System And Method For Algorithmic Selection Of A Consensus From A Plurality Of Ideas

Abstract

A system and method for algorithmic selection of a consensus from a collection of ideas is disclosed. A group of ideas is provided to a group of participants for voting. Voting may occur in a single round or in several successive rounds, optionally until a consensus idea is chosen. Typically, the votes that are cast use discrete levels, such as “approve”, “disapprove”, “positive”, “neutral” or “negative”. For ideas that receive the same votes, a differentiator may be the time spent casting the vote. A relatively long evaluation time may signal some internal conflict in the mind of the participant, when compared with a relatively short evaluation time, which may signal no such conflict. The evaluation time may be combined with the rating of the participant to form a weighted rating. Consequently, a short evaluation time of a positive rating may yield a more positive weighted rating, while a short evaluation time of a negative rating may yield a more negative weighted rating.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A voting machine computer connected to a plurality of networked or internet terminals for rating a massive number of ideas, being numbered 1 to N, N being the last idea, wherein a computer program for executing the method is stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium which, when loaded on a computer, makes the computer detects user input and calculates:
 a. in a first round, electronically distributing a first universe of ideas, divided into idea sets, to a group of participants, in parallel, wherein each participant receives at least one idea set, and wherein the universe of ideas are divided so that the number of idea sets generally equals the number of participants and wherein each idea has a substantially equal and fair probability of being viewed and voted on by a generally equal number of participants;   b. having each participant select from their idea set, via an input device, at least one highest ranking idea;   c. establishing a threshold hurdle win rate which comprises a predetermined number against which said participant ranking for each idea are compared; segregating the ideas which exceed said predetermined number as winning ideas and creating a first subgroup of ideas which exceed said predetermined number;   d. in a second round, electronically re-distributing the first sub group of ideas divided into second idea sets to all participants in parallel wherein each participant receives at least one second idea set; wherein the universe of ideas are divided so that the number of second idea sets generally equals the number of participants and wherein each idea has a substantially equal and fair probability of being viewed and voted on by a generally equal number of participants; whereby the number of ideas is reduced while the number of participants is generally not reduced, thereby more participants are applied to the remaining ideas;   e. having each participant select from their second idea set, via the input device, at least one highest ranking idea;   f. establishing a second threshold hurdle win rate which comprises a second predetermined number against which the participant rankings for each idea are compared; segregating the ideas which exceed said second predetermined number as winning ideas and creating a second subgroup of ideas which exceed said second predetermined number;   wherein each of steps (a) and (d) comprises steps for dividing plurality of ideas into groups, each groups of ideas to be distributed to each of a plurality of participants by;   using a known sequence of integers method of assigning a sequence of idea numbers 1 to N to distribute the ideas to said first sub group into non-exclusive subsets   whereby the program is terminated or proceeds to subsequent rounds of redistributing ideas to further increase the accuracy and speed of finding the group preferred idea and whereby effectively a large number of ideas is distillable by a mass participant group and the computer generates an output of a distilled consensus of idea.   
     
     
         22 . The machine of  claim 21  further comprising additional steps of: in every round, incrementing said number sequence by one, except if the incremented idea number exceeds the number of ideas, in which case, such incremented number shall start at one. 
     
     
         23 . The machine of  claim 21  further including steps for editing ideas, comprising:
 from a participant's selection of at least one highest ranking idea allowing the participant to indicate an objection to a portion of said highest ranking idea; tallying objections of other participants to the same objection, if the tally exceeds a predetermined trigger threshold, requesting submission of revisions to an idea from the participants; redistributing revisions received from the participants and ranking them according to steps (a) to (e) as if the revision is an idea set. 
 
     
     
         24 . The machine of  claim 23 , wherein the revision is provided by an author of the initial idea. 
     
     
         25 . The machine of  claim 24 , wherein the author of the initial idea is a participant in the group. 
     
     
         26 . The machine of  claim 23 , wherein the revision is provided by the group of participants. 
     
     
         27 . The machine of  claim 21 , further comprising steps for eliminating duplicative ideas including the steps of:
 i. querying participants for data input responsive to the question of whether the participant finds two ideas to be substantially similar;   ii. conjoining particular initial ideas that are deemed equivalent by the plurality of participants;   iii. selecting only one of said similar ideas for further grouping in successive rankings by participants.   
     
     
         28 . The machine of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 attaching a supplemental idea to a particular initial idea; and   including a random sampling of proposed supplemental ideas in each subsequent subgroup of ideas that contains the particular initial idea and having each participant select from their supplemental idea set, via an input device, at least one highest ranking idea.   
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising steps to create a subgroup of participants from a group where the participant indicates an objection to at least one high ranking idea, including the steps of:
 allowing said participant to extract itself from any group which supports said idea and creating at least one subgroup of participants with similar objections.   
     
     
         30 . The machine of  claim 23 , wherein the revisions introduced by the participant is indicated by color, and wherein the idea with color indication is presented to the participants for a vote. 
     
