WO2008021370A1

WO2008021370A1 - Multiple system reputation management system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2008021370A1
Application number: PCT/US2007/018004
Authority: WO
Inventors: Clinton Oram; Jacob Taylor; John Roberts; Andrew Dreisch; Huynh Lam; Julian Ostrow
Original assignee: Sugarcrm Inc
Current assignee: Sugarcrm Inc
Priority date: 2006-08-11
Filing date: 2007-08-13
Publication date: 2008-02-21
Anticipated expiration: 2009-02-11

Abstract

A reputation management system and method are provided.

Description

MULTIPLE SYSTEM REPUTATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

Clinton Oram

Jacob Taylor

John Roberts Andy Dreisch

Lam Huynh Julian Ostrow

Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to a multiple system reputation management system and method.

Summary of the Invention

A multiple system reputation management system and method are provided.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a reputation management system being used in a networked system;

Figure 2 illustrates a method for reputation management;

Figure 3 illustrates an example of a customer relationship management system website that may include the reputation manager;

Figure 4 illustrates an example of a developer collaboration property that is part of the system shown in Figure 3;

Figure 5 illustrates an example of a developer collaboration property project review rating;

Figure 6 illustrates an example of a source code exchange property rating;

Figure 7 illustrates an example of a forum property rating example;

Figure 8 illustrates another example of a forum property rating example; and

Figure 9 illustrates an example of a user reputation quotient display for the system in Figure 3.

Detailed Description of the Embodiments An embodiment of the multiple system reputation management system is described herein in the context of a customer relationship management system website and how the reputation management system manages reputations in the customer relationship management system website. It will be appreciated, however, that the algorithms, data structures, processes and modules of the multiple system reputation management system has greater utility since these modules and inventive aspects disclosed herein can be equally applied to other business software application systems as well as other database software and software systems.

Figure 1 illustrates a system that may include one or more systems, such as systems 10, 12, 14 shown, wherein each system may generate a rating for a member of that system. The systems 10-14 may be independent systems, such as different auction sites, or each system may be a web property that is part of an overall system, such as the example of the system shown below in Figure 3. The systems 10-14 may connect to a link 16, such as the internet or any other communications/data link, that permits the systems 10-14 to exchange information and data with a reputation management system 18 that can also connect to the link 16. In one embodiment, the reputation management system 18 may be a processing unit based system, such as a server computer for example, that executes a reputation manager module 20 to implement the reputation management method described below in Figure 2. The reputation manager module 20 may also be implemented in hardware, a programmed logic device or in an embedded processor system. In one embodiment, each of the steps described below in Figure 2 may be implemented by one or more lines of computer code that are executed by the processing unit based system to implement the steps described below.

Figure 2 illustrates a method 200 for reputation management for a particular user/member. The method would then be repeated for each user/member. An implementation of this method is described for use with a customer relationship management system website and its web properties as described below. However, the method for managing reputations across multiple systems can be used with other business software systems or other disparate systems wherein it is desirable to be able to manage the reputations of a member across the multiple systems. For example, the method described herein may be used to manage the reputations across multiple different systems owned and operated by separate entities.

To manage the reputations, in step 202, the reputation manager gathers the ratings of the user from each system/properties. The rating from each system/property may be calculated in a different manner and this method can use any type of rating. In step 204, the reputation manager generates a user reputation quotient based on the gathered ratings. In particular, the combined user reputation value is based on taking a number of source ratings into account and then each of these source ratings is combined into one number. When combining the ratings, each rating has a weight associated with it. For example, the peer review may count for 100 times as much as a forum posting. Over time, the constants will be adjusted to reward desired behavior and to tune the rankings. As one example, the user reputation quotient may be calculated by: 1) gathering the values of the ratings/variables (scaled based on their weights) and then the values are added together; 2) the users are sorted in order to their raw score and each user receives a percentage equal to a ratio of the raw score of the user to the highest raw score; and 3) the percentage is divided by 10 and rounded to obtain a value between 0-10.

In the method, the user reputation quotient is an overall reputation for the particular user based on the reputations from the other systems. Li step 206, the user reputation quotient (URQ) is optionally propagated back to each system (or the web properties for the exemplary system example set forth below) so that each system has the user reputation quotient for reference purposes. Each of the systems, however, continues to independent rate each user/member of the system since each system must gather and analyze data unique to its requirements and generates its own ratings. Thus, in step 208, the reputation manager periodically determines if the rating for the given user/member from any system has been changed and loops back to step 202 to recalculate the URQ when it needs to be updated. The URQ represents an overall rating of the user/member in the system.

For the exemplary system described below, the user reputation quotient is generated based on the ratings from the SugarForge, SugarForum and SugarExchange web properties described below in more detail. The initial variables that are used to generate the user reputation quotient may include:

• Additions to Projects (including a factor that takes into account the activity of the project being contributed to, and their potential status as "project of the month")

• Tracker Activity (tasks, items, bugs, patches, ...)

• Average Peer Ratings

• Quantity of Peer Ratings Submitted

• New Project Registrations

• New Forum Threads

• Forum Posts

• Updates to Articles

• Newly created Articles Then, these variables that are generated by the web properties of the exemplary system described below are used to calculate the user reputation quotient as described above.

Figure 3 illustrates an example of a customer relationship management system website 210 that may include the reputation manager. In particular, the system 210 has one or more web properties that create/encourage a community of members. In one example, the system 210 has a developer collaboration property 212, known as SugarForge, a forum web property 214, known as SugarForums and a source code exchange web property, known as SugarExchange.

In the system 210 shown in Figure 3 (or other systems), it is desirable to be able to provide a consistent measure of a member's standing and visibility in a community, such as the community that has been created around the customer relationship management system above, by combining factors that influence a member's reputation from disparate systems with differing measuring systems. The community is nurtured by the customer relationship management system since the system may have an open source component where it is desirable to provide a community of people that use the customer relationship management system to encourage exchange of ideas and the open source code generated by the community members.

SugarForge is a developer collaboration environment where Sugar community developers create and manage projects related to the open source version of the SugarCRM customer relationship management system. The projects managed using SugarForge may include, for example, new modules, theme extensions, language packs, and the like. SugarForge provides a project rating system that allows visitors/members to rate a project's quality, suitability, and, by measuring download activity, the project's popularity. In SugarForge, project developers accrue the benefits of high ratings for the projects they lead or for which they play an active role. Additionally, a developer can be directly rated by his or her compatriots within SugarForge.

SugarExchange also provides a rating service, but this rating service is derived from the perspective of a casual user or system administrator unlike SugarForge, whose rating system stems from other Sugar community developers. When users of the sugarCRM system and implementers rate and download content on SugarExchange, they are implicitly placing a positive vote for a specific developer(s) of the source code which they are downloading. Like SugarForge, a project developer accrues the benefits arising from popular and highly-rated projects offered through SugarExchange.

Sugar Forums focus on an individual's contributions rather than a project focus. The contributions flow from the sheer number of posts a community member makes in the forum. The threads started by a community member or for which a community member participates may be rated highly, and the benefit of that rating accrues to the member. Moreover, a member can be specifically targeted for an enhanced reputation among other forum members. Thus, the various SugarCRM web properties provide multiple ways to enhance the status of a given community member either through a direct enhancement to one's reputation or indirectly through the enhanced statute of projects or posts/threads the member associates him or herself with. Now, a method for managing reputation across the multiple properties (or other systems) is described.

Figure 4 illustrates an example of a developer collaboration property that is part of the system shown in Figure 3 that allows member to rate each other as well as project developers accrue the benefits of high rating for the projects that they lead or for which they play an active role. Figure 5 illustrates an example of a developer collaboration property project review rating from the developer collaboration property. As shown, the developer collaboration property generates a rating of each member.

Figure 6 illustrates an example of a source code exchange property rating in which, when users and implementers rate and download content, they are implicitly rating the developer of the content. Thus, the source code exchange property implicitly generates a rating for particular members that have projects in the exchange property. Figure 7 illustrates an example of a forum property rating example in which a discussion thread is given a rating by as shown. A high rating for a particular post/thread then accrues to the member that initiated the thread/post. Figure 8 illustrates another example of a forum property rating example in which a member can be specifically targeted for an enhanced reputation among other forum members. Figure 9 illustrates an example of a user reputation quotient display for the system in Figure 3. In the exemplary system shown in Figure 3, a given user profile (such as that shown in Figure 9), when viewed in SugarForge, will reflect the same URQ for the same user in Sugar Forums and in SugarExchange. In the exemplary system described above, the URQ forms the basis for community promotions and other facets of the business. In other examples, such as when a third party is creating an overall rating for auction members, the overall rating may be used to track a good reputation of the user across the multiple auction systems and there may be some reward for maintaining that good reputation.

While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A computer implemented method for determining an overall reputation of a member, the method comprising: gathering a rating of a member from a plurality of systems wherein each system generates it own unique rating of the member; and generating an overall reputation value of the member based on the gathered ratings of the members from the plurality of systems.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising propagating the overall reputation value of the member to the plurality of systems, and updating the overall reputation value for the member when the rating of the member from at least one of the plurality of systems is changed.

3. A system for reputation management, comprising: a reputation management computer system; one or more systems capable of exchanging information with the reputation management computer system wherein each system generates a rating of a member associated with the system; and a reputation manager that is part of the reputation management computer system, the reputation manager further comprises a piece of code that gathers the rating of the member from the systems and a second piece of code that generates an overall reputation value of the member based on the gathered ratings of the members from the systems.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the reputation manager further comprises a third piece of code that propagates the overall reputation value of the member to the systems and a fourth piece of code that updates the overall reputation value for the member when the rating of the member from at least one of the systems changed.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the reputation manager is a plurality of lines of computer code executed by the reputation management computer system.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the systems further comprise a developer collaboration property, a source code exchange property and a forum property wherein each property generates a rating of a member.