Patent ID: 8176095

Claim:
A method for collecting, comparing, and displaying resource usage data, comprising: receiving, by a processor and via an interactive competitions screen of a user interface, a request to initiate a competition among a plurality of resource consumers, wherein performance of each resource consumer within the competition is based on the resource consumer's reduction in resource usage over a period of time; transmitting, by the processor, a request to at least one resource consumer to engage in the competition; receiving, from at least one resource consumer, an acceptance of the transmitted request; initiating the competition; collecting, by the processor, resource usage data associated with a first resource consumer engaged in the competition; storing the collected resource usage data in an electronic storage device; retrieving, by the processor, stored resource usage data associated with at least two resource consumers engaged in the competition; assessing, by the processor, performance of each resource consumer engaged in the competition by determining the resource consumer's reduction in resource usage over a period of time; comparing, by the processor, the assessed performance of the resource consumers engaged in the competition; and displaying the results of the comparison at an output device, the displayed results comprising a comparative representation of resource consumer performance based on each resource consumer's reduction in resource usage.