Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING AND RANKING
OPINIONS BY VOTES RELATED TO VARIOUS SUBJECT MATTER
This application is based upon Provisional Application Number 60/101,053
5 filed September 18, 1998 entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING
AND RANKING OPINIONS BY VOTES RELATED TO VARIOUS SUBJECT
MATTER.
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communications through the
10 utilization of a computer and the infrastructure of the Internet or an
Intranet and more
particularly to the utilization of a computer program to provide individual
users an
opportunity to express their opinions regarding defined subject matter or to
signify
agreement with other's opinions relating to such subject matter and to then
rank the
opinions relative to each other according to the number of agreements which
each
15 such opinion has received and to display such ranking.
Background of the Invention
It has long been desired to sample opinions of various individuals related to
particular subjects matter and to utilize the data generated by such sampling
for
various purposes. Typically, as is indicated in prior art U.S. Patent
4,345,315, these
20 sampling techniques utilize an electronic terminal which displays various
questions,
for example directed to the quality of a service provider, and requests the
user to
indicate his or her level of satisfaction with respect thereto. A similar such
opinion
sampling apparatus is shown in prior art U.S. Patent 3,689,930. In some
instances, for
example, to obtain,public opinion polls, various messages relevant to a
particular
25 issue are gathered and then submitted to users to determine their positions
with regard
to those messages. These positions are then sorted and tallied to form a poll
and to
predict various positions of the public with respect to issues related to the
messages
presented. Various complex formulas and algorithms are utilized to accomplish
this
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task and the results are provided for use by various organizations for various
purposes.
In other instances there has been used an interactive electronic apparatus for
the purpose of user polling or testing or for message delivery, or for re-
enforcement of
information, or for didactic purposes. In these systems such as shown in prior
art
S Patent 4,234,933 visual material is presented to a user and the user then
reacts thereto
by way of entries from a user activated input device such as a key pad, mouse,
or the
like. Typically these devices are used for preference sampling, educational
test
achievement or level, or in game playing. The material presented to the user
in these
interactive applications is normally fixed by the presenter.
Applicant is unaware of any prior art system or method which permits a
plurality of individuals to engage in a debate regarding a specific issue,
without regard
to geographic location, and to ascertain how other individuals agree or
disagree with
that individual's position through ranking of opinions on a computer screen in
at least
two dimensions. The present invention provides a system and method whereby an
individual may obtain the opinions of other individuals with regard to
predetermined
issues, read those opinions and then express agreement or disagreement with
respect
to those opinions. In addition, the individual after reading the opinions of
others with
respect to a particular issue may then generate his or her own opinion
regarding the
issue in question and then submit that opinion for reading by others who may
then
designate their agreement or disagreement therewith. Such a system truly
allows
individuals to engage in interactive debate on issues of interest to them.
The agreements or disagreements which are registered with regard to each
opinion respecting a particular issue are instantaneously tallied. The number
of
specified agreements with a particular opinion are then compared to the
specific
agreements with respect to all of the other opinions relative to the
particular issue and
all of these van~ious opinions directed to a particular predetermined issue
are ranked
according to the number of agreements therewith. The ranking is then displayed
upon
the computer screen in at least two dimensions which when taken together
determine
the relative ranking of each opinion with respect to all of the other opinions
directed
to that particular issue and will also indicate that opinion which has
received the
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greatest number of agreements.
Each of the opinions is represented on the computer screen by a symbol or
element which can take any geometric form desired. These symbols also appear
grouped within an additional geometric format which again may take any
particular
5 form desired such as a triangle, circle, square, cube, hexagon, stepped
pyramid, or the
like. As will be seen from discussions herein below a preferred form is a
pyramid or
triangular shape (with the base at the bottom) with each of the opinion
symbols also
being in the form of such a pyramid or triangle. To provide further
information with
respect to each of the opinions the symbol representing that opinion may be
assigned a
10 predetermined color. The colors assigned can indicate various information
such as,
for example, that opinion has been read and agreed with, that opinion has been
read
and disagreed with, that opinion is an unread opinion, or that opinion is the
opinion of
the individual viewing the information on the screen at that time. As can be
seen,
these colors provide information which is unique to that user with regard to
what he or
15 she has done with respect to each of the opinions shown on the screen with
regard to
the particular issue of concern. In addition, in the event that there are
insufficient
opinions with regard to the particular issue of concern, so that all of the
opinion
symbols appearing on the screen receive some color, then any remaining opinion
symbols are left blank or transparent and thus only the background appearing
on the
20 screen behind the symbol shows through until such a time as another opinion
is
rendered and occupies another symbol.
By utilization of the opinion symbols appearing on the screen the user may by
moving the cursor to a particular opinion symbol have displayed immediately on
the
screen an abstract of that particular opinion. Merely by moving the cursor to
a
25 different opinion symbol a brief or abstract of that opinion is immediately
shown on
the screen. Thus by merely positioning the cursor on an opinion symbol the
brief of
that opinion is shown. If the user desires to obtain the full opinion, then
the user may
merely click the mouse on that opinion symbol, the brief of which is
displayed, to
receive the full opinion. Thus, and with very simple and uncomplicated
interaction
30 between the user and the computer, the status of the various opinions as to
whether
they are read, unread, agreed with or disagreed with, or are the user's
opinions, is
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displayed and any unread opinions can be briefed and then the full opinion
obtained
with ease. The user is also provided with the ability of recalling any opinion
which
the user has read and agreed or disagreed with and changing the agreement or
disagreement. By such change the relative rank of the opinion may be also
changed.
With the method and system of the present invention the user is provided the
ability to search all of the debates which exist according to various
criteria. The
search may be conducted by subject matter, author, date, my debates (those
debates
created by the user) new debates and any combination of these criteria.
