Patent ID: 8499148

Claim:
A computing platform for facilitating connection and collaboration of users including service providers and service requesters in a secure computing environment, comprising: (a) a registration module for registering users including service requesters and service providers; (b) a data storage for receiving a set of data from a first registered user, wherein the set of data represents one of documents and messages of the first registered user; (c) a web application module for associating a first unique identifier with the first registered user and a second unique identifier with the set of data of the first registered user, and for defining a security passphrase; (d) an encoder for encrypting the set of data based on the first unique identifier, the second unique identifier, and the security passphrase; (e) a connection module for connecting the first registered user to form a group of connected users based on the first registered user's invitations to other registered users and for defining a subgroup of connected users based on the first registered user's invitations to the connected users for sharing the set of data; (f) a collaboration module for facilitating the sharing of the encrypted set of data between the first registered user and the subgroup of connected users without requiring the members of the subgroup to input any of the first and second unique identifiers and the security passphrase in order to receive the set of data in unencrypted form, wherein the collaboration module retrieves the encrypted set of data based on the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier, and the encoder decrypts the encrypted set of data for the members of the subgroup based on the first unique identifier, the second unique identifier and the security passphrase; and (g) a matching module for receiving requirements for a project from a second registered user who is a service requester and matching the requirements to one or more registered users who are service providers based on profiles of the registered users.