Method and apparatus for conducting an information brokering service

Abstract

A system and method is provided that provides an early indication of consensus of opinion among a number of users regarding an event or observation indicated by a user. Such an opinion may be interesting to an information consumer, who may be interested in determining the outcome of the consensus relating to the event or observation, or may otherwise desire to perform surveillance or survey of a particular issue or subject. Such recognition of early events or observations may be useful in different areas, such as healthcare, finance, etc., where initial observations, if provided early, allow resulting decisions to be made much earlier. The opinion may, for instance, be used as an early indicator of problem with a product, company, etc. that would permit an information consumer to perform an action at a much earlier point than if he / she relied on traditional sources of information. Thus, such opinion information may be invaluable as a tool for monitoring events.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 697,213, entitled “SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ASSEMBLING IDEAS, PREDICTING OUTCOMES, GENERATING REVENUE, AND PROCESSING DATA IN A SELECTIVE MECHANISM,” filed on Jul. 7, 2005, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The field of the invention relates to online information systems, and more specifically, to online systems having communities of users that share ideas. [0004] 2. Discussion of the Related Art [0005] The phenomenon of like-minded people going online to share ideas, trade, or compete is well-accepted. In moving from the physical world to the digital one, users create virtual “communities” where they are bound together by the similarities of their interests or activities, rather than the proximity of their location. These communities can take any number of...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] According to one aspect of the present invention, a system and method is provided that provides an early indication of consensus of opinion among a number of users regarding an event or observation indicated by a user. Such an opinion may be interesting to a consumer of information, who may be interested in determining the outcome of the consensus relating to the event or observation. Such recognition of early events or observations may be useful in different areas, such as healthcare, finance, etc., where initial observations, if provided early, allow resulting decisions to be made much earlier. The opinion may, for instance, be used as an early indicator of problem with a product, company, new insight on a disease, awareness of a disease outbreak, etc. Such an opinion or observation may permit an investor or other information consumer to take a position or take action at a much earlier point than if s / he relied on traditional sources of information. Thus, such opinion information may be a valuable tool for monitoring events.

[0019] Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, it is appreciated that existing predictive markets and social networks require a moderator to create issues to be voted on and adjudicate them. However, according to one aspect of the present invention, users are permitted to define the issues being voted on. Because users create the issues, an online system that permits users to define the issues can function as an early warning system, whereby users having an observation can submit the observation to the system. Such users may be in a position to make the observation at an earlier point than traditional methods of monitoring issues (e.g., waiting for a journal article to come out on a particular issue, an FDA action in response to an issue, etc.), and thus the early observation may be useful.

[0024] In another example voting model, a user may be permitted to provide another response to the observation or opinion in addition to the binary yes / no, agree / disagree response model. The submitted response may be presented to other users as an option for response (e.g., in the form of a multiple choice selection), where other users can select the submitted response as their vote on the observation or opinion. In this way, users can propose new responses relating to the observation or opinion that can be voted on by other users.

[0026] Thus, according to one embodiment, the system may facilitate monitoring voting by later users, and if their voting or other observations (e.g., in the form of an alternative submitted response) changes the mind of the early voter, that voter may be permitted to change their vote. A change in voting may be permitted during the pendency of a ticket, allowing the consensus result to be a more accurate reflection of the users' opinions, and allows for earlier voters to change their vote in response to later-posted observations. Further, an information consumer may permitted to observe the voting process, and any voting trends that may arise during the pendency of the ticket. The system may also provide the information consumer key information relating to the ticket during the voting process, such as trends, alternative responses, or other information.

[0028] To foster such participation, various mechanisms may be used by the system to motivate users. For instance, monetary or any other type of value (e.g., points) may be attributed to tickets, which may increase or decrease based on the opinions submitted by users. Thus, if other users agree with an observation, a consensus measurement (referred to herein as a signal strength) of the ticket is increased. Similarly, if users disagree with an observation, the consensus measurement of the ticket is decreased. Whether other users agree or disagree with the observation, a ranking of the user originating the ticket may be affected. Other mechanisms may be used by the system to encourage desired participation (e.g., submitting opinions by particular users in their field of expertise, users encouraged to both create observation and express opinions) and to discourage undesired participation (e.g., gaming of the system, submission of non-unique observations, etc.). Further, the system may encourage users to submit tickets in particular subject areas to foster ideas in those areas (e.g., by valuing tickets and voting more highly in such areas). According to one embodiment, the system may use rules to provide such incentives and disincentives for user behavior.

[0033] According to another aspect of the present invention, tickets may be identified in the system and matched to particular users based on their classification information. For instance, a ticket may be classified by a submitting user, along with any classifications assigned by the system, and based on the assigned classifications, the submitting user is displayed tickets already submitted to the system having similar classifications. In this way, the user may more easily locate similar tickets. Tickets may be associated with users in other ways, such as, for example, identifying tickets to users that voted on similar tickets, identifying tickets to users who are identified as experts in a particular area, identifying tickets to particular consumers of ticket information that may have previously bid on such information, among others.

Problems solved by technology

However, conventional social networking systems or other online communities are insufficient for determining what information is likely to be quality information versus a random or incorrect observation or prediction.

That is, it is appreciated that such conventional systems are incapable of distinguishing quality data from noise.

Also, such networks do not provide proper incentive for experts to contribute quality information in particular subject areas that would be interesting to information consumers (e.g., corporations, equity traders, etc.).

Further, prediction markets are insufficient for advancing original ideas and observations, as predictive events are defined in such systems by a system operator and users can only vote on the predictive events set forth by the system operator.

Thus, such systems may not be used to submit and foster the ideas and observations originated by users.

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