WO2004090776A1

WO2004090776A1 - A method for determining a specialist in a field on-line and a system for enabling the method

Info

Publication number: WO2004090776A1
Application number: PCT/KR2004/000820
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mi Jeong Choi
Original assignee: Nhn Corporation
Priority date: 2003-04-11
Filing date: 2004-04-08
Publication date: 2004-10-21
Also published as: KR20030036500A; KR100553943B1; JP4335251B2; JP2006524370A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system for electing a specialist in a field on-line and more particularly to a method and system for getting users to make a question and give an answer for the question in a field on-line, and for electing a user who satisfies a predetermined standard as a specialist that falls under a category that corresponds to the question or the answer, among the users. According to a method for electing an expert in a field on-line comprising the steps of: receiving a question from a first user; determining a category related to the question; providing the question on a predetermined web page; receiving an answer to the question, from a second user; increasing the number of answers that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the category, in response to an input of the answer; if the answer is selected by the first user, increasing the number of answer adoptions that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the category; computing a point related to the second user, that corresponds to the category on the basis of an appraisal material including said the number of the answers and said the number of the answer adoptions; and electing the second user, who meets a predetermined condition based on the point, as an expert of a relevant field in the category.

Description

A METHOD FOR DETERMINING A SPECIALIST IN A FIELD ON-LINE AND

A SYSTEM FOR ENABLING THE METHOD

Technical Field The present invention relates to a method and system for electing a specialist in a field on-line and more particularly to a method and system for getting users to make a question and give an answer for the question in a field on-line, and for electing a user who satisfies a predetermined standard as a specialist that falls under a category that corresponds to the question or the answer, among the users.

Background Art

Service providing a space where a user can communicate in a field on-line such as an internet, is generally being performed, and users promote friendly relations and request a help of other people using such space. At the moment, it is preferable that substantial question and answer are given and taken between users, but for some questions, no answer may be given or the given answer may be inappropriate, or quality of the question itself may be clumsy. If such cases occur frequently, use rate of users will get lowered.

In that case, a service company providing a predetermined service on the web page cannot compel users to make a question or give an answer, and there has been no definite method for improving the quality of content itself of the question or the answer. Since it is impossible that the service company manages the content itself of the question or the answer uploaded on the web page by users, voluntary participation of users is most preferentially required for activation of question-and-answer service. Therefore, a method for inducing voluntary participation of users is highly required.

Also, in order to obtain desired information in a field on-line, a user goes through the general procedure, in which a user inputs an appropriate keyword in a search site and selects information desired by a user among a plurality of information searched according to the keyword. Internet searching has a strong point of being able to use huge amount of information on the Internet, but simultaneously has a weak point that the amount of information is so huge that the procedure for finding desired information gets complicated more and more and takes much time. To resolve those problems, a method in which a user can obtain desired information in form of an answer to a question, is suggested. In the meantime, a method for giving users motivation to activate questioning and answering of a user is also suggested. FIG. 1 is a view showing a network connection of a question-answer system according to the conventional art. According to the conventional art, a user (a questioner) having a predetermined question accesses to the question-answer system 106 using a user's terminal 101 through the Internet 103. A user inputs a keyword related to his question, and searches a knowledge database 104, thereby checking whether a question similar to his question or an answer related to his question is already registered in the knowledge database 104. If the user cannot obtain an appropriate answer with respect to his question through searching, the user registers his question in the question- answer system 106. Also, the user can directly register his question in the question- answer system 106 without performing such searching. In the meantime, another user (answerer) accesses to the question-answer system 106 using a user's terminal 102 through the Internet 103. The answerer searches or browses the registered questions using the question-answer system 106. If finding a question that can be answered by himself, the answerer registers an answer to that question in the question-answer system 106. When accessing again to the question- answer system 106 to search his question afterward, the questioner can see the answer to his question. The conventional art gets the questioner to select one satisfactory answer among a plurality of answers to his question, and rewards answerer for his answer by paying a cyber point to the answerer whose answer has been selected by the questioner, whereby an answer by the answerer is promoted. But, now, besides paying the cyber point, it is also required to induce users to actively participate in the question-answer system and induce, without payment of extra costs, an answer of an expert in the relevant field with respect to a question of a predetermined field.

Disclosure of Invention

To improve the above-described conventional art, it is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for electing an on-line expert, capable of activating a question-answer process between on-line users and improve quality of a question and an answer in their contents.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for electing an on-line expert, capable of activating a question-answer process between on- line users and improve quality of a question and an answer in their contents, by electing an expert in relevant field that falls under the relevant category in connection with a question and an answer of a user, that corresponds to a predetermined category.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for electing an on-line expert, capable of inducing a user who intends to be elected as an expert, to actively participate in the question-answer process, by getting a category and a predetermined character image to be displayed on a web page in connection with a user in case a user is elected as an expert.

