Patent Application
20080313026
The present invention relates generally to voting and more specifically to detecting attempts to cast votes in violation of a set of voting rules and modifying the value attributed to individual votes based upon the past and current behavior of the voter.
The Internet enables the rapid exchange of information over vast distances. The potential of the Internet to reach a large audience has prompted many people to use the Internet to conduct competitions and surveys. In a number of instances a competition or a survey is posted upon an interactive web site and visitors to the web site can cast votes or select between different options for responding. The votes and responses can then be tallied and the information used for a variety of purposes including determining the winner of the competition, a finalist for the competition or the most popular survey response.
A problem that can be encountered when conducting a competition or a survey via the Internet is the potential for a person to submit multiple votes or responses and unfairly influence the outcome of the competition or survey. Many interactive web sites (such as Bopsta.com) require users to establish a profile in order to participate in a competition or survey and in order to limit the number of votes that can be cast by a user. The limit can be an absolute limit or a limit on the number of votes that can be cast within a predetermined time period. Despite the limits placed on the number of votes a user can cast using a single profile, most sites do not prevent an individual from establishing multiple profiles and submitting a vote or a survey response from each profile. Several sites do not require a user to login, preferring a CAPTCHA to verify that a human and not a machine is casting a vote. Sites that use CAPTCHA verification often log the IP address of the voter and prevent recurrent votes from the same IP address.
Systems and methods are enabling people to vote online are disclosed that involve detecting attempts to violate voting rules and attributing different values to each vote as a function of information collected concerning the person that cast the vote. In many embodiments, the value of each vote is impacted by a voter's previous violations of the voting rules. In a number of embodiments, the value of each vote is impacted by a variety of factors including the reputation of the voter, the activities of a voter with respect to a web site or online community, and/or the extent to which a voter propagates information across the Internet. In other embodiments, other factors that reward behavior that positively impacts an online community and/or that discourage behavior that is detrimental to an online community are used in determining the value to attribute to a vote.
One embodiment of the invention includes a server connected to a network, a database connected to the server and a voter computer connected to the network. In addition, the server is configured to provide a plurality of options to the voter computer, the voter computer is configured to register with the server using a profile and to communicate a current selection from one of the options to the server, the database stores information concerning past activity associated with a voter profile and the server is configured to determine the value of the vote as a function of at least one factor indicative of stored information concerning the past activity associated with the voter profile.
In a further embodiment, the server is configured to provide a plurality of options to the voter computer in accordance with at least one voting rule and the information concerning past activity includes information indicative of attempts to violate at least one voting rule.
In another embodiment, the server is configured to disregard selections that violate any of the voting rules.
In a still further embodiment, at least one voting rule specifies a minimum allowed time between selections from the same set of options, the server is configured to apply a time stamp to the current selection, the information concerning the past activity associated with the voter profile includes a time stamp of the last time an identical selection to the current selection was made by a voter using the voter profile and the server is configured to determine whether the current selection constitutes a violation of the voting rules by comparing the minimum allowed time to the time difference between the time stamp of the current selection and the time stamp of the last identical selection.
In still another embodiment, devices connected to the network possess an IP address and the server identifies the voter computer using the IP address of the voter computer.
In a yet further embodiment, the voter computer is configured with a browser application that accepts cookies and the server is configured to provide a cookie that identifies the voter computer to the browser application.
In yet another embodiment, the minimum allowed time is measured in units of minutes.
In a further embodiment again, the server is configured to interact with the voter computer, the server is configured to associate interactions with the voter computer with the voter profile in the database and at least one of the factors indicative of the stored information concerning past activity is indicative of the recorded interactions.
In another embodiment again, the server is configured to determine a reputation factor using at least the recorded interactions associated with the voter profile and at least one of the factors indicative of the stored information concerning past activity is the reputation factor.
In a further additional embodiment, the server is configured to determine an activity factor using at least the recorded interactions associated with the voter profile and at least one of the factors indicative of the stored information concerning past activity is the reputation factor.
Another additional embodiment also includes a plurality of member computers. In addition, the database stores a profile with respect to each member computer, the server is configured to interact with the voter computer by enabling the voter computer to establish an association with a member computer, the server is configured to record associations between the voter profile of the voter computer and the profiles of the member computers in the database and at least one of the factors indicative of the stored information concerning past activity is indicative of the recorded associations.
