Patent Publication Number: US-2006015755-A1

Title: Data collector systems and methods

Description:
BACKGROUND  
      A wide number of industries collect data for a variety of purposes. For example, data may be collected to provide a service, such as event planning or travel service. As other examples, data may be collected for surveys, such as sales surveys designed to obtain information used to market or sell or product, consumer surveys designed to obtain opinions about a product, or political surveys to obtain data on political opinions.  
      One technique that may be used to collect data is electronic mail (email). The use of emails may provide low cost data collection with fast response times. Typically, emails used for data collection contain a link to an Internet page. Thus, the data provider (recipient) must access the Internet page to provide the requested information. Alternately, the data provider may provide the information in an email sent back to the data requester. The data requester must then parse the email to obtain the provided information.  
     BRIEF SUMMARY  
      Methods, systems, and machine-readable mediums are disclosed for collecting data. In one embodiment, the system comprises a data requester interface, such as an Internet interface, to receive an information request from a data requester. The information request includes a recipient and information collector parameters. By way of example, the information request may comprise XML data. The system further includes an information request creator, communicatively coupled with the data requester interface, to create an create an email having an embedded information collector. The information request creator uses the received information collector parameters to define the embedded information collector. An email interface is communicatively coupled with the information request creator, and is used to transmit the email to the recipient. The system also includes a data collector interface different than the email interface, which receives data associated with the information collector from the recipient. In this way, the recipient may receive an email with an embedded information collector. The requested information may be input by the recipient without replying to the email. Instead, the recipient simply opens the email, enters the requested information, and selects a submit mechanism embedded within the email.  
      In some embodiments, the data collector system may further comprise a data store which may be used to store the information request and data received from the recipient. The information collector may convert received data from the received format (e.g., HTML) to a format associated with the data store (e.g., XML). The data collector system may also comprise an information tracker. The information tracker may retrieve data associated with the information request from the data store and use the information to create a report. For example, the report may comprise the received data consolidated with additional data received from one or more additional recipients of the information request. The email interface may be used to transmit the report to the data requester. The information tracker may also be used to receive tracking requests from the data requester to determine a status of the information request and to provide the requested tracking information to the data requester.  
      In another embodiment, a computerized method for collecting data is disclosed. The method may comprise receiving an information request from a data requester. The information request includes a plurality of recipients and information collector parameters. The information request may also include management information, such as a reply by date, reporting schedule, or reminder schedule. The method further comprises creating an information collector using the information collector parameters. The information collector is operative to collect a response from the recipients. For example, the information collector parameters may include a plurality of possible responses and the information collector may be created by creating a list mechanism, radio button mechanisms, or other type of mechanism for the recipient to select one or more of the possible responses. As another example, the information collector parameters may include one or more column headings and creating the information collector may comprise creating a spreadsheet having the plurality of column headings. After the information collector is created, an email having the information collector embedded within is transmitted to the plurality of recipients. Data associated with the information collector is then received from one or more of the recipients. The data is received at an interface other than an email interface. For example, the recipient may input the requested information directly within the email by using the embedded information collector. The recipient may then submit the information by selecting a submit mechanism that is also embedded within the email. As the data collector receives the information at an interface other than an email interface, the data collector does not have to parse an email to extract the provided information. Additionally, the transmission of the information does not rely on email transmission mechanisms, but is instead uploaded directly to the data collector. In further embodiments, the method may include creating a report consolidating received data associated with the information collector and transmitting the report to the data requester.  
