Patent ID: 8150724
Filing Date: 2012-04-03
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04N

Abstract:
1. A system for gathering ratings of items of entertainment works, from raters who are skilled at predicting community opinion, said system including a network of computers, each computer having a central processing unit and a memory, said system comprising: a) at least one server computer having a central processing unit and a memory, wherein said server computer is connected to the network; b) a plurality of client computers each having a central processing unit and a memory, said client computers serving one or more rating users; c) the memory of at least one said computer in the network of computers containing a plurality of rating user data sets, each rating user data set representing the tastes of one of said rating users; d) the memory of at least one said computer in the network of computers containing an item description data set, wherein said item description data set describes taste data for an item; e) the memory of at least one said server computer containing computer-executable instructions for carrying out a search process which selects a group of chosen users, consisting of a subset of said rating users, based on the degree of similarity of each user's said rating user data set to said item description data set and each of said rating users' reliability of predicting community opinion; f) the memory of at least one said computer in the network of computers containing an input data set by which a promoting user indicates a desire to pay at least one of said chosen users to review said item, wherein said promoting user is not enabled to discover at least one from the group consisting of the ratings previously produced by at least one of said rating users and information that could enable said promoting user to communicate with at least one of said rating users; g) an output screen connected to a computer connected to the network, said output screen enabling rating users to learn they have received an offer of compensation in return for rating said item; h) transfer means to send said item to said rating users; i) an input screen connected to a computer connected to the network, said input screen and computer being adapted to enable each of said chosen users to input a rating; and j) the memory of least one said server computer containing computer-executable instructions for operating a recommender system which generates a recommendation for said item based at least in part on said ratings.