Providing an electronic marketplace to facilitate human performance of programmatically submitted tasks

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks. In some situations, the tasks to be performed are human performance tasks that use cognitive and other mental skills of human task performers, such as to employ judgment, perception and/or reasoning skills of the human task performers. In addition, in some situations the available tasks are submitted by human task requesters via application programs that programmatically invoke one or more application program interfaces of an electronic marketplace in order to request that the tasks be performed and to receive corresponding results of task performance in a programmatic manner, so that an ensemble of unrelated human agents can interact with the electronic marketplace to collectively perform a wide variety and large number of tasks.

1 - 99 . (canceled) 
     
     
         100 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 tracking, by one or more configured computing systems of a task fulfillment system, information related to past performance of tasks by a plurality of task performer users of the task fulfillment system;   receiving, by the one or more configured computing systems, information from a task requester about a task that is available to be performed and that has an associated qualification for a task performer user to be eligible to perform the available task;   analyzing, by the one or more configured computing systems, the tracking information to determine one or more task performer users of the plurality of task performer users who have the associated qualification based on past performance of one or more other tasks by the one or more task performer users; and   providing, with the one or more configured computing systems, information about the available task to the determined one or more task performer users.   
     
     
         101 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  wherein the associated qualification is based at least in part on a quantity of tasks previously assigned to a task performer user that the task performer user has successfully completed. 
     
     
         102 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  wherein the associated qualification is based at least in part on past performance by a task performer user of one or more of a specified group of multiple tasks. 
     
     
         103 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 102  wherein the multiple tasks of the specified group are tasks previously submitted to the task fulfillment system by a specified task requester. 
     
     
         104 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 102  wherein the specified task requester is the task requester from whom the information about the available task is received. 
     
     
         105 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  wherein the associated qualification is based at least in part on a quantity of tasks previously offered to a task performer user that the task performer user has failed to successfully perform. 
     
     
         106 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  wherein the associated qualification is based at least in part on one or more ratings earned by a task performer user for one or more tasks previously performed by the task performer user. 
     
     
         107 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 106  wherein the one or more ratings include an average rating earned by the task performer user for a plurality of tasks previously performed by the task performer user. 
     
     
         108 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  further comprising assigning, by the one or more configured computing systems, each of the plurality of task performer users a ranking based at least in part on ratings earned from the past performance of the tasks, and wherein the associated qualification is based on the rankings 
     
     
         109 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  wherein the task fulfillment system provides a programmatic interface, and wherein the information about the available task is received from the task requester via the provided programmatic interface. 
     
     
         110 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  further comprising receiving a request from at least one of the determined one or more task performer users to perform the available task, and initiating performance of the available task by the at least one determined task performer user in response to the request. 
     
     
         111 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  further comprising receiving task performance results for the available task from at least one of the determined one or more task performer users, and providing the received task performance results to the task requester. 
     
     
         112 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 100  wherein the analyzing of the tracked information to determine the one or more task performer users is performed before the receiving of the information. 
     
     
         113 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored contents that configure a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
 receiving an indication of tracking information related to past performance of one or more tasks by task performers;   receiving information from a task requester about a task that is available to be performed and that has an associated qualification based on past performance of tasks by the task performers;   identifying, by the configured computing device, one or more task performers who are eligible to perform the available task based at least in part on the associated qualification and on the indicated tracking information; and   providing information about the available task to the one or more identified task performers.   
     
     
         114 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 113  wherein the identified task performers are identified based at least in part on a percentage of tasks previously assigned to each of the identified task performers that was successfully completed. 
     
     
         115 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 113  wherein the identified task performers are identified based at least in part on past performance by each of the identified task performers of one or more of a specified group of multiple tasks. 
     
     
         116 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 115  wherein the multiple tasks of the specified group are of an indicated type. 
     
     
         117 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 113  wherein the identified task performers are identified based at least in part on one or more ratings earned by each of the identified task performers for one or more tasks previously performed by that task performer. 
     
     
         118 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 113  wherein the method further comprises receiving a request from at least one of the identified task performers to perform the available task, and initiating performance of the available task by the at least one task performer in response to the request. 
     
     
         119 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 113  wherein the method further comprises receiving task performance results for the available task from at least one of the identified task performers, and providing the received task performance results to the task requester. 
     
     
         120 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 113  wherein the identifying of the one or more eligible task performers is based at least in part on matching the associated qualification with the indicated tracking information. 
     
     
         121 . A configured computing system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   a task fulfillment facilitator system configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors:   receive information from a task requester about a task that is available for performance and that is associated with a qualification based on past performance of tasks;   select one or more task performers that are eligible to perform the available task based at least in part on matching the associated qualification with tracked information related to past behavior of the selected task performers with respect to one or more other tasks distinct from the available task; and   provide information about the available task to the one or more selected task performer users.   
     
     
         122 . The computing system of  claim 121  wherein the associated qualification is based at least in part on a number of other tasks that a task performer has successfully performed. 
     
     
         123 . The computing system of  claim 121  wherein the associated qualification is based at least in part on past performance of one or more of a specified group of multiple tasks. 
     
     
         124 . The computing system of  claim 121  wherein the associated qualification is based at least in part on one or more ratings earned by a task performer for one or more other tasks previously performed by the task performer. 
     
     
         125 . The computing system of  claim 121  wherein the selected task performers are part of a plurality of task performers, and wherein the task fulfillment facilitator system is further configured to obtain the tracked information related to the past behavior of the selected task performers by tracking information related to past performance of tasks by the plurality of task performers.