Providing an electronic marketplace to facilitate human performance of programmatically submitted tasks

• US 7,945,469 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2004
• Issued: 05/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goo, Jang Han, Kiefer, Brett, Seregine, Mikhail, Sanderson, Daniel A., Cohen, Peter D., Bezos, Jeffrey P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Application Number:
  US10/990,949
• Publication Number:
  US 20060106675A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,373 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• 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 computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving information at an electronic marketplace from multiple executing programs of multiple task requesters that indicates multiple tasks available to be performed by multiple human task performers who have registered with the electronic marketplace as being able to perform tasks, each of the task requesters supplying one or more of the multiple available tasks and indicating for each of the supplied one or more available tasks one or more associated required qualifications for a human who performs the task and associated compensation to be provided by the task requester for satisfactory performance of the task, the electronic marketplace being provided by one or more configured computer processors to facilitate task performance transactions between the task requesters and the human task performers and otherwise being unaffiliated with the multiple task requesters and with the multiple human task performers; and

for each of at least some of the multiple available tasks, automatically facilitating performance of the task by,

automatically identifying at least one of the multiple human task performers who each has one or more qualifications that satisfy the required qualifications for the task, the automatic identifying of the at least one human task performers being performed by the one or more computer processors;

providing information about the task to each of the at least one identified human task performers to enable one or more of the at least one identified human task performers to select to participate in a transaction with the task requester who supplied the task that involves the one or more identified human task performers performing the task for that task requester in exchange for the associated compensation for the task from that task requester; and

after receiving results for the task based on performance of the task by the one or more identified human task performers, and without further human intervention, automatically supplying the received results to an executing program of the task requester who supplied the task and facilitating providing of the associated compensation for the task to the one or more identified human task performers on behalf of that task requester, the automatic supplying and facilitating of the providing of the associated compensation being performed by the one or more configured computer processors.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, before the receiving of the information at the electronic marketplace from the multiple executing programs of the multiple task requesters, receiving information at the electronic marketplace from multiple users to register as the multiple human task performers, each of multiple users being unaffiliated with the electronic marketplace and specifying qualifications of the user to act as one of the multiple human task performers, and registering each of the multiple users at the electronic marketplace as being one of the multiple human task performers who is able to perform available tasks in response to the receiving of the information from the multiple users.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of the information about each of the at least some available tasks to each of the at least one identified human task performers for that task is performed in response to a request from the human task performer for information about one or more tasks for which the human task performer is qualified.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the identifying of each of the at least one human task performers for each of the at least some available tasks is performed in response to the request from the human task performer.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein each of the requests from a human task performer is received at the electronic marketplace via an interactive console used by the human task performer to specify the request, and wherein the providing of the information in response to the request includes presenting the information to the human task performer via the interactive console.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of information about each of the at least some available tasks to the at least one identified human task performers for that task is performed automatically after the at least one human task performers are automatically identified for the task.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of information about each of one or more of the at least some available tasks to one or more of the at least one identified human task performers for that task includes providing one or more indications of accessible information for the task that is external to the electronic marketplace.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of information about each of one or more of the at least some available tasks to one or more of the at least one identified human task performers for that task includes providing information about the task requester who submitted that task to enable direct communication between the one or more human task performers and the task requester regarding performance of the task.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of information about the at least some available tasks includes repeatedly providing information to one of the multiple human task performers about available tasks matching specified criteria.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the available tasks for which information is provided to the one human task performer are all of a single task type, and wherein the specified criteria includes a task being of that task type.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the available tasks for which information is provided to the one human task performer are each part of a group of related tasks, and wherein the specified criteria includes a task being in that group of related tasks.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising charging the one human task performer for performing the repeated providing of the information about the available tasks matching the specified criteria.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the repeated providing of the information about the available tasks matching the specified criteria includes providing information about a plurality of available tasks to the one human task performer, and wherein each providing of information about one of the plurality of available tasks to the one human task performer is performed in response to a distinct request from the one human task performer.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic facilitating of the performance of one or more of the at least some available tasks includes providing a concierge level of service by the electronic marketplace for the one or more available tasks that exceeds a level of service provided to other tasks by the electronic marketplace.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the providing of the concierge level of service by the electronic marketplace for one of the one or more available tasks includes automatically attempting to identify users to perform the one available task who have not yet registered with the electronic marketplace as being human task performers who are available to perform tasks.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the providing of the concierge level of service by the electronic marketplace for one of the one or more available tasks includes providing a guarantee to the task requester who submitted the one available task regarding performance of the one available task.

