Modeling a plurality of contests at a crowdsourcing node
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsMilan Vojnovic, Dominic Daniel DiPalantino
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Crowdsourcing is described, for example, where solutions to tasks such as designing a logo, writing a piece of code or answering a question are solicited by making open calls to large scale communities. In an example, a crowdsourcing node models a plurality of contests as all-pay auctions, each contest having a task and a reward. In examples, the crowdsourcing node is arranged to set rewards for the contests so that the optimal results are received for each contest owner, those owners having provided a budget and using a utility function for each of the contests.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- storing a data structure holding a model of a plurality of contests offered by a crowdsourcing node, each contest having a task and a reward;
- monitoring a plurality of potential contest participants and storing a total number of the plurality of potential contest participants;
- storing at the data structure, for each contest, a contest budget and a utility function;
- and
- setting the reward for each of the plurality of contests by using a processor at the crowdsourcing node to optimize an objective related to an aggregated utility over the plurality of contests minus an aggregated cost over the plurality of contests.
One or more computer readable storage media comprising instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform operations comprising:
- storing a data structure holding a model of a plurality of contests offered by a crowdsourcing node;
- estimating a total number of potential participants for the plurality of contests and storing the total number of potential participants;
- storing at the data structure, for each contest, a utility function and a contest budget;
- and
- setting a reward for each of the plurality of contests by optimizing an objective related to an aggregated utility over the plurality of contests based at least in part on the utility function for each contest minus an aggregated cost over the plurality of contests based at least in part on the contest budget for each contest.
A crowdsourcing system comprising:
- a crowdsourcing node connected to a communications network;
- a memory at the crowdsourcing node storing a data structure holding a model of a plurality of contests offered by the crowdsourcing node, each contest having a utility function and a contest budget;
- an input at the crowdsourcing node that observes potential contest participants and stores at the memory an estimate of a total number of the potential contest participants;
- and
- a processor at the crowdsourcing node that uses the model and the estimated total number of the potential contest participants to set rewards for each of the contests by optimizing an objective related to an aggregated utility over the plurality of contests based at least in part on the utility function of each contest minus an aggregated cost over the plurality of contests based at least in part on the contest budget of each contest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.