Patent ID: 7353230

Claim:
A method, comprising: populating a computer database with a plurality of summaries, the summaries representing information obtained from customer contacts communicating with customers regarding problems with purchased products; selecting a subset of the summaries for review and classification by nodes that are located remotely with respect to each other; distributing, across a computer network and to the nodes, a problem type classification list together with the subset of case summaries, the problem type classification list including a plurality of problem type selections to be used by the nodes when classifying the distributed case summaries; receiving a communication from one of the nodes, the communication identifying a problem type that is not represented by the problem type selections included in the problem type classification list; and distributing an updated problem type classification list to all the nodes responsive to receiving the communication, the updated problem type classification list including a new problem type selection representing the problem type identified by the received communication; wherein the nodes perform a collaborated classification of the summaries by making selections from the updated problem type classification list.