System and method for scoring electronic messages

A system for processing message traffic from a plurality of electronic discussion forums, comprising:

• a computer implemented message collector for collecting messages from the plurality of electronic discussion forums;
• and
• means for processing the messages based on one or more topics in order to track a plurality of pseudonyms, wherein the processing includes computing a relevance score for a collected message based on at least one topic;
• wherein the means for processing is further adapted to compute a buzz score based on a set of messages for the at least one topic;
• wherein the buzz score measures posting activity level weighted by the relevance of the set of messages and the influence of posting pseudonyms that posted the set of messages;
• wherein the means for processing is adapted to compute a relative buzz score that measures relative changes in the posting activity level;
• wherein the relative buzz score is computed as a function of an average of the buzz score and a standard deviation of the buzz score;
• the system further comprising a computer implemented report generator for generating a report on the at least one topic using output of the processing means so that the report at least indirectly reflects the relative buzz score.

A system for tracking message activity levels in a plurality of electronic discussion forums, comprising:

• a database storing a series of topics, wherein each of the electronic discussion forums is associated with at least one topic from the series of topics;
• a computer implemented message collector for collecting messages from the plurality of electronic discussion forums;
• and
• a computer implemented message categorizer for computing relevance scores of the messages, wherein at least one relevance score is computed based on the at least one associated topic for a source forum of a collected message;
• wherein at least one of the message collector and message categorizer is adapted to extract a pseudonym author of the collected message;
• wherein at least one of the message collector and the message categorizer is adapted to compute an influence score for the extracted pseudonym author;
• wherein at least one of the message collector and the message categorizer is adapted to compute a reputation score for the extracted pseudonym author;
• wherein the reputation score is based on a plurality of influence scores for the extracted pseudonym author under multiple local pseudonyms that have been associated into a universal pseudonym;
• wherein the influence score is computed based on the equation:
• F=
• a
• ·
• ∑
• i
• =
• 1
• m
• ⁢
• ⁢
• (
• Rel
• i
• ·
• d
• i
• )
• +
• b
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• ∑
• i
• =
• 1
• m
• ⁢
• ⁢
• (
• I
• i
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• d
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• ,
• wherein a and b are selectable weighting constants, Rel is the relevance of a message, I is the impact of a message, d is a decay function that reduces the impact of older messages, and wherein m is the number of messages used to compute the influence score;
• the system further comprising a computer implemented report generator for generating a report on the at least one associated topic reflecting, at least indirectly, the relevance scores and the reputation score.

A method for processing message traffic from a plurality of electronic discussion forums, comprising the steps of:

• collecting messages from the plurality of electronic discussion forums;
• and
• processing the messages based on a series of topics in order to track a plurality of pseudonyms, wherein the processing step comprises computing a relevance score for a collected message based on at least one topic;
• wherein the processing step further comprises the step of computing a buzz score based on a set of messages for the at least one topic;
• wherein the buzz score measures posting activity level weighted by the relevance of the set of messages and the influence of posting pseudonyms that posted the set of messages;
• wherein the means for processing is adapted to compute a relative buzz score that measures relative changes in the posting activity level;
• wherein the relative buzz score is computed as a function of an average of the buzz score and a standard deviation of the buzz score;
• the method further comprising the step of generating a report on, at least in part, the at least one topic, wherein a report output is based upon, at least in part, the relative buzz score.