One embodiment of the method of the invention includes maintaining information concerning the activity of each voter, receiving a vote from one of the voters, verifying that the vote does not violate at least one voting rule, determining a value to attribute to the verified vote using a function of at least one factor that is indicative of the stored information concerning the activity of the voter and adding the value of the vote to the tally.
A further embodiment of the method of the invention also includes determining that a second vote violates at least one voting rule, and including the violation of the voting rules in the voting record of the voter that cast the second vote.
Another embodiment of the method of the invention also includes soliciting votes in response to a plurality of options, where the solicitation includes at least one voting rule prohibiting casting more than one vote within a predetermined time period. In addition, determining whether a vote violates any of the voting rules includes reviewing the stored information concerning the activity of the voter to determine when the voter last cast a vote with respect to the plurality of options and determining whether the time between the received vote and the last vote is greater than the predetermined time period.
In a still further embodiment of the method of the invention, determining whether a vote violates any of the voting rules includes detecting attempts by a single voter to cast multiple votes under a plurality of identities.
In still another embodiment of the method of the invention, detecting attempts by a single voter to cast multiple votes under a plurality of identities includes logging the IP address of votes cast by voters and comparing the IP address of the received vote to previous votes cast by voters.
A yet further embodiment of the method of the invention also includes recording information concerning the actions of the voter and determining the reputation of a voter based upon the recorded actions of the voter. In addition, at least one of the factors indicative of the stored information concerning past activity is indicative of the stored information concerning the reputation of the voter.
Yet another embodiment of the method of the invention also includes recording information concerning associations between voters. In addition, the reputation factor of a voter is indicative of the recorded actions of the voter and the recorded associations between the voter and other voters.
Another further embodiment includes a server connected to a network, a database connected to the server and a user computer connected to the network. In addition, the server is configured to provide a candidate to the user computer, the user computer is configured to register with the server using a profile and to communicate a rating of the candidate to the server, the database stores information concerning past activity associated with a voter profile and wherein the server is configured to determine the value of the rating as a function of at least one factor indicative of the stored information concerning the past activity associated with the voter profile.
Turning now to the drawings, systems for conducting online competitions and surveys in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. The systems enable voters to cast a vote or provide a survey response. Instead of attributing equal weight to each vote or response, the impact of each vote on the overall score is based upon any of a number of factors that are typically related to the identity of the voter and information collected about the voter. In several embodiments, the systems detect attempts by a voter to violate voting rules. Violations of voting rules are recorded and can be one factor used when determining the value that should be given to a vote or survey response. In many embodiments, the voter's positive involvement with a competition, survey or broader online community is another factor that is considered when determining the value given to a vote or survey response. In a number of embodiments, factors considered when determining the value of a vote or survey response include the number of times a voter has legitimately voted for or responded to a survey, the number of selections viewed and/or engaged with when casting a vote, and the user's efforts to propagate a selection or competition throughout the Internet. Although many of the embodiments presented below are discussed with respect to the tallying of votes, the systems and methods described herein are equally applicable in any application that involves tallying user responses. As a result, any reference to voting should be considered to include submitting a vote and any other submission involving a choice between a number of options and/or the ranking, rating and/or scoring of a submission.
An online voting system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in
In a number of embodiments, the web server 12 hosts an interactive site that solicits selections between a number of options. In many embodiments, the selection can involve casting a vote between a number of different candidates. In several embodiments, the selection involves submitting an answer to a survey question. In a number of embodiments, the web server 12 hosts an interactive site that solicits ranking, rating and/or scoring of candidates. A group of embodiments include at least one voting rule and the server 12 is configured to detect violations of voting rules. A number of different examples of voting rules and techniques for detecting violations of voting rules are discussed below.
