Patent ID: 8266207
Filing Date: 2012-09-11
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for communicating over a computer network comprising: receiving, at a server computer, a communication from a user to the server computer on the network, wherein the communication comprises at least one of: e-mail, telephone call, short message service (SMS) message, on-line form submission, on-line message, chat message, sale listing, wanted listing, request for information and bulletin board message; determining, at the server computer, substantive characteristics of the communication, wherein substantive characteristics comprises keywords that describe a field to which the communication is relevant, wherein the field comprises at least one of a field of interest, a field of expertise, and a field of knowledge; comparing, at the server computer, the substantive characteristics of the communication with substantive characteristics of a plurality of members of at least one of a plurality of member groups, wherein the substantive characteristics of the plurality of group members comprise at least one of a field of interest, a field of expertise, and a field of knowledge, and the comparing comprises finding one or more matches between the substantive characteristics of the communication and the substantive characteristics of the plurality of members; routing the communication, at the server computer, to a first of the plurality of members based, at least in part, on the comparison between the substantive characteristics of the communication with the substantive characteristics of the plurality of members; determining, at the server computer, whether a timeout period has occurred, wherein the timeout period occurs if the first of the plurality of members does not explicitly decline to respond and does not respond substantively before the end of the timeout period; and in response to the timeout period occurring, routing the communication at the server computer to a second one of the plurality of members, selection of the second one of the plurality of members being based, at least in part, on the comparison between the substantive characteristics of the communication with the substantive characteristics of the plurality of members.