Patent ID: 8239240
Filing Date: 2012-08-07
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer implemented method for conducting an online information brokering service, the method comprising acts of: permitting free access to an online community, hosted by a distributed computer system accessed by a plurality of registered users through a web based interface, wherein the plurality of registered users provided free access to the online community comprise content provider users, and wherein the online community hosts dynamically created content received from at least some of the plurality of registered users, wherein the dynamically created includes tickets generated by respective users and respective opinions generated by respective users regarding the tickets; permitting, in a user interface displayed on a host computer system, a creation of a ticket by at least one content provider user, the ticket comprising at least one observation generated by the at least one content provider user; presenting, by the distributed computer system, the ticket within the online community; limiting, by the computer system, submission of a respective opinion regarding the ticket to the content provider users; accepting, in a respective user interface displayed on a respective host computer system, from any of a plurality of content provider users, a respective opinion regarding the ticket; collecting a plurality of respective opinions regarding the ticket from the plurality of content provider users; determining, by the distributed computer system, a consensus of opinion among the plurality of content provider users regarding the at least one observation of the ticket, based at least in part on the plurality of respective opinions of the plurality of content provider users; controlling, by the distributed computer system, access to at least one of the determined consensus and the plurality of respective opinions, wherein the act of controlling includes: ranking, by the distributed computer system, at least one content provider user, wherein the act of ranking the at least one content provider user includes acts of: