GB2448906A

GB2448906A - Selecting a set of remote user terminals in a data communications network.

Info

Publication number: GB2448906A
Application number: GB0708500A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Andrew Martin Knott
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-05-02
Filing date: 2007-05-02
Publication date: 2008-11-05
Also published as: GB0708500D0

Abstract

A method for selecting a set of one or more remote user terminals from a plurality of remote user terminals in a data communications network, comprising receiving messaging data from one or more remote user terminals in the plurality of remote user terminals over said data communications network, the received messaging data indicating a selection from a set of options associated with said one or more remote user terminals respectively; accumulating counts of selection data such that an option count is accumulated for each option in said set of options according to selections associated with said one or more remote user terminals; generating a selection from said one or more remote user terminals, said selection comprising remote user terminals whose associated selections have an option count with a predetermined characteristic; and transmitting confirmation messaging data to each remote user terminal in said selection of remote user terminals. May be used to facilitate an electronic quiz over a data communications network. The predetermined characteristic may comprise the lowest relative size of the accumulated count for an option in a set of options, i.e. the option which has the least or minority of selections may be used to select the set of remote user terminals.

Description

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Method for Selecting a Set of Remote User Terminals in a Data Communications Network

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for the selection of a set of remote user terminals from a plurality of remote user terminals in a data communications network.

Background of the Invention

Messaging services are widely used in data communications networks to convey information. The information may be conveyed from user to user, service to service, or user to service and vice versa. Each user may have one or more remote user terminals by which to convey such information, for example a mobile telephone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Personal Computer (PC), etc. Use of Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages is widespread in mobile telephone networks, whereas email and chat message services are commonplace in computer networks such as the Internet and are now becoming popular in mobile telephone networks too. Such messaging services may be used for a great variety of purposes, including selection of one or more remote user terminals associated with one or more users over those of other remote user terminals.

UK patent application GB 2421692 Al relates to a betting system for placing bets in a reverse auction' comprising a number of terminals linked to a central control system by communication links. Each terminal has credit and identification means to allow terminal actuation by entering credit and player data. The terminals also have a betting means in the form of player operable controls to allow placing of a bet. The system stores the bids in relation to each player and compares all bids made over a predetermined period. The player with the lowest bid or preferably the lowest unique bid is provided with an award. The terminals may be computers, mobile phones, gaming machines or

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the like. Entry is preferably made using SMS. Reply messages may be sent to the player, indicating their bid status. A user who places the winning bid will thus be selected according to circumstances involving bids placed by other users.

Messaging services can be used to facilitate an electronic quiz over a data communications network. This may for example involve a question being proffered via a television program along with a number of associated options.

Viewers may then use SMS messaging services to text in' their answers to the question, which are then processed by a central computer system. Typically, a large number of respondents will get the answer correct as there will only be a relatively small number of options compared to the number of respondents. A winner may then be selected by a random choice between those respondents who chose the correct answer, usually also implemented by the central computer system. In such services, a particular messaging service user or subset of users may only be selected according to whether they selected the right or wrong answer to the question posed. Selecting users in this manner may be inefficient and require a large number of iterations if a large proportion of users repeatedly choose the correct answer at successive iterations. A random selection choice procedure may have to be employed in order to produce a single user or small enough selection of users in a reasonable number of iterations.

A further use of messaging services is electronic voting over a data communications network. This may for example involve viewers of a reality television show using email or SMS to vote for their favourite or least favourite celebrity in the television show. The votes are then processed by a central computer system and the results included in the current or a subsequent episode of the television show. The most popular celebrity or celebrities according to the voting may remain on the show till the next episode, whilst the least popular may be removed from the show. Such use of messaging services means that once a user has placed a vote, they take no further part in the process subsequently.

It would therefore be desirable to employ messaging services to provide more sophisticated methods of selecting a particular messaging service user or users where the selection is self-organising and does not require a subsequent random selection choice procedure.

Summary of the Invention

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for selecting a set of one or more remote user terminals from a plurality of remote user terminals in a data communications network, said method comprising a selection procedure comprising the steps of receiving messaging data from one or more remote user terminals in said plurality of remote user terminals over said data communications network, said received messaging data indicating a selection from a set of options associated with said one or more remote user terminals respectively, accumulating counts of selection data such that an option count is accumulated for each option in said set of options according to selections associated with said one or more remote user terminals, generating a selection from said one or more remote user terminals, said selection comprising remote user terminals whose associated selections have an option count with a predetermined characteristic, and transmitting confirmation messaging data to each remote user terminal in said selection of remote user terminals over said data communications network, said confirmation messaging data indicating to remote user terminals that they are in said selection.

