Facilitating performance of locale-specific tasks by task performers

• US 9,805,315 B1
• Filed: 10/10/2011
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• 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., Cabrera, Luis Felipe, Smoak, Christopher E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleischer, Mark A
• Application Number:
  US13/270,128
• Time in Patent Office: 2,213 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• 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 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• 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 by an intermediary electronic marketplace or other task fulfillment facilitator system. In some situations, support is provided in various ways for using multiple human languages when supplying and performing tasks. For example, some tasks may have associated languages, and some tasks may further have multiple task variants that each have a distinct associated language. A user may then request information about tasks in a particular language, and receive information about tasks and/or task variants associated with that language. Furthermore, some tasks and task variants may further be associated with locales that include particular languages and/or various other factors, including geographical areas, and such locales may similarly be used to identify appropriate corresponding users that match the various locale factors.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored contents that configure a computing device to control performance of tasks by task performers, by performing a method comprising:

receiving, by the configured computing device and via one or more intervening computer networks, an indication of a task that is available to be performed and that is associated with multiple geographical locations, the task having multiple distinct variants that are each specific to one of the multiple geographical locations;

identifying, by the configured computing device and from a plurality of available task performers, one or more task performers each having a respective geographical location matching one of the multiple geographical locations;

determining, by the configured computing device and for each of the identified one or more task performers, an appropriate variant of the task for the identified task performer based at least in part on the respective geographical location of the task performer;

controlling, by the configured computing device and for each of the identified one or more task performers, performance by the identified task performer of the appropriate task variant determined for the identified task performer by,

providing, by the configured computing device and via at least one of the one or more intervening computer networks, a graphical user interface to a client device of the identified task performer, the graphical user interface including one or more elements displaying information regarding the appropriate task variant for the identified task performer; and

receiving, by the configured computing device and via the at least one intervening computer network, results of performance of the appropriate task variant from the identified task performer based at least in part on one or more interactions of the identified task performer with the provided graphical user interface; and

making the received performance results available via the one or more intervening computer networks to a task requester that supplied the task.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the multiple distinct variants of the task are each specific to one of multiple distinct locales that each includes one of the multiple geographical locations.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the multiple distinct variants of the task are each specific to one of multiple distinct locales that each has one or more associated human languages, and wherein the identifying of the one or more task performers is based at least in part on each of the task performers being able to perform tasks using at least one of the associated human languages for the locale.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the displaying of the information regarding the appropriate task variant to one of the identified task performers is performed in response to a request from the one identified task performer for information about one or more tasks associated with a specified locale.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the multiple distinct variants for the task represent alternatives for use in performing the task, such that a first of the multiple distinct variants is determined to be appropriate for a first identified task performer that is associated with the geographical location specific to the first distinct variant, a second of the multiple distinct variants is determined to be appropriate for a distinct second identified task performer that is associated with the geographical location specific to the second distinct variant, and wherein either of the first identified task performer and the second identified task performer is enabled to perform the task using the distinct variant respectively determined to be appropriate for them.

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

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing device to perform the method.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the contents include one or more data structures for use in controlling the performance of an appropriate task variant for each of the identified task performers, the one or more data structures comprising multiple entries that each corresponds to a distinct variant for the task and contains information specific to the geographical location for the distinct variant.

9. A computing system configured to control performance of tasks by task performers, comprising:

one or more processors;

storage configured to store information about multiple tasks that are available to be performed, wherein one task of the multiple tasks has multiple distinct variants that are each specific to one of multiple distinct locales; and

a task system that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, configures the at least one processor to control performance of the one task by;

identifying one or more task performers that are each associated with a locale specific to at least one of the multiple variants for the one task;

determining, for each of the identified one or more task performers, an appropriate variant of the one task based at least in part on the locale associated with the task performer;

providing, to each of the identified one or more task performers on a client device of the identified task performer and via one or more computer networks, information about the appropriate task variant for the identified task performer via a displayed graphical user interface of the task system; and

receiving, via the one or more computer networks, results of performance of the one task from at least one of the identified one or more task performers via one or more interactions of the at least one identified task performer with the displayed graphical user interface.

10. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the task system further configures the at least one processor to make the received results for the one task available to a task requester that supplied the one task.

11. The computing system of claim 9 wherein each of the multiple locales has one or more associated geographic locations and has one or more associated human languages, and wherein the identifying of the one or more task performers includes selecting each of those one or more task performers based on the task performer being located at one of the one or more associated geographic locations for the locale of one of the multiple distinct variants for the one task and based on the task performer being able to use at least one of the one or more associated human languages for the locale of at least one of the multiple distinct variants for the one task.

12. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the determining of the appropriate variant of the one task for each of the identified one or more task performers includes determining that each of the identified one or more task performers is associated with a geographic location corresponding to the locale of one of the variants for the one task.

13. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the determining of the appropriate variant of the one task for each of the identified one or more task performers includes determining that each of the identified one or more task performers is associated with a human language corresponding to the locale of one of the variants for the one task.

14. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the providing of the information about the appropriate task variant to at least one of the identified task performers is performed in response to a request from the at least one identified task performers for information about one or more tasks associated with an indicated locale that matches the locale of one of the variants for the one task.

15. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the multiple distinct variants for the one task are received from a task requester that submits the one task and represent alternatives for use in performing the one task, such that a first of the multiple variants for the one task is determined to be appropriate for a first task performer associated with a first locale specific to the first variant and a distinct second of the multiple variants for the one task is determined to be appropriate for a distinct second task performer associated with a distinct second locale specific to the second variant, and wherein either of the first task performer and the second task performer is enabled to perform the one task using the appropriate variant respectively determined to be appropriate for them.

16. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the task system is a task fulfillment facilitator system, wherein the multiple tasks are provided to the task fulfillment facilitator system by one or more task requesters and include some tasks that do not have multiple distinct variants, and wherein the identified one or more task performers are selected from a plurality of task performer users of the task fulfillment facilitator system who are unaffiliated with the one or more task requesters.

17. The computing system of claim 9 wherein the task system includes software instructions for execution by the at least one processor.

18. A computer-implemented method for facilitating performance of tasks by task performers, comprising:

receiving, by one or more configured computing systems and via one or more computer networks, information about one or more tasks that are available to be performed, wherein one of the tasks has multiple distinct variants that are each specific to one of multiple distinct locales; and

controlling performance, by the one or more configured computing systems and via at least one of the one or more computer networks, of the one task by;

determining, for each of one or more task performers identified as being associated with one of the multiple distinct locales, the respective one of the multiple distinct variants that is specific to that locale;

providing information via the at least one computer network to each of the identified one or more task performers about the one task variant determined for the task performer; and

receiving results of performance of the one task from at least one of the identified one or more task performers via the at least one computer network.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 further comprising making the received results for the one task available to a task requester that supplied the one task.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein each of the multiple distinct locales has one or more associated geographic locations, and wherein the method further includes identifying each of the one or more task performers based at least in part on determining that each of those one or more task performers is associated with at least one of the one or more associated geographic locations for the locale of one of the variants for the one task.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein each of the multiple distinct locales has one or more associated human languages, and wherein the method further includes identifying each of the one or more task performers based at least in part on determining that each of those one or more task performers is associated with at least one of the one or more associated human languages for the locale of one of the variants for the one task.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein each of the multiple distinct locales has one or more associated geographic locations and has one or more associated human languages, and wherein the determining of the respective one of the multiple distinct variants for each of the identified task performers includes determining the task performer is located at one of the one or more associated geographic locations for the locale of the one variant and the task performer is able to use at least one of the one or more associated human languages for the locale of the one variant.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein, for one of the identified one or more task performers, the providing of the information about the one task variant determined for the task performer is performed in response to a request from the one task performer for information about one or more tasks associated with an indicated locale.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein the multiple distinct variants for the one task are received from a task requester that submits the one task and represent alternatives for use in performing the one task.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are part of a task fulfillment facilitator system, wherein the one or more tasks are part of multiple tasks that are provided to the task fulfillment facilitator system by one or more task requesters and that include some tasks without multiple distinct variants, and wherein the identified one or more task performers are a subset of a plurality of task performer users of the task fulfillment facilitator system who are unaffiliated with the one or more task requesters.