      In a third embodiment, a method is disclosed which comprises receiving an email having a plurality of embedded information collectors. Data is provided for at least one of the embedded information collectors. The data is transmitted to a data collector using a submission indicator embedded within the email. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      Illustrative embodiments in accordance with the invention are illustrated in the drawings in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary computer network system that may be used in data collection;  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system upon which a data collection system may be implemented;  
       FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a system that may be used to collect data;  
       FIG. 4  illustrates exemplary components of a data collector;  
       FIG. 5  is a flow diagram of a method for collecting data according to one embodiment;  
       FIG. 6  illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface that may be used by a data requester to define an information request;  
       FIG. 7  illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface that may be used by a data requester to define parameters for one or more information collectors;  
       FIG. 8  illustrates a second exemplary graphical user interface that may be used by a data requester to define parameters for one or more information collectors; and  
       FIG. 9  illustrates an exemplary email with embedded information collectors;  
       FIG. 10  illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface that may be used by a data requester to track information requests. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form.  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a computer network system  100  that may be used to perform data collection. The system  100  includes one or more user computers  105 ,  110 , and  115 . The user computers  105 ,  110 , and  115  can be general purpose personal computers (including, merely by way of example, personal computers and/or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Corp.&#39;s Windows™ and/or Apple Corp.&#39;s Macintosh™ operating systems) and/or workstation computers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX™ or UNIX-like operating systems. These user computers  105 ,  110 ,  115  may also have any of a variety of applications, such as web browser applications. Alternatively, the user computers  105 ,  110 , and  115  may be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled mobile telephone, and/or personal digital assistant, capable of communicating via a network (e.g., the network  120  described below) and/or displaying and navigating web pages or other types of electronic documents. Although the exemplary system  100  is shown with three user computers, any number of user computers may be supported.  
      System  100  may also include a network  120 . The network may be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, including without limitation TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, the network  120  maybe a local area network (“LAN”), such as an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a wide-area network; a virtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network (“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; an infra-red network; a wireless network (e.g., a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth™ protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol); and/or any combination of these and/or other networks.  
      The system may also include one or more server computers  125 ,  130 . One server may be a web server  125 , which may be used to process requests for web pages or other electronic documents from user computers  105 ,  110 , and  120 . The web server can be running an operating system including any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially-available server operating systems. The web server  125  can also run a variety of server applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java servers, and the like. In some embodiments, data collection creation and tracking tools may be operated within a web browser on one or more of the user computers  105 ,  100 ,  115 . In these embodiments, user interactions with a data collector can take place via web pages sent to user computers via the web server  125 .  
      The system  100  may also or alternately include one or more application servers  130 , which can, in addition to an operating system, include one or more applications accessible by a client running on one or more of the user computers  105 ,  110 ,  115 . The server(s)  130  may be one or more general purpose computers capable of executing programs or scripts in response to the user computers  105 ,  110  and  115 . As one example, the server may execute one or more web applications. The web application may be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any programming language, such as .NET, Java™, C, C#™ or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scripting languages. The application server(s)  130  may also include database servers, including without limitation those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase™, IBM™, MySQL™ and the like, which can process database requests.  
      In some embodiments, an application server  130  may create web pages dynamically for displaying data collection information. The web pages created by the web application server  130  may be forwarded to a user computer  105  via a web server  125 . Similarly, the web server  125  can receive web page requests and/or input data from a user computer  105  and can forward the web page requests and/or input data to the web application server  130 . Although for ease of description,  FIG. 1  illustrates a separate web server  125  and application server  130 , those skilled in the art will recognize that the functions described with respect to servers  125 ,  130  may be performed by a single server and/or a plurality of specialized servers, depending on implementation-specific needs and parameters.  
      The system  100  may also include a database  135 . The database  135  may reside in a variety of locations. By way of example, database  135  may reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) on or more of server computers  125 ,  130 . Alternatively, it may be remote from any or all of the computers  105 ,  110 ,  115 ,  125 ,  130 , and in communication (e.g., via the network  120 ) with server computers  125 ,  130 . In a particular set of embodiments, the database  135  may reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilled in the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the computers  105 ,  110 ,  115 ,  125 ,  130  may be stored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, as appropriate. In one set of embodiments, the database  135  may store information in Extended Markup Language (XML) format. In alternate embodiments, the database  135  may be any other suitable structure for storing data, such as a relational database, that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands; spreadsheets, text files, internal software lists, or other format.  
       FIG. 2  illustrates one embodiment of a computer system  200  upon which a data collector (or components of a data collector) may be implemented. The computer system  200  is shown comprising hardware elements that may be electrically coupled via a bus  255 . The hardware elements may include one or more central processing units (CPUs)  205 ; one or more input devices  210  (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, etc.); and one or more output devices  215  (e.g., a display device, a printer, etc.). The computer system  200  may also include one or more storage device  220 . By way of example, storage device(s)  220  may be disk drives, optical storage devices, solid-state storage device such as a random access memory (“RAM”) and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can be programmable, flash-updateable and/or the like.  