It is further still another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for electing an on-line expert, capable of inducing a user who intends to be elected as an expert, to actively participate in the question-answer process, by giving a predetermined benefit to a user who is elected as an expert.

To achieve the foregoing objects and to resolve the problems of the conventional art, there is provided a method for electing an expert in a field on-line comprising the steps of: receiving a question from a first user; determining a category related to the question; providing the question on a predetermined web page; receiving an answer to the question, from a second user; increasing the number of answers that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the category, in response to an input of the answer; if the answer is selected by the first user, increasing the number of answer adoptions that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the category; computing a point related to the second user, that corresponds to the category on the basis of an appraisal material including said the number of the answers and said the number of the answer adoptions; and electing the second user, who meets a predetermined condition based on the point, as an expert of a relevant field in the category..

According to wherein the appraisal material further comprises more than one item among: the number of questions which is the number of times a question related to the category is input from the second user, the number of question abandonment in case a question related to the category is input from the second user, an answer to the question is input from other user, and selection of the answer by the second user is not input within a predetermined period of time; and the number of service log-in which is the number of times the second user logs in the service.

According to the method for further comprising the steps of: maintaining a character image in a character database in connection with each category; if the second user is elected as an expert of a relevant field in the category, searching a character image that falls under the category, from the character database; and displaying the character image in connection with the second user.

According to a method for electing an expert in a field on-line comprising the steps of: receiving a question from a first user; providing the question on a predetermined web page; receiving an answer to the question, from a second user; increasing the number of answers that is related to the second user, in response to an input of the answer; if the answer is selected by the first user, increasing the number of answer adoptions that is related to the second user; computing a point related to the second user, on the basis of an appraisal material including the number of the answers and the number of the answer adoptions; and electing the second user who meets a predetermined reference, as an expert on the basis of the point.

According to a system for providing an answer to a question of a user through a communication network, the system comprising: a database for maintaining an expert level record that corresponds to the user, in which the expert level record comprises: a user identifier related to the user; a category; an evaluation data; a point; and an expert level; a point computing part for computing the point using a predetermined computing method on the basis of an appraisal material; and an expert level determining part for determining the expert level by a predetermined expert level determining rule according to the point.

According to a system for further comprising: a character database for storing more than one character image that corresponds to the expert level for each category; and a displaying part for displaying the character image in connection with the user and the category.

Brief Description of Drawings

FIG. 1 is a view showing a network connection of a question-answer system according to the conventional art.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a method for electing an expert according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a method for a screen where the first user inputs a question.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a method for receiving a question and determining a category related to the question from a first user.

FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of data stored in a database for use in the method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of a character image stored in the character database for use in the method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment. FIG 8 is a view showing a status that the results are displayed on the web page in case other users make appraisal of the question with respect to the question input from the first user.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a system 900 for electing an expert according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is an inner block diagram of a general computer system that can be adopted in preparing the system for electing an expert according to the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a method for electing an expert according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment is performed by the system for electing an expert according to the present invention.

At the step of 201, the system for electing an expert receives a question from the first user. FIG. 3 is a view showing a screen where the first user inputs a question. The first user inputs a title of a question in a question title window 301 and inputs content of a question in a question content window 302. According to another embodiment of the present invention, instead of separately providing a question title window, a question input window for directly receiving a question may be provided. A "question period" button 304 is a period of time during which an answer to the question can be input. If the question period expires, other person cannot input an answer to the question afterward. A "Point betting" button 305 is about a point that would be rewarded to an answerer whose answer is selected by a questioner among the answers to the question. The point may be a real money and may be a cyber point which is possibly exchanged only in a field on- line. Also, without betting the point, a user can make a question. If a questioner clicks on a "OK" button 306, the question is delivered to the system for electing an expert through the Internet. The first user may set the question period long in case the question is difficult and the answer is not easy, and may set the question period short and bet much points in case a user needs to obtain the answer rapidly, so that a desired answer can be easily obtained.

At the step of 202, a category related to the question is determined. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the category related to the question can be determined by getting the first user to select the category related to the question using a "category selection" link 303 in FIG. 3. According to another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, the category related to the question can be determined with use of a morpheme analyzing method. The step of 401 a system for electing an expert maintaining a category and more than one keyword related to the category, in a category database and extracting a keyword by analyzing the question into a morpheme. A morpheme analysis means analyzing a sentence with a morpheme. For example, in case a question that "what is the difference between deluxe and general in a coffee vending machine?" is input, the above sentence is analyzed in several morphemes: "coffee vending machine", "in", "deluxe", "and", "general", "between", "difference", "what", "?". The step of 403 extracts a keyword from the morphemes which have been morpheme-analyzed. The keyword is selected mainly among nouns. In the above, "coffee vending machine", "deluxe", "general", and "difference" are extracted as keywords. According to another embodiment of the present invention, other keyword extracting method may be adopted.

