With the growing popularity of the Internet, people are increasingly seeking answers to their problems and concerns online. Due to the overwhelming amount of information that is available over the Internet, however, it is often difficult for a lay person to browse over the Web to find the solution or advice that actually addresses his/her problem. Even when the user is able to find a solution or advice that is relevant to his/her problem, such advice is most likely to be of “one size fits all” type that addresses the concerns of the general public while it does not target the specific needs of the user as an individual. To make matters worse, the user may quite often receive too many pieces of advice to his/her problem from various self-claimed experts that are different or even conflict with each other. For a non-limiting example, when a person tries to seek advice on how to handle one of his/her emotional/mental problems, people from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences may offer different suggestions as to whether anti-depression drugs should be used or not. Consequently, the user may be too overwhelmed by the information received to be able to manage them efficiently and may not know whom to believe or which advice to follow.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.
The approach is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” or “some” embodiment(s) in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at least one.
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to manage one or more potential solutions (wisdom) solicited from a community of users to address a user's problem or concern, wherein such solutions are not only relevant to addressing the problem raised by the user, but are also customized to the specific needs and preferences of the user based on the user's profile. Such an approach enables a personalized “agent” to solicit, customize, and present the solutions from an online community that specifically address the user's problem or concern based on such in-depth personal knowledge and understanding of a personal profile of the user. In addition, the user is enabled to manage the solutions solicited by monitoring, browsing, viewing, or filtering the solutions being presented either in their original or customized forms. With such an approach, a user can efficiently and accurately find what he/she is looking for and have potential solutions unique to his/her problem that are distinguished from the solutions provided to other users having similar problems.
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As used herein, the term engine refers to software, firmware, hardware, or other component that is used to effectuate a purpose. The engine will typically include software instructions that are stored in non-volatile memory (also referred to as secondary memory). When the software instructions are executed, at least a subset of the software instructions is loaded into memory (also referred to as primary memory) by a processor. The processor then executes the software instructions in memory. The processor may be a shared processor, a dedicated processor, or a combination of shared or dedicated processors. A typical program will include calls to hardware components (such as I/O devices), which typically requires the execution of drivers. The drivers may or may not be considered part of the engine, but the distinction is not critical.
As used herein, the term library or database is used broadly to include any known or convenient means for storing data, whether centralized or distributed, relational or otherwise.
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In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 presents a pre-determined list of problems that could possibly be raised by the user in the form of a list, such as a pull down menu, and the user may submit his/her problem by simply picking and choosing a problem in the menu. Such menus can be organized by various categories or topics in more than one level. By organizing and standardizing the potential problems from the user, the menu not only saves the user's time and effort in submitting the problems, but also makes it easier to identify relevant RFW templates and/or solutions to the problem submitted.
In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 informs the user whether there is enough relevant material in the solution library 128 to generate one or more potential solutions to the problem submitted by the user or not. If there is not enough relevant material in the solution library 128, a request for (community) wisdom (RFW) can be initiated by the user or by the solution engine 118 transparent to the user to solicit the potential solutions from a community. Here, the community of wisdom includes one or more responders who can be but are not limited to,
In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 is configured to enable the user to determine how he/she prefers an RFW to be sent to the community of wisdom from a plurality of options that include but are not limited to the following:
In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 is configured to enable a responder (e.g., an expert, a professional, a service provider, or another registered user) in the community who is willing to accept the RFW and is qualified to provide a potential solution to the problem to accept and review the RFW for the problem submitted via the display component 106. The user interaction engine 102 is also configured to enable the responder to generate and submit a potential solution such as a statement of wisdom (SOW) to the problem to the solution engine 118 via the user interface 104. The responder can either choose to be anonymous (hide alias/screen name) from the recipient of the SOW (e.g., the user who submits the problem) or can alternatively leave his/her alias/screen name visible.
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In some embodiments, the profile engine 110 initiates one or more questions to the user via the user interaction engine 102 for the purpose of soliciting and gathering at least part of the information listed above to establish the profile of the user. Here, such questions focus on the aspects of the user's life that are not available through other means. The questions initiated by the profile engine 110 may focus on the personal interests, spiritual dimensions as well as dynamic and community profiles of the user. For a non-limiting example, the questions may focus on the user's personal interests, which may not be truly obtained by simply observing the user's online habits.
In some embodiments, the profile engine updates the profile of the user via the profiling component 114 based on the prior history/record and dates of one or more of:
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In some embodiments, each of a text, image, video, and audio item can include one or more elements of: title, author (name, unknown, or anonymous), body (the actual item), source, type, and location. For a non-limiting example, a text item can include a source element of one of professional advice, personal experience, psychology, self help, and religious, and a type element of one of essay, book passage, formal advice, personal story, reference, poem, quote, sermon, speech, and summary. For another non-limiting example, a video, an audio, and an image item can all include a location element that points to the location (e.g., file path or URL) or access method of the video, audio, or image item. In addition, an audio item may also include elements on album, genre, or track number of the audio item as well as its audio type (music or spoken word).
