Patent ID: 7565366
Filing Date: 2009-07-21
Classification: G06Q,Y10S

Abstract:
1. One or more computer-readable media having computer instructions stored thereon for executing a method for determining a subset of information that is representative of a total set of information, comprising: defining a first set of data to collect from a software service access; selecting one or more users through a sampling scheme to collect the first set of data when the one or more users access one or more software services from one or more service providers; organizing the one or more users that are sampled into two or more sampling sets wherein a sampling set is a periodic selection of users from a total population of users, wherein a sampling set is a subset of another sampling set, and wherein a maximum size of the sampling set is equal to the total population of users; determining the sampling set for a software service from a service provider based on the first set of data identified for the software service or based on an expectation of a number of users accessing the software service; determining a common set of the one or more users from the one or more sampling sets wherein the common set comprises at least one of a smallest sampling set from the one or more sampling sets, a largest common subset of users, or a set of users located in each of the one or more sampling sets; multiplying the common set by a factor to obtain the total population wherein the factor is inversely proportional to a sampling rate; and providing an analysis of the first set of data associated with the common set of the one or more users, or the one or more sampling sets.