The step of 404 identifying a category related to the extracted keyword using the category database and determining the identified category as a category related to the question. For example, if the "coffee" is stored as a category related to the "coffee vending machine" in a category database, the "coffee" is identified as the relevant category related to the question.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to provide the identified category to the questioner and have the first user check that the identified category is the relevant category related to the question. The first user checks the category by being provided with the identified category and inputs selection of the provided category. For example, if a plurality of categories is identified as the relevant category related to the question of the first user, a plurality of the categories is provided to the first user, and the firs user selects and inputs the category that is considered to be the most closely related to his question, among a plurality of the provided categories. Then, the system for electing an expert determines the category in which selection is input, as the category related to the question. The present embodiment has strong points that the system for electing an expert identifies the category related to the question and receives confirmation of the first user who is a questioner with respect to the identified category, whereby selection of the category related to the question gets accurate and simultaneously, the first user can select conveniently the category related to the question.

If the category related to the question is determined, the system for electing an expert provides the question on a web page so that other user may see content of the question at the step of 203. At the step of 203, the system for electing an expert provides the input question on the web page. The second user inputs an answer to the question at the step of 204, and the system for electing an expert increases the number of answers that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the category, in response to the input of the answer at the step of 205. FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of data stored in a database for use in the method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment. A user identifier for identifying a user is stored in a user field. Generally, for the user identifier, ID can be used. In FIG. 5, a user whose ID is kkue (referred to as a "user kkue" hereinafter) has made a question or given an answer related to the categories of "Japanese animation", "dog", "mathematics", "earth science". In case the user kkue gives an answer to a question which is related to the category "mathematics" and made by the first user, the number of answers of the user kkue that corresponds to the category "mathematics", increases to 36 from 35.

At the step of 206, the first user can select the most appropriate answer to the question, among a plurality of answers input by users including the second user. Depending on the embodiments, in case the first user does not select the most appropriate answer at the step of 206, it may be possible that the first user is considered to have abandoned his question and a "number of question abandonment " that corresponds to the first user increases in the database shown in FIG. 5.

In case the first user selects an answer of the second user at the step of 206, the number of answer adoptions that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the relevant category, is increased at the step of 207.

At the step of 208, a point that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the relevant category is computed on the basis of an appraisal material including the number of the answers and the number of the answer adoptions. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the point can be computed with an answer adoption rate, which is a ratio of said the number of answer adoptions to said the number of answers, used for an appraisal material.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to get the number of the answers or the answer adoption rate to be reflected only if the second user makes answers more than a predetermined number of times with respect to the questions related to the category. For example, in case a predetermined number of times is set to thirty times, the number of answers starting from 30th answer and related to the second user is reflected as an appraisal material. According to such construction, an inappropriate case that a big answer adoption rate is ridiculously reflected despite an absolute number of answers is small, can be prevented. For example, if the number of answers given by the second user with respect to a question related to the category "mathematics", is one and the very answer is selected, then the answer adoption rate becomes 100%, which is inappropriate for an appraisal material. According to another embodiment of the present invention, said the predetermined number of times is set differently depending on the category, so that characteristics of each category may be reflected.

Also, according to further still another embodiment of the present invention, the number of the answers and the number of the answer adoptions may include the number of the answers and the number of the answer adoptions input by the users with respect to the question that falls under the sub-category that belongs to the above category. For example, if a user inputs an answer two times to the question related to the category "earth science" that is a sub-category of the category "natural science", and similarly, inputs an answer three times to the question related to the category "chemistry" that is a sub-category of the category "natural science", then the number of the answers that corresponds to the category "natural science", and belongs to the user will be 5. At the moment, whether to apply the number of the answers and the number of the answer adoptions up to what extent of the sub-category is varied depending on the embodiments, and it is preferable that those number of times are applied up to the sub-category having depth of three steps.

Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, wherein the appraisal material further comprises more than one item among: the number of questions which is the number of times a question related to the category is input from the second user, the number of question abandonment in case a question related to the category is input from the second user, an answer to the question is input from other user, and selection of the answer by the second user is not input within a predetermined period of time; and the number of service log-in which is the number of times the second user logs in the service and the appraisal material computing the point. Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the point can be computed with a predetermined weight given to each of the appraisal materials. For example, in case the number of answers, an answer adoption rate, the number of questions, the number of question abandonment, the number of "service log-in"s, related to a predetermined category, respectively, are used for the appraisal material, the point can be computed by the following formula:

Point = (number of answers)xl0 + (answer adoption rate)xl000 + (number of questions)xl + (number of question abandonment)x(-20) + (number of service log-in)xl Weight given to each of the appraisal materials may be appropriately selected by a service performing company for providing service using the method for electing an expert. Taking a value stored in the database shown in FIG. 4 as an example, the point that corresponds to the category "mathematics" related to the user kkue is 691. In the meantime, as explained in FIG. 3, a method such that in case the first user who makes a question using the "point betting 305" bets a predetermined amount of point, the point of the first user is reduced as much as the above predetermined amount and the point of the second user is increased as much as the above predetermined amount if the answer of the second user is adopted, can also be used. Though the present invention adopts the number of answers, the number of answer adoptions (or an answer adoption rate), the number of question, the number of question abandonment, the number of service log-in, for the appraisal materials in order to compute the point, the appraisal material may be varied, i.e., other appraisal material may be added or the existing appraisal material may excluded depending on the embodiments.

If the point is more than a predetermined reference value at the step of 209, the second user is elected as an expert of the field that falls under the category. Presuming that the reference value is 600, since the point which is related to the user kkue and which corresponds to the category "mathematics" is 691, the user kkue can be elected as an expert of the field "mathematics".

Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the method may further comprise the step of: if the point related to the second user corresponds to a higher ranking than a predetermined ranking in the category, on the basis of a point related to each user corresponding the category, electing the second user as an expert. Namely, with respect to the user who has made a question or given an answer in connection with the category, it is possible to compute the point related to the category and the point related to the second user can be compared to the points related to other users, so that ranking may be determined. At the moment, the only second user whose ranking is within 10% of high ranking (or low ranking depending on the embodiments), is elected as an expert.

Though the present invention adopts the number of answers, the number of answer adoptions (or an answer adoption rate), the number of question, the number of question abandonment, the number of service log-in, for the appraisal materials in order to compute the point, the appraisal material may be varied, i.e., other appraisal material may be added or the existing appraisal material may excluded depending on the embodiments. The fact that a user has given lots of answers in connection with a specific category means that the user is well aware of the field that falls under the category and the fact that the number of answer adoptions is great means that the knowledge on the relevant field of the user is highly appraised by other user. Therefore, the number of the answers and the number of answer adoptions become good appraisal materials for appraising expertise of the user. The method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment, has the construction of getting the first user who inputs the question, to select an answer. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the system for electing an expert has the construction of getting a plurality of users except (or including) the first user who makes the question, to vote with respect to the answer to the question and possibly getting the first user to select an answer according to the vote's results. Since being a ratio of the answers adopted by other users to the answers for the relevant field by the user, the answer adoption rate also becomes a good m'aterial for appraising expertise of the user.

If a user makes lots of question in connection with a specific field, it means that the user is highly related to that specific field and a user who abandons an answer to his question without adoption may be considered, to some extent, to be weakly related to the field. Therefore, the number of questions and the number of question abandonment become good appraisal materials. Also, since the number of log-in which is a frequency a user has accessed to the present service, is a standard as to how many times the user has made use of the present service, it may be considered that the number of log-in reflects, to some extent, relevance of the user for a specific field. Also, the number of log-in is the appraisal material for inducing the user to actively use the present service more and more.

According to the method for electing an expert according to said embodiment like the above, it is possible to elect an expert of the field that falls under the relevant category, by distinctly appraising the questions and the answers for each of the categories. Also, it is possible to elect a user who has actively participated in the question-answer process and provided an answer of high quality, as an expert by reflecting the number of questions and the number of answers, on the point and giving much weight to the number of answers adopted as an appropriate answer to a question.

In the meantime, in case the system for electing an expert searches for user information of the second user, it is possible to get the system to display that the second user is an expert of the relevant field in a specific category. At the moment, the system for electing an expert can get the point of the second user and the character image that will be described below, to be displayed besides the above indication.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the method for electing an expert may further comprise the steps of: additionally receiving a user identifier for identifying the second user elected as an expert of the relevant field in the category related to the question as well as the question from the first user; providing the question to the second user; receiving, from the second user, an answer to the question; and providing the answer to the first user. At the moment, for the step of providing the question to the second user, a predetermined electronic mail server may be used and, in case the second user logs in the system for electing an expert, a message service for delivering a real-time message to the second user may be used.

According to such construction, the first user can ask an answer of the only user elected as an expert of the relevant field in the category related to the question, instead of inputting a question in order to ask an answer of a plurality of unspecified persons. Therefore, the method for electing an expert according to the present invention has storing points that the first user needs not to set an answer period having a predetermined period of time and if given an answer from the second user, the first user can accomplish his purpose, and in case of inputting an expert identifier with respect to a plurality of experts, the first user can be provided with answers from a plurality of the experts.

