results from outside of the online educational community, the ranked list of community filtered research results at least partially prioritized based on educational-community activities of non-requesting students or non-requesting teachers belonging to the online educational community, the ranked list of community filtered results excluding prioritization based on shielded educational-community activities of non-requesting students or non-requesting teachers belonging to the online educational community.
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Abstract
A network-community research service includes a research module to receive a research query from a requesting member belonging to a network community. The research module is configured to answer the research query with a ranked list of research results at least partially prioritized based on network-community activities of non-requesting members.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A network server computer, comprising:
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a computer-readable storage device; an enrollment module to maintain a roster of teachers and students belonging to an online educational community, the enrollment module further configured to allow each member belonging to the online educational community to shield selected educational-community activities; and a research module to receive, via a computer network, a research query from a requesting student belonging to the online educational community, the research module configured to answer the research query with a ranked list of community filtered research results from outside of the online educational community, the ranked list of community filtered research results at least partially prioritized based on educational-community activities of non-requesting students or non-requesting teachers belonging to the online educational community, the ranked list of community filtered results excluding prioritization based on shielded educational-community activities of non-requesting students or non-requesting teachers belonging to the online educational community. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A network server computer, comprising:
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a computer-readable storage device; an enrollment module to maintain a roster of members belonging to a network community; an interrelation module to maintain a map defining network-community associations between two or more network-community members belonging to the network community, where the map defines a degree of separation between a requesting member and a non-requesting member; and a research module to receive a research query from the requesting member belonging to the network community, the research module configured to answer the research query with a ranked list of research results at least partially prioritized based on network-community activities of non-requesting members occurring before the research module receives the research query, and at least partially prioritized based on the degree of separation between the requesting member and the non-requesting member, such that the research module elevates a ranking of a research result in proportion to a closeness of association to a non-requesting member that blesses the research result, where the enrollment module is configured to allow each member belonging to the network community to shield selected network-community activities from being used to prioritize research results. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of facilitating online research, comprising:
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receiving a research query from a requester via a computer network; determining if the requester belongs to a network community; if the requester belongs to the network community, comparing the research query to network locations blessed by non-requesting members of the network community; if a network location blessed by a non-requesting member of the network community includes a reference to the research query, adding that network location to a ranked list of research results with an elevated prioritization; if a network location shielded by a non-requesting member of the network community includes a reference to the research query, shielding that network location from the ranked list of research results; and presenting the ranked list of research results to the requester via the network.
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Specification