Whether a particular remote user terminal is in a selection that is generated is partly determined by the selection chosen by a user associated with that particular remote user terminal from a set of options offered, and partly by the selections chosen from the set of options by users associated with other remote user terminals. The user selections can be processed to produce an accumulated count for each option offered and an option identified which has a predetermined characteristic. Those remote user terminals whose users selected the option whose count has the predetermined characteristic then form the selection of remote user terminals.

Hence, by use of the present invention it is possible to select a set of remote user terminals in a seif-organising manner, without the need to perform any subsequent random selection procedures. The set selection can be viewed as seif-organising as it is made according to a predetermined characteristic which arises from the selections themselves and not from selections with pre-ordained right or wrong statuses.

The predetermined characteristic may involve a relationship between the accumulated option count for one or more of the options in the set of options and the accumulated option Count for one or more of the other options in the set of options. This relationship may involve a relative size of one or more of the options compared to one or more of the other options, for example the relative size of the accumulated option count for one of the options compared to the total accumulated count for all of the options or each other of the option counts.

The predetermined characteristic may comprise the lowest relative size of the accumulated count for an option in a set of options, i.e. the option which has the least or minority of selections may be used to select the set of remote user terminals. This allows for a large variation in which remote user terminals form the selected set and which do not, for example the predetermined characteristic may be associated with the option with the highest or lowest accumulated count.

Some stages of the selection procedure may occur according to certain timing schedules or events. For example, if users want to be sure that their remote user terminals are included in the selection process, they may have to transmit messaging data by a certain deadline or within a predetermined time period. The deadlines andlor predetermined time periods may be monitored by a central control system. Messaging data may be transmitted to remote user terminals when a certain trigger event occurs, for example on the same day every week at a certain time, at half-time during a rugby match, etc. Such features can help to ensure that a selection is generated in a timely and efficient fashion.

Further iterations of the selection procedure may be carried out to successively narrow down the number of remote user terminals. The set of remote user terminals resulting from one iteration of the selection procedure may form the plurality of remote user terminals from which a set is selected in a successive selection procedure iteration, i.e. the output from one iteration becomes the input to the next iteration. The number of successive iterations may be variable, for example depending on the number of remote user terminals in the initial plurality of remote user terminals for the first iteration of the selection procedure. The iterations may continue until a predetermined threshold number of remote user terminals is reached, for example until a single remote user terminal remains. The predetermined threshold number may be calculated as a proportion of the initial number of remote user terminals, for example if there are 10000 remote user terminals initially, then the selection procedure may iterate until 0.1% of the initial 10000 remote user terminals remain, i.e. until 10 remote user terminals remain.

If a selection procedure or iterations thereof produces a selection of two remote user terminals, then a predetermined characteristic of the lowest accumulated count is not suitable in order to produce a selection of a single remote user terminal. In such a case, various other methods may be employed in order to select between the remaining two remote user terminals. One example may involve a random selection procedure, another may involve one or more quiz questions, or still another may involve the order in which messaging data was received from the remote user terminals. Alternatively, the two remaining remote user terminals may be incorporated into a different selection procedure, possibly after one or more iterations of which have already taken place. Further alternatively, a selection may be made between the two remaining remote user terminals without incorporating the two remaining remote user terminals into a different selection procedure, but according to one or more selections made in that different selection procedure.

Different predetermined characteristics may be used for different iterations, and different numbers of options may be given in each iteration.

Reducing the number of options may tend to slow down the rate at which the number of remote user terminals decreases at each iteration, the minimum rate tending to be attained by setting the number of options in a set to be two.

Conversely, increasing the number of options above two may tend to quicken the rate at which the number of remote user terminals decreases at each iteration, so the procedure may be controlled in this maimer according to the desired rate.

One selection procedure may be combined with another selection procedure by merging the pluralities of remote user terminals from each selection procedure and carrying out a combined, single selection procedure.

