PROVIDING AN ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACE TO FACILITATE HUMAN PERFORMANCE OF PROGRAMMATICALLY SUBMITTED TASKS

• US 20090287532A1
• Filed: 07/27/2009
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brett Kiefer, Daniel A. Sanderson, Jang Han Goo, Jeffrey P. Bezos, Mikhail Seregine, Peter D. Cohen
• Original Assignee: Brett Kiefer, Daniel A. Sanderson, Jang Han Goo, Jeffrey P. Bezos, Mikhail Seregine, Peter D. Cohen
• Inventors: Cohen, Peter D., Bezos, Jeffrey P., Goo, Jang Han, Kiefer, Brett, Seregine, Mikhail, Sanderson, Daniel A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,306,840 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks. In some situations, the tasks to be performed are human performance tasks that use cognitive and other mental skills of human task performers, such as to employ judgment, perception and/or reasoning skills of the human task performers. In addition, in some situations the available tasks are submitted by human task requesters via application programs that programmatically invoke one or more application program interfaces of an electronic marketplace in order to request that the tasks be performed and to receive corresponding results of task performance in a programmatic manner, so that an ensemble of unrelated human agents can interact with the electronic marketplace to collectively perform a wide variety and large number of tasks.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for providing an electronic marketplace that acts as an intermediary to facilitate purchasing and selling human-generated answers to questions, the method comprising:

for each of multiple users unaffiliated with the electronic marketplace, receiving information from the user regarding availability of the user to act as a human task performer, the received information including current qualifications of the user related to performing tasks, and registering the user at the electronic marketplace as an available human task performer;

in response to each of multiple tasks submissions that are each received from an application program of a task requester via a programmatic interface of the electronic marketplace to make a submitted task available for performance by human task performers unrelated to the task requester, registering the submitted task at the electronic marketplace as being available, each task submission specifying an associated fee and associated qualifications and associated task performance criteria for the task such that the fee is to be paid to a human task performer who has the qualifications and who satisfactorily performs the task by answering a specified question for the task in such a manner as to satisfy the criteria; and

for each of at least some of the registered tasks,

providing information about the task to one or more human task performers, the provided information including the specified question for the task;

receiving an answer generated by a human task performer for the specified question of the task; and

when the human task performer who generated the answer has current qualifications matching the associated qualifications for the task and when the associated criteria for the task are satisfied, providing the received answer via the programmatic interface to the application program that submitted the task and providing the associated fee for the task to the task performer,

so that application programs can programmatically purchase answers to questions that are provided by human task performers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the programmatic interface of the electronic marketplace is an application programming interface that includes one or more Web services, and wherein each submission of a task from an application program is based on an invocation by the application program of one of the Web services.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein each providing of a received answer for a submitted task to an application program is provided as a response to the invocation by the application program that submitted the task

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each providing of information about a task to a human task performer is performed in response to a request from the human task performer for information about one or more tasks that the human task performer is qualified to perform.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each providing of information about a task to a human task performer is performed automatically after the registering of the task and after automatically identifying the human task performer as being qualified to perform the task.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the registered tasks are all of a single task type, and wherein the providing of information for those tasks to one or more human task performers is performed so as to repeatedly provide information about available tasks of that task type to a selected task performer so that the selected task performer can perform those tasks.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the registered tasks are provided a basic level of service by the electronic marketplace and at least some other of the registered tasks are provided a concierge level of service by the electronic marketplace that exceeds the basic level of service, and wherein each providing of information to one or more human task performers about a task that is provided the concierge level of service is performed automatically in such a manner as to identify at least one task performer who will answer the specified question for the task in such a manner as to satisfy the associated task performance criteria for the task.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein each task submission further includes supplied information that is associated with the task being submitted, and wherein the answering of the specified question for each of the registered tasks involves a human task performer providing a human judgment regarding a subjective aspect of the supplied associated information for the task.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of associated fees to task performers for tasks submitted by task requesters includes obtaining the fees from the task requesters on behalf of the task performers.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the associated qualifications for a human task performer to perform each of at least some of the registered tasks include one or more qualifications based on quantitative measurements by the electronic marketplace of past performance of the task performer, one or more qualifications based on assertions of the task performer, one or more qualifications based on ratings of the task performer provided by task requesters, and one or more qualifications based on credentials of the task performer supplied by one or more third-party qualification authorities.

