Abstract: An example information assessment system includes communication circuitry; storage; and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to control the information assessment system to at least receive, via the communication circuitry, content from multiple users relating to a particular topic; determine, for the content from each respective user, an orientation value reflecting a sentiment of the content; store, in the storage, the content from the multiple users in association with the orientation values; and in response to receiving a request for information about the particular topic, generate a visual map reflecting the orientation values associated with the content from the multiple users.

Abstract: An example system and method elicits reviews and opinions from users via an online system or a web crawl. Opinions on topics are processed in real time to determine orientation. Each topic is analyzed sentence by sentence to find a central tendency of user orientation toward a given topic. Automatic topic orientation is used to provide a common comparable rating value between reviewers and potentially other systems on similar topics. Facets of the topics are extracted via a submission/acquisition process to determine the key variables of interest for users.