Patent ID: 8639827

Claim:
A method of automatically identifying suitable groups for a user to join and thereby gain access to a network resource, the method comprising: receiving a request from a user to obtain access to a network resource for which the user does not currently have access, the request comprising a requested level of access for accessing the network resource; identifying available groups that have access to the network resource; computing a suitability of each of the available groups based at least partly on the requested level of access rights and on one or more characteristics of the available groups; recommending one or more of the available groups to the user as one or more suitable groups based on the computed suitability for the one or more available groups, thereby making the one or more suitable groups available for the user to join, enabling the user to obtain access to the network resource; receiving a user selection of one of the one or more available groups from the user; and submitting the user selection to an administrator for approval; wherein at least said computing is implemented by a computer system comprising computer hardware.