WO2015117970A1

WO2015117970A1 - Match communication device

Info

Publication number: WO2015117970A1
Application number: PCT/EP2015/052223
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stefan Kumpen
Original assignee: Stefan Kumpen
Priority date: 2014-02-06
Filing date: 2015-02-03
Publication date: 2015-08-13
Also published as: GB201402018D0

Abstract

The invention generally relates a method for locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, characterized in that match criteria unrelated to the subject are used in said method. Using these match criteria that are in themselves unrelated to the subject, the method significantly improves the likelihood that supplier and solicitor will effectively get in contact with one another regarding the subject. In other words, when compared to the present systems, the use of unrelated match criteria adds a further filter in the exchange of information between solicitor and supplier.

Description

MATCH COMMUNICATION DEVICE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION CA2809500 describes a method for facilitating brokering of contracts, based on input parameters (in various data fields) inputted by the solicitors related to the required service, to which service providers (elected by the user) can respond by providing quotes, which are then matched.

US2011082770 describes a user-initiated vendor search method, wherein purchase solicitations and sole solicitations are matched by identifying products and services sought for via a search directly or via additional attributes of such products and services.

WO2004102756 describes a method for facilitating creating of resumes and job offers, having as features so-called aspirations (like skills) and the matching thereof, based on such aspirations, whereby the use of time (the validity of the resume and the job offer) is explicitly used .

US2002010685 describes a method for exchanging services between a buyer, providing a request, and a seller, providing a registration, whereby the seller indicates a preference category related to the buyer while the buyer identifies a request for quote category, wherein afterwards matching those categories occurs.

AIM OF THE INVENTION It is the aim of the invention to provide more efficient computer assisted methods for locating and get into contact, for a given subject (product or service), for suppliers and solicitors (being part of a group of users) , wherein matching occurs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention generally relates a method for locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, characterized in that match criteria unrelated to the subject are used in said method, both at the end of the supplier and at the end of the solicitor.

Using these match criteria that are in themselves unrelated to the subject, the method significantly improves the likelihood that supplier and solicitor will effectively get in contact with one another regarding the subject. In other words, when compared to the present systems, the use of unrelated match criteria adds a further filter in the exchange of information between solicitor and supplier.

At the supplier' s end, these unrelated match criteria will filter the incoming requests, allowing only further processing if complied with a predetermined minimal set of said unrelated match criteria.

At the solicitor' s end, these unrelated match criteria will filter the incoming replies, allowing only further processing if complied with a predetermined minimal set of said unrelated match criteria.

Compared to known methods of finding information resources or answers to questions, the use of such match criteria will prevent the users from being bothered with questions they are not interested in or not competent for, and prevent that the solicitors are flooded with undesired replies .

As will become apparent to those skilled in the art after a reading of the following description, the unrelated match criteria as used in the methods of the present invention are based on predetermined user related criteria .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1. Match device Diagram. The initialization module marked filter 1, is used to set the matching criteria unrelated to the subject of interest, including means to receive said matching criteria such as for example via a label certificate I/O entered by conditions and community restrictions. The second module, marked input menu will allow the user to communicate with the device and to formulate/display request and/or response messages. Said messages, together with the matching criteria of the initialization filter will be processed by the processing unit. In case the message is a request message, the processing unit will combine said message with the matching criteria to generate a request message (marked offer) and sending it to the communication network. In case the message is a response message, the processing unit will compare it with the matching criteria of the initialization filter and dependent on the scoring value present it to the user through the input menu. In processing the requests, the network may include a server logging matching criteria of the requests and responses circulating on the network with a scoring module to match solicitors and suppliers in accordance with the methods of the present invention and filtering the traffic of said messages in-between matched users of the communication network. As evident from the matching diagram, in one embodiment of the present invention the processing unit may optionally use positioning data, such as for example from a GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth or any other possible positioning system. Said positioning data may be added to the request and/or response message, allowing proximity as one of the request criteria.

FIG. 2. Iterative Communication Process. Diagram showing how the present method allow an iterative process wherein both the solicitor (A) and supplier (B) have the possibility of refining their response respective request messages (RF/P) prior to the actual handshake (ID (A)) wherein solicitor and supplier are brought in contact with one another. In this scheme RF/P stand for the process wherein either the solicitor or the supplier refine (RF) their respective request or response message or leave it unmodified (sort of pass (P) ) in the next round of communication between the computer node systems in the network .