The method for electing an expert according to another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to get a character image related to the category, to be displayed on the web page in connection with a user elected as an expert of the relevant field in a predetermined category. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment. Since the method for electing an expert according to the present embodiment includes all the steps from the step of 201 to 210 shown in FIG. 2, the illustration of those steps will be omitted. In FIG 6, only the additional steps of 611 through 614 are shown. At the step of 611, the system for electing an expert maintains a character image in a character database in connection with each category. The step of 612 judges whether the point of the second user that corresponds to a predetermined category is more than a reference value, i.e., whether the second user has been elected as an expert.

If the point of the second user that corresponds to the predetermined category is more than the reference value as a result of judgment, the step of 613 searches a character image that corresponds to the category in the character database. The step of 614 displays the searched character image in connection with the second user. For example, in case of displaying user information on the web page, it is possible to get the searched character image, to be displayed together with a user ID, self introduction input by a user.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, whether the point related to the second user falls under a predetermined ranking is judged with use of the point related to each user that corresponds to the category for the reference, and the steps of 613 and 614 are performed only if the point related to the second user falls under the above ranking as a result of judgment.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, wherein the step of maintaining more than one level depending on the point in a predetermined storing apparatus. Since the storing apparatus may be realized using physically the same apparatus as the database explained in FIG. 5, the case that more than one level according to the point are maintained in the database will be described in the present embodiment. For example, it is possible to discriminate the level using a description "awkward" for the point of a range 0 through 299, and a description "general" for the point of a range 300 through 599. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, in case of the user kkue, his level is "general" for the category "Japanese animation", and his level is "middle" for the category "mathematics", and "expert" for the category "earth science". Though the present embodiment discriminates the level using the descriptions "awkward", "general", "middle", "superior", and "god", those descriptions are merely exemplary.

According to the step of 611 maintaining more than one character image in the character database in connection with each category; and maintaining levels, which correspond to more than one character image, respectively, in the character database. FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of a character image stored in the character database, in which the character images that correspond to the levels "awkward" and "expert", are omitted. As shown in FIG. 7, the character image that corresponds to "mathematics" includes an abacus which is related to mathematics and the character image that corresponds to "earth science" includes a globe. Namely, the character image is maintained in connection with each category and each level that corresponds to the character is maintained. Therefore, the character database which is not only different for each level but also different for the related category even if it is the same category, is maintained in the character database. Accordingly, it is possible to understand that what kinds of expert the user is appraised as, in a predetermined field by referring to the character related to the user.

Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, more than one the character image is different in its number of pixels constituting the character image, depending on the corresponding level. Namely, it is possible to get more elegant character image to be displayed in com ection with the second user by maintaining the character image having the more great number of pixels as the level is raised.

Also, the step of 613 includes the steps of judging the level to which the point for each category of the second user belongs, by referring the predetermined storing apparatus, and searching the character image that corresponds to the level from the character database.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, since having the points 691 for the category "mathematics", the user kkue corresponds to the level "middle" and as shown in FIG. 7, the character image indicated by an elliptical circle is searched for the character image related to the category "mathematics". Therefore, it is possible to get the character image to be displayed on the web page together with the ID of the user with respect to the user kkue.

But, there may exist a variety of methods such as a method for displaying a character image of the most highest level only in case the same user has a plurality of levels for each category, a method for sequentially displaying, every predetermined period of time, the character image of the expert level only, in case the user is elected as an expert in the relevant field in more than one category, and a method for displaying a character image selected by the user, for a representative character image among a plurality of searched character images.

As described above, it is possible to provide differentiated service to the user elected as an expert, by getting the character image related to the user elected as an expert to be displayed and, further, by getting the character image related to the category for which the user is elected as an expert, to be displayed.

Besides, the method for electing an expert according to the present invention may further comprise a variety of steps of providing differentiated service, which is different from the service provided to other user not elected as an expert, to the user elected as an expert. In the following, such steps will be described.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for electing an expert comprising the steps of if the second user gives an answer to a question that falls under a predetermined category, judging whether the second user is an expert of a relevant field in the category on the basis of a corresponding point of the category of the second user and if the second user is an expert of the relevant field in the category, displaying that the answer of the second user has been given by the expert in a predetermined displaying method.

For example, suppose that a user kkue gives an answer to the question that falls under the category "mathematics". As shown in FIG. 5, the user kkue has been elected as an expert in the field of the category "mathematics", so that the answer of the user kkue will be displayed in a different manner, compared to the answer of the general user (who is not an expert of the filed "mathematics"). Other user who recognizes such different display gets to know that the answer of the user kkue is the answer of the expert, and preferentially reads that answer before other answers or puts much trust in that answer compared to other answer.

