Patent ID: 7756924

Claim:
One or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media having thereon computing executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to implement a computing architecture configured to perform a method for facilitating communication between a plurality of peer groups in a peer community, the computing architecture comprising the following elements which are configured to perform the following: a plurality of peer groups interfaces, wherein each peer group interface facilitates communication between computing systems in a corresponding peer group within the peer community, wherein the peer community is configured to manage a peer group hierarchy such that uniformity is maintained among the peer group hierarchy despite any communication protocol or interface differences between the various peer groups in the hierarchy; a plurality of service modules, wherein each service module uses at least one of the plurality of peer group interfaces to communicate with one or more computing systems in a peer group, at least one of the plurality of service modules being configured to use multiple peer group interfaces of the plurality of peer group interfaces to communicate with one or more computing systems in the peer group, the communication comprising sending at least one communication message to a specified set of peers, wherein each peer in the set has a user-specified hierarchical relationship to the message sender within the peer group hierarchy; and a peer community application program interface allowing one or more peer applications to enlist at least one of the services of the plurality of services by interfacing with the peer community application program interface, such that each service of the plurality of services is accessible by the one or more peer applications and is accessible by the one or more computing system in the peer group using the peer group interfaces, the peer community application program interface being further configured to automatically filter messages in communications between peer group computing systems, services and peer applications such that peer applications can be designed without including filtering functionality.