      The computer system  200  may additionally include a computer-readable storage media reader  225 ; a communications system  230  (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device, etc.); and working memory  240 , which may include RAM and ROM devices as described above. In some embodiments, the computer system  200  may also include a processing acceleration unit  235 , which can include a DSP, a special-purpose processor and/or the like  
      The computer-readable storage media reader  225  can further be connected to a computer-readable storage medium, together (and, optionally, in combination with storage device(s)  220 ) comprehensively representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plus storage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing computer-readable information. The communications system  230  may permit data to be exchanged with a network and/or any other computer.  
      The computer system  200  may also comprise software elements, shown as being currently located within a working memory  240 , including an operating system  245  and/or other code  250 , such as an application program. The application programs may implement an identity provider, components of the identity provider, and/or the methods of the invention. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments of a computer system  200  may have numerous variations from that described above. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed.  
       FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a system that may be used to collect data. The system includes a data collector  300  which may be used to collect data for a data requester  310  from one or more data providers  322 ,  324 . In one embodiment, the data collector  300  may be one or more software programs executing on a computer server. The data requester  310  is communicatively coupled with the data collector  300 . By way of example, the data requester  310  may communicate with the data collector  300  via an Internet interface.  
      As will be described in further detail below, the data requester  310  provides information used by the data collector  300  to create an email having one or more embedded information collectors. The information collectors may be used to obtain data from data providers  322 ,  324  (also referred to herein as recipients). The data collector  300  sends the created email to the recipients  322 ,  324 . The data providers  322 ,  324  may then provide data to the data collector  300  using the information collectors. Data associated with an information collector may be transmitted from the data providers  322 ,  324  to the data collector  300  using a non-email interface, such as a Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) interface. The data collector  300  may then store the data provided by the data providers  322 ,  324  in a data store  302  (e.g., Extended Markup Language (XML) data store, relational database, etc.).  
       FIG. 4  illustrates exemplary components of a data collector  400 . The data collector  400  includes a data requester interface  402 , which may be used to receive an information request from a data requester  420 . The information request includes recipient information and information collector parameters which may be used by data collector  400  to create one or more information collectors. In one embodiment, the data requester interface  402  may be an Internet interface and the information request may be received from the data requester  420  in a format, such as XML. Optionally, data requester interface  402  may include a graphical user a user interface to assist the data requester in creating the information request.  
      Data requester interface  402  is communicatively coupled with information request creator  404 . An email with information collector(s) embedded within may be created by the information request creator  404 . To create the email, the information request creator  404  uses the information collector parameters to define the information collector(s). By way of example, the embedded information collector(s) may be a spreadsheet or HTML form fields, such as list box fields, radio button fields, date fields, or other type of form field that may be used to provide data. The information request creator may then embed the information collectors into an email, such as an HTML email or an email having another appropriate format. In the event the recipient cannot view HTML emails, the embedded information collectors may be made visible in a text email, but an embedded link to an HTML website may need to be used to provide information. In some embodiments, the information request creator  404  may also store details about the information request in a data store  410 . The information request details may include the recipient information, the information collector parameters, the information collectors, and/or the email. Additional information that may have been provided by the data requester  420 , such as a reply by date, reporting schedule for receiving results, a reminder schedule to send reminders to recipients that did not yet provide data, or other type of information request management information may also be stored in data store  410 .  
      After information request creator  404  has finished creating the email with the embedded information collectors, the email may then be transmitted by information request creator  404  (or another component of data collector  404 ) to the recipients  425  using an email interface. Data collector  400  may subsequently receive data back from the data provider  425  over a second non-email interface (e.g., an Internet interface). The second interface may be used to receive data associated with the information collector. By way of example, the data may be received in HTML format. In some embodiments, this may be accomplished by embedding within the email a “submit” button or other mechanism that may be used to transmit the data to data collector  400 . Thus, advantageously, the recipient is not required to access a web site to provide requested information. Instead, the recipient may be able to simply open the email, enter the requested information directly within the email using an embedded information collector (or in some cases upload a file containing information), and select a submit mechanism which is embedded directly within the email. Additionally, as the information is uploaded directly to data collector  400  over a non-email interface, data collector  400  does not need to parse emails to extract received information. Furthermore, the transmission of the information does not rely on email transmission mechanisms, but may be instead uploaded directly to the data collector  400 . This may provide for faster and more reliable transmittal of the information and for a higher degree of data integrity. Additionally, the link may be encrypted to provide greater security.  