The method for electing an expert according to another embodiment of the present invention, has other users make an appraisal of questions and answers thereto, which have been related to a predetermined category and which have been given and taken between the users, and makes it possible to give a weight on an appraisal of a user who is an expert in case a user who makes an appraisal is an expert of the category.

The system for electing an expert can receive an appraisal for the question or the answer from the third user with respect to the question from the first user or the answer of the second user, to that question. At the moment, in case the third user is an expert of the relevant field in the category related to the question or the answer, it is possible to give a weight on at least either the appraisal of the question or the appraisal of the answer. The system for electing an expert can get the appraisal of the question and the appraisal of the answer to be displayed.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a status that the results are displayed on the web page in case other users make appraisal of the question with respect to the question input from the first user. As exemplified by an elliptical circle in FIG. 8, other users can make appraisal such as "Good" or "Bad" with respect to the question of the first user, and display the overall appraisal results by giving +1 point for the appraisal "Good" and -1 point for the appraisal "Bad". At the moment, in case the question is a question that falls under the category "computer" and the user who has been elected as an expert in the filed "computer' makes an appraisal "Good", it is possible to give a predetermined weight by giving +3 points unlike the appraisal of the users who are non expert in the field "computer". In FIG. 8, +13 shows the appraisal results of each user described above. A variety of appraisal methods may be adopted besides the descried method, depending on embodiments.

The method for electing an expert according to another embodiment of the present invention can receive information related to the category from the second user and get the information to be displayed, regardless of whether the question is made by other user, in case the second user is elected as an expert of the relevant field in a predetermined category.

Namely, it is possible to give the second user, who is an expert of the relevant field in the category, an opportunity capable of voluntarily providing information considered necessary to other users. The information input from the second user who is an expert may be displayed together with the fact that it is information provided by an expert. Therefore, other users can put more trust to the information provided by an expert compared to the information provided by non expert in the field. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for electing an expert comprising the steps of if the second user is elected as an expert of a relevant field in the category, providing an expert certificate for certifying an expert of the relevant field in the category, to the second user in a field on-line. Also, it is possible to raise prestige of the user elected as an expert of the field by providing an on-line expert certificate and induce the users to more actively perform question, answer, or appraisal activities, by giving intellectual satisfaction to the user. In the following, the system for electing an expert, capable of performing the described method for electing an expert will be described.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a system 900 for electing an expert according to the embodiment of the present invention. The system 900 for electing an expert comprises: a database 901; a point computing part 902; and an expert level determining part 903. The system 900 for electing an expert has the construction of possibly providing an answer to a question of a user through a communication network, having variety of appraisal materials such as the number of answers, and electing a user who meets a predetermined standard as an expert on the basis of the appraisal materials.

A database 901 maintains an expert level record which corresponds the user. The expert level record may have such structure as shown in FIG. 4. Namely, the expert level record includes: a user identifier for identifying a user in connection with the user; a category related to a question, an answer, or an appraisal made by the user; an appraisal material for computing a point, a point, and an expert level determined on the basis of the point. The appraisal material comprises: the number of answers which is the number of times the user gives an answer to a question related to the category; and the number of answer adoptions which is the number of times the answer given by the user with respect to the question related to the category is adopted by a questioner of the question. The number of questions, which is frequency a user has made question in relation to the category, may be added to the appraisal material depending on the embodiments.

The point computing part 902 computes the point using a predetermined computing method on the basis of the appraisal material. A variety of computing methods such as giving a predetermined weight on each of the appraisal material, may be adopted. The expert level determining part 903 determines the expert level by a predetermined expert level determining rule according to the computed point. Namely, if the point of the user is more than a predetermined reference value, the expert level determining part 903 can determine the user as an expert of the category. Also, depending on the embodiments, the expert level determining part 903 may discriminate more than one level according to a detail standard, even for the point of more than the predetermined reference value. Namely, the expert level determining part 903 elects a user as an expert for the point of more than 600, and particularly, discriminates an expert into "middle" for the point of 600 through 899, and "superior" for the point of 900 through 1199, so that the level may be discriminated into several levels even in the expert.

In the meantime, the system 900 for electing an expert may induce the users to actively participate in the on-line question-answer process, by providing the user elected as an expert with differentiated service that is different from service provided to nonexpert user, as is done in the described method for electing an expert.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the system 900 for electing an expert further comprises: a character database 904 and a display part 905. The character database 904 stores more than one character image in response to the expert level for each category, and the display part 906 displays the character image on the user's terminal 910 in connection with the user and the category.