Depending
upon the criteria of the search, pull-down menus are provided from which the
user
10 may select. If the user, for example, wishes to search by subject then the
user is
provided with a pull-down menu listing a multiplicity of nouns. The user then
can
select a combination of up to four nouns which would define a subject matter
and an
area for the debate of interest. The computer software program then queries
the
database containing the information regarding the various debates for existing
debates
15 with titles which would match one or more of the up to four nouns selected
by the
user. If the query does not find any debate which matches any of nouns then
the user
is so notified and is given the opportunity to select different nouns or to
actually create
the users own debate subject matter. By doing this the user is now in a
position to
voice his or her own opinion with regard to the debate subject matter which
has been
20 generated by the user and to thereby find out if this subject matter is of
interest to
other users to a degree such that they would agree or disagree with the user's
opinion
or alternatively would generate their opinion and place the same in the
system.
The user interconnects to the web server from a personal computer connected
to the Internet or an intranet through a web browser (Netscape Navigator or
Microsoft
25 Explorer for example) and requests a web page which includes a call to a
debate Java
applet. The web server downloads the debate applet thus causing the personal
computer and its browser to become a virtual machine that runs the debate
applet.
The main function of the applet is to display the debate user interface and to
communicate with a debate servlet to execute within a JVM (Java Virtual
Machine).
30 The servlets handle the communications with the applets, program logic and
send read
and write requests to the database server through a JDBC (Java Database
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Connectivity) driver. The database utilized is a relational database that
stores all the
information regarding various debate users, such as geographic location, sex,
race,
religious background, age, income and the like, as well as subjects, opinions,
votes
and the like. The combination of web server, Java server and debate servlets
5 constitutes a debate server. The debate server also extracts certain of the
information
which exists in the database such as opinion briefs, ranking, author and the
like and
stores it in a cache at the debate server. Some of the information is also
placed in the
browser cache in the user's personal computer. As a result of the foregoing
the user
can display information about a debate without requiring retrieval of
information from
10 the database thus making the interaction between the user and the debate
application
as fast as possible. The database need only be accessed in the event that the
users
activity requires an updating of the database such as by voting or adding an
opinion or
if the user requests the full text of an opinion.
By utilization of the user web browser, a web server and the database server
15 and particularly through the use of the Servlets and Applets, the system
may be scaled
to handle a multiplicity of users, a multiplicity of web servers and a
multiplicity of
database servers if the demand by users for the debates program is extensive.
Summary of the Invention
A system and method for ranking opinions within a predetermined defined
20 subject matter and by displaying information related thereto on a computer
display
screen which includes establishing defined subject matter upon which opinions
may
be rendered, identifying individuals who are qualified to have access to those
opinions, allowing such individuals to access the opinions, to read the
opinions and to
specify an agreement or disagreement therewith, then comparing each agreement
with
25 each opinion with agreements with every other opinion related to the
subject matter
and then ranking all of the opinions relative to each other according to the
number of
agreements and displaying such rankings on the computer display screen in at
least
two dimensions.
Brief Description of the Drawings
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Figures IA through IE are illustrations of two and three dimensional opinion
ranking shapes which may be displayed on the computer screen.
Figure 2 is a simplified schematic illustrating the fundamental components of
the system of the present invention;
5 Figure 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating in more detail a system in
accordance with the present invention which utilizes a multiplicity of users,
servers
and databases;
Figure 4 is an illustration of a screen showing the debates home page;
Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating the entry by a user into the program;
and
10 showing the setup as required;
Figure 6 illustrates the computer screen which is used in the setup step;
Figure 7 is a flow chart illustrating the search capability of the program;
Figure 8 is an illustration of a computer screen illustrating various search
criteria available;
1 S Figure 9 is an illustration of a computer screen showing a pull down menu
with regard to certain search criteria;
Figure 10 is a flow chart illustrating the search by subject capability of the
program;
Figure 11 is a flow chart showing administration and deployment of debates
20 and opinions with respect thereto;
Figure 12 is an illustration of a computer screen illustrating a brief and a
full
opinion which may be selected utilizing the flow chart of Figure 11;
Figure 13 is a flow chart showing further administration and deployment with
regard to opinions which have been selected;
25 Figure 14 is an illustration of the computer screen showing one manner in
which the opinions may be displayed and ranked;
Figure I S is a flow chart illustrating the search by author portion of the
program;
Figure 16 is a flow chart showing the search by date portion of the program;
30 Figure 17 is an illustration of a computer screen providing a custom search
by
date entry by the user; and
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Figure 18 is an illustration of a computer screen displaying a list of debates
found by a search.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring now to the drawings and more specifically to Figures la through le
5 there is illustrated various alternative formats which may be utilized as a
geometric
configuration to provide an illustration on the computer screen which ranks
the
debates in two dimensions. As is indicated for example in Figure I A there is
shown a
rectangle which has been divided into a plurality of sections by vertical and
horizontal
gridlines. The opinion which appears in the upper left hand corner would be
ranked
I 0 as the opinion having the mast agreements of all of the opinions with
respect to a
particular debate subject matter which is of interest to the user and the
opinions of
which have been requested by the user. The ranking of the opinions, for
example
would be accomplished in descending order line by line as illustrated in
Figure lA.
An alternative geometric configuration is shown in Figure 1 B which is in the
15 form of a step pyramid suggestive of the pyramids generated during the
Mayan culture
dominance in Mexico, Central and South America. Utilizing this geometric
configuration it also may be divided into a plurality of sections by vertical
and
horizontal lines with each of the sections representing an opinion. The
opinion
residing in the upper most block would be the opinion which has the most
agreements
20 of all of the opinions with regard to the particular debate subject matter
of interest to
the user.
As shown in Figure 1 C a pyramid configuration or a triangle with the base at
the bottom may be utilized. The pyramid shape shown in Figure 1 C is again
sectionalized by lines drawn parallel to each of the three sides of the
pyramid to thus
25 create a plurality of additional pyramids or triangles within the two
dimensional
pyramidal shape. As is illustrated, each of the internal pyramids or triangles
represent
an opinion with the uppermost one being the opinion having the most agreements
of
all of the opinions which have been generated with respect to the subject
matter which
is of particular interest. The rankings are then noted in a descending order
on a line by
30 line basis as indicated by the numbers 1 through 9.
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In Figure 1 D there is illustrated a plurality of concentric circles which may
form an additional geometric configuration within which debates may be ranked
in a
two dimensional manner. The concentric circles are divided by radial spokes
into
segments with each segment representing an opinion. The opinion at the center
of the
5 concentric circles will be the opinion having the most votes of all of those
opinions
which have been generated and which relate to the subject matter of interest
to the
user. The opinions may also then be ranked in a clockwise descending order as
indicated by the numbers 2 through 12. Obviously, the ranking may be
accomplished
in other fashions utilizing the concentric circles, such for example, in a
10 counterclockwise fashion, radially outward or the like.
By reference now to Figure lE there is illustrated a cube which has been
sectioned to provide a plurality of additional cubes and would permit ranking
in three
directions with the opinion having the most agreements being positioned in the
upper
left hand corner and the remaining opinions then being ranked in a descending
order
15 on a line by line and column by column basis and then subsequently in the
third
dimension from the front toward the rear of the three dimensional cube like
grid as
shown in Figure lE.
Irrespective of the geometric configuration chosen to be displayed on the
computer screen to provide a visual ranking of the opinions to the user it can
be seen
20 that the ranking is accomplished visually on the screen in at least two
dimensions in
each case. That is, the opinions are ranked both vertically and horizontally
in the
geographic configuration shown in Figures 1 A, 1 B, 1 C and 1 E and are ranked
toward
the center of the circle and around the center of the circle when concentric
circles are
used as is illustrated in Figure 1D. As is also illustrated with regard to
Figure lE an
25 additional dimension may also be added to the ranking if such is desired.
The main
purpose of these geometric configurations and the utilization of the
segmentation
thereof is to provide an instantaneous illustration for use by the user
showing the
number of opinions which have been generated with regard to the subject matter
of
interest and to tell the user which of those opinions has received the most
agreements,
30 the next most, the next most after that and so forth with regard to each of
the opinions
upon which votes have been cast. This will provide some guidance to the user
as to
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which opinion the user wishes to access first. As was indicated above and will
be
discussed more in detail hereinafter each of the symbols representing an
individual
opinion may also be color coded to provide yet further information to the user
such,
for example as to whether he has already read the particular opinion, not read
it,
5 agreed with it, whether it is his opinion or the like. This would also
provide further
guidance to the user to enable him in selecting which of the opinions he or
she wishes
to access at the particular instance.
Referring now more specifically to Figure 2, there is shown in schematic
diagram the general concept of a system which may be utilized in the debates
program
10 which is the subject matter of this invention. As is shown, the
architecture provided is
three tiered which provides advantages such as universal access, extensibility
and
application scalability. The computer program in accordance with the present
invention may be used in any system using any operating system or code
desired.
However, the presently preferred system is Java and the following description
is given
15 with respect thereto. As is shown, the first tier includes the client
personal computer
10 which includes a web browser 10A. The term client may be used throughout
this
specification interchangeably with the term user. As is well understood in the
art,
each user of a personal computer who is on the Internet has included as part
of the
software, a web browser. Preferably the web browser most desirable in
accordance
20 with the principles of the present invention is one that is a Java enabled
browser.
Through the utilization of the web browser, the hypertext transfer protocol
(HTTP)
software is available which enables direct communication over the Internet.
The second tier is a debate server which includes a web server 12 which runs
Java Servlet. The Java Servlets is capable of handling program logic and
database
25 access. At the present time most commercial web servers support this
feature of
utilizing Java ServIets and particularly those web servers identified as
Netscape Fast
Track, Enterprise Server, Fast Cap, Sun Web Server and Apache. When the client
initiates contact with the web server through the Internet or Intranet 11 and
logs on to
the debates program the web server 12 communicates Java Applets to the client
web
30 browser 10A. Subsequent to the transfer of the Java Applets, the client web
browser
l0A for all intents and purposes becomes a virtual machine capable of
executing the
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debates program. The user through the web browser and the computer mouse or
keyboard (not shown) will communicate commands, requests and queries to the
web
server 12 between the Applets and Servlets. The web server Java Servlets will
then
comiriunicate with the third tier which is the database server 14 to store
therein or
extract therefrom the data and information which is being generated or
requested by
the user. The Java Servlets can access information in the database through
Java Data
Base Connectivity (JDBC) standard API (Application Program Interface).
An important feature of the web server 12 is that the Java Servlets is loaded
once when it is called and stays resident in the memory. Static or persistent
10 information can be stored in a cache 12A and shared across multiple
invocations of
the Servlets therefore allowing access to this information without accessing
the
Database. A servlet may have unique features like interservlets communications
as
well as the ability for one servlet output to be connected as an input to
another servlet.
In the architecture as shown in Figure 1 a critical feature is the web server
12. The
15 web server 12 has a number of extremely desirable characteristics. One of
these
characteristics is that it provides distributed execution based on the modular
design of
the components. For example one Servlet can be programmed to have specific
features which can be run in a dedicated server as a way to distribute the
load. As an
example, such Servlet can be implemented with spell checking capabilities to
search
20 for offensive words or expressions which could possibly find their way into
an
opinion which a user is attempting to post with respect to a particular
debate. Also,
such a Servlet could be programmed to do simple word processing or to handle
such
items as making characters bold, in italics, or to underline characters, words
or the
like. Another characteristic of the web server 12 is its scalability.