Further, one selection process may be divided into two or more separate selection processes which may then be recombined at a later stage. Thus, the selection process is very versatile and may be adapted to suit the requirements of many different implementations.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus adapted to perform the method of the first aspect of the present invention.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments of the invention, given by way of example only, which is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 shows an exemplary system diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing a set selection procedure and a further set selection procedure from a plurality of remote user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing successive set selections of remote user terminals and combination of set selections of remote user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a flow diagram showing the sequence of steps involved in selecting a set of remote user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Figure 1 shows an exemplary system diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, a data communications network comprises a mobile telephone network 14, a terrestrial telephone network 20 and a packet network 26 each connected by one or more gateway nodes 28. The data communications network may include other networks which are not shown in the figure. The operation and interconnection of such networks is well known in the art, as is the routeing of data for messaging services employed therein.

Mobile telephone network 14, contains a number of remote user terminals, for example mobile or cellular telephones 10, 12, each associated with one or more users. Terrestrial telephone network 20 contains a number of remote user terminals, for example analogue or black' telephones, 16, 18, each associated with one or more users. Packet network 20, for example the Internet, contains a number of remote user terminals, for example PCs, laptops or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones, 22, 24, each associated with one or more users. Each of remote user terminals 10, 12, 16, 18, 22, 24, is capable of conveying information via one or more messaging services across any of networks 14, 20, 26.

Control system 30 is responsible for carrying out the main data processing function of the invention and may comprise one or more networked servers or distributed nodes with equivalent computer hardware or software functions. Control system 30 is connected to gateway node(s) 28 through which it may transmit data to and receive data from the data communications network.

Control system 30 has access to data storage facilities such as database 32 containing a list of registered users 34.

Users may register with the selection process by sending registration data from their remote user terminals to control system 30 using an appropriate messaging service. Once control system 30 receives this registration data, details for each registered user may be stored in database 32 in one or more registered user lists 34.

The selection process of the present invention begins when control system 30 transmits messaging data to a plurality of remote user terminals. The transmitted messaging data contains a number of options in the form of a set of options. If a user decides to reply, they cail use their remote user terminal to transmit messaging data over the data communications network back to control system 30 indicating their option choice, i.e. a selection from the set of options.

Control system 30 thus receives messaging data from one or more user terminals in the plurality of remote user terminals over the data communications network. It should be noted that not all users may use their remote user terminals to reply to control system 30 with their option choice.

Control system 30 then processes the received messaging data by accumulating selection data for the selections associated with each remote user terminal. The selection data is accumulated such that a count is determined for each option from the set of options. Control system 30 may then generate a selection of remote user terminals according to a predetermined characteristic associated with the accumulated count for an option from the set of options.

Control system 30 may then transmit confirmation messaging data to each remote user terminal in the selection of remote user terminals in order to notify users of the remote user terminals that they have been selected as being in the selection. Which remote user terminals are in the selection may also be stored in a list 34 in database 32.

Control system 30 may also transmit failure data to remote user terminals it indicate that they have not been included in the selection. Some form of consolation may be offered to users of such remote user terminals, for example preferential treatment in a subsequent selection procedure such as joining the process at a later stage after one or more iterations have already occurred. The consolation could also be a monetary discount on an entry or service fee for a subsequent selection procedure, or a discount voucher for other goods or services.

The predetermined characteristic could be associated with the relative size of the accumulated count for one or more options compared to the accumulated count for one or more of the other options, for example, a particular value of accumulated count, or within a particular range of accumulated counts, etc. The predetermined characteristic could include the lowest, middle or highest accumulated count for an option in a set.

For example if the set of options contained three options, 1, 2 and 3, and control system received messaging data from ten remote user terminals, A-H, then the accumulated count could be as in the following table: Option 1 2 3 Selected choice A, D F, I, J B, C, E, G, H Count 2 3 5 In this example, if the predetermined characteristic was the middle accumulated count value, then the selection would include remote user terminals F, I and J, of option 2, which would be notified with confirmation messaging data accordingly. Alternatively, if the predetermined characteristic was the accumulated count with the count nearest to 50% of total accumulated counts, then the selection would include remote user terminals in option 3, namely, B, C, E, G, H, which would be notified with confirmation messaging data accordingly.

The selection could contain several or only a single remote user terminal.

The remote user terminals or terminal in the selection may then be granted access to previously inaccessible network resources as an incentive or reward for being in the selection. The previously inaccessible network resources could for example include use of increased bandwidth resources or access to one or more network address where certain files are stored, for example multimedia content, etc. In these cases, the transmitted confirmation data could include a password or such like that enables access to the previously inaccessible network resources.

