Patent ID: 7885849

Claim:
A method of identifying demand by an online community for a particular item, comprising: compiling, by way of a system network device, a set of N items {X 1 , X 2 , . . . , X i , . . . , X N }, wherein for each item X i amongst the set of N items, a plurality of M early adopter members {Y[X i ] 1 . . . Y[X i ] M } is determined resulting in N separate sets of M early adopter members, said M early adopter members being determined based on a time of adoption of said item X i ; determining, by way of the system network device, a set K of the early adopter members that occur most frequently in the set {Y[X i ] j } from N separate sets of M early adopter members, where 1≦i≦N and 1≦j≦M, wherein said most frequently occurring early adopter members are classified as trend predictors; introducing the particular item for adoption by the K early adopter members; and measuring, by way of the system network device, an acceptance value for the particular item by the K early adopter members.