Method and apparatus for conducting an information brokering service

• US 20070055612A1
• 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 8,160,915 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;

classifying the ticket by associating one or more tags to the ticket; and

locating the ticket based upon the one or more tags.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining, by a computer system, one or more suggested tags for classifying the ticket, and displaying to the user as the ticket is being created the one or more suggested tags.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising determining, based on a description associated with the ticket, the one or more suggested tags.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising an act of displaying to the user in real-time, the one or more suggested tags as the description associated with the ticket is created by the user.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of permitting the user to associate the one or more tags with the ticket.

6. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of permitting the user to accept at least one of the one or more suggested tags.

7. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of searching one or more databases to determine whether a similar ticket exists, the act of searching being based at least in part on the one or more tags.

8. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of determining, based on the search, whether the ticket is unique among a plurality of previously-created tickets.

9. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of determining one or more related tags associated with the one or more tags, and presenting the one or more related tags to the user.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising acts of:

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.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the computer system accepts a plurality of user opinions relating to the created ticket.

12. The method according to claim 7, further comprising an act of presenting one or more similar tickets to the user.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising an act of presenting one or more users that authored the one or more similar tickets to the user.

14. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of displaying, to the user, an indication of the number of tickets associated with a particular tag.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising an act of permitting the user to locate similar tickets relating to the displayed number of tickets.