Patent ID: 7376667

Claim:
An information system having at least one computer device for providing collective consensus information on a plurality of contractors to a plurality of participators, the information system comprising: output means for presenting data from the information system in a manner perceptible by a participator; input means for inputting data from the participator in response to a view to a plurality of predefined factors arranged into a predefined hierarchical order, each factor corresponding to an assessable point of interest, said view presented to the participator through said output means; communication means for receiving one or more input values for one or more of the predefined factors from the participator; computation means for generating, for one or more factors, a computed consensus value on the basis of input values for the factor received from the participator; control means for controlling an extent of output of consensus values to the participator by way of said output means on the basis of one or more successive inputs by the participator, wherein factors are associated with two-valued variables, the control means further comprise an expiration factor for controlling the value of the two valued variable, and a rule processor for updating each expiration factor according to one or more expiration rules, and resetting the expiration factor every time a new value for the factor associated with the two-valued variable is received from the participator.