Since the construction of storing the character image in response to the expert level for each category, and judging the level of the user for each category to display the relevant character image, is the same as the described method for electing an expert, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to determine an expert for a predetermined high ranking field or the whole field on the basis of points of a plurality of categories without determining an expert for each category, within the sprint of the present invention.

In addition, embodiments of the present invention further relate to computer readable media that include program instructions for performing various computer- implemented operations. The media may also include, alone or in combination with the program instructions, data files, data structures, tables, and the like. The media and program instructions may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media such as floptical disks; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-only memory devices (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). The media may also be a transmission medium such as optical or metallic lines, wave guides, etc. including a carrier wave transmitting signals specifying the program instructions, data structures, etc. Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter. FIG. 10 is an inner block diagram of a general computer system that can be adopted in preparing the system for electing an expert according to the present invention.

The computer system includes any number of processors 1001 (also referred to as central processing units, or CPUs) that are coupled to storage devices including primary storage 1002 (typically a random access memory, or "RAM"), primary storage 1003 (typically a read only memory, or "ROM"). As is well known in the art, primary storage 1002 acts to transfer data and instructions uni-directionally to the CPU and primary storage 1002 is used typically to transfer data and instructions in a bi-directional manner. Both of these primary storage devices may include any suitable type of the computer-readable media described above. A mass storage device 1004 is also coupled bi-directionally to CPU 1001 and provides additional data storage capacity and may include any of the computer-readable media described above. The mass storage device 1004 may be used to store programs, data and the like and is typically a secondary storage medium such as a hard disk that is slower than primary storage. A specific mass storage device such as a CD-ROM 1006 may also pass data uni-directionally to the CPU. Processor 1001 is also coupled to an interface 1005 that includes one or more input/output devices such as such as video monitors, track balls, mice, keyboards, microphones, touch-sensitive displays, transducer card readers, magnetic or paper tape readers, tablets, styluses, voice or handwriting recognizers, or other well-known input devices such as, of course, other computers. Finally, processor 1001 optionally may be coupled to a computer or telecommunications network using a network connection as shown generally at 1007 With such a network connection, it is contemplated that the CPU might receive information from the network, or might output information to the network in the course of performing the above-described method steps. The above- described devices and materials will be familiar to those of skill in the computer hardware and software arts.

The hardware elements described above may be configured (usually temporarily) to act as one or more software modules for performing the operations of this invention.

Industrial Applicability

According to the present invention, there is provided a method and system, capable of electing an expert of the relevant field in a predetermined category in a field on-line. In case questions and answers are given and taken between the users in a field on-line, it is possible to elect an expert according to a predetermined standard for each category related to the question and answer, on the basis of the objective appraisal materials such as the number of times the question and answer are input, and the number of times the answer is selected.

Also, according to the present invention, there is provided a method and system, for electing an expert, capable of inducing the users to actively participate in the question-answer process, by electing the user who makes lots of questions and answers on a predetermined on-line web page and particularly the user who makes a question and an answer of high quality, as an expert of the relevant field related to the question and the answer, and by displaying that the user has been elected in a variety of methods.

The method and system for electing an expert according to the present invention displays a predetermined character image on the web page in connection with the user elected as an expert of the relevant field in a predetermined category, and the character image provides a related character image for each category, so that it is possible to induce the users who want the character image to be displayed in connection with himself, to actively participate in the question-answer process.

Also, according to the present invention, there is provided a method and system for electing an expert, capable of inducing the users who want to enjoy differentiated service, to actively participate in the question-answer process, by providing differentiated service, which is different from service provided to other user not elected as an expert, to the user elected as an expert. Also, according to the present invention, it is possible to elect the users who have professional knowledge in each field, as an expert of the relevant field and display that the user is an expert in a variety of methods, and it is possible to satisfy the desire of the users to let their knowledge known, by providing a variety of benefits to the expert and for the user who has no professional knowledge in a predetermined field, to easily obtain a desired answer, by inducing active participation of the users having a professional knowledge in each field.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for electing an expert in a field on-line comprising the steps of: receiving a question from a first user; determining a category related to the question; providing the question on a predetermined web page; receiving an answer to the question, from a second user; increasing the number of answers that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the category, in response to an input of the answer; if the answer is selected by the first user, increasing the number of answer adoptions that is related to the second user and that corresponds to the category; computing a point related to the second user, that corresponds to the category on the basis of an appraisal material including said the number of the answers and said the number of the answer adoptions; and electing the second user, who meets a predetermined condition based on the point, as an expert of a relevant field in the category.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of electing as an expert further comprises the step of: if the point is more than a predetermined reference value, electing the second user as an expert of a relevant field in the category.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of electing as an expert further comprises the step of: if the point related to the second user corresponds to a higher ranking than a predetermined ranking in the category, on the basis of a point related to each user corresponding the category, electing the second user as an expert.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining the category related to the question further comprises the steps of: receiving a category related to the question from the first user; and determining the received category as a category related to the question.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining the category related to the question further comprises the steps of: maintaining a category and more than one keyword related to the category, in a category database; extracting a keyword by analyzing the question into a morpheme; identifying a category related to the extracted keyword using the category database; and determining the identified category as a category related to the question.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of computing the point related to the second user further comprises the steps of: computing an answer adoption rate which is a ratio of said the number of the answer adoptions to said the number of the answers; and computing the point on the basis of the answer adoption rate.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the appraisal material further comprises more than one item among: the number of questions which is the number of times a question related to the category is input from the second user, the number of question abandonments in case a question related to the category is input from the second user, and an answer to the question is input from other user, and selection of the answer by the second user is not input within a predetermined period of time; and the number of "service log-in"s which is the number of times the second user logs in the service.