Fig.3 gives a graphical representation of the invention. Fig.4 describes schematically the info available on the user interfaces on both sides of the exchange. Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 describe an exemplary execution of the method in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 7 shows an exemplary graph used in an embodiment of the user interface at supplier side.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present application is directed to a method for locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject, including steps of getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject. Compared to known methods for sharing and information requests in a computer network, such as for example described in US patent 5,604,869, the method of the present invention differs in that it includes match criteria unrelated to the subject of interest, allowing a more targeted communication between supplier and solicitor. Consequently, the communication between supplier and solicitor always includes a scoring of the exchanged messages with respect to the match criteria, and may for example be represented as follows;

A method for locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, comprising the steps of:

- generating a request message comprising match criteria unrelated to said subject,

- sending said request message to the users of said electronic communication network,

- receiving said request message and scoring said received request message with respect to the match criteria unrelated to said subject,

- querying whether the subject of said received request message is analogues to the subject of the supplier,

- discarding the received request message or generating and sending a response message, based the scoring of the match criteria of said received request message and on the querying of the subject of said received request message with respect to the subject of the supplier .

In one embodiment the message is first scored with respect to match criteria and further processed or discarded, based on the scoring of said match criteria. In said embodiment the method of the present invention comprises the steps of:

- generating a request message comprising match criteria unrelated to said subject, sending said request message to the users of said electronic communication network,

- receiving said request message and scoring said message with respect to the match criteria unrelated to said subj ect , - discarding the request message or querying whether the subject of said message is analogues to the subject of the supplier, based on the scoring of the match criteria

- discarding the request message or generating and sending a response message, based on the querying of the subject of the request message with respect to the subject of the supplier .

In other words, and as will become apparent from the further embodiments described herein below, the communication method of the present invention is characterized in that it comprises the application of match criteria both at the end of the solicitor when compiling the request message, as well as at the end of the supplier when compiling the response message. Using such match criteria the system is capable of categorizing information request and response messages to compatible solicitors and suppliers

As used herein, the match criteria unrelated to the given subject are based on predetermined user related criteria, such as for example age, sex, belief, way of live (e.g. vegetarianism) , addictions, hobbies, name, nationality, profession, third party validated ID certificates; and the like .

In principle said match criteria are predetermined and remain unaltered in the exchange of information over the communication network. Matching of these users related match criteria to the user could for example by realized by means of biometrics technology, such as an iris or fingerprint scan. In said instance the match criteria will include biometrics data of the user. Evidently, these biometrics related match criteria are predetermined and remain unaltered in the exchange of information over the communication network. However, in one embodiment of the present invention, the system may include the possibility of assigning a user defined weight factor to each of said match criteria in scoring the request or response message of the solicitor respective supplier.

Scoring of the match criteria is typically based on information retrieval techniques including assessing large blocks of data, extracting and comparing selected portions of said data blocks according to a variety of known to those skilled in the art. Preferred information retrieval techniques include statistical information retrieval techniques, in particular when the predetermined match criteria are represented by predefined codes (numerical, figurative, letter codes or combinations thereof) and/or linguistic analysis techniques. Thus in one embodiment of the present invention, the scoring of the match criteria uses statistical information analysis techniques. In another embodiment the scoring of the match criteria uses linguistic analysis techniques. In an even further embodiment the scoring of the match criteria uses statistical information analysis techniques and linguistic analysis techniques. The scoring result can be used in a variety of ways. In its simplest form the scoring module will discard a received request message in case the scoring of the match criteria does not exceed a predetermined threshold. As such only request messages exceeding said predetermined threshold will be further processed with respect to the subject of interest, and eventually be available to the user. In an alternative embodiment scoring results that do not meet the predetermined threshold could still be presented as lower scoring hits allowing the user to see the message and eventually overrule or adjust the scoring threshold to allow further processing of said messages with respect to the subject of interest.