25 Referring now to Figure 3, there is shown a schematic diagram and expanded
architecture illustrating a number of users, a cluster of servers and a
plurality of
databases. Servlet engines can be added to the architecture. The only
requirement is
that it be incorporated into whatever balancing scheme is being utilized in
the system
as will be described more fully below. Through the utilization of the
balancing
30 scheme and the added Servlet engines, the architecture may handle
increasing
numbers of simultaneous user requests by spreading the work between the
servers in
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the cluster. Since Servlets are stateless, that is they do not care what
server they are
on, they can easily be hosted on any engine within the server cluster and
still perform
properly. A further feature of the web server is that only one instance of a
Servlet is
loaded and thereafter it can handle many simultaneous requests through
multiple
5 threads. This dramatically minimizes the work load of the server. With prior
art type
applications such as Perl scripts, C, or C++ a new process is created for each
request
thus slowing down the communication and generating dramatically larger work
loads.
The purpose of the illustration in Figure 3 is to demonstrate the scalability
of the
architecture to provide the ability to server large mumbers of users
simultaneously. As
10 illustrated in Figure 3, a user may have a personal computer having a
browser with the
Applet and an appropriate keyboard or other inputting device as shown at 16
and at
18. There may be any number of such users as is illustrated by the user N and
the
dashed line 20 interconnecting the users 18 and N. Each of the these user
units are
interconnected to a balancing or distribution device 22 as indicated by the
15 interconnections 24, 26 and 28. Obviously, there would be additional
interconnections up to N such interconnections. The balancing device 22 may be
any
known to the art which is capable of routing requests from users to the
servers in order
to distribute the load thereby preventing overload of any one portion of the
system and
thereby slowing down communication with the users. The preferred such
balancing
20 device is DNS Round Robin. Other such devices known to the art are
Websphere,
Jaguar and Tengah. Webshpere is a trademark of IBM, Jaguar is a trademark of
Sybase and Tengah is a trademark of Weblogic for such devices. As is also
illustrated
in Figure 3 there are a plurality of servers as shown at 30, 32 and SN with
the dashed
line 34 connected between the server 32 and the server SN thereby indicating
that
25 there may be N such servers. Within each of the servers there is a Servlet
36 and a
data provider module such as shown at 36, 40 and 44 for the servlets in server
30, 32
and SN and at 38, 42 and 46 for the data provider module respectively in the
servers
30, 32 and SN. The DNS Round Robin 22 receives communications from the user
browsers 16 through N and then by determining which server 30 through SN is
30 available and was not last contacted will then transmit the request from
the user by
way of the connections 48, 50 and 52 to the desired and appropriate Servlets
36, 40
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and 44. Obviously, there will be sufficient connections as indicated by the
dashed line
54 between the lines 50 and 52 to provide appropriate communications to the
servers
depending upon the number SN thereof. As user requests that require access to
the
Database are received by particular servlets for example Servlet 36, it will
5 communicate with its data provider module 38. The data provider module is
then
connected by the connection 62 to an additional DNS Round Robin balancing
device
64 which in turn is connected through a connection 66 to a database 68.
Clearly the
servers 30, 32 through SN are connected to the DNS Round Robin 64 by
connections
62, 70 and 72. It should be recognized that there may be additional databases
as
10 illustrated at 74 and 76. Typically, these databases are a mirror image of
the database
68 as is indicated by the dashed lines 78 and 80. The mirrored database 74 is
connected to the DNS Round Robin 64 by the connection 78 while the mirrored
database 76 is connected thereto by the connection 80.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that a multitude of
15 communications received from a large number of users 16 through N may be
received
simultaneously on the DNS Round Robin 22 and will be distributed by it to
particular
Servlets in sequence. The Servlets will communicate through the data provider
module with the database to record the information being generated or to
provide the
information which is being requested by the user or to otherwise process the
data as
20 will be described more fully below. Certain types of information which will
remain
static may be extracted from the database and placed in a cache, for example
as shown
at 84, which may be directly accessed by the Servlet 36 and provided to the
users
browser, for example at 16. That information may also be retained and cached
in the
users browser depending upon the particular applications and the program. Such
25 information would, for example be the opinion briefs, the noun look up
tables, the
relative positions of the various opinions, with respect to each other and the
like. As a
result, that type of information is readily available to the user without a
communication being directed to the database to retrieve it. Thus, the
communication
between the Servlets, the data provider module and the database will basically
be
30 reserved for those situations where the user is voting, that is showing
agreement or
disagreement with respect to a particular opinion or is writing a new opinion,
to be
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posted in the database, or is conducting a search for a particular opinion by
subject
matter author, date or the like.
When the user accesses the web server through either the Internet or an
Intranet and accesses the debates program such, for example, as logging on to
the
Internet with Debate.com, the first thing which appears on the users screen is
the
home page which, for example, may appear as is illustrated in Figure 4 to
which
reference is hereby made. As is noted on the home page, there is the
identification of
the program and the ability to obtain information about debate, to SETUP (or
Register), to ENTER the program, view the RULES and then to EXIT the program.
If
an individual has already registered and is thus an identified and qualified
individual
he or she may participate in the Debate program by clicking on the ENTER bar
96.
However, unless an individual has already registered, that individual will not
be
permitted to enter the program because he or she is not identified and
qualified to do
so. Therefore, if that individual does wish to continue, the individual must
first click
15 on the SETUP bar 88. However, before doing the SETUP the individual may
wish to
learn more about the Debate program, in which event the individual will click
on the
ABOUT US bar 86. This may provide sufficient information to intrigue the
individual to then become interested further in finding out about what the
rules of
debate may be and under these circumstances the individual may then click on
the
20 RULES bar 92. Once the individual has found the information about the
program and
has obtained information about the rules, if the individual does not wish to
participate
in the Debate program then the individual may click on the EXIT bar 90 and
depart
the program without further action. However, if tlxe individual does wish to
participate in the Debate program, after viewing all of the above-referred to
25 information, the individual would click on the SETUP bar 88 to which
reference is
made.