In embodiments of the invention, the transmittal of messaging data by control system 30 may be dependent on the occurrence of a particular trigger event. Such a trigger event may for example be the start or half-time of a sporting event, a current affairs event such as a celebrity wedding, a date or a point or period in time occurring, the start of an election, etc. In other embodiments, control system 30 may transmit time period or deadline data to the plurality of remote user terminals to indicate a deadline by which messaging data must be received from the remote user terminals by. This can help to ensure that a selection of remote user terminals may be generated within a reasonable time frame. This can also help to avoid the need to wait until messaging data has been received from all remote user terminals in the plurality, which may be difficult to achieve in practice. Control system 30 may monitor such deadlines and time periods and choose to ignore any messaging data received after such a deadline and proceed to accumulate selection data on the basis of messaging data it has received up until the deadline passes. Again, this can assist in the timely generation of a selection of remote user terminals.

Embodiments of the invention may involve generating a further selection of remote user terminals subsequently to the generation of a first selection of remote user terminals. This may involve transmitting further messaging data to remote user terminals in the first selection indicating a further set of options. If a user in the first selection decides to reply, they can use their remote user terminal to transmit messaging data back to control system 30 indicating their option choice, i.e. a further selection from the further set of options. Control system 30 thus receives further messaging data from one or more user terminals in the first selection of remote user terminals over the data communications network.

Control system 30 may then process the received further messaging data by accumulating selection data for the further selections associated with each remote user terminal. A further selection of remote user terminals may then be generated according to a further predetermined characteristic associated with the accumulated count for an option from the further set of options. Control system may then transmit further confirmation messaging data to each remote user terminal in the further selection of remote user terminals in order to notify the users that their remote user terminals have been selected as being in the further selection. Which remote user terminals are in the further selection could be stored in a list 34 in database 32.

Similarly to the initial predetermined characteristic associated with the first selection procedure, the further predetermined characteristic may involve a relationship between one or more accumulated counts compared to one or more other accumulated counts or the highest/lowest accumulated count associated with the further set of options, etc, which may be different to that used in relation to the initial predetermined characteristic. The number of options could be different in one set of options than for another set of options.

Such a selection process may continue for more several more rounds of the selection procedure, i.e. the selection procedure may iterate. The process may continue until the selection is of a sufficiently small size, or down to a single remote user terminal. Figure 2 is a diagram showing selection of a set of remote user terminals and selection of a further set of remote user terminals from a plurality of remote user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this example, a plurality of remote user terminals 200 can be seen to include four PCs, four mobile telephones and five analogue telephones 200.

It should be noted that these are purely exemplary remote user terminals, and a plurality could include many ottypes of fixed or mobile remote user terminal such as VoIP telephones, WiFi telephones, SkypeTM telephones, etc. After one selection procedure 202, the selection of remote user terminals 204 can be seen to include two PCs, three mobile telephones and one analogue telephone. A further selection procedure 206 can then be seen to reduce this down to a single mobile telephone 208.

The selection of a set of remote user terminals from a plurality of remote user terminals or selection of a further set therefrom, may be combined with a different set selection or a different further set selection from a different plurality of remote user terminals. Figure 3 is a diagram showing successive set selections of remote user terminals and combination of set selections of remote user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Here, a first plurality of remote user terminals 300 can be seen to include seven remote user terminals in total, a second plurality of remote user terminals 302 can be seen to include ten remote user terminals in total, and a third plurality of remote user terminals 304 can be seen to include six remote user terminals in total. The first plurality of remote user terminals 300 can be seen to reduce down to five remote user terminals 312 after selection procedure 306.

The second plurality of remote user terminals 302 can be seen to reduce down to six remote user terminals 314 after selection procedure 308. The third plurality of remote user terminals 304 can be seen to reduce down to four remote user terminals 316 after selection procedure 310.

A combined selection procedure 318, 320 is then seen to occur, where selections 312 and 314 are combined. Combined selections 312 and 314 may then receive messaging data with the same set of options and from their responses, a single selection 324 can be generated, in this case including nine remote user terminals in total. A selection of remote user terminals 326 containing three remote user terminals is generated from selection 316 in a selection procedure 322 which is independent of selection procedure 3 18, 320.