11-59. -59. (canceled)

60. A computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing device to act as an intermediary to facilitate performance by task performers of tasks submitted by task requesters, by performing a method comprising:

receiving information from an executing program of a task requester about a task that is available to be performed, the information received via a defined programmatic application program interface and indicating one or more criteria for satisfactory performance of the task;

providing information about the task to one or more human task performers who are able to satisfactorily perform the task based on the indicated criteria; and

after receiving results for the available task based on performance of the task by one or more of the human task performers to whom the information about the task was provided, supplying the received results via the defined programmatic interface to a program of the task requester.

61. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the available task has associated compensation for satisfactory performance of the task, and including providing at least a portion of the associated compensation to a human task performer who performs the task.

62. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the indicated criteria for the available task include one or more associated required qualifications of a human performer of the task, and wherein the one or more human task performers who are able to satisfactorily perform the task based on the indicated criteria are each identified as having associated qualifications that satisfy the required qualifications.

63. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the computing device provides an electronic marketplace to which multiple task requesters submit available tasks to be performed and to which multiple task performers provide results from performance of available tasks.

64. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the available task is a qualifying examination such that a human task performer who performed the task receives an associated qualification that allows that human task performer to perform other tasks.

65. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the receiving of information about the available task from an executing program of a task requester is based on submission by the task requester of a new task that is distinct from any existing available tasks.

66. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of a computing device.

68. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing device to perform the method.

69. The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the contents include a data structure for use in facilitating performance of tasks, the data structure comprising multiple entries that each correspond to a task and that each contain indications of at least one qualification of a human task performer for the task and of associated compensation for performance of the task.

70. The computer-readable medium of claim 69 wherein at least some of the entries of the data structure each further contain one or more additional indications related to the task for the entry, the additional indications for the entry including at least one of one or more task requesters who provided the task, one or more task performers who performed the task, a callback mechanism via which to provide results of performance of the task to a program of a task requester, one or more pieces of information for use by a task performer during performance of the task, and one or more pieces of information related to corroboration of one or more of the indicated qualifications for the task.

67. (canceled)

71-76. -76. (canceled)

77. A method for a computing device of a task requester to use an electronic marketplace of human performance tasks to facilitate performance of available tasks by human task performers, the electronic marketplace having a programmatic interface, the method comprising:

providing information to the electronic marketplace via the programmatic interface about one or more tasks of a task requester that are available to be performed, the provided information for each of the available tasks indicating one or more required qualifications of a human performer of the task and including associated compensation for satisfactory performance of the task;

for each of at least some of the available tasks, after results for the available task are generated from performance of the task by one or more human task performers, receiving the results for the task via the programmatic interface; and

when the received results for a task are determined to be satisfactory, causing the associated compensation for the task to be provided to one or more of those human task performers.

78. The method of claim 77 wherein providing of information to the electronic marketplace about one or more tasks that are available to be performed is performed repeatedly, so as to provide information about a plurality of available tasks.

79. The method of claim 78 wherein the plurality of available tasks are all of a single task type.

80. The method of claim 78 wherein the plurality of available tasks are a group of related tasks that are provided incrementally.

81. The method of claim 77 wherein the method further comprises providing payment from the task requester corresponding to the associated compensation.

82. The method of claim 77 wherein each of the one or more tasks includes answering a question specified for the task.

83. The method of claim 77 wherein each of the one or more tasks includes at least one of a human task performer providing a human judgment regarding a subjective aspect of the task, and of a human task performer performing discernment regarding information supplied for the task.

84. The method of claim 77 wherein the one or more required qualifications of the human task performers of at least one of the one or more tasks include a plurality of qualifications based on multiple of quantitative measurements by the electronic marketplace of past performance of the human task performers, of qualifications based on assertions of the human task performers, of qualifications based on ratings of the human task performers provided by task requesters, and of qualifications based on credentials of the human task performers supplied by one or more third-party qualification authorities.