When the user clicks on the set up bar 88 a set up screen as illustrated in
Figure 6 will appear and the Debate program will function as is illustrated in
the flow
chart of Figure 5. As is shown in Figure 5 when the set up bar 88 is clicked
on it will
30 cause the set up screen 100 to appear as is shown in Figure 6. The user is
then
required to insert his or her name, alias, personal data, server and password
which is
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then stored in the user's computer as shown at 103. When such is accomplished
the
computer returns to the home page 1 O5. The user may then, because he has
properly
registered and if a password has been e-mailed to the user, the user may enter
the
Debate program by pressing the enter bar 96 on the home page as shown in
Figure 4.
S On the other hand if the user is not desirous of engaging in the Debate
program at this
point he or she may click on the exit bar as shown at 90 in Figure 5 and at
the home
page on Figure 4 and will exit the program at that point.
The actual SETUP information which appears on the users screen is shown in
Figure 6. As is therein shown, the user is requested to insert his or her
first and last
name, his or her birth date, the country in which the user resides, the zip
code within
that country where the user resides and the gender of the user. The user is
also
requested to provide his or her e-mail address. As is also noted on the screen
at 101
on Figure 6, there is provided a place for the individual to insert an alias
if that
individual desires to do so. This option is provided because in many instances
an
15 individual would be desirous of expressing an opinion and having that
opinion posted
for others to view on the Internet but may be somewhat reluctant to initially
accept
responsibility for the position which is stated in the opinion. Therefore the
user, if he
or she desires, may select an alias by which that user may sign opinions in
the future.
Also displayed on the screen during the SETUP stage are settings which
indicate that
20 the Internet or Intranet address of the server to be accessed is Debate.com
and there is
also provided a place for the user to insert the user's password which will be
used in
the future for access by that particular user to the debate program. The
password, as is
the case with regard to many such programs, may be any series of numbers or
letters
desired by the user up to the maximum number permitted in that field, for
example,
25 eight characters or numbers or a combination thereof. In the case of an
Internet
implementation, this password can be sent to the user via e-mail after being
automatically generated by a server. Once all of the information has been
entered on
the SETUP screen as illustrated in Figure 6 the user would click on the "OK"
symbol
in the lower left hand corner of the screen and would then be registered and
become
30 an individual identified as qualified to have access to the Debate program
and to
render opinions, generate debates or the like in accordance with the rules for
Debate.
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If, however, once the information is entered the individual changes his or her
n.:.~.d
and does not wish to continue, he or she may hit the "cancel" button which
appears in
the lower right hand corner and then the EXIT bar 90 on the home page (Figure
4) to
depart the program. Assuming that the user has entered the data and wishes to
5 continue and has activated the "OK" button, as shown in Figure 6, the
information is
stored in the users computer as shown at 103 (Figure 5) and the screen is
returned to
the home page, as shown in Figure 4. The user may now activate the ENTER bar
96
to commence participation in the Debate program. When the ENTER bar 96 (Figure
5) is clicked the Debate program displays on the user's screen a search
application as
illustrated in Figure 8 to which reference is hereby made. The program
function at
this point is illustrated by the flow chart of Figure 7.
As is shown in Figures 7 and 8, the user is provided the ability to find
ongoing
debates by several criteria. As is illustrated, the user may search by
subject, by author,
by date, by my debates, by new debates and by the hottest debates. The user
then will
15 decide which of these criteria is to be used to search for debates in which
the user is
interested at the present time. The user would then click on, for example, by
subject
on the screen (Figure 8) which would activate the subject block 106. When such
occurs, the subject search criteria is placed on the user's screen 108. The
subject
search screen is shown in Figure 9.
20 As is shown by the user's screen represented in Figure 9, the user may
select a
combination of area, subarea and up to four nouns to define a particular
debate in
which the user may have an interest. Selections for each of these columns is
provide
by a pull down menu or any other similar interface technique, such as alpha
search.
For example, under the area column, there may be provided a pull down menu
which
25 identifies various geographical areas while under the subarea column there
may be a
pull down menu identifying various subareas within those geographical areas.
As one
example, under area can be listed countries and under subarea can be listed
cities. As
one illustration as set forth in Figure 9, it will be assumed that the user
has selected
the country Argentina under the area and the city Buenos Aires under the
subarea.
30 There will then be provided a plurality of pull down menus under each of
the columns
labeled noun one, noun two, noun three and noun four. An example of such a
pull
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down menu is shown under the column noun four. It has been assumed that the
user
has selected football, cup and referee for nouns one, two and three
respectively, as
illustrated on the screen representation of Figure 9. If desired, the user may
then go to
the noun four column and select one of the nouns there. For example, accuracy,
click
5 on it and it would appear in the top bar immediately under noun four. It
should
however be understood that it is not necessary for the user to fill all four
of the noun
columns, nor is it necessary for the user to fill the area or subarea. This is
merely by
way of example to provide an illustration of the manner in which the user may
select a
subject upon which the user has an interest and would like to enter into a
debate with
10 regard to that subject should one exist. Once the user has filled in those
columns as
desired and as shown in Figure 9, the user will click on the Find button in
the lower
left hand corner of the screen as shown in Figure !~. This is further
illustrated at 112
on Figure 10.
Upon clicking on the Find button, signals are transmitted to the program to
15 cause it to query the database as shown at 116. The program, then, as
illustrated at
118, queries the Debate database 120 to determine whether there are any
existing
debates which match one or more of the nouns in the selection criteria. If
such a
debates or debates exists as shown at 122, then the program determines if an
exact
match was found as illustrated at 123. If no exact match is found, the
indication
20 thereof is forwarded to the program activate Create Debate button at 124.