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 can associate each of the text, image, video, and audio items in a solution with a link to a resource or provider of the item from where the user can further pursue the solutions provided. Such resource can be but is not limited to one or more of: contact information of a professional such as a doctor, a lawyer, or a provider of a recommended service, link to further details of the item, or a link to purchase the item, if it is purchasable, from an affiliated vendor of the item, such as Amazon Associates, itunes, etc. The user interaction engine 102 can then present the link together with the corresponding item in the solution to the user and enable the user to pursue an item of his/her interest.
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 determines and selects one or more responders in the community to solicit the one or more solutions from (e.g., by sending them the RFW). Such determination is based on at least one or more of the following factors:
In some embodiments, when the user is having difficulty making an informed decision as to whom the RFW should be sent, the solution engine 118 may provide the user with a set of potential candidates whom the user may likely prefer to seek advice from. These candidates are selected by the solution engine 118 based on their prior experiences with the problem submitted such as experts or professionals in the area or users in the community who have had similar experiences. For each of the candidates recommended, the solution engine 118 may further provide a brief description of their qualifications as well as their profiles for the user to make an informed decision. The user may then be enabled to selectively send the RFW to all or only a subset of the candidates recommended.
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 can set a limit on the total number of RFWs (each to one or more responders) to be sent out for each single problem submitted by the user (in order not to flood and overload the community with RFWs and SOWS). The solution engine 118 can also set a time limit for each of the selected one or more responders to respond, based on the urgency and criticality of the user's problem. For a non-limiting example, if a selected responder has not answered after a week, the responder is considered as non-responsive to the submitted problem.
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 may generate the RFW associated with the problem raised by the user by identifying an RFW template for the problem from the RFW template library 126, customizing the RFW template based on the profile of the user before sending it to the one or more responders. Here, an RFW template defines a format and/or types of solution items to be provided by the responders in order to compose a potential solution. Some of the items can be marked as required while others can be marked as optional.
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 may evaluate, customize, moderate, and approve the potential solutions solicited from the responders. Since each responder may have provided a potential solution from his/her own perspective, the potential solutions gathered from the responders can be inconsistent with each other. In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 may analyze and characterize the potential solutions solicited into various categories, weigh and assign different numerical metrics to each of the potential answers based upon, for a non-limiting example, the credibility and experience levels of the responders, in order to come up with one or more appropriate solutions that will most likely address the problem of the user. During the evaluation process, the solution engine 118 may utilize domain expertise in the respective areas to evaluate the solutions solicited and continuously monitor and adjust/tune the solutions based on the user's feedback.
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 may customize or moderate the solutions solicited based on the user's profile including one or more of: the user's dynamic profile (e.g., current relationship status), his/her spiritual dimension (e.g., belief system), his/her recent comments and ratings on solutions related to the same or relevant problems, and his/her responses to requests for wisdom. For a non-limiting example, solutions that do not appeal to the user in the past based on his/her feedback will likely be excluded. In some situations when the user is not sure what he/she is looking for, the user may simply choose “Cheer me up” from the problem list and the solution engine 118 will automatically retrieve and present potential ways to cheer the user up based on the user's profile.
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 may customize the one or more solutions based on an “experience path” of the user. Here, the user experience path reflects the user's experience with or knowledge of the problem he/she submitted. The user experience path contains a list of path nodes, each of which represents a stage in the user's experience/knowledge progression process, for a non-limiting example, stages of expertise from: novice→amateur→professional→expert→guru. By associating the user experience path and path nodes with the potential solutions, the solution engine 118 can select the appropriate solutions for the user that are appropriate to his/her current state of experience or knowledge. In the example above, the solutions for a user new to the problem will be considerably different from a user who already had in-depth knowledge of the problem.
In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 determines if the potential solutions to the problem should be saved in the solution library 128 as community wisdom or not along with the problem, the user's profile, and other relevant factors used to customize the potential solutions. The solution engine 118 may save the potential solutions either in their original (SOW) form or in their customized form or both. In some embodiments, the solution engine 118 examines the content of the solutions to see how they would enhance the current community wisdom if included in the solution library 128. The solution engine 118 may also review the ratings and feedback from the user on the solutions provided to determine whether the solutions should be included in the solution library 128 or not. Alternatively, the solution engine 118 may make the solutions available not only to the user who submitted the problem, but also to a set of other users whose profiles match that of the user who submitted the problem, plus experts and/or professionals in the community as well to give them a chance to review, rate, and vote on the solutions as to whether the solutions should be included in the solution library 128 or not.
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In some embodiments, the solutions in the solution library 128 can be tagged and organized appropriately to enable the solution engine 118 to access and browse the solution library 128 for the purpose of easy identification, retrieval, and customization. Here, the solution engine 118 may browse the solutions by problems, types of solution items, dates collected, and by certain categories such as belief systems to build the solution based on the user's profile and/or understanding of the items' “connections” with the problem submitted by the user. For a non-limiting example, a sample music clip might be selected to be included in the solution because it was encoded to “cheer up” a user.
