Patent ID: 7685059

Claim:
A method for operating a network of computer systems to manage capital exchange offers through a series of staged computer-mediated disclosures comprising: operating a computer system to define and create at least a first and a second capital exchange offer as first and second software objects (capital-exchange-offer software objects) wherein each capital-exchange-offer software object contains terms of an offer and is associated with an owner; operating a computer system to register the at least first and second capital exchange offers as software objects stored in persistent storage on a digital automated exchange executing on an exchange computer system operating for the purpose of conducting capital exchange offers; operating a computer system to enable defining and creating object mediaries, on the automated digital exchange computer system, for each of the at least first and second capital exchange offers as software objects configured and instantiated for the purpose of managing capital exchange offers; configuring the object mediaries to cause a computer system to search for certain attributes of capital exchange offers registered on the digital automated exchange computer system, and to report back to the owners of the object mediaries the result of such searches; operating the digital automated exchange computer system to execute at least a first object mediary to call upon functions of at least one second object mediary to determine if a match exists between terms offered by the first object mediary and terms required by at least one second object mediary; operating the digital automated exchange computer system to present the owner associated with a first capital-exchange-offer software object with at least one of any capital-exchange-offer software objects that match the first capital-exchange-offer software object by electronically transmitting a message indicative of the match; enabling the owner associated with the first capital-exchange-offer software object to initiate negotiation with the owner of the at least one of any such matching capital-exchange software object by operating the digital automated exchange computer system to receive a message indicative of the intent of the owner associated with the first capital-exchange-offer software object to initiate negotiation, wherein the negotiation comprises: operating the digital automated exchange computer system to execute a staged disclosure process comprising processing information segmented into information components wherein each segment has associated therewith an action and a capability wherein a potential accessor of the information component is required to perform the action before being allowed to execute the capability; and transmitting a message corresponding to the required action to each participant of the negotiation.