If one or
more debates are found matching one or more of the words entered on the search
screen, then the program displays a list of debates 126 in Figure 11, similar
to the
screen in Figure 18. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art since
the search
is being conducted according to the various criteria such as area/subarea and
up to
25 four nouns selected by the user from the various pull down menus presented,
there
may be a plurality of debates which include one more of the nouns and the area
and
subarea which has been selected by the user. As a result, the screen 126
showing the
list of debates may include a plurality of such debates which have been
identified and
retrieved from the database.
30 Such a list of debates retrieved which contain one or more of the search
criteria displayed in Figure 9 is illustrated in Figure 18 to which reference
is hereby
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made. As is thereon shown there are 6 such debates illustrated dealing with
such
topics as football, cup and referee and the like. There may be more in
different areas
than can be displayed on this screen and the user can so determine by clicking
on the
Next button. If there are more they will replace those on the screen. Once the
user
S has found a debate of interest, the user may then through utilization of the
mouse or
keyboard as indicated at 128 (Figure 11 ), select the specific debate in which
the user is
interested by clicking on it. Once the user has clicked on the specific debate
the
database is again searched and all of the data for all of those opinions which
have
been posted which are applicable to the specific debate chosen by the user are
10 retrieved, including the briefs, but not the full opinion text, as is
illustrated at 130.
The data which is extracted at this step will include the rankings of the
opinions and
the indication according to specific color as above-referred to as to whether
the user
has read or not read and agreed or disagreed with the opinions represented by
the
various opinion symbols appearing on the screen. All of this information is
I 5 transmitted as shown to the user's screen 134 where such data is displayed
for
information and use by the user. The user may, from the information displayed
on the
screen 134, make various selections as illustrated at 136 through 146 (Figure
11 ).
By reference now to Figure 14 there is illustrated one way in which the
various
opinions may be displayed on the user's screen. As is therein shown a pyramid
20 similar to that shown in Figure 1 a having a plurality of smaller pyramids
or triangles
(opinion symbols) disposed therein is preferable. Each of the triangles
represents an
opinion posted with respect to the debate selected. Each of the opinions is
identified
by a specific code to indicate whether the user has read the opinion, agreed
or
disagreed with it and whether the opinion was authored by the user. Preferably
the
25 code is a color code. When the users selects the desired debate the
representation
shown on Figure 14 will display the top ranked 100 opinions relating to the
debate.
The user may by placing the cursor over a triangle obtain the brief of that
opinion and
such is displayed on the user's screen along with the name or alias of the
author, along
with the number of votes or approvals and the position relative to other
opinions on
30 the same debate subject matter as is shown in Figure 14. If the cursor is
moved to
another triangle the brief for that opinion is displayed.
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As above discussed the triangles representing each of the debates may be
assigned various colors to indicate criteria of that particular debate opinion
with
regard to the user, for example, a first color, such as blue, may be assigned
to the
triangle opinion symbol to represent that the particular user has not read
that specific
5 opinion. A second color, such for example as gold, may be assigned to those
triangle
opinion symbols which have been read and agreed with by the user. A third
color,
such as black, may be assigned to those opinion symbols representing opinions
which
have been read and not agreed with by that specific user. And a fourth color,
such as
red, may be assigned to the triangular opinion symbols which represent those
opinions
10 which have been written and posted by the user. Obviously other colors
and/or codes
may be chosen as desired. As is also indicated above, in the event that there
are less
than 100 opinions regarding the specific debate which has been chosen, the
opinion
symbols will remain empty or transparent indicating the lack of sufficient
number of
opinions to fill the pyramid.
15 Assuming that the user has selected an opinion by clicking on a blue
opinion
symbol triangle (as shown at 136 (Figure 11)) the Debate program extracts the
full
opinion text from the database server as shown at 148 and displays on the user
screen
not only the brief of the opinion which has been selected, but also the
opinion in full
and the position ranking on the pyramid and the number of approvals, such is
20 illustrated at 150 and also illustrated in Figure 12. It will also be noted
that across the
screen are the various criteria utilized to select the debate in this
instance, football,
cup and referee. The brief for the opinion which has been selected is, "The
referee
should not have called the penalty in the last minute of the match". The full
opinion
with regard to that brief is then set forth below the bar showing the
position. As is
25 noted at the bottom portion of the screen, the author is identified as John
Doe and in
the lower right portion of the area where the opinion is presented is given
the date
upon which that opinion was posted. As is shown by keyboard symbol 152 on
Figure
13, to which reference is hereby made, the user now has an opportunity to
agree with
the opinion. If the user desires to do so, then such may be accomplished by
clicking
30 on the Agree button 152 and as shown in Figure 12. If the user agrees, such
is fed to
the program which updates database as shown at 156 to mark this particular
opinion
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as having been agreed upon by the user so that the rankings may be rearranged
to take
into consideration the new agreement.
If however, the user does not wish to agree with the opinion which has been
read then the user will click on the Back button 160 which is also shown on
the lower
S left portion of the screen at Figure 12. By clicking on the Back button the
information
appearing on the screen will be returned to the previous display, which in
this instance
will be the pyramid showing the opinion symbols. At the same time, the program
will
ascertain whether or not this particular opinion has been read by this
particular user at
a previous time as is illustrated at 162. If the opinion has not been read as
is shown at
10 164, then the database as shown at 166 will be updated to recognize that
this
particular opinion has now been read by this user but has not been agreed with
by this
particular user. If, however, as is illustrated by the connection 168 the
opinion has
previously been read but not agreed with then the updating will be by passed
since
such is not necessary.
15 As is indicated above, if the Back button at 160 is clicked on by the user
then
the previous screen will be returned to which will be the pyramid showing the
rankings for all of the opinions relating to the particular debate subject
matter such as
shown in Figure 14. The user may then again place the cursor over any of the
filled
triangle opinion symbols and have the brief of that opinion appear at the top
of the
20 screen above the pyramid along with its position, the author and the number
of
approvals.