     
         31 . The machine of  claim 23 , wherein the revisions are edits introduced by participant, and wherein participants vote on acceptance of the edit. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein any participant is able to propose an edit to an idea, such edits to be considered by the other participants, whereby a proposed edit is marked by the participant on at least a portion of the idea, with a marking icon;
 if the percentage of participants marking a given section of text exceeds a predetermined revision trigger threshold, that edit is then given to any of the participants who have at least once voted on the idea in question in accordance with steps (a) to (e) as if the revisions are an idea set.   
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 21  further including steps for voting fraud detection and anti-consensus detection, comprising the steps of:
 comparing a particular participant's voting activity, to consensus choices after a given round of voting by examining the win ranking of the participant's choice versus the win ranking of ideas that were directly competing with the particular participant's chosen idea and determining if those ideas that were passed over had a sufficiently greater win ranking and thus were far more favored by the other participants to justify negating the participant's vote, and in such case removing the participant's vote from future rounds of voting. 
 
     
     
         34 . The machine of  claim 21 , further including steps for voting fraud detection, comprising the steps of:
 defining a win ratio as the ratio of the number of wins for a particular idea, divided by the total number of competitions that the idea is in;   calculating the pass ratios for each idea in a given competitive set;   determining the differences between the pass ratio of each idea in the competitive set and the pass ratio of the idea that the participant chooses;   setting a maximum value allowed for the differences to exceed before labeling a vote a fraud and then discarding that vote and giving the win to the highest ranked idea in that set, as determined by other participants prior votes.   
     
     
         35 . A computer based machine for rating a plurality of N ideas, referred to by idea numbers 1 to N, wherein a computer program for executing the method is stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium which, when loaded on a computer, makes the computer perform the steps of:
 a. in a first round, electronically distributing a first universe of ideas, divided into idea sets, to a group of participants, in parallel, wherein each participant receives at least one idea set, and wherein the universe of ideas are divided so that the number of idea sets generally equals the number of participants and wherein each idea has a substantially equal and fair probability of being viewed and voted on by generally equal number of participants;   b. having each participant select from their idea set, via an input device, at least one highest ranking idea;   c. establishing a threshold hurdle win rate which comprises a predetermined number against which said participant ranking for each idea are compared; segregating the ideas which exceed said predetermined number as winning ideas and creating a first subgroup of ideas which exceed said predetermined number;   d. in a second round, electronically re-distributing the first sub group divided into second idea sets to all participants in parallel wherein each participant receives at least one second idea set; wherein the universe of ideas are divided so that the number of second idea sets generally equals the number of participants and wherein each idea has a substantially equal and fair probability of being viewed and voted on by generally equal number of participants; whereby the number of ideas is reduced while the number of participants is generally not reduced, thereby more participants are applied to the remaining ideas;   e. having each participant input, via the input device, a selection from their second idea set of at least a highest ranking idea;   f. establishing a second threshold hurdle win rate which comprises a second predetermined number against which the participant rankings for each idea are compared;   segregating the ideas which exceed said second predetermined number as wining ideas and creating a second subgroup of ideas which exceed said second predetermined number;   wherein each of steps (a) and (d) comprises steps for dividing plurality of ideas into groups, each groups of ideas to be distributed to each of plurality of participants by;   using a sequence of integers method of assigning a sequence of idea numbers 1 to N to distribute the ideas to said first sub group into non-exclusive subsets,   whereby the program is terminated or proceeds to subsequent rounds of redistributing ideas to further increase the accuracy of the method and whereby effectively a large number of ideas is distillable by a mass participant group.   
     
     
         36 . A method for selecting a consensus from a plurality of initial ideas, comprising:
 forming a plurality of initial idea groups from the plurality of initial ideas, each initial idea group comprising a subset of the plurality of initial ideas;   presenting the initial idea groups to a plurality of participants, each initial idea group being presented to at least one participant;   collecting a plurality of initial rankings from the plurality of participants, each initial ranking corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of participants;   determining a plurality of initial win rates from the plurality of initial rankings, each initial win rate corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of initial ideas;   comparing the plurality of initial win rates to an initial threshold win rate;   forming a plurality of secondary ideas as a subset of the plurality of initial ideas, wherein an initial idea is included in the plurality of secondary ideas if its corresponding initial win rate exceeds the initial threshold win rate;   forming a plurality of secondary idea groups from the plurality of secondary ideas, each secondary idea group comprising a subset of the plurality of secondary ideas;   presenting the secondary idea groups to the plurality of participants, each secondary idea group being presented to at least one participant;   collecting a plurality of secondary rankings from the plurality of participants, each secondary ranking corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of participants;   determining a plurality of secondary win rates from the plurality of secondary rankings, each secondary win rate corresponding to exactly one of the plurality of secondary ideas;   comparing the plurality of secondary win rates to a secondary threshold win rate; and   forming at least one tertiary idea as a subset of the plurality of secondary ideas, wherein at least one secondary idea forms the at least one tertiary idea if its corresponding secondary win rate exceeds the secondary threshold win rate.