Patent ID: 8160970
Filing Date: 2012-04-17
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for conducting online discussion comprising: receiving on a computing device a set of one or more attributes of supporters that are selected by a user; displaying on a display of a computing device a hierarchy of topics, the hierarchy of topics comprising a plurality of topics, including a top-level topic and one or more lower-level topics that are subtopics of the top-level topic, each of the one or more lower-level topics configured to be a top-level topic of another hierarchy of topics and to have one or more lower-level topics that are subtopics, each topic of the plurality of topics comprising a single unique position statement representing a consensus point of view of all supporters of the topic and all supporters of any subtopics beneath the topic, wherein each position statement comprises only content with which all of a plurality of supporters of the topic and all supporters of all subtopics below the topic in the hierarchy all agree, wherein each position statement is modified only through unanimous agreement of all supporters of the topic and subtopics of the topic to a proposed change to the position statement such that the content of each position statement is controlled by only agreement of all supporters of the topic, wherein a supporter's support of a topic is represented as a unit of support and the unit of support is added by the computing device to a total level of support for the topic and to a total level of support of all higher-level topics in the hierarchy, such that the total level of support for a given topic in the hierarchy is a sum of the units of support of both supporters of the given topic and of all supporters of all subtopics beneath the given topic, each of the one or more supporters having one or more attributes; at each level of the hierarchy, the computing device ordering the topics based on a level of support contributed by the supporters of the topic having attributes that match the received set of supporter attributes that are selected by the user; receiving on the computing device a selection of a topic from the ordered hierarchy; and in response to receiving the topic selection, displaying the corresponding position statement on the display of the computing device.