As is also indicated on Figure 1 l, the user has other options and may instead
of moving the cursor from symbol to symbol to view the briefs desire to view
all of
the briefs and if such is desired, he may click on view briefs as shown on
Figure 14
25 and indicated at 142 on Figure 11. If such is clicked on then all of the
briefs of all of
the opinions existing on the debate pyramid which has been selected will be
placed on
the screen as is shown at 170 on Figure 11. Then as is shown on Figure 13 by
the
connector 12 appearing on both Figures 1 l and 13, the user has an opportunity
to
select any one of the opinions by clicking on the opinion symbol representing
that
30 brief as shown at 172 and have that full opinion extracted from the
database server as
shown at 174 and displayed on the screen. The user then has the opportunity to
agree
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with the opinion if he or she has not agreed with it previously, as indicated
at 176 and
as shown by the existing opinion screen 1 SO which is apparent on both Figures
1 I and
13. The ability to agree is shown at 152 in the upper portion of Figure 13 and
as has
beer; discussed above.
5 In the event that the opinion which has been selected at 172 (Figure 13) has
been read and agreed with by the user previously as is indicated at 178 then
that
opinion is shown on the screen at 180 as having been agreed with. The user now
has
an opportunity as illustrated at I 82 to click on the Withdraw my Agreement
button
which will automatically appear on the screen in place of the agree button.
Thus, the
10 user has the opportunity to change the agreement previously expressed with
regard to
that opinion and if the user does so by clicking on the Withdraw Agreement
button,
then such is transmitted to update the database as shown at 186, to reduce the
approval counter and make the changes needed in the ranking of the opinion.
Again referring to Figure 11 the user may also select to view only those
briefs
15 which have been unread as illustrated at 144. Under those circumstances as
shown at
190 the briefs of the unread opinions will be displayed on the user's screen.
As also
indicated by the off page connector 13 appearing on Figures 1 l and 13, those
briefs of
unread opinions once displayed on the screen, will give the user an
opportunity to
select a particular opinion by placing the cursor thereon and clicking it as
is shown at
20 193. That will then cause the entire opinion for the brief which has been
clicked to be
extracted from the Debate's database server as shown at 195 and displayed on
the
opinion screen as shown at 150. Again, as previously discussed the user will
have an
opportunity to agree with the opinion by clicking on the agree button as shown
at 152
in Figure 13. This will be followed by updating of the database as has
previously
25 been described.
As shown at 140 on Figure 11, the user also has the opportunity to place the
cursor on one of those symbols for opinions which have been previously read
and
agreed upon such, for example as a gold triangle, as is illustrated at 140.
When such
occurs the opinion which has been now clicked on will be extracted from the
database
30 as shown at 192 and displayed upon the screen as shown at 194. This will
provide the
opportunity for the user to withdraw the agreement previously given to this
particular
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opinion as illustrated by the symbol with the offpage connector 11 appearing
on both
Figures 11 and 13 as illustrated at 182 and as above described.
Also as indicated on Figure 11 at 138, the user may by placing the cursor upon
the symbol appearing on Figure 14 having the color corresponding to the user's
own
5 opinion, such for example as a red triangle, and clicking thereon may cause
the
opinion which the user has generated and posted to be extracted from the
Debate's
database as shown at 196 on Figure 11 and to be displayed upon the screen as
shown
at 198 on Figure 1 I . As illustrated by the appearance of the off page
connector 10 on
both Figures 1 I and 13 the user now has an opportunity as is shown at 200 on
Figure
10 13 to change the authorship. The change of authorship may be from the
actual name
of the author, assuming that the previously posted opinion bears that, to an
alias or
from the alias to the actual name of the author depending upon the
circumstances. For
example, if the original opinion posted by the author was such that the author
had
some doubts as to whether he or she wished to be directly identified by name,
then the
15 alias would have been used. If a large number of agreements were posted by
others
with respect to that particular opinion, the author may now wish to change
from the
alias to the author's name so that appropriate credit would be received in the
Debate's
community for that particular opinion which has received good acceptance.
Obviously, the reverse may be true if the author has used his or her real name
to post
20 the opinion and finds that it receives nothing but disagreements, the
author may then
wish to change the authorship from his or her real name to an alias. When such
has
occurred the change will be conveyed by clicking on the back button in 202 to
the
database to update it according to the change of name, if in fact such has
occurred in
204.
25 Returning again to Figure 10, if the list of debates found by the query
turns out
to be zero, that is, there are no existing debates conforming to the area,
subarea and
any of the four nouns which have been selected, such will be indicated by the
NO, as
shown by 280. The screen will then display a Create debate button as
illustrated at
282. When the Create debate button is clicked (204 on Figures 10 and 11 ) then
the
30 subject matter is added to the database as shown at 206 and the empty
debate pyramid
screen is provided as shown at 208 on Figure 11. At this point the user may
now enter
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his or her opinion with regard to the New Debate subject which has been
generated
and entered in the database as shown at 206. Once the new debate has been
generated
then the user may click on the Add Opinion button as shown at 146 and the
opinion
will-appear on the add opinion screen as shown at 210 on Figure 11. As is
shown by
5 the off page connector 14 and the symbols appearing on Figures 11 and 13
after
clicking on the Add Opinion button the add opinion screen appearing at 210 is
activated and the user then has the opportunity through utilization of the
keyboard to
generate the brief, the actual full text of the opinion, select either the
user's alias or
name, whichever the user desires, and then to click upon the Add Opinion
button.
10 When the Add Opinion button is clicked on, as is shown at 212 then the
database is
updated as shown at 214 with the new opinion, brief and the other data related
to it.