      Data collector  400  further includes an information collector  406  that may be used to received the data provided by data provider  425 , using a non-email interface, such as an Internet interface. Information collector  406  may store the received data in data store  410 . In some instances, before the data is stored, information collector  406  may convert the data from the received format (e.g., HTML) to a format supported by the data store  410  (e.g., XML or relational database format). Additionally or alternately, information collector  406  may validate the received data for integrity and completeness and/or authenticate the provider of the data was a recipient of the information request before storing it in data store  410 .  
      An information request tracker  408  may also be included in data collector  400 . The information request tracker  408  may be used to process the received data by creating and updating reports and/or report statistics summarizing or detailing the received responses. Reports created by information request tracker  408  may also include response rates, lists of recipients not yet providing information, or other tracking or management information for information requests. The reports may be created by information request tracker  408  on a predetermined schedule (such as a default schedule or a schedule determined by data requester  420 ), after all responses have been received, or upon request. In some embodiments, information request tracker  408  may email the reports to data requester  420  using an email interface. The reports may be provided in a variety of formats, such as XML or a spreadsheet attachment. Alternately or additionally, information request tracker  408  may include a graphical user interface, such as an Internet web page, that may be used by the data requester  420  to view and/or create reports, track the status of a request, or otherwise manage an information request.  
      In the configuration described above, different components were described as being communicatively coupled to other components. A communicative coupling is a coupling that allows communication between the components. This coupling may be by means of a bus, cable, network, wireless mechanism, program code call (e.g., modular or procedural call) or other mechanism that allows communication between the components. Thus, it should be appreciated that data requester interface  402 , information request creator  404 , information collector  406 , information request tracker  408 , and data store  410  may reside on the same or different physical devices. Additionally, it should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the system described in  FIG. 4  may contain additional or fewer components.  
       FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method that may be used to collect data. The method may begin by receiving  502  an information request from a data requester. The information request may be received as XML data or in another appropriate format. In one embodiment, the method may further include validating the information request for integrity and completeness. The information request may be received from a data requester who created the data for the information request (e.g. XML data). Alternately, the information request may be received from the data requester via a user interface, such as that described below, which may be provided to assist the data requester in creating an information request.  
      The information request includes recipient information and information collector parameters which may be used to create embedded information collectors. By way of example information collect parameters may include questions, possible responses to the questions, whether the question is optional or required, display mechanism type for the question/responses (e.g., list box, checkboxes, pull-down lists, radio buttons, text boxes, etc.), spreadsheet column headings, or other type of parameter that may be used to define an embedded information collector. In some embodiments, the information request may also include management information, such as a reply by date for the information request, a reminder schedule to send reminders to recipients that did not yet respond or provide data for the information request, a reporting schedule to provide received data to the data requester, and other types of information that may be used to manage an information request.  
      The information collector parameters received as part of the information request may be used to create  504  one or more information collectors. Creating  504  the information collector may include translating the information collector parameters from one format to a format that may be used to embed the information collector in an email. By way of example, the information collector parameters may be translated from XML to HTML. In some embodiments, the XML may be received via a Web Service. The information collectors created  504  may be used to collect responses from the recipients. As one example, an information collector may be a list mechanism, such as a list box or drop-down list, from which a data provider may select one or more responses. As another example, an information collector may include one or more radio buttons for a plurality of responses, from which a user may select a response. Another type of information collector may be an information collector which allows a recipient to upload a file, such as a spreadsheet file having column headings defined by information collector parameters. It should be appreciated that a wide variety of other types of information collectors not mentioned may also be used to collect data from a data provider.  
      After the information request is received  502 , it may be stored  506  in a data store. The data store may be any type of structure that may be used for storing information, such as a relational database, text file, spreadsheet, internal software lists, or other data storage structure. In one embodiment, the data store may be an XML database. The information stored  506  in the data store may include the data requester, an information request identifier, recipients of the information request, information request management information, information collector parameters and/or the created information collectors, or other types of information related to the information request.  
      The method further includes transmitting  508  an email to the plurality of recipients designated in the information request. The information collectors are embedded within the email. Thus, the recipients of the email may use the information collectors to respond directly to questions in the email. In some instances, the recipient may fill out information in an attached file, such as a spreadsheet file, and the information collector may allow the recipient to upload the file with the provided data. After the data has been provided, the recipient may transmit the data via a non-email interface, such as by activating a submit mechanism that uploads the data contained in the information collectors.  
      Data provided by the recipients using the information collectors is received  510  from the recipients via a non-email interface. By way of example, the data may be received via an internet interface, such as an HTML interface. Optionally, the received data may be validated for data integrity, to ensure that all required information collectors have data, and/or to validate the transmitter of the data is one of the designated recipients. The data may then be stored in the data store. Before the data is stored, it may be converted from the received format (e.g., HTML) to the format associated with the data store (e.g., XML). In some embodiments, after the information is received, the recipient may receive a confirmation email. The data requester may also be notified (e.g., via email) that new data has been received.  
      Reports and/or information request tracking may be provided  514  to the data requester. For instance, a report may be created consolidating the data received from one or more recipients. The report may then be transmitted (e.g., via email) to the data requester. The report may be provided as specified by a reporting schedule, which may be a default reporting schedule or a schedule provided by the data requester. The report may also be created and transmitted upon request. Other types of reports may also be provided to the data requester. By way of example, reports may include detailed reports listing responses of each data provider, statistics summarizing provided data, lists of recipients responding/not responding, response rate statistics, or other types of reports on received data or information request tracking. Reports may be provided in a variety of formats, such as XML, text files spreadsheets, or other format. Reports or tracking information may also be provided via a user interface, such as a web interface. To create a report or respond to an information tracking request, data associated with the information request may be retrieved from the data store and used to create the report or response to a tracking request.  
       FIGS. 6-8  illustrate exemplary user interfaces that may be provided to assist a data requester in creating an information request. In one embodiment, the user interface may be a web interface to a web service that will create the information request. It should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the data requester may manually create an information request or use their own tools to create the information request in the proper format (e.g., XML data). It should also be appreciated that the user interfaces described below are illustrative examples. Numerous variations may be made to the user interfaces described. For example, sections may be added, removed, modified, combined, rearranged, or split into multiple screens.  
      As shown in  FIG. 6 , a user interface  600  that may be provided to assist a data requester in creating an information request may include multiple sections  602 - 612  for the requester to define the request. One section  602  may be used to obtain the recipients of the information request. In some embodiments, recipient information may be entered through a widget that allows cutting and pasting. Additional information, such as the subject line of an email sent to the recipients may also be obtained.  
      A second section  604  may be used to define information collector parameters, such as form parameters, spreadsheet parameters, or file collector (which defines an information collector which allows the data provider to upload data in a file). Additional user interfaces, as will be described in  FIGS. 7 and 8 , may be provided to obtain the information collector parameters. In one embodiment, the data requester may access these additional screens by selecting a mechanism, such as a button, to create information collector parameters of a certain type, such as a form or spreadsheet. A third section  606  may be provided to allow the data requester to attach files to the email.  
      Section  608  may be used to receive information request details and management information from the data requester. For example, this information may include a reply by date and an email message to the recipients. Section  610  may be used to provide further management information, such as a request name, a reporting schedule to provide received data, a reminder schedule to remind recipients that did not yet respond, a carbon copy list for emails to receive results, escalation emails to provide notification that a data provider has not responded (e.g., a data provider&#39;s supervisor) or other information request management information. A section  612  may also be provided for the data requester to send and/or preview the information request email.  
       FIG. 7  illustrates an exemplary user interface  700  that may be used to define information collector parameters for a form. A text-entry boxy  702  may be provided for the form name. A button or other mechanism  704  may be selected to add additional questions to the form. A text entry box  706  may be provided to enter the question for the information request. Another widget  708 , such as a drop down list, may be provided for the data requester to select the type of answer to the question (e.g., choices, date, text, etc.). If the answer type is choices, the data requester may be able to select the type of choice to be displayed using another widget  710 . For instance, using widget  710  (here a drop-down list), the data requester may be able to select to display the choices as vertical or horizontal radio buttons, drop down list, list box, check boxes, or other format for displaying choices. Choices may be added by selecting a button or other mechanism  714  to add a choice. In section  712 , the data requester may specify whether the question is optional or required.  
