Computer architecture and method for validating and collecting and metadata and data about the internet and electronic commerce environments (data discoverer)

In a computer system for analyzing Internet and/or electronic commerce data over or from the World Wide Web for service providers, the computer system including at least one subscriber request, at least one server, connectable to said at least one subscriber station, said at least one server providing said least one subscriber station access to external data sources, and at least one data collection and analysis system including at least one analysis module, a system for collecting subscriber specified information for supporting retrieval of information to analyze Internet and/or electronic commerce data over the World Wide Web for commerce, the subscriber information being collected from a questionnaire and/or forms, the subscriber information including customer specific data, comprising:

• a user interface, for collecting the customer specific data from the questionnaire and/or forms, collecting the customer specific data including environmental data and business data using the questionnaire and/or forms, determining information source requirements representing predetermined requirements and optional decision support requirements representing subscriber specified requirements responsive to the customer specific data, determining core business rules and core data sources responsive to the information source requirements, determining optional incremental business rules and optional incremental data sources responsive to the decision support requirements, determining the information requiring retrieval, and analyzing the Internet and/or electronic commerce data over or from the World Wide Web utilizing the core business rules, the core data sources, the optional incremental business rules, and the optional incremental data sources to provide business decision support.

A computer program memory, storing computer instructions to analyze Internet and/or electronic commerce data, the Internet and/or electronic commerce data having been collected from a customer using a questionnaire and/or forms, the Internet and/or electronic commerce data including customer specific data, the Internet and/or electronic commerce data is collected from subscriber specified information for supporting retrieval of information over or from one or more networks, the computer instructions including:

• (b) determining information source requirements representing predetermined requirements and optional decision support requirements representing subscriber specified requirements, responsive to the customer specific data;
• (d) determining core business rules and core data sources responsive to the information source requirements;
• (e) determining optional incremental business rules and optional incremental data sources responsive to the decision support requirements;
• (f) determining the information requiring retrieval;
• and
• (g) analyzing the Internet and/or electronic commerce utilizing the core business rules, the core data source, the optional incremental business rules, and the optional incremental data sources to provide business decision support.

A method of analyzing Internet and/or electronic commerce data, the Internet and/or electronic commerce data is collected from subscriber specified information for supporting retrieval of information over or from the World Wide Web for service providers including at least one of Commerce Service Providers and Internet Service Providers, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a customer with a questionnaire and/or form to collect customer specific data, and collecting the customer specific data;
• (b) determining information source requirements representing predetermined requirements and optional decision support requirements representing subscriber specified requirements in response to the customer specific data;
• (c) determining core business rules and core data sources in response to the information source requirements;
• (d) determining optional incremental business rules and optional incremental data sources in response to the decision support requirements;
• (e) determining the information requiring retrieval;
• and
• (f) analyzing the Internet and/or electronic commerce data over or from the World Wide Web utilizing the core business rules, the core data sources, the optional incremental business rules, and the optional incremental data sources to provide business decision support.