System for creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions

A system for creating and maintaining information in a database of subjects, available to a population of users, comprising:

• a) describing a database subject using a plurality of natural-language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to the subject according to an involved subset of such population of users;
• b) rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject according to each of such involved subset of such population of users;
• c) associating, in such database, such respective natural-language terms and respective degrees of relevance with each such database subject;
• d) computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject;
• e) presenting to a particular user information, about a particular such database subject and such associated respective relevant natural-language terms with such respective overall degrees of relevance;
• f) collecting, from such particular user, such particular user's opinions about respective degrees of relevance to such particular database subject of such respective presented natural-language terms;
• g) adding such particular user to such involved subset of such population of users and adding such particular user's opinions to such database;
• h) updating, in association with such particular database subject, in such database, such overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms associated with such particular database subject;
• and
• i) presenting to such particular user information about a particular such database subject and such associated relevant natural-language terms with such updated respective overall degrees of relevance.

A system for creating and maintaining information in a database of subjects, available to a population of users, comprising:

• a) describing a database subject using a plurality of natural-language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to the subject according to an involved subset of such population of users;
• b) rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject according to each of such involved subset of such population of users;
• c) associating, in such database, such respective natural-language terms and respective degrees of relevance with each such database subject;
• d) computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject;
• e) collecting, from each user of such involved subset of such population of users, information about such user's knowledge of and experience with such database subject;
• f) assessing, based at least in part upon such information, a relative weight to be given to such user's opinions about such database subject;
• g) for the purposes of computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject, applying a respective such relative weight for each respective such user's such rating of such degree of relevance in such manner that a more-knowledgeable such user's such rating counts for more in such “overall” computing than does a less-knowledgeable such user's such rating;
• and
• h) presenting to a user information about such database subject and such associated relevant natural-language terms with such computed respective overall degrees of relevance.

A system for creating and maintaining information in a database of subjects, available to a population of users, comprising:

• a) describing a database subject using a plurality of natural-language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to the subject according to an involved subset of such population of users;
• b) rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language tams to such database subject according to each of such involved subset of such population of users;
• c) associating, in such database, such respective natural-language terms and respective degrees of relevance with each such database subject;
• d) computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject;
• e) rating the relative overall value of each such database subject according to the opinion of each of such involved subset of such population of users;
• f) collecting comments about each such database subject according to the opinion of each of such involved subset of such population of users;
• g) associating, in such database, respective such ratings of relative overall value and respective such collected comments with respective such database subjects;
• and
• h) presenting to a user information about such database subject and such associated rating of relative overall value and such associated collected comments.