In either embodiment the predetermined threshold could be based on an overall weighted average score for the matching criteria used, or alternatively on a predetermined threshold for each and/or subsets of the matching criteria used. In a particular embodiment setting said overall weighted average score or the scoring threshold of the match criteria is very flexible and set at the end of the requester (solicitor) . In an even further embodiment and as already mentioned herein before, the systems further provides the user with the possibility of assigning weight factors to each of the match criteria in the initial scoring of received messages. As for the thresholds, setting of said weight factors is preferably very flexible and set at the end of the requester (solicitor) . In one embodiment the weight factors for each or for the selected matching criteria are represented graphically on a user interface, such as for example slide bars on a touch screen. As will be apparent to the skilled artisan from the foregoing description, having weight factors assigned to the matching criteria, the requester (solicitor) has the ability to adjust and even supress one or more of the matching criteria in conjunction with the subject of interest. In a preferred embodiment the matching criteria include a fixed and a variable set, wherein the fixed set will always be used in the communication between the users of the network, and wherein the variable set can be adjusted in conjunction with the subject of interest.

As graphically represented in Figure 3, a message (either a response (B) or request (A) message) generated in the node computer systems of the present invention, will always comprise subject of interest data (2) and match criteria unrelated to said subject (1).

Thus in one embodiment the request message (A) comprises subject of interest data (2), and match criteria unrelated to said subject ((1) and (3)) . In a further embodiment, said match criteria include fixed (1) and variable match criteria (3) . In an even further embodiment said match criteria include user adjustable weight factors; more in particular user adjustable weight factors assigned to the variable match criteria. Certain request may be confronted with a validity tag (4) . For example, if a solicitor is interested to receive information prior to a given deadline, such request needs no further processing upon expiration of said deadline. Consequently, and independent of both the matching criteria and the subject of interest data, the request message may further include a validity tag. Processing of such message will only occur in case the validity tag is still active. In a preferred embodiment said validity tag would consists of a date or time tag, thus realizing a period or time window within which the request will be active, and can be addressed by the supplier.

Based on the setting of the validity tag, the weight factors, the match criteria, and the predetermined threshold a received message is scored, and either rejected or further processed with respect to the subject matter of interest. In one embodiment, the subject of the request message is queried if the scoring of the match criteria exceeds a predetermined threshold. As will be apparent to the skilled artisan, the order of first scoring the message on the matching criteria and subsequently querying the message on the subject matter of interest may be reversed. In said instance, a received message will first be queried on the subject of interest and provided said querying exceeds a predetermined threshold subsequently scored on the matching criteria. Only in case the latter exceeds a predetermined threshold the message will be further processed. Analogues to the scoring of the matching criteria, the querying of the subject is typically based on information retrieval techniques including assessing large blocks of data, extracting and comparing selected portions of said data blocks according to a variety of known to those skilled in the art. Preferred information retrieval techniques include statistical information retrieval techniques, in particular when the predetermined match criteria are represented by predefined codes (numerical, figurative, letter codes or combinations thereof) and/or linguistic analysis techniques. Thus in one embodiment of the present invention, the querying of the subject uses statistical information analysis techniques. In another embodiment the querying of the subject uses linguistic analysis techniques. In an even further embodiment the querying of the subject uses statistical information analysis techniques and linguistic analysis techniques. Again similar to the scoring of the match criteria, the result of querying the subject of interest within said message could be used in a variety of ways. In its simplest and preferred form, subject-querying module will discard a received message in case the querying of the subject of matter does not exceed a predetermined threshold. As such only messages exceeding said predetermined threshold will be further processed and eventually be available to the user. In an alternative embodiment subject-querying results that do not meet the predetermined threshold could still be presented as lower scoring hits allowing the user to see the message and eventually overrule or adjust the subject-querying threshold to allow further processing of said messages. In either instance further processing of the message includes the generation of a response message, either with or without displaying the request message to the user, in the present instance normally being the supplier.

The response message could for example be formatted according to a predetermined standard in conjunction with a subject of interest identifier and stored in an operational memory. In said circumstances no further user interaction is required in the further processing of the request message when complied with both the match criteria and subject of interest criteria as outlined herein above. The response message is standby and automatically send to the user of the network, more in particular to the solicitor of the subject of interest. Again analogous to the request message, the response message (B) send to users of the communication network also comprises match criteria unrelated to the subject of interest ((1) and/or (3)), and an answer (2) comprising subject of interest data. In another embodiment the method further includes a user interface in generating and sending the response message to the users of the communication network. Through said user interface the user has the possibility in at least formulating an answer to the request message, wherein said answer is automatically combined with the user specific matching criteria, thus generating the response message. To assure the identity of the user, in one embodiment activation of the user interface requires access control, either by means of biometrics technology such as an iris scan or fingerprint scan (to match the user with the predetermined biometrics matching criteria) , or by entering a personal access code. In another embodiment said user interface further allows to elect matching criteria to be used in generating the response message. As such and similar to the request message, in one embodiment the matching criteria used in the response message include both a set of fixed matching criteria (1) and a set of variable matching criteria (3) . In a preferred embodiment the matching criteria to be used in generating the response message are determined and correspond to the matching criteria found in the request message of the solicitor. This incorporation of matching criteria both in the request and response message adds an individualized and person-related filter to the communication between the users in the communication network .

Where the foregoing description is mainly directed to the transfer of a request message from the solicitor to the supplier and the processing of said message at the node of the supplier, up to the generation of a response message, the following part of the description focuses around the processing of said response message at the node of the solicitor, up to the contacting of the supplier. As will become apparent hereinafter, in processing the response message a new request message may be generated, thus repeating the foregoing process in an iterative cycle till solicitor and supplier get in contact with one another (see also Figure 2) . As already mentioned herein above (see also Figure 3) , and similar to the request message (A) , the response message (B) generated at the node of the supplier always comprises matching criteria ((1) and/or (3)) unrelated to the subject of interest, and an answer comprising subject of interest data (2) . As for the request message said match criteria unrelated to the given subject are based on predetermined user related criteria, such as for example age, sex, belief, way of live (e.g. vegetarianism), addictions, hobbies, name, nationality, profession, third party validated ID certificates; and the like. In analogy with the processing of the request message at the node of the supplier, these matching criteria are scored at the node of the solicitor upon receipt. Thus in a further aspect the method present invention further includes the step of receiving the response message and scoring said message with respect to the match criteria unrelated to the subject of interest.

Provided the scoring of said match criteria exceeds a predetermined threshold the response message will be made available to the solicitor, else the message may be discarded by the system or alternatively still be presented as lower scoring hit allowing the user to see the message and eventually overrule or adjust the match scoring threshold to allow further processing of said message. The method of the present invention accordingly includes in one of its embodiments the step of discarding the response message or displaying the response message to the solicitor based on the scoring of the match criteria, eventually displaying all of the response messages in a scoring hit list with decreasing scoring values. In sorting the response messages in a scoring hit list, the scoring value used will be based on the scoring of the matching criteria complemented with the querying result of the response message on the subject matter of interest. Response messages that score high on matching criteria and high on the querying of the subject of interest will have high scoring values and be listed above in the scoring hit list .

Once made available to the solicitor, further processing of the response message could be achieved in a number of ways, finally resulting in the step of contacting the supplier of one or more of the response messages. In its simplest form the system will display the response message to the solicitor including the possibility of contacting the supplier of said message. In an alternative embodiment, based on the displayed response message, the solicitor may have to option to update its request with the generation of a new request message (again including the matching criteria) and sending said new request message to the users of the electronic communication network. To prevent unauthorized use, updating of the request or response message may again require access control (supra) . This access control step to either update the request or response message is a further embodiment of the present invention.

The new request message will be processed by the system as any request message. In sending said new request message, the method may include the option to distribute said message solely to the suppliers of response messages having a predetermined scoring value.

Evidently, and again in analogy with the request message generated at the node computer system of the solicitor, also the response message generated at the node of the supplier may have a validity tag (4) . For example, in case the supplier offers transport capabilities, they may be limited in time, rendering such response message invalid and requiring no further processing upon expiration of said deadline.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system for sending and responding to information requests related to a given subject in a communication network, comprising at least two node computer systems, the node computer systems comprising; means for generating match criteria unrelated to the given subject; means for generating a query or response to a given subject; means for generating a message comprising the query or response to the given subject and the match criteria unrelated to said subject; means for sending said message from said first node to a plurality of other nodes present within the communication network; means for receiving such message from a second node coupled to the first node within said communication network; means for scoring the match criteria of the message received from said second node; means for querying the subject of the message received from said second node; means for contacting a node coupled to the first node in said communication network

In one embodiment the node computer systems further comprise means for displaying the message received from said second node. In another embodiment the node computer systems further comprise means for discarding the message received from said second node if the scoring of the match criteria does not exceed a predetermined threshold.

Recall that the invention relates to methods operable with (general purpose or dedicated) electronic devices and requiring exchanges in between at least two such devices, such devices being provided with specific computer programs and/or (graphical) user interfaces, to support such exchanges. More in particular the invention distinguishes between suppliers of a given subject and other participants or solicitors or requestors of such subject, collectively said suppliers and solicitors are denoted users. The used devices may be the same or different amongst those classes of users, the specific computer programs and/or (graphical) user interfaces are however different for these classes of users. The used devices are provided with means for (wireless) communication, memory or storage and graphical representation means likes displays, more in particular since the method requires exchanges, the means for (wireless) communication must be selected to satisfy the requirements of exchanges required by the invention. Similarly the memory or storage and graphical representation means must be adapted to support the requirements in terms of local storage and flexible display. Moreover these requirements are different on the supplier and participant side.

Figure 4 describes schematically the info available on the user interfaces on both sides of the exchange. The various elements are listed below:

1: device name, ID/PIN number offerer (supplier) .

2: user device A identification name, age, gender, smoker or not, .... ranking awarded based on reliability and correct use of membership

3: offer description

4 : enumeration of match results requesters

5: benchmark rate from offerer (bid, proposal, %, ...)

6: feedback measure requester

7 : exchange of information

8: device name, ID/PIN number requester.

9: user device B identification name, age, gender, smoker or not, ect .... ranking awarded based on reliability and correct use of membership

10 offer description

11 enumeration of match results offerer

12 grading scale offerer (bid, proposal, g.

13 grading scale requester (bid, proposal, g.

Figure 5, 6 demonstrates an exemplary execution of the method (the sequence of steps) with on the one left side the supplier A and on the right side the one or more requestors B, C, D, leading to a final matching.

In step 1 supplier starts a communication with an offer sending to all participants. The offer is visible to every requesters receiving device in the accessible area. Note that a supplier can make many different offers, whereby the content structure is even different per offer.

In this example illustration the elements of the offer are :

- ID name such as name, age, smoker of not, gender, score of rating regular and reliable user...or all kind of comparable data possible

-supplier description, all possible kind of offers, services, things...

-percentage ratio of the minimum offer price (so far by requesters) as compared to the stated price determined by the supplier, supplier can lower its offer later according to the amount offered by requesters.

The invention supports by its continuous or at least multi-step electronic exchange method a continuous or at least multi-step valuation method and the invented (graphical) user interface supports action taking by both suppliers as requesters, by showing the needs and possibilities and allowing for fast adaptation (change of price, accepting an offer and/or making of counter bids) . In an embodiment of the invention the time duration of the current offerings is explicitly taken into account and hence explicitly shown in the user interfaces. By adjusting the price level of the offer, participants can increase or decrease the value so that the deal includes durable and less participants. The invention provides the provider or supplier the advantage that he can interpret the interests, for instance by making them visible in his graphics. In an alternative the electronic device can perform some analytics on the bids and provide those to the provider. Both approaches can be combined also . In step 2 the requester is free to consider the value offered by interpreting the supplier as deal or not.

The requester can either confirm the offer or give his counterbid if he wishes to do so. In step 3 the supplier receives this counterbid and / or more counterbids and he can reconsider the starting value to a lower value ratio in view of the number of counterbids. Depending on the amount and the value of these counterbids, versus the value at the beginning of offer, the supplier can act by sending again to generate a better offer or lower value to gain interest by the other participants . In the meanwhile will all the counterbids be processed or displayed in the graphics of the supplier with a timer and maximum/minimum value (the requester is not explicitly aware of this processing nor does he has access to this information) . It is up to the supplier to reduce the requested value of his offer in value or to preserve the value for a while. Equally ascending can also be considered by the requester in order to give a better counterbid.

In an embodiment of the invention the reaction time is monitored as a measure of the interest of the requester and also such information is provided to the supplier (in its graph) . The underlying assumption is that the most willing party will act first. By the provided information the supplier understands what to do with his offer, and get understanding in his offer and value/quantity. In step 4 the supplier has decided to decrease the value of his offer, on this moment with the same content as before, or even better content for the same amount (100 % to 90 %) . He will be waiting on a response such as more quantity participants until he is satisfied.

In step 5 the supplier sends its offer again with the new elements .

In step 6 Device C has a deal, he (requester) did nothing, but the supplier responded to the increased quantity of requester be further reducing his offer. It is worth noting here that not only a price matching is used for deal making. Indeed the quantity of requesters usually is also important to take into account, and addressed in the methods of the present invention. The invented methods hence do not only support 1 to 1 price negotiations but are also aimed at 1 to many contexts. The methods of the present invention support price negotiations in a 1 to many context, as becomes apparent from the further steps in the exemplary execution of an embodiment of the present invention.

In step 7 there joins a new requester due to the descending rate of the supplier. In step 8 supplier made the decision to reduce (90 % to 85 %) again his offer value for the same offer as before.

In step 9 supplier will send his offer again with the new elements, as described in step 8.

In step 10, in this example, requester C, D and E have a deal, they are located below the initial asking price of the supplier but above the present asking price. In step 11 the supplier will be informed of this.

In step 12 the deals are reached:

-the suppliers price level is within its predetermined limit.

-the requester negotiation margin is within its predetermined limit. A push message will be send from supplier to requester as confirmation of this deal, with all details, payment obligations, addresses, product details, ...

From the above one may conclude that the (graphical) user interface used on supplier side is preferably more advanced than the (graphical) user interface used on the requesters side, in particular since the supplier interface (typically) receives information from many requester interfaces and hence is adapted for processing this received information and provide it in a suitable form to the supplier. In an embodiment of the invention the offer at least include an initial price and a minimum price and the price counter bid information (whether from requesters or the supplier) is presented relative as a percentage of the initial price. In another embodiment of the invention the user interface of the suppliers indicates the amount of requesters willing to accept a deal for a certain price. In yet a further embodiment such information also indicates the time since the initial offer, the remaining time till closing of the offer and the response time of the requesters. The embodiments above can be combined. Preferably the user interface has one or more graphical capabilities and hence it is a graphical user interface, showing the above indicated information in a graph.

The following exemplary graph (Figure 7) for use in the supplier user interface shows the:

-the relationship between the value of the offering (decided by the supplier)

-the value (percentage wise, 100 % is the supplier start value)

-number and ID of requesters (C, D, E, B) with their positions (after 1.5 hours C is match, D and B not yet)

-the time that this offer is valid.

This graph shows the percentage of the supplier (thick line) , all requesters under the thick line have not yet a deal by too low counteroffer. All requestor above the thick line certainly have a deal with the supplier.

In summary the invention describes a locating and get into contact method, operable, for a given subject (product or service) , on suppliers and solicitors (being part of a group of users) thereof, wherein matching occurs, using match criteria unrelated to the subject (and reflecting predetermined user related criteria) , more in particular a method is used, wherein such after query of correspondence of the subject, a decision is made, based on the scoring of said match criteria.

The invention more in particular describes (A) (1) generating and (2) sending a request (initially initiated by a user by use of a computer node system) ; (B) (3) receiving, (4) querying and (5) discarding such request or generating and sending a new response message (with automated support e.g. for sending out), (C) (6) receiving, (7) scoring, (8) discarding or display and (9) contact or generated a new request (with automated support) . In the above the bi-directional exchange - see step (A) and (B) - must be emphasized. Moreover the iterative aspect - see step (C) is a further characteristic of the invention, especially the automated support delivered by the involved computer nodes. The fact that step (C) is not a mere repetition of the entirely by user initiated step (A) must be emphasized in that a decision to discard, to make contact or to generate a new request, with automatically retrieving certain information (like user specific matching criteria) is made. The computer node systems are provided to support and to automate the above, e.g. by use of a user interface providing the user those possibilities. Note that the users (of the method per se) are connected to an electronic communication network, and the invented method is caused by the performing of actions by at least two node computers. Adapted computer program products and computer systems with the capability of automated sending are provided. The actual contribution of the invention lies in the entire organizing of the information exchange and adapting of the computer node systems to be able to support the method. Computer nodes assisted or supported or partly automated methods are provided causing (and hence the adaptation thereof) of the at least two node computer systems to perform the method. As discussed above the bidirectional exchange in combination with the iterative aspect of the method requires adapting the computer node system, especially the computer program product thereof, to achieve this.

As will be apparent to the skilled artisan, the foregoing method and system, is preferably presented in a computer program product comprising computer-readable code that, when run on a node computer system, causes the node computer system to perform a method for locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, comprising the steps as defined hereinbefore .

Claims

1. A method for locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, comprising causing at least two node computer systems, coupled within said electronic communication network to perform the steps of: generating a request message comprising match criteria unrelated to said subject, sending said request message to the users of said electronic communication network, receiving said request message and scoring said received request message with respect to the match criteria unrelated to said subject, querying whether the subject of said received request message is analogues to the subject of the supplier, discarding the received request message or generating and sending a response message, based on the scoring of the match criteria of said received request message and on the querying of the subject of said received request message with respect to the subject of the supplier, receiving the response message and scoring said message with respect to the match criteria unrelated to said subject, -2ί discarding the response message or displaying the response message to the solicitor, based on the scoring of the match criteria, contacting the supplier of the displayed response message; or based on the displayed response message generating a new request message comprising match criteria unrelated to said subject and sending said new request message to the users of said electronic communication network.

The method according to claim 1, wherein the match criteria unrelated to the given subject are based on predetermined user related criteria, such as for example age, sex, belief, hobbies, name, nationality, profession, third party validated ID certificates; and the like.

The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of generating a request message, further includes a user interface in generating and sending a response message .

The method according to claim 1, wherein the scoring of the match criteria uses statistical information analysis techniques.

The method according to claim 1, wherein the scoring of the match criteria uses linguistic analysis techniques .

The method according to claim 1, wherein the subject of the request message is queried if the scoring of the match criteria exceeds a predetermined threshold.

The method according to claim 1, wherein the querying of the subject uses statistical information analysis techniques .

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the querying of the subject uses linguistic analysis techniques.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the response is generated if the querying of the subject exceeds a predetermined threshold.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying the request message to the supplier if the querying of the subject exceeds a predetermined threshold .

11. The method according to claim 9, further including a user interface in generating and sending a response message.

12. The method according to claim 1, further including a user interface in generating and sending said new request message.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said new request message is treated in accordance with the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11.

14. A computer system for sending and responding to information request related to a given subject in a communication network, comprising at least two node computer systems, the node computer systems comprising; means for generating match criteria unrelated to the given subject; means for generating a query or response to a given subj ect ; means for generating a message comprising the query or response to the given subject and the match criteria unrelated to said subject; means for automatically sending said message from said first node to a plurality of other nodes present within the communication network; means for receiving such message from a second node coupled to the first node within said communication network; means for scoring the match criteria of the message received from said second node; means for querying the subject of the message received from said second node; means for contacting a node coupled to the first node in said communication network

A computer program product comprising computer- readable code that, when run on a node computer system, causes the node computer system to perform a method for locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, comprising the steps as defined in any one of claims 1 to 13. A first (graphical) user interface, supporting the locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, the (graphical) user interface being operating on a node computer systems, coupled to said electronic communication network, the (graphical) user interface comprises means for generating a request message comprising match criteria unrelated to said subject and means for receiving a response message, generated in accordance with the steps as defined in any one of claims 1 to 13.

A (graphical) user interface, supporting the locating within a group of users that are connected to an electronic communication network, suppliers in relation to a given subject and getting them in contact with a solicitor of said subject, the (graphical) user interface being operating on a node computer systems, coupled to said electronic communication network, the (graphical) user interface comprises means for receiving a request message comprising match criteria unrelated to said subject and means for generating a response message, generated in accordance with the steps as defined in any one of claims 1 to 13.