Patent US 7,353,239

An online system for conducting live interactive evaluation, comparison and selection of proposals includes a standardized database architecture that integrates proposal submission and proposal judgement procedures. The system can host multiple applications, each configured separately by the respective application administrator, each with a separate background process and each with a separate application database containing information about proposals, users, and proposals not yet judged by identified users. The separate background processes are registered in a hash table and the different application databases in a settings table in a separate system database. The proposal submission procedure allows users to submit proposals, and the judgement procedure allows users to judge submitted proposals. The respective background process rules the application by controlling the flow of proposals, and by facilitating and enhancing interaction by users.