Patent ID: 8386301
Filing Date: 2013-02-26
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for business decision support using a web server and client user interfaces for performance evaluation of human resources comprising professional ability and trust, utilizing an information network with a plurality of members wherein said members comprise a First Member and a Second Member—with a Professional Collaboration Network with at least one Professional layer and at least one Trust Layer, comprising: obtaining member information; establishing a Professional layer based on the member information comprising disclosed professional ability and pairwise professional relationships with other members of the Professional Layer; establishing a Trust Layer by utilizing a linkage search engine to identify linkages from member information comprising pairwise trust relationships with other members of the Trust layer from disclosed interactions between pairs of members resulting from prior or current personal contact; iteratively using such linkages between members, to create a chain of trust linkages that generate at least one connected network of members as a subset of the Trust Layer with each of said connected networks comprising members connected to every other member in said connected network through a series of pairwise connections between members, wherein each of said connected networks comprise one or more connection threads each of which is a unique path along said pair-wise linkages between any two of said members with any one pair-wise linkage traversed only once; identifying a Trust Reference for members of said Trust layer utilizing the chain of trust relationships along one or more connection threads; accessing from the web server a Professional Reputation for at least one member, from the at least one Professional Layer with members wherein the professional ability of said members are assessed using third party knowledge of said members; accessing from the web server a Trust Reference for at least one member from the at least one Trust Layer using the trust relationships along one or more connection threads; and, evaluating for a First Member, the Professional Reputation and Trust Reference of a Second Member, wherein said accessing the Trust Reference from the at least one Trust Layer further comprising: