Patent ID: 8019637

Claim:
A computer implemented method for conducting an online information brokering service, the method comprising acts of: providing access to an online system to registered users hosted on a distributed computer system, the registered users comprising at least content generating users and information consumers, wherein the content generating users dynamically create content within the online system, and wherein the dynamic content includes respective observations and respective opinions on the respective observations; permitting, in a user interface, a creation of at least one observation, wherein the at least one observation is generated by at least one registered user; displaying, in a respective user interface, the created at least one observation to at least one other user, wherein the at least one other user is a content generating user; accepting, from the respective user interface, an opinion of the at least one other user regarding the at least one observation submitted by the at least one user; collecting, for the at least one observation, a plurality of respective opinions generated by a plurality of content generating users regarding the at least one observation; controlling, by the distributed computer system, access to at least one of the at least one observation generated by the at least one registered user and any of the plurality of the collected respective opinions regarding the at least one observation, wherein the act of controlling includes: permitting access by the plurality of content generator users to at least one of the at least one observation generated by the at least one registered user and any of the plurality of the collected respective opinions regarding the at least one observation; restricting access by a plurality of information consuming users to at least one of the at least one observation generated by the at least one registered user and any of the plurality of the collected respective opinions regarding the at least one observation, wherein the act of restricting access includes permitting access by at least one information consumer to at least one of the at least one observation generated by the at least one registered user and any of the collected respective opinions in response to receiving payment from the at least one information consumer for access; and monitoring, automatically, by the distributed computer system, at least one of the created at least one observation generated by the at least one user and the plurality of the collected respective opinions regarding the at least one observation.