Patent ID: 7305444
Filing Date: 2007-12-04
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of controlling delivery of information in a forum having a plurality of participants, the method including the steps of: receiving a plurality of different versions of a message, each one for a corresponding set of the participants, by a server computer hosting the forum, and making available each version of the message to the corresponding set of the participants, wherein the plurality of versions of the message consist of a confidential version and of a public version, the method further including the steps of defining a privileged subset of the participants, making available the confidential version of the message to the privileged subset of the participants, and making available the public version of the message at least to the participants not included in the privileged subset; wherein the message is a text message and wherein the different versions of the message includes an original version of the message selected between the confidential version and the public version, a selected at least one portion of the original version of the message to be replaced in the other version of the message, replacement textual information for replacing text in the at least one selected portion in the other version of the message, and a client list indicating a plurality of the participants included in the privileged subset for which the confidential version of the message is made available; wherein the step of making available each version of the message to the corresponding set of the participants is performed under control of the server computer hosting the forum, and includes making available the original version of the message to the corresponding set of the participants, and generating the other version of the message by replacing the at least one selected portion with the corresponding replacement textual information, associating a forum list defined for the forum that indicates a plurality of the participants included in the privileged subset for which the confidential version of the message is made available, and making available the other version of the message to the corresponding set of the participants such that some words are the same in both the original version and the other version of the message, and some words are different between the original version and the other version of the message, the different words resulting from the replacement textual information.