Balanced Routing of Questions to Experts
First Claim
1. A method for routing a question using an electronic question processing system, comprising:
- receiving a question from an inquirer, the inquirer being one of a plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system;
determining an expert that is deemed appropriate to answer the question, the expert being another of the plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system; and
routing the question to the expert,the receiving, determining, and routing being repeated with respect to other inquirers and other experts to achieve a desired balance of information exchange among the plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system, wherein each of the plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system can act as either an inquirer-participant or an expert-participant at any given time.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A question processing system routes questions among participants in a balanced and sustainable manner. Any participant can act as an inquirer (who poses questions) and an expert (who answers questions). In one illustrative case, the question processing system operates by: receiving a question from an inquirer; determining at least one expert that is appropriate to answer the question; and routing the question to the expert. The receiving, determining, and routing are repeated with respect to other inquirers and other experts to achieve a desired balance of information exchange among the plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system.
248 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method for routing a question using an electronic question processing system, comprising:
-
receiving a question from an inquirer, the inquirer being one of a plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system; determining an expert that is deemed appropriate to answer the question, the expert being another of the plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system; and routing the question to the expert, the receiving, determining, and routing being repeated with respect to other inquirers and other experts to achieve a desired balance of information exchange among the plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system, wherein each of the plurality of participants of the electronic question processing system can act as either an inquirer-participant or an expert-participant at any given time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A computer-readable medium for storing computer-readable instructions, the computer-readable instructions providing an electronic question processing system when executed by one or more processing devices, the computer-readable instructions comprising:
-
logic configured to receive a question from an inquirer; logic configured to interpret the question to determine a subject matter to which the question pertains, to provide an interpreted question; logic configured to determine an expert that is deemed appropriate to answer the interpreted question, said logic configured to determine the expert comprising logic configured to perform analysis of the appropriateness of a plurality of expert candidates and to select the expert from among the plurality of expert candidates based on the analysis, the analysis being based at least on; an expertise associated with each of the plurality of expert candidates; a rating score associated with each of the plurality of expert candidates; and an engagement balance factor associated with each of the plurality of expert candidates, the engagement balance factor for a particular expert candidate conveying a degree of prior engagement of the particular expert candidate in asking and answering prior questions; logic configured to route the question to the expert; logic configured to initiate a communication session between the inquirer and the expert if the expert agrees to answer the question, the communication session being conducted using an instant messaging system; and logic configured to receive an evaluation of the expert by the inquirer, the evaluation being used to modify the rating score associated with the expert.
-
-
18. An electronic question processing system for routing a question over a communication system, comprising:
-
a profile creation module configured to create respective profiles for a plurality of experts, the experts comprising participants of the electronic question processing system that can also act as inquirers; an expert selection module configured to receive a question from an inquirer, select an appropriate expert to answer the question based on the profiles provided by the profile creation module, and route the question to the expert; and a management module for assigning credit to the participants of the question processing system, wherein each participant that acts as an expert earns credit by answering a question, and each participant that acts an inquirer expends credit in asking a question, the expert selection module being configured to cooperate with the management module to manage the routing of questions to achieve a desired balance of information exchange among the participants of the electronic question processing system. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
-
Specification