A voter can use a voter computer 16 to submit a selection and/or ranking. Voter computers are typically computing devices such as personal computers, mobile phone handsets and consumer electronics devices that are capable of connecting to a data network and viewing data via a browsing application. The server 12 is configured to receive votes from voter computers and to attribute values to each vote according to information about the voter stored in the database. In many embodiments, information concerning the voting history of the voter and the voter computer is recorded in the database. In several embodiments, information concerning the reputation of the voter, interactions between the voter and the web site, and efforts by the voter to propagate the opportunity to vote to other locations throughout the Internet are recorded in the database. Propagation is an example of one-to-many viral distribution of content that typically involves posting the content on another website. Propagation is discussed in more detail in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/958,219 entitled “Online Content Marketing Platform” to Rose et al., filed on Jul. 3, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference above. As is discussed below, any factors related to the source of the vote can be used to determine the value of a vote using any appropriate function of the factors in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
In many embodiments, individual votes are recognized due to the server requiring the voter to register using a voter profile prior to casting a vote. Activity associated with the voter profile can be stored in the database 14 and used when determining the impact of a vote on a total score.
In the illustrated embodiment, a number of member computers 20 are connected to the network. Members of an online community can use the member computers to interact with each other and to interact with the interactive site hosted by the server 12. In many embodiments, information concerning interactions between a voter and other members of an online community is stored in the database 14 and the information is another factor that can be considered when determining the value of a user's vote.
Although a specific architecture is shown above with respect to
A process for conducting a competition in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in
The processes used to detect attempts to violate voting rules or “cheat” depend upon the nature of the voting rules. In many embodiments, the voting rules include a restriction on the number of votes that can be cast within a specified time period. In embodiments where a web site includes multiple competitions, voters are often able to cast votes in a number of different competitions, but voting rules limit the number of votes they can cast with respect to a single entry in the competition within a specified time period. In other embodiments, other voting rules limit the manner in which votes can be cast and/or the ranking, rating and/or scoring of individual submissions.
A process for detecting attempts to violate voting rules limiting the number of votes that can be cast by a voter with respect to a selection within a specified time period is shown in
Another process for detecting attempts to violate voting rules limiting the number of votes that can be cast by a voter with respect to a selection within a specified time period is shown in
When the predetermined minimum number of logins from different accounts having the same IP address has occurred, a determination (66) is made as to whether each of the logins occurred over a predetermined time period. When the logins occurred over a period longer than the predetermined time period, then the process terminates. When the logins occurred within the predetermined time period, then a determination (68) is made as to whether identical votes were cast from any two of the accounts. When identical votes were not cast, then the process terminates. When identical votes were cast, then a violation of the voting rules is detected (70). The parameters used in a process designed to detect violations of voting rules can be modified as observations are made concerning attempts to violate voting rules. For example, more than two identical votes could be required for a violation of the voting rules to be found.
A variety of other processes can also be used in determining whether a vote constituted a violation of voting rules. For example, a voter computer can include a unique CPUID that is used to determine whether a single user is using multiple accounts to cast multiple votes in violation of voting rules. In many embodiments, the system monitors logins from blocks of IP addresses controlled by an ISP as opposed to monitoring a single IP address. In several embodiments, geographic location can be used to monitor voting patterns and prevent abuses such as paying voters in low wage countries to vote on behalf of a particular selection (i.e. activity analogous to “gold farming” in MMORPGs). In a number of embodiments, communication between users and voting patterns can be monitored to detect vote swapping by users. For example, reviews and/or comments could be automatically scanned to detect activity indicative of vote swapping.
Systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention not only detect attempts to violate voting rules, but are able to diminish the value of future votes cast by voters that attempt to violate voting rules. In many embodiments, a number of different factors are used in determining the value attributed to each vote and the factors are chosen to encourage certain behaviors and discourage other behaviors. Examples of behaviors that an administrator might wish to encourage are active positive participation in an online community, review of many selections prior to casting a vote, a diversity of activity, active social participation (i.e., having many friends), and propagating information to other web sites to increase the reach of a poll, survey or competition.