17. The method of claim 14 including charging a fee for providing the concierge level of service to one or more task requesters who supplied the one or more available tasks.

18. The method of claim 1 including providing information to human task performers for each of one or more tasks generated by the electronic marketplace to facilitate functionality provided by the electronic marketplace.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing results received from human task performers for performance of available tasks submitted by task requesters.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein each reviewing of received results for a task is performed by one or more human task performers distinct from the human task performers who provided the results and is performed to verify accuracy of the received results, such that those received results are not supplied to the task requester for the task and such that the associated compensation for the task is not provided unless the results are verified to be accurate.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing available tasks submitted by task requesters to verify that the available tasks meet specified requirements for submitted tasks.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing available tasks submitted by task requesters to categorize those tasks for use by task performers in identifying tasks of interest.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing results received from task performers for performance of available tasks to determine whether the task performers are humans.

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after the receiving of results for each of the at least some available tasks, automatically determining a level of confidence regarding accuracy of the results for the task and providing an indication of the determined level of confidence to the task requester who supplied the task.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the automatic determining of the level of confidence regarding the accuracy of the results of one of the at least some tasks is performed based on automatically verifying whether the results satisfy criteria specified for the task.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the automatic determining of the level of confidence regarding the accuracy of the results of the one task is performed based on obtaining information from task performers other than those who provided the results and using the obtained information to verify the accuracy of the results.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the automatic determining of the level of confidence regarding the accuracy of the results of the one task is performed based on automatically comparing the results to other results for other related tasks.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein the associated compensation for each of the at least some available tasks is a monetary payment.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein the associated compensation for each of one or more of the at least some available tasks is a non-monetary reward.

30. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the at least some available tasks are each submitted on behalf of a charitable cause, and wherein the associated compensation for each of those available tasks is recognition of performing volunteer work to assist the charitable cause.

31. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of associated compensation for each of one or more of the at least some available tasks is facilitated by the electronic marketplace only if the task requester who supplied the task authorizes the providing of the associated compensation.

32. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the providing of associated compensation for each of one or more of the at least some available tasks by the electronic marketplace enables the task requester who supplied the task to avoid responsibility for the associated compensation if the results for the task are not satisfactory.

33. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the providing of associated compensation for each of one or more of the at least some available tasks includes sending an indication to an external entity to provide that compensation.

34. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the providing of associated compensation for each of one or more of the at least some available tasks includes automatically providing that compensation.

35. The method of claim 1 wherein information received for each of the at least some available tasks includes an indication of a category of the task and/or one or more keywords for the task to assist users in identifying the task via browsing and/or searching activities.

36. The method of claim 1 wherein information received for each of the at least some available tasks includes an indication of a group of tasks to which the task belongs to assist the electronic marketplace in facilitating the performance of the tasks in the group in a consistent manner.

37. The method of claim 1 wherein information received for each of the at least some available tasks includes information to be analyzed by human task performers as part of performing of the task, and wherein the providing of information about each of the at least some available tasks to one of the at least one identified human task performers for the task includes providing the information to be analyzed to the one human task performer.

38. The method of claim 1 wherein performance of each of the available tasks includes answering a question specified for the task.

39. The method of claim 1 wherein performance of each of the available tasks includes a human task performer providing a human judgment regarding a subjective aspect of the task.

40. The method of claim 1 wherein performance of each of the available tasks includes a human task performer performing discernment regarding information supplied for the task.

41. The method of claim 1 including, before the providing of information about each of the at least some available tasks to each of the at least one identified human task performers for that task, automatically determining that the human task performer is authorized to receive that information.

42. The method of claim 1 including, before the providing of information about each of the at least some available tasks to each of the at least one identified human task performers for that task, automatically determining that the task requester who supplied the task is authorized to submit the task for performance.

43. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more qualifications of each of the multiple human task performers include multiple of qualifications based on quantitative measurements by the electronic marketplace of past performance of the human task performer, qualifications based on assertions of the human task performer, qualifications based on ratings of the human task performer provided by task requesters, and qualifications based on credentials of the human task performer supplied by one or more third-party qualification authorities.

44. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic marketplace provides a programmatic interface that includes one or more Web services, and wherein information about each of the at least some available tasks is received from an executing application program of a task requester based on an invocation by that executing application program of one of the Web services to submit the available task.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein the programmatic interface is an application programming interface that is provided by the electronic marketplace for interacting with executing programs of task requesters, and wherein each supplying of received results for one of the at least some available tasks includes supplying the received results to the application program from which the information about the available task was received as a response to the invocation by that application program.

46. The method of claim 1 wherein each of one or more of the at least some available, tasks is performed by a plurality of human task performers, and wherein the results for each of those one or more tasks are based on information received from two or more of the plurality of task performers.

47. The method of claim 1 further comprising, for each of one or more of the available tasks, results for the task are based on performance of the task by one or more task performers that are each an automated program.

48. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computer processors include multiple computer processors of multiple computing systems, and wherein the electronic marketplace is provided in a distributed manner by the multiple computing systems.

49. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving information from multiple task requesters about available tasks, the received information for each of the available tasks indicating one or more human analysis activities to be performed by a human task performer for one or more associated groups of information supplied by a task requester for the task, each task further having one or more associated criteria for satisfactory performance of the task that include at least one required qualification of a human performer of the task and having an associated payment amount for satisfactory performance of the task, the receiving of the information being performed by one or more configured computer processors that are part of one or more computing systems providing an electronic marketplace that facilitates task performance transactions involving the multiple task requesters and multiple human task performers and that is otherwise unaffiliated with the multiple human task performers, the information being received from the multiple task requesters via a Web services application programming interface (API) that is provided by the electronic marketplace and is invoked by executing programs of the multiple task requesters; and

for each of multiple of the available tasks,

automatically matching the task to one or more potential human performers of the task that each have qualifications satisfying the required qualifications for the task, the automatic matching being performed by the one or more configured computer processors;

notifying the one or more potential human task performers of the task to enable at least one of the one or more potential human task performers to select to participate in a transaction that involves the at least one potential human task performers performing the task in exchange for the associated payment amount for the satisfactory performance of the task; and

after receiving results information that is based on successful performance of the task by the at least one potential human task performers that includes completing the one or more analysis activities for the associated groups of information for the task,

providing the received results information to the task requester for the task; and

when the task performance by the at least one potential human task performers is determined to satisfy the associated criteria for the task, causing a payment of the associated payment amount for the task to be provided to the at least one potential human task performers.

50. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing information to the electronic marketplace to register a user as one of multiple human task performers available to perform tasks, the provided information including indications of one or more qualifications of the one human task performer related to performing tasks, the electronic marketplace being provided by one or more configured computing systems to facilitate task performance transactions involving multiple task requesters and the multiple human task performers, the user being unaffiliated with the electronic marketplace other than being registered as the one human task performer, the providing of the information being performed by a configured computer processor of a computing device that interacts with the one or more configured computing systems on behalf of the user;

requesting information from the electronic marketplace regarding tasks that are available to be performed by the one human task performer based at least in part on the one or more indicated qualifications, the requesting of the information being performed by the configured computer processor of the computing device;

after receiving the requested information, providing to the electronic marketplace results from performance by the one human task performer of each of one or more tasks indicated in the received information that are selected by the one human task performer, each of the one or more tasks having associated compensation for satisfactory performance and each being submitted by an executing program of one of the multiple task requesters via a programmatic interface of the electronic marketplace, the providing of the results being performed by the configured computer processor of the computing device; and

after the provided results for each of the performed tasks are determined to be satisfactory, receiving the associated compensation for the task.

51. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose stored contents configure a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving information at an electronic marketplace from multiple executing programs of multiple task requesters that indicates multiple tasks available to be performed by multiple human task performers who have registered with the electronic marketplace as being able to perform tasks, the information being received via a programmatic interface of the electronic marketplace and indicating multiple available tasks that each has one or more associated required qualifications for a human performer of the task and has associated compensation for performance of the task, the electronic marketplace being provided by one or more configured computing systems to facilitate task performance transactions involving the task requesters and the human task performers;

for each of at least some of the available tasks, identifying one or more human task performers who have indicated to the electronic marketplace to be available to perform tasks and are otherwise unaffiliated with the electronic marketplace and who each have one or more qualifications that satisfy the required qualifications for the task, and providing information about the task to the identified one or more human task performers to enable each of the identified one or more human task performers to select whether to participate in a transaction that involves the identified human task performer performing the task for a task requester in exchange for the associated compensation for the task, the identifying of the one or more human task performers for each of the at least some available tasks being performed by the one or more configured computing systems; and

for each of one or more of the at least some available tasks, after receiving results for the available task based on performance of the task by one or more of the identified human task performers for the task, and without further human intervention, supplying the received results via the programmatic interface to an executing program of the task requester from whose program the information about the task was received, and facilitating providing of the associated compensation for the task to those one or more human task performers on behalf of that task requester.

52. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the method further comprises receiving information at the electronic marketplace from each of multiple users unaffiliated with the electronic marketplace that includes information about qualifications of the user to act as a human task performer, and registering each of the multiple users at the electronic marketplace as being available to act as a human task performer to perform available tasks after the receiving of the information.

53. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the providing of information about each of the at least some available tasks to each of the one or more identified human task performers for that task is performed in response to a request from the human task performer for information about one or more tasks for which the human task performer is qualified, wherein each of the requests from a human task performer is received at the electronic marketplace via an interactive console used by the human task performer to specify the request, and wherein the providing of the information about one or more of the available tasks in response to the request includes presenting the information to the human task performer via the interactive console.

54. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the providing of information about each of the at least some available tasks to the one or more identified human task performers for that task is performed automatically after the one or more human task performers are automatically identified for the task.

55. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the providing of information about the at least some available tasks includes repeatedly providing information to one of the identified human task performers about multiple available tasks matching specified criteria.

56. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 55 wherein the available tasks for which information is provided to the one human task performer are all of a single task type, and wherein the specified criteria includes a task being of that task type.

57. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 55 wherein the available tasks for which information is provided to the one human task performer are each part of a group of related tasks, and wherein the specified criteria includes a task being in that group of related tasks.

58. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 55 wherein the method further comprises charging the one human task performer for performing the repeated providing of the information about the available tasks matching the specified criteria.

59. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the method further comprises providing information to human task performers for each of one or more tasks generated by the electronic marketplace to facilitate functionality provided by the electronic marketplace.

60. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 59 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing results received from human task performers for performance of available tasks submitted by task requesters.

61. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein each reviewing of received results for a task is performed by one or more human task performers distinct from the human task performers who provided the results and is performed to verify accuracy of the received results, such that those received results are not supplied to the task requester for the task and such that the associated compensation for the task is not provided unless the results are verified to be accurate.

62. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 59 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing available tasks submitted by task requesters to verify that the available tasks meet specified requirements for submitted tasks.

63. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 59 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing available tasks submitted by task requesters to categorize those tasks for use by task performers in identifying tasks of interest.

64. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 59 wherein at least some of the tasks generated by the electronic marketplace include reviewing results received from task performers for performance of available tasks to determine whether the task performers are humans.

65. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the associated compensation for each of the at least some available tasks is a monetary payment.

66. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein performance of each of the available tasks includes answering a question specified for the task.

67. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein performance of each of the available 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.

68. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the qualifications of the human task performers include multiple of qualifications based on quantitative measurements by the electronic marketplace of past performance of the human task performers, qualifications based on assertions of the human task performers, qualifications based on ratings of the human task performers provided by task requesters, and qualifications based on credentials of the human task performers supplied by one or more third-party qualification authorities.

69. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the programmatic interface of the electronic marketplace is an application programming interface that includes one or more Web services, and wherein information about each of at least some of the available tasks is received from an executing program of a task requester based on an invocation by an application program of one of the Web services to submit the available task.

70. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the configured computing device, and wherein the contents are instructions that when executed program the computing device to perform the method.

71. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 51 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.

72. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 71 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.