      Buttons or other types of widgets may also be provided for the data requester to save  716  or cancel  718  the form. In some embodiments, previously created forms may be reused. Thus, a list of saved forms  720  may be provided for the data requester to select one or more previously created forms. Additionally, buttons or other mechanisms  722 ,  724 ,  726  may be provided for the data requester to create a new form  722 , to remove  724  a form from the saved forms list, or to copy  726  a form. Other widgets may also be provided to facilitate the reuse of forms.  
      A second exemplary user interface  800  for assisting a data requester in defining information collector parameters for a spreadsheet is illustrated in  FIG. 8 . A text-entry boxy  802  may be provided for the spreadsheet name. A button or other mechanism  804  may be selected to add column headings to the spreadsheet. A text-entry box  806  may be provided to enter the column heading name. Buttons or other types of widgets may also be provided for the data requester to save  808  or cancel  810  the spreadsheet. The user interface may also provide for the reuse of spreadsheets by listing previously saved spreadsheets  812  and providing mechanisms (e.g., buttons) to create a new  814  spreadsheet, remove  816  a previously saved spreadsheet, or copy  818  a spreadsheet.  
       FIG. 9  illustrates exemplary contents of an email  900  with embedded information collectors. The contents of the email may include a reply by date  902 , and messages and instructions  904  for the recipient. Another section  906  may contain an embedded information collector which may be used to receive a spreadsheet. Instructions may be provided to the recipient on how to complete data for a spreadsheet which was attached to the email and on how to upload the completed file using the embedded information collector. The email may alternately or additionally include a section  908  that includes one or more embedded information collectors that may be completed directly within the email. For instance, the information collectors may include radio button choices, list box choices, dates, check box choices, text boxes, or other types of information collectors. A third section  910  may be provided for the recipient to attach one or more additional files to be included with their response. Finally, a button or other type of submission indicator  912  is included to allow the recipient to upload the provided data directly to a data collector.  
       FIG. 10  illustrates an exemplary user interface (e.g., a web interface)  1000  that may be provided to assist a data requester in tracking and managing information requests. The interface may include status information for a specified request name  1002 . The status information may include, for example, the date  1004  the information request was sent, the number of responses received  1006 , and the targeted reply by date  1008 . Buttons or other types of widgets may also be provided for the data requester to view one or more reports on the information request. By way of example, these reports may include a list of recipients that completed  1010  the information request, a list of recipients that did not complete  1012  the information request, a report summarizing or detailing the provided data  1014 . Other reports are also contemplated. Another button  1016  may be provided to allow the data requester to view all reports. Button  1018  may allow the data requester to view files received from the recipients.  
      The user interface  1000  may also allow the data requester to manage the information request. Thus, the user interface  1000  may provide mechanisms that allow the data requester to extend the deadline of the information request  1020 , send a message to the recipients  1022 , modify the recipient list  1024 , send a reminder to the recipients  1026 , cancel the information request  1028 , and/or submit a reply to the information request for a recipient  1030 . Other types of management tasks may also be facilitated by user interface  1000 . In alternate embodiments, the user interface may include additional, fewer, or alternate sections and mechanisms than that described above.  
      The data collection system and methods described above may be used in a variety of applications. For instance, the data collection system may be used to assist a data requester to perform event planning. Emails may be sent with embedded information collectors to obtain lists of attendees, and other event preference information. The information collectors may thus include a spreadsheet for obtaining attendee data, radio button collectors to obtain room preference information, list box collectors to obtain event choices, text box collector to obtain general comments, and/or other types of collectors used to assist in the event planning. As another example, the data collection system may be used by financial service providers or other entities to collect proxy votes. An email with an embedded information collectors having voting choices may be sent to the voters. Other exemplary applications may include collection of data for surveys, collection of medical data, collection of human resources data, collection of sales data, data collection for regulatory compliance, data collection for legal matters, and data collection for mystery shopping. It should be appreciated that a wide variety of applications not mentioned may also use the data collection systems and methods described above.  
      In the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methods were described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different order than that described. It should also be appreciated that the methods described above may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor or logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the methods. These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by a combination of hardware and software.  
      While illustrative and presently preferred embodiments of the invention have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be otherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claims are intended to be construed to include such variations, except as limited by the prior art.