A process for determining the value of a selection in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in
As can readily be appreciated, the processes used to determine the value attributed to a vote are entirely dependent on the actions that the operator of an interactive site wishes to encourage and the actions the operator of the site wishes to discourage. A process for determining a value to give to a vote using information concerning a voter is shown in
The various factors determined in the process outlined above are simply values that are determined from information maintained about a voter. These factors can then be combined into a formula using any of a variety of functions that are designed to encourage particular activity and discourage other activities according to the significance of the activity. In many embodiments, the formula is a product of various factors. In several embodiments, the formula is a weighted sum of the factors. In a number of embodiments, the formula is a combination of products and sums of the factors. In many embodiments, a single factor or multiple factors are included in the formula and the factors included in the formula are not limited to those factors described above. Other factors that can be considered include factors that reflect the extent to which votes are received from a diverse group of voters (i.e. as opposed to a small number of voters casting repeated votes), the pier review activity rating of activity (i.e. activity receiving favorable pier reviews increases the value of a vote), nested propagation (i.e. propagation from a propagated site), a voter's success in predicting the winner of previous campaigns, status awarded to the voter by the administrators of a web site, promotion of other user's entries, the number of selections reviewed prior to voting, the number of “internal” views (i.e. views from within the web site hosting the poll, competition or survey), and the number of “external” views (i.e. views from propagated sites).
As is discussed above, a cheating factor is one of a number of factors that can be considered in determining the value of a vote. The cheating factor can be used to incorporate a voter's propensity to violate voting rules into the value attributed to the vote cast by a voter. A process for determining a cheating factor in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in
The process described above with respect to
In general, the manner in which voter activity (either with respect to a single competition/survey or with respect to an online community more broadly) can be factored into the value attributed to a vote depends upon the capability of a server to track voter activity and the number of associations that a voter has with other voters. U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/958,219 entitled “Online Marketing Platform” to Rose et al., filed on Jul. 3, 2007, which is incorporated by reference above, describes systems for tracking user activity and relationships between users. In many embodiments, activities that influence the factors used to calculate the value of a vote include creating a user account, adding a blog entry to a profile, adding a picture to a profile, adding an album to a profile, adding a video to a profile, adding a series of videos to a profile, adding audio to a profile, rating another user's profile or content, voting, commenting on any aspect of another user's profile or content, nominating another user for an award, receiving an award based upon other user's nominations, logging in to the site, updating a profile, referring a friend to the site, having the friend sign up, and/or reporting abuse. The factors that determine the value of a vote can also be decreased for activity that is perceived as detrimental. For example, many embodiments include a reputation factor that is reduced in response to a report of abuse. In a number of embodiments, diversity of activity is rewarded. For example, reputation index is increased by voting for a number of different selections, reviewing a number of different selections, and viewing a number of different selections. In many embodiments, large amounts of activity centered on a small number of entries results in a reduced reputation factor due to the lack of diversity of activity. A reputation index can also be impacted by the number of friends that a voter has within an online community. The larger the number of friends the greater the reputation factor of the voter.
A process for determining a reputation factor in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown in
Although the above discussion refers to specific processes for determining a number of factors including cheating factor, activity factor and reputation factor. Similar processes can be used to determine other factors. As discussed above, many factors used to determine the value of a vote are simply numbers that reflect particular information collected about a voter, which is indicative of positive or negative behavior. Consequently, any process that proportionately reflects the extent of the positive or negative behavior can be used to generate a factor for determining the value of a vote in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
While the above description contains many specific embodiments of the invention, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as an example of one embodiment thereof. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by the embodiments illustrated, but by the appended claims and their equivalents.
The present invention claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60,944,467 entitled “Online Content Marketing Platform” to Rose et al., filed Jun. 15, 2007, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/958,219 entitled “Online Content Marketing Platform” to Rose et al., filed on Jul. 3, 2007, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/961,899 entitled “Content Distribution System Including Cost-Per-Engagement Based Advertising” to Rose et al., filed Jul. 24, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/962,184 entitled “System and Method for Voting in Online Competitions” to Rose et al., filed Jul. 27, 2007, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The present application is also related to the U.S. patent application entitled “Online Marketing Platform” to Rose et al., filed Aug. 17, 2007 and the U.S. patent application entitled “Content Distribution System Including Cost-Per-Engagement Based Advertising” to Rose et al., filed Aug. 17, 2007, the disclosure of which is also expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60944467 | Jun 2007 | US | |
| 60958219 | Jul 2007 | US | |
| 60961899 | Jul 2007 | US | |
| 60962184 | Jul 2007 | US |
