Method and apparatus for conducting an information brokering service

• US 20070055611A1
• Filed: 07/07/2006
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sermo, Inc. (Worldone Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sermo, Inc. (Worldone Incorporated)
• Inventors: Gardner, Graham, Palestrant, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,240 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A system and method is provided that provides an early indication of consensus of opinion among a number of users regarding an event or observation indicated by a user. Such an opinion may be interesting to an information consumer, who may be interested in determining the outcome of the consensus relating to the event or observation, or may otherwise desire to perform surveillance or survey of a particular issue or subject. Such recognition of early events or observations may be useful in different areas, such as healthcare, finance, etc., where initial observations, if provided early, allow resulting decisions to be made much earlier. The opinion may, for instance, be used as an early indicator of problem with a product, company, etc. that would permit an information consumer to perform an action at a much earlier point than if he/she relied on traditional sources of information. Thus, such opinion information may be invaluable as a tool for monitoring events.

Claims

1. A method for conducting an online information brokering service, the method comprising acts of:

permitting a creation of a ticket by at least one user, the ticket comprising at least one observation generated by a user;

presenting, by a computer system, the ticket to a plurality of users;

accepting, from each of the plurality of users, a respective opinion regarding the ticket; and

determining a consensus of opinion among a plurality of users regarding the at least one observation of the ticket.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computer system accepts a plurality of user opinions relating to the created ticket.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a length of time by which the computer system accepts the plurality of user opinions is determined based on a determination of consensus among the plurality of user opinions.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of measuring at least one parameter associated with the ticket.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the act of determining a consensus of opinion further comprises an act of determining the consensus of opinion based on the at least one measured parameter.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the at least one measured parameter comprises a number of votes on the ticket received from users.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of determining a consensus of opinion further comprises an act of determining a quality of the consensus of opinion.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the act determining a quality of the consensus of opinion comprises an act of maintaining a quality parameter that indicates the quality of the consensus of opinion.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising an act of increasing the quality parameter if it is determined that a plurality of users having a similar background have a similar opinion regarding the at least one observation of the ticket.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of permitting the at least one user to send the created ticket to the at least one of the plurality of users.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising an act of sending the created ticket to a group of users to which the at least one user previously sent a previously-created ticket.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising an act of sending the created ticket to a group of users, wherein the group of users includes a group of users identified as experts in a particular subject area.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining a reward to the at least one of the plurality of users in response to the at least one of the plurality of users'"'"'s opinion, the reward being based on a ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising an act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users further comprises an act of determining the ranking based on a history of voting of the at least one of the plurality of users.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users further comprises an act of determining the ranking based on an ability of the at least one of the plurality of users to vote for a correct outcome of the ticket.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users further comprises an act of reducing the ranking if the at least one of the plurality of users places a vote for an incorrect outcome of the ticket.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users further comprises an act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users based on a ratio of a number of agreeing votes and a number of disagreeing votes received after the opinion of the at least one of the plurality of users has been made.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users further comprises an act of rewarding an earlier vote more highly than a later vote on a same ticket.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein the act of determining the ranking of the at least one of the plurality of users further comprises an act of determining user income based on at least one of a group comprising:

a ranking of the at least one user;

a number of votes in agreement with the defined ticket;

a weight of the defined ticket;

a number of outstanding tickets; and

a consensus quality parameter associated with the defined ticket.

22. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of ending a voting period of the ticket in response to the act of determining the consensus of opinion among the plurality of users.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising an act of displaying, to a consumer of the ticket, consensus information indicating the consensus of opinion among the plurality of users.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the act of displaying is responsive to the act of ending a voting period of the ticket.

25. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of determining a consensus of opinion among a plurality of users regarding the at least one observation of the ticket is determined as a function of a number of votes received on the ticket.

26. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining a value of the ticket.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the act of determining the value of the ticket comprises an act of determining the value by a bid process.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the bid process includes an act of permitting at least one information consumer to bid on the ticket.

29. The method according to claim 26, wherein the act of determining the value of the ticket further comprises an act of classifying the observation in a predetermined class, the predetermined class having a predetermined value, and determining the value of the ticket based on the predetermined value of the predetermined class.

30. The method according to claim 29, further comprising an act of providing an incentive, by an operator of the online information brokering system, to users to submit tickets relating to a particular predetermined class.

31. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of conducting a bid process to determine a sale of opinion information associated with the ticket to a winning bidder.

32. The method according to claim 31, further comprising an act of displaying, to the winning bidder, the opinion information in a display of a computer system.

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein the act of determining the value of the ticket includes an act of conducting a voting process among a plurality of users, wherein a result of the voting process in used in the act of determining the value of the ticket.

34. The method according to claim 26, wherein the act of determining the value of the ticket includes an act of determining a market value of opinion information related to the ticket.

35. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining a ranking of the at least one user.

36. The method according to claim 35, further comprising determining a value of the ticket based on the ranking of the at least one user.

37. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ticket is created without intervention by an operator of the online information brokering service.

38. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining a quality of the observation of the ticket.

39. The method according to claim 38, wherein the quality of the observation of the ticket is determined without intervention by an operator of the online information brokering service.

40. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consensus of opinion is determined without intervention by an operator of the online information brokering service.

41. The method according to claim 1, wherein the consensus of opinion is determined by voting by the plurality of users.