8. The method according to claim 1 or claim 7, wherein the step of computing the point related to the second user, that corresponds to the category on the basis of the appraisal material comprises the step of: computing the point by giving a predetermined weight on every said the appraisal material.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: maintaining a character image in a character database in connection with each category; if the second user is elected as an expert of a relevant field in the category, searching a character image that falls under the category, from the character database; and displaying the character image in connection with the second user.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of maintaining more than one level depending on the point in a predetermined storing apparatus, the step of maintaining the character image in the character database in connection with each category further comprises the step of: maintaining more than one character image in the character database in connection with said each category; and maintaining levels, which correspond to more than one character image, respectively, in the character database; the step of searching character image that falls under the category, from the character database further comprises the steps of: judging a level to which a point of the second user for each category belongs, by referring to the predetermined storing apparatus; and searching a character image that falls under the category and the level, from the character database.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the character image is different in its number of pixels constituting the character image, depending on the corresponding level.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: if the second user gives an answer to a question that falls under a predetermined category, judging whether the second user is an expert of a relevant field in the category on the basis of points of the second user corresponding to the category; if the second user is an expert of the relevant field in the category, displaying that the answer of the second user has been given by an expert in a predetermined displaying method.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: receiving from a third user, an appraisal for the question from the first user; receiving from the third user, an appraisal for the answer from the second user; if the third user is an expert of a relevant field in a category related to the question, giving a weight on at least either of the appraisal for the question or the appraisal for the answer.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: if the second user is elected as an expert of a relevant field in the category, receiving information related to the category from the second user regardless of whether other users make a question; and displaying the information and a fact that the information is provided by an expert in a predetermined displaying method.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: if the second user is elected as an expert of a relevant field in the category, providing the second user with an expert certificate for certifying an expert of the relevant field in the category in a field on-line.

16. A method for electing an expert in a field on-line comprising the steps of: receiving a question from a first user; providing the question on a predetermined web page; receiving an answer to the question, from a second user; increasing the number of answers that is related to the second user, in response to an input of the answer; if the answer is selected by the first user, increasing the number of answer adoptions that is related to the second user; computing a point related to the second user, on the basis of an appraisal material including said the number of the answers and said the number of the answer adoptions; and electing the second user who meets a predetermined reference, as an expert on the basis of the point.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step of electing the second user as an expert further comprises the step of: if the point is more than a predetermined reference value, electing the second user as an expert, or if the second user falls under a predetermined ranking on the baiss of a point related to each user, electing the second user as an expert.

18. A recording medium readable by a computer, in which a program for performing a method according to any one of claim 1 through 7 and claim 9 through 17, is recorded.

19. A system for providing an answer to a question of a user through a communication network, the system comprising: a database for maintaining an expert level record that corresponds to the user, in which the expert level record comprises: a user identifier related to the user; a category; an appraisal material, a point, and an expert level; a point computing part for computing the point using a predetermined computing method on the basis of an appraisal material; and an expert level determining part for determining the expert level by a predetermined expert level determining rule according to the point.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the appraisal material comprises: the number of answers which is the number of times the user gives an answer to a question related to the category; and the number of answer adoptions which is the number of times the answer given by the user with respect to the question related to the category is adopted by a questioner of the question.

21. The system according to claim 19, wherein if the point is more than a predetermined reference value, or if the user falls under a predetermined ranking when the point is compared to points related to other users, that correspond to the category, the expert level determining part elects the user as an expert of the category.

22. The system according to claim 19, further comprising: a character database for storing more than one character image that corresponds to the expert level for each said category; and a displaying part for displaying the character image in connection with the user and the category.