By reference again to Figure 10, at the same time the create Debate button 282
is illustrated on the screen, there will also be provided to the user as shown
at 216 an
additional button indicated as find again to enable the search to be initiated
again. As
15 is illustrated by the off page connector 7 on Figures 5 and 10, a further
search of the
Debate's database with regard to the various Debate subject matter is
activated. This
function returns the user to the previous screen which will be the screen as
shown in
Figure 9 which will enable the user to alter some or all of the search subject
matter
and to then again initiate the search.
20 Referring again to Figure 8 which illustrates various other areas of search
which the user has available other than by subject matter, which has been
described
above. As is illustrated on Figure 7 the user has an opportunity to search by
the author
of the opinion as shown at 220, by the date of the opinion as is shown at 222
by
searching only the author's debates, that is my debates as shown at 224, by
searching
25 only new debates as shown at 226 and this would be those debates which have
been
authored since the previous inquiry with regard to such debate or by the
hottest
debates as shown at 228. The hottest debates would be those debates which have
the
greatest amount of activity. If the user clicks on my debates, new debates or
hottest
debates as shown at 224, 226 or 228 then a query is sent to the debates
database as
30 shown at 230 regarding which of these search criteria has been activated.
For
example, if the my debates search criteria 224 has been clicked on by the user
then the
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database is queried to identify all of those debates created by the user and
these are
then displayed on the screen 126 as shown in Figure 11 and as indicated by the
common numeral 6 appearing in both places. On the other hand, if the new
debates is
clicked upon as shown at 226 then the query to the database is to extract all
of those
5 debates which have been authored and posted since the last time the database
was
searched and these are listed on the screen 126 as shown in Figure 11.
Alternatively,
if the hottest debate 228 is clicked on by the user then the query to the
database is to
extract that debate which has been visited most frequently and that debate
would then
be displayed on the screen 126 as shown in Figure 11.
10 In the event the user clicks on the search button to search by author as
shown
at 220 in Figure 7, then the user will be queried, as shown at 232, whether he
or she
wishes to make the search by name, by alias or by ranking. As is illustrated
by
following off page connector 4 which appears on Figure 7 and also on Figure
15, to
which reference is hereby made, the user may select either the name as at 234,
the
15 alias as shown at 236 or the ranking as shown at 238. If, for example, the
user clicks
on search by name, then the user is presented with additional choices of the
search
criteria through the utilization of a pull down menu or input fields or other
similar
techniques. In this instance choices such as area, subarea, last name, and
first name
are presented. As shown at 240, the user then will select from the pull down
menu the
20 name search criteria as illustrated at 242 and then activate the query to
the database as
shown at 246. The Debates database in response to this query will provide the
information requested and as indicated by following the connector 6 on Figures
1 S
and 11 will provide that information which will be listed on the user screen
126. This
information will be a list of all of the Debates which respond to the query
according to
25 name as submitted by the user. The user may then click on a specific debate
as shown
at 128 and the display debate pyramid will be displayed on the screen as shown
at 134
after extracting from the database all of the opinions posted for that
selected debate.
The user may then continue by selecting the full opinions based upon briefs
that can
be displayed simply by moving the cursor through the opinion symbols appearing
on
30 the pyramid on the screen all as has been described in conjunction with
Figure 11.
By selecting the alias 236 option, a similar search criteria such as area,
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subarea, and alias may be provided as is shown at 248 on Figure 15. A similar
process occurs by picking the alias search criteria as shown at 250. This
initiates a
query to the database as shown at 252 and then the display of the information
as
extracted on the user screen 126 as shown at Figure 11 with additional
operational
capabilities as above described with regard to the name search.
Similarly, if the user chooses ranking 238 and area and subarea 254 is
provided allowing the user through the pull down menu to select as desired. As
illustrated at 256 the database is then queried to obtain the top authors in
the selected
area and subarea as shown at 258. These authors are then ranked in ascending
order
10 with the one having the most opinions which have been agreed with at the
top. As is
shown at 260, the user may now select the author desired and reinitiate the
search by
authors name as above-described. Alternatively, if the authors, as displayed
are not
satisfactory to the user then the back button may be activated and the user is
returned
to the previous screen permitting a selection by area and subarea for ranking
of
15 additional authors. The user may also be provided the ability to search by
date as
indicated at 222 on Figure 7. When that button is activated there will be
displayed on
the user screen 262 various search criteria such as last week, the last two
weeks, last
month, last six months or last year and as is also indicated on the screen at
262 there
will be a custom button. As illustrated at 264 (Figure 16) the custom button
may be
20 activated to provide the opportunity for the user to provide custom
entries. If however
a preset choice, as shown at 266, is clicked on then a query is sent to the
debate
database, depending upon the specific criteria selected such as last week to
retrieve all
of the debates created during that particular time as shown at 268, this
information
once retrieved is then, as is indicated by the off page connector 6 is listed
on the user
25 screen 126 as shown in Figure 11 with the opportunity far the user to
utilize those
debates and select particular opinions as above described.
Alternatively, if the user clicks upon the custom screen then the user is
allowed to enter on a specific screen a range of dates during which debates
may have
been created and to have those debates identified for the user in 270. For
example,
30 such a screen may be that as shown at Figure 17. Once such information has
been
entered as shown at 272 the database is queried as shown at 274 to extract
those
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debates generated between those dates selected and to provide them to the user
screen
126 as shown in Figure 11 again with the option for the user to utilize the
information
so presented to select a particular debate and then opinions with respect
thereto.
There has thus been described a system and method for ranking opinions
S within a predetermined defined subject matter and by displaying information
related
to those opinions on a computer display screen and to allow a qualified and
identified
individual access to that information to allow him or her to read the opinions
specify
agreement or disagreement therewith and to then compare all such agreements to
accomplish ranking of the opinions relating to a particular subject matter
according to
10 the number of agreements with regard to those opinions. The system and
method
effectively presents an opportunity for individuals irrespective of
geographical
location to engage into active and interactive debate regarding particular
subjects
matter which may be of interest to those individuals.
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