Performing automated price determination for tasks to be performed

• US 8,392,235 B1
• Filed: 07/20/2011
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• 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: Cohen, Peter D., Smoak, Christopher E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Application Number:
  US13/187,412
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.13
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• 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 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

Techniques are 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, such as for use by an electronic marketplace for the tasks. In some situations, the electronic marketplace automatically determines prices to be paid for performance of tasks, such as in accordance with pricing-related criteria specified by task requesters who submit groups of numerous related tasks to be performed. Such pricing-related criteria may include various types of information about a desired pace of task performance for tasks of a group, and if so the electronic marketplace performs the automated price determination in such a manner as to accommodate the desired pace, such as by dynamically modifying prices when monitoring of an ongoing actual pace of performance of tasks differs sufficiently from a desired pace of performance.

Claims

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

determining an initial price for performance of each of at least some related tasks, the at least some related tasks being made available to be performed by users for the initial price; and

after a first subset of tasks that includes one or more of the at least some related tasks have been performed, determining, by the configured computing device, whether at least one criterion is satisfied, and determining a modified price for performance of each of a second subset of tasks that includes other of the at least some related tasks that are not part of the first subset of tasks, such that the tasks of the second subset are made available to be performed by users for the modified price, the determining of the modified price being based at least in part on the determining of whether the at least one criterion is satisfied.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the at least criterion includes a desired pace for performance of the at least some related tasks, and wherein the determining of whether the at least criterion is satisfied includes determining whether the desired pace differs sufficiently from an actual pace at which the tasks of the first subset were performed.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the determining of the initial price includes determining, by the configured computing device, whether one or more criteria are initially satisfied, and wherein the determined initial price is based at least in part on the determining of whether the one or more criteria are initially satisfied.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the at least some related tasks are part of a group of multiple tasks and are indicated by a user for performance as part of an electronic marketplace that facilitates transactions between human task requesters having tasks available to be performed and human task performers able to perform tasks.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the at least one criterion includes one or more of an indication to determine prices to be paid for performance of the at least some related tasks so as to reflect prices of other related tasks in an indicated manner, an indication of a time at which to modify one or more prices to be paid for performance of the at least some related tasks, and an indication to determine prices to be paid for performance of the at least some related tasks so as to provide higher prices for users with better qualifications.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the at least one criterion is part of one or more criteria specified for use in determining, by the configured computing device, one or more prices to be paid for performance of the at least some related tasks and for determining a manner of making one or more of the at least some related tasks available to the users for performance, and wherein the method further comprises determining, by the configured computing device, the manner of making the one or more tasks available to the users for performance based at least in part on the one or more criteria.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the configured computing device.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the contents include instructions that when executed program the configured computing device to perform the method.

9. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a first module configured to, when executed by the processor, and after receiving an indication of one of multiple tasks to be performed by a user and of at least one criterion for use in determining a price to be paid for performance of the one task, determine whether the at least one criterion is satisfied; and

a second module configured to, when executed by the processor, determine the price to be paid for performance of the one task such that the one task is made available to be performed by a user for the determined price, the determining of the price being based at least in part on the determining of whether the at least one criterion is satisfied.

10. The computing device of claim 9 wherein the one task is part of a group of multiple related tasks.

11. The computing device of claim 9 wherein the first and second modules are software modules executing in memory of the computing device.

12. The computing device of claim 9 wherein the first module consists of a means for performing the determining of whether the at least one criterion is satisfied, and wherein the second module consists of a means for performing the determining of the price to be paid for performance of the one task.

13. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more configured computing devices configured with executable instructions;

receiving an indication of related tasks to be performed by users and of at least one criterion for use in determining a price to be paid for performance of the related tasks;

determining an initial price for performance of at least some of the related tasks such that the at least some tasks are each made available to be performed by users for the initial price; and

after performance of a first subset of tasks that includes at least some of the related tasks, determining that the at least one criterion is not satisfied based on the performance of the tasks of the first subset; and

determining a modified price for performance of a second subset of tasks that includes other tasks that are not part of the first subset of tasks, such that the other tasks of the second subset are each made available to be performed by users for the modified price, the determining of the modified price being based at least in part on the determining that the at least one criterion is not satisfied.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one criterion includes a desired pace for performance of multiple related tasks, wherein the tasks the first subset and the tasks second subset are at least some of the multiple related tasks, and wherein the determining that the one or more criteria are not currently satisfied includes determining that the desired pace differs by at least a threshold amount from an actual pace at which the tasks of the first subset were performed.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the multiple related tasks are part of a group of tasks and are indicated by a user for performance as part of an electronic marketplace that facilitates transactions between human task requesters having tasks available to be performed and human task performers able to perform tasks.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the one or more configured computing devices are part of the electronic marketplace.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the determining of the initial price is based at least in part on whether the at least one criterion is initially satisfied at a time of the determining of the initial price.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one criterion includes an indication to determine prices to be paid for performance of the related tasks so as to reflect prices of other related tasks.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one criterion includes an indication of a time at which to modify one or more prices to be paid for performance of the related tasks.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one criterion includes an indication to determine prices to be paid for performance of the related tasks so as to provide higher prices for users with better qualifications.

21. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one criterion is further for use in determining a manner of making one or more of the related tasks available to the users for performance, and wherein the method further comprises determining, under the control of the one or more configured computing devices, the manner of making the one or more tasks available to the users for performance based at least in part on the at least one criterion.