85. The method of claim 77 wherein the programmatic interface of the electronic marketplace is an application programming interface that includes one or more Web services, and wherein the providing of the information about the one or more tasks is performed by an executing program of the task requester based on an invocation of at least one of the Web services.

86. The method of claim 77 wherein the task requester is a first user, and wherein the method further comprises, before the providing of the information to the electronic marketplace about the one or more tasks, providing information to the electronic marketplace for use in registering the first user to act as a task requester.

87. The method of claim 86 wherein the method further comprises receiving at the electronic marketplace the provided information for use in registering the first user to act as a task requester, and registering the first user at the electronic marketplace as being available to act as a task requester to submit tasks to be performed.

88. The method of claim 86 wherein the providing of the information for use in registering the first user to act as a task requester is performed via the programmatic interface of the electronic marketplace.

89. A computing system configured to act as an intermediary to facilitate performance by task performers of tasks submitted by task requesters, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a task fulfillment facilitator system configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, facilitate performance of multiple tasks by, for each of the tasks;

receiving information from an executing program of a task requester about the task available to be performed, the information received via a defined programmatic application program interface and indicating one or more criteria for satisfactory performance of the task;

providing information about the task to one or more human task performers who are qualified to satisfactorily perform the task based on the indicated criteria; and

after receiving results based on performance of the available task by one or more of the human task performers to whom the information about the task was provided, supplying the received results via the defined programmatic interface to a program of the task requester.

90. The computing system of claim 89 wherein, for one of the multiple tasks, the one task has associated compensation for satisfactory performance of the one task, and wherein the facilitating of the performance of the multiple tasks by the task fulfillment facilitator system includes providing at least a portion of the associated compensation to a human task performer who performs the one task.

91. The computing system of claim 89 wherein, for one of the multiple tasks, the indicated criteria for the one task include one or more associated required qualifications of a human performer of the one task, and wherein the one or more human task performers to whom the information about the one task is provided are each automatically identified by the task fulfillment facilitator system as having associated qualifications that satisfy the required qualifications.

92. The computing system of claim 89 wherein the task fulfillment facilitator system provides an electronic marketplace to which multiple task requesters submit available tasks to be performed and to which multiple human task performers unrelated to task requesters provide results from performance of tasks submitted by those task requesters.

93. The computing system of claim 89 wherein, for one of the multiple tasks, the one task is a qualifying examination such that a human task performer who performs the one task receives an associated qualification that allows that human task performer to perform other tasks.

94. The computing system of claim 89 wherein, for one of the multiple tasks, the receiving of information about the one task from the executing program of the task requester is based on submission by the task requester of a new task that is distinct from any existing available tasks.

95. The computing system of claim 89 further comprising the application programming interface, the application programming interface being provided by the task fulfillment facilitator system and being configured to allow executing programs of task requesters to submit tasks available to be performed and to allow the executing programs to receive information about results of performance of submitted tasks.

97. The computing system of claim 89 wherein the task fulfillment facilitator system is further configured to receive information from each of multiple users that includes information about qualifications of the user to act as a human task performer, and to register each of the multiple users as being available to act as a human task performer to perform available tasks.

98. The computing system of claim 89 wherein the task fulfillment facilitator system includes software instructions for execution by the at least one processors.

99. The computing system of claim 89 wherein the task fulfillment facilitator system consists of a means for facilitating performance of multiple tasks by, for each of the tasks:

receiving information from an executing program of a task requester about a task that is available to be performed, the information received via a defined programmatic application program interface and indicating one or more criteria for satisfactory performance of the task;

providing information about the task to one or more human task performers who are qualified to satisfactorily perform the task based on the indicated criteria; and

after receiving results based on performance of the available task by one or more of the human task performers to whom the information about the task was provided, supplying the received results via the defined programmatic interface to a program of the task requester.

96. The computing system of 95 further comprising storage configured to store information about each of the submitted tasks that includes an associated reward for satisfactory performance of the task and associated criteria for satisfactory performance of the task.