Selections 324 and 326 can then be combined and subsequently reduced by selection procedure 330 to produce another selection 332, which is then reduced to a single remote user terminal 336 in selection procedure 334.

Any manner of combinations of selection procedures may be implemented. A plurality of remote user terminals could be split off into several independent selection procedures before being combined back together again subsequently.

One or more remote user terminals could be selected to be in a selection, even if their selected option did not correspond to the option having the required predetermined characteristic. This could come in the form of a wildcard' or bye' token that may be allocated at random or otherwise to one or more remote user terminals. Such division, combination and use of bye tokens in the selection procedure can help to avoid abuse of the process by syndicates or through other malicious activity.

Figure 4 is a flow diagram showing the sequence of steps involved in selection of a set of remote user terminals from a plurality of remote user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The selection process may be preceded by control system 30 receiving registration details from a plurality of remote user terminals (RUTs in figure) in step 400. Control system 30 may then check to see if a trigger event has occurred in step 402. This checking process may continue 404, for example at periodical intervals, until control system 30 becomes aware that a trigger event has occurred 406, possibly by manual input from a human administrator or electronically by another computing system or information service via the data communications network. Control system 30 then transmits messaging data to a plurality of remote user terminals in step 408. Users of one or more of the remote user terminals may then make their choice from the list of options offered to them and send messaging data back to the control system accordingly.

This messaging data is then received at control system 30 in step 410.

This may continue 412, 414, until a deadline for submittal of messaging data has passed 416. Selection data can then be extracted from the received messaging data and a count accumulated for each of the options, as shown in step 418.

Control system 30 can then generate a selection 420 according to one or more predetermined characteristics of the option counts for the selections received from remote user terminals. Control system 30 then transmits confirmation messaging data in step 422 to notify each of the remote user terminals that they are in the selection. Further selections may subsequently be generated in a similar fashion if required, as shown in step 424. This may involve a number of iterations of the selection procedure where the selection output from one selection procedure is used as the input to a successive selection procedure.

One implementation of an embodiment of the invention may involve allocation of limited network resources or access rights, for example selecting one or more remote user terminals to which enhanced network resources or privileged network access rights may be granted. Instead of merely granting the resouices or access rights to a selection of remote user terminals whose users are willing to pay the highest fees, theinvention could be employed to generate a selection of remote user terminals in a seif-organising manner according to selections made by users of remote user terminal from a set of options given to them.

Another implementation of an embodiment of the invention may involve an electronic gaming environment, implemented using messaging services.

Here, for example, during half-time or before each football match of a world cup tournament, a list of options can be advertised to a number of remote user terminals. This may be to viewers of a television channel which is showing coverage of the matches, or to remote user terminals that have pre-registered via the Internet or by SMS text message or such like in response to an advert in a magazine or a newspaper. The options could be colours: Option 1: Red, Option 2: White, Option 3: Blue and participants are asked to select a colour. Some indication of the predetermined characteristic may also be given, for example a minority metric system, such that those who select the option with the least number of accumulated selections will form the selection and go through to the next round. In this case users who select the least popular colour will win that round' of the electronic game and proceed to the next round. Successive rounds may occur for each match of the tournament and/or until there is a single remote user terminal left, who may then be awarded a prize, such as tickets to the final of the tournament.

A gaming environment embodiment may involve playing for money.

This could involve each participant paying an entrance fee for each iteration of the game, for example 2. A portion of this, say 1, could be added to a prize pot at each iteration, the sum of which for all iterations goes to the owner of the single remote user terminal that remains at the end of the game. The other portion of the entrance fee may go to the service provider. The entrance fee could increase or decrease with successive iterations or be dependent on the amount accumulated in the pot thus far.

If a minority metric system were being used and the selection process reduced the number of remote user terminals down to two, clearly the minority metric system would no longer function correctly. In such a case, an alternative system for selecting a selection other than the minority metric system may be used, for example to transmit question messages and receive and check response messages from each remote terminal for one or a series of play-off quiz questions between users of the two remaining remote user terminals. Further alternatively, a choice between the two remaining remote user terminals may be made on the basis of the first to reply, or a draw may be declared, etc. The above embodiments are to be understood as illustrative examples of the invention. Further embodiments of the invention are envisaged. It is to be understood that any feature described in relation to any one embodiment may be used alone, or in combination with other features described, and may also be used in combination with one or more features of any other of the embodiments, or any combination of any other of the embodiments. Furthermore, equivalents and modifications not described above may also be employed without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined in the accompanying claims.

