Patent ID: 7249157

Claim:
A collaboration system that allows the exchange of data between electronic participants in an electronic commerce environment, comprising: a plurality of collaboration spaces for an exchange of data between a plurality of electronic participants, wherein each of the plurality of collaboration spaces defines rules governing both the exchange of the data and a role of each of the plurality of participants, and wherein each collaboration space is accessible to the plurality of participants using any of a plurality of business protocols; a collaboration hub for the transfer of data between the plurality of participants and the plurality of collaboration spaces, wherein the collaboration hub includes a plurality of business protocol handlers for handling different business protocols, and wherein each combination of a particular collaboration space and particular business protocol is associated with a unique uniform resource locator; and a hub transport that is used by a participant to exchange data with another participant via the collaboration hub and in accordance with the rules of a particular collaboration space, wherein each of the participants specify a particular business protocol and a particular collaboration space by communicating with the collaboration hub using the unique uniform resource locator for that collaboration space and business protocol combination.