In some embodiments, each solution and/or item in the solution library 128 can be associated with multiple tags for the purpose of easy identification, retrieval, and customization by the solution engine 118 based on the user's profile. For a non-limiting example, a pair of (belief system, degree of adherence range) can be used to tag a solution as either appropriate for all Christians (Christian, 0-10) or only for devout Christians (Christian, 8-10). Thus, the solution engine 118 will only retrieve an item as part of a solution for the user where the tag of the item matches the user's profile.
In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 is configured to enabled the user to manage the RFWs and their corresponding SOWs, i.e., solutions, either in their original or customized forms. Through the user interaction engine 102, the user may monitor, browse, view, or filter the RFWs and SOWs that are being circulated or generated among the users/members of the community. Here, the RFWs and SOWs that the user is allowed to access may include but are not limited to:
In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 is configured to enable the user to browse the RFWs and SOWs he/she is allowed to access by categories when the RFWs and SOWs are optionally tagged and organized in the solution library 128 discussed above so that the user can easily find what he/she is looking for. To further improve the user's browsing experience, the user interaction engine 102 may present each of the RFWs and SOWs in either plain text or rich text (graphic) modes to highlight the category the RFWs or SOWs belong to and enable the user read the RFWs or SOWs by clicking the text or graphics. For non-limiting examples, graphic form of presentation may include tiles that encode each SOW by color—e.g., green for Islam, white for Christianity—with glyphs representing issues the wisdom the SOW covers.
In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 is configured to enable the user to apply one or more filters to the RFWs and SOWs he/she is allowed to view. Such filters include but are not limited to, timeliness (circulating in real time or shelved in the solution library 128), dates in history (as shelved in the solution library 128), subject matter or category, or problem submitted. For non-limiting examples, the user interaction engine 102 may enable the user to apply filters to see only RFWs and SOWs that are being circulated in the community in real time so that the user can get a sense of what is going on or what is the “hot” issue in the community. The user may also apply filter to view only the most recent responses to his/her problem, such as all SOWs he/she received from last Wednesday till today. Alternatively, the user may only apply filter to see only the SOWs related to Buddhist wisdom. The user is enabled to apply one or more of the filters at the same time to view, for a non-limiting example, RFWs and SOWs fall within a certain subject matter during a certain period of time.
In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 is configured to enable the user to provide feedback to the potential solutions provided to him/her via the user interface 104. Here, such feedback can be, for non-limiting examples, ratings or scores or ranking of the content, indication of preference as whether the user would like to see the same or similar solutions in the same category in the future, or any written comments or suggestions on the solutions that eventually drive the customization of the solutions. For non-limiting examples, a rating can be from 0-10 where 0 is worst and 10 is best, or 5 stars. There can also be a comment by a user that he/she trusts the responder or not. In some embodiments, the user interaction engine 102 may highlight the ratings of the SOWs presented to the user with different colors in graphic presentation mode or enable the user to apply filters based on the ratings of the SOWs so that only those SOWs rated above a certain threshold are presented to the user.
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One embodiment may be implemented using a conventional general purpose or a specialized digital computer or microprocessor(s) programmed according to the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the computer art. Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the software art. The invention may also be implemented by the preparation of integrated circuits or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.
One embodiment includes a computer program product which is a machine readable medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program one or more hosts to perform any of the features presented herein. The machine readable medium can include, but is not limited to, one or more types of disks including floppy disks, optical discs, DVD, CD-ROMs, micro drive, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, DRAMs, VRAMs, flash memory devices, magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data. Stored on any one of the computer readable medium (media), the present invention includes software for controlling both the hardware of the general purpose/specialized computer or microprocessor, and for enabling the computer or microprocessor to interact with a human viewer or other mechanism utilizing the results of the present invention. Such software may include, but is not limited to, device drivers, operating systems, execution environments/containers, and applications.
The foregoing description of various embodiments of the claimed subject matter has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the claimed subject matter to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to the practitioner skilled in the art. Particularly, while the concept “interface” is used in the embodiments of the systems and methods described above, it will be evident that such concepts can be interchangeably used with equivalent software concepts such as class, method, type, module, component, bean, module, object model, process, thread, and other suitable concepts. While the concept “component” is used in the embodiments of the systems and methods described above, it will be evident that such a concept can be interchangeably used with equivalent concepts such as, class, method, type, interface, module, object model, and other suitable concepts. Embodiments were chosen and described in order to best describe the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling others skilled in the relevant art to understand the claimed subject matter, the various embodiments and with various modifications that are suited to the particular use contemplated.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/253,896 filed Oct. 17, 2008 and entitled “A system and method for providing community wisdom based on user profile,” by Hawthorne, et al., and is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12253896 | Oct 2008 | US |
Child | 12407941 | US |