Claims

Claims 1. A method for selecting a set of one or more remote user

terminals from a plurality of remote user terminals in a data communications network, said method comprising a selection procedure comprising the steps of: receiving messaging data from one or more remote user terminals in said plurality of remote user terminals over said data communications network, said received messaging data indicating a selection from a set of options associated with said one or more remote user terminals respectively; accumulating counts of selection data such that an option count is accumulated for each option in said set of options according to selections associated with said one or more remote user terminals; generating a selection from said one or more remote user terminals, said selection comprising remote user terminals whose associated selections have an option count with a predetermined characteristic; and transmitting confirmation messaging data to each remote user terminal in said selection of remote user terminals over said data communications network, said confirmation messaging data indicating to remote user terminals that they are in said selection.
2. A method according to claim 1, comprising transmitting messaging data to said plurality of remote user terminals over said data communications network, said transmitted messaging data indicating said set of options to said plurality of remote user terminals.
3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said predetermined characteristic comprises a relationship between the accumulated option count for one or more of said options in said set of options and the accumulated option count for one or more other of said options in said set of options.
4. A method according to claim 3, wherein said relationship comprises a relative size.
5. A method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said relationship comprises the relative size of the accumulated option count for one of said options in said set of options compared to the accumulated option counts for each other of said options in said set of options.
6. A method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein said predetermined characteristic comprises the lowest relative size of the accumulated count for an option in said set of options.
7. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said confirmation messaging data comprises access grant data, said access grant data being for granting said single remote user terminal access to previously inaccessible network resources.
8. A method according to claim 7, wherein said previously inaccessible network resources comprise communication bandwidth resources.
9. A method according to claim 7, wherein said previously inaccessible network resources comprise multimedia content.
10. A method according to any preceding claim, comprising monitoring a predetermined time period in which messaging data should be received, wherein messaging data received from remote user terminals outside said predetermined time period is not included in said accumulation of selection data.
11. A method according to any preceding claim, comprising carrying out two or more successive iterations of said selection procedure to generate said set, each successive iteration generating a successively smaller selection of remote user terminals, the selection of remote user terminals generated as a result of one selection procedure iteration forming the plurality of remote user terminals from which a selection of remote user terminals is generated in a successive selection procedure iteration.
12. A method according to claim 11, comprising selecting a plurality of said sets of remote user terminals, wherein the number of successive iterations of said selection procedure is variable between said set selections.
13. A method according to any of claims 11 to 12, comprising carrying out successive iterations of said selection procedure until less than or equal to a predetermined threshold number of remote user terminals is selected.
14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said predetermined threshold number is related to an initial number of remote user terminals in the plurality from which a selection is to be made in a first iteration of said selection procedure.
15. A method according to claim 13 or 14, wherein said predetermined threshold number of remote user terminals is two or less.
16. A method according to claim 15, wherein said predetermined threshold number of remote user terminals is one.
17. A method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein if an iteration of said selection procedure produces a selection comprising two remote user terminals, a single remote user terminal is selected from said two remote user terminals according to an alternative selection procedure.
18. A method according to any of claims 11 to 17, wherein the number of options in the set of options for one selection procedure iteration is different to the number of options in the set of options for a successive selection procedure iteration.
19. A method according to any of claims 11 to 18, wherein the number of options in the set of options for at least one selection procedure iteration is greater than two.
20. A method according to any of claims 11 to 19, wherein the number of options in the set of options for at least one selection procedure iteration is equal to two.
21. A method according to any preceding claim, comprising merging a plurality of remote user terminals from which a selection is to be generated in a first selection procedure with a plurality of remote user terminals from which a selection is to be generated in a second, different, selection procedure and carrying out a combined selection procedure on said merged pluralities of remote user terminals.
22. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said messaging data comprises one or more: Short Message Service (SMS) messages, Multi-media Message Service (MMS) messages, emails, chat messages.
23. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein one or more of said remote user terminals in said plurality of remote user terminals comprises one or more of: a mobile telephone, a personal computer, a personal digital assistant.
24. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said data communications network comprises one or more of: the Internet, a mobile telephone network.
25. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said method is associated with an electronic gaming service.
26. Apparatus adapted to perform the method of any preceding claim.