Patent ID: 8510154

Claim:
A method of providing assessment information comprising: receiving, over a communication network at a server, assessment information on a plurality of assessable elements based on assessment of the assessable elements by a plurality of assessors, wherein the assessment information indicates a voting score among a plurality of voting scores, wherein a first assessable element is available to be voted on with a voting score by a first assessor based on a category of the first assessor among a plurality of categories in a hierarchy and an average voting score attained for the first assessable element among a plurality of the assessable elements over a predetermined time interval for voting by assessors having a lower category in the hierarchy than the first assessor; searching, by a processor, using received assessment information, to generate a search result responsive to a request to search for an assessable element having a higher average voting score than other of the assessable elements, wherein the request includes as a search condition at least one of (i) a characteristic of an assessable element, (ii) a category of the assessor for which the assessment information indicates voting for an assessable element among the assessable elements to which the request to search is directed, and (iii) voting score status; and providing the search result indicating, for an assessable element returned as the search result, (i) a voting score status, the voting score status being based on voting by the assessors in at least one predetermined category of the plurality of categories, and (ii) at